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In the form of a MU* (as has already been tried)

4 (4.3%)

Empire building browser-based game, using the Frost and Flame engine or making it from scratch

10 (10.9%)

Adventure RPG browser-based game, using the Dragon Knights engine or making it from scratch

4 (4.3%)

A dungone crawler or maybe cooperative fortress builder client-based game using the Eclipse engine (would be real time, and have better graphics than browser-based games)

25 (27.2%)

Cooperative fortress building browser-based game, with traditional DF top-view 2D tiles

45 (48.9%)

a deviant of the cooperative fortress building browser-based game, were the tiles are grouped into bigger "sections"

3 (3.3%)

Other (propose it in the thread please)

1 (1.1%)

Total Members Voted: 92

[qwertyuiopas]

Well, with java or flash you would need a full game hosting server while PHP should work on (m)any web server(s), but on the other hand, if it was a client-server system like java or flash, the back end could be C(++) or something faster that you know better.

Edit:
About hacking:
The hacking could be countered by increasing the data sent to the server and back, but "bots" would still be a problem.

[Servant Corps]

Thanks for the poll.

It seems that there are 4 votes, for Empire building for the FAF engine(I voted for that), A "dungone crawler" with the Eclipse engine, and a "Cooperative fortress building browser-based game", possibly with a third brand new engine. Hm. (Runoff?)

I still lay out my proposal for a dual MMORPG with Empire Building and Adventure Mode, with the two systems interrelating.

qwerty: Don't worry too much about hacking. Anyone who cheats within a MMORPG deserves enough ridicule.

[Hawkfrost]

With Eclipse you can make a co-op fortress, It doesn't have to be a dungeon crawler.
It just takes more scripting.

[qwertyuiopas]

The worst(if any) kind of hacking would probably only be an AI player whatever method is used that would do simple tasks for you, this could be solved by giving a significant bonus for leaving the game alone for a while each day, such as once a day giving a huge bonus based off of inactivity that looks like this:

Code: [Select]

..._-
../..
./...  <- benefit
/....
|....
2468+  <-hours inactive
That way people would be encouraged not to let a bot play overnight, and limiting it to a more linear curve during the day would not discourage overly active players. "day" would be 22 hours since the start of the last long inactivity(the one with the better curve)
Also, there should be limits to what can be gained by inactivity, so that a week would be the longest and it would only give twice the(10 hour) overnight bonus.

It would result in players trying to play about twice a day but not heavily punishing them for once every day or two, or 5 times a day.

[Hawkfrost]

Sounds like what they do in Forumwarz and Kingdom of Loathing.

[Poltifar]

Well the conversation seems to be going more and more towards the cooperative fortress building browser-based game with a from-scratch engine. And I didn't add the dual MMORPG idea to the poll because I considered it would be the long term goal of all the ideas presented to eventually incorporate both modes of play.

And I still don't like alot the idea of client-sided java/flash based. The graphics certainly don't matter much, and we probably won't need C++'s speed, unless we plan on making a highly-complicated game rivaling the actual DF, which I doubt we will be doing for our first try at multiplayer DF.

So if we go with the co-op fortress browser-based idea, we are probably going to use PHP combined with MySQL or some other database program. Here are some suggestions on the basics of actual gameplay:

How about having the basic view for the game be 9x9 tiles visible at any one time, with the 'view' centered on the player's dwarf. Each time the player clicks on a visible tile, the page refreshes and the player is now in the new tile, centered in the screen, with the other tiles having been moved to the new view based on the new location of the player... also, the actions could be on the side of the screen, with a drop-down list to choose an action, and a validation button. More complex actions could take you to another screen to decide the more intricate things about it etc. And there could be other pages for stats and inventory. I'm still not sure how combat would work though.

As for more program-wise stuff, how about having one row in the database tables represent one tile, with properties such as inside/outside, wall/floor/empty, natural/construction, creatures/items at location, fluids, etc.. And have other tables for the the players/creatures/items themselves, all based on certain predetermined classes. Each would require a unique ID too.

Sorry if what I say seems like gibberish.

Oh and does anyone support me in the idea that we could use ASP and Microsoft SQL instead of PHP and another SQL software? It's MUCH easier to make the databases, page layouts, security logins, and many other things using the Visual Studio Web Developper, than having to code manually all of it in HTML and PHP. Unless someone knows of a good developper software for PHP and HTML...


Additions because of the posts posted while I was writting this:

Hawkfrost, yes it should be possible to use the Eclipse engine in that way, but I still don't like much that it could be easily hacked, and also most people here are more in favor of server-based PHP or other code.

Qwerty, that's one of the advantages of the energy system. While you could gain more energy by eating or drinking, it would be much more efficient time and resource wise to simply 'sleep' by logging off, thus encouraging players to not play too much and making life hard for bots, and thus ensuring more balanced gameplay for players that can't stay on for very long periods of time.

[Hawkfrost]

Sounds like the game Avatar I played before, which actually works pretty well.
I'm fine with that.

[deadlycairn]

Just like to point out that the actual DF is turn-based , in fortress and adventure mode... Seems a bit silly to do it in real time

[Hawkfrost]

Well, we arn't making another DF, we already have that.
We are planning a online game based off of the mechanics of DF.

[Poltifar]

Hawkfrost has a point. This also brings up important questions: How true to the original DF will this be?
Will there be magic?
Skills not seen/used yet in original DF?
Mods and other user-created content? (only if we give the source code out publicly, thus enabling players to make their own private servers for playing with their friends)

[Hawkfrost]

Hmm...magic?
How about only in magic weapons and armor.

Skills other than the ones currently in DF would be ok, as long as it keeps the DF spirit.

Oh, and Animal Caretaking/Training skills=pets!

[Poltifar]

Pets would be a nice feature. Especially when you get to Legendary +5, give yourself the title of Dungeon Master, and tame a demon

But we still need to decide the most basic things for sure before we get to the fun part of implementing these skills and other stuff. Should I change the poll? It seems most people posting here have agreed that a co-op fortress game would be nice, so we should now decide on the engine (if any) and/or the programming language(s)

[Hawkfrost]

I guess, once the language/engine is chosen we can focus on making the game itself.

I'm open to anything really, the choice is up to you guys.

[Poltifar]

I'll wait until tomorrow to change the poll, by then we would have more votes and more replies/suggestions in the thread.

I'll be back in ~20 hours.

[qwertyuiopas]

Well, we either go for a HTML sent by server(PHP mostly) or a C(++) or equivalent server with a java/flash(or equivalent) client, or possibly a hybrid.

As soon as we know what route we take, people can start implementing the most basic features or planning the layout while the specific language(s) is/are chosen.