Questions...

[Xavious]

ok heres a question. it probably isnt possible but here goes.

1 would it be possibly to run a server from 2 internet connections (networked or otherwise) hence more bandwidth hence less ping (i know its probably not possible but im asking anyway)

2 would it be possible to link 2 servers in such a way that players in both servers recieve messages from both servers (i.e. someone in server a says 'hi' and a player in server b says 'hi' back.)

3 if 1 isnt possible, and 2 is, how far could you take communication between the two servers?

[}TCP{aLICe]

Ad. 1
Possible... but a bit other way. Link two (or more) connections into one to increase bandwidth.
Ping can be diffrent for each connection, but it has nothing to do with "merging" connections.

Ad. 2
Possible... but you have to ask Wolf for new mod
Of course don't think about making 2 servers connected for play as at one! I you want more power buy new computer or build clusters

Ad. 3
If I understand question properly - doesn't matter.

[}TCP{Wolf]

-> 1 yup just like Alice says... however you may not be able to broadcast on all interfaces, Unreal tends to prefer to only bind to ONE...

-> 2 possible, but no one will write such a mod

-> 3 n/a

[Xavious]

ah k.

i would probably like the idea of my number 2 question. it would be good for coop (what im working on in particular). it would be cool to have, say, 5 servers running, and be able to communicate between each server.

my projecty thing im working on now is a kind of rpg thing. what im thinking is to buy 5 servers (if possible) from, say, jolt, who allow you to do things like buy the 24 player package and if you want, even have 24 servers each for 1 player(or more realistically, 2 servers 12 player each) but thats not the point. just to confirm it would be possible for the players in one server to chat to the players in another server?

[}TCP{Wolf]

Yea I get it...

Unreal is not Diablo II though, a "level" is limited to a single instance, which is why you would require multiple servers to players go in and out of maps inidividually without the plot being corrupted... or all players would always have to travel together, which may not necessarily be wanted or advantageous (I need health, gotta buy a new weapon... but fugg all my party members are battling now...).

A state-travel planned system _might_ be taken into consideration as an alternative, because honestly I don't think the multi-server-environment will work out well. Your best bet will be to try and design your game to work in a single-server environment.

The state-travel planned system is quite easy in principle, every player can "exit" the map at any time. When he does, he will be put out of the action and into spec. Server will travel as soon as all players have exitted (through the SAME exit, exitting through different exits won't work this way).

If you really NEED multi-servers, then maybe consider just having 2 servers, one on which all the action is going on, the other with the "intermission" maps - preferrably all intermissions will be made into one large map with separated sections.

There are a few things you can do to implement an RPG style game with Unreal, but the engine is not really the best for it, so much is assured, because you have to design your game around the engine

[Taz]

Diablo II is a great game and i cant install in XP ( i dont know )
But the game keep crashing :\ been many months :\

[Xavious]

all players would always have to travel together, which may not necessarily be wanted or advantageous

that was the origional idea anyway. right now were still trying to sort the ideas that can be done with relativ ease from the ideas that might be a little more difficult to execute(to be put aside for later consideration)

If you really NEED multi-servers, then maybe consider just having 2 servers, one on which all the action is going on, the other with the "intermission" maps - preferrably all intermissions will be made into one large map with separated sections.

fucking hell thats a damn good idea. seriously, that might sound sarcastic, but i dont know why the hell i never thought of that.
the intermissions being made into one large map was planned from the beginning anyway. it would also take away some of the stress on a servr which has the town/intermission map as well as the other maps, because the various mods on the town/wutever map will be on its own.

that does, however, pose a new problem. how might one go about transfering client data from one server to another.
serario: yer jump stat goes up by 5 points on a particularly platformy level. you want to go back to the town to save it ect. how might those 5 jump stat points go with you to the town server?


now that i think about it. that option would oen up a whole load of new ideas. now that i think further, these ideas prob wont work.

if youve any experience with diablo/ diablo 2 you will know about the town portal system, and waypoint system. i dont think the waypoint thing was in diablo 1 but whatever.

what about an inventory item that works like the warps in the tcp portal map. i say its probably not possible cause you said portals only work on a portal map, which sais to me that you need a map specifically for making portals, yes?

what might make this easier would be a third, small server which is a portal map on its own. then the portals on the maps would only ned to go to one place. ah damn, the portals on the maps would only ever need to go to the town anyway. never mind that last idea, but comment on it all u like.thats about it. thnx forall this info btw, your just about the best help ive had on this, basically cause no1 else wants to do anything about this mod. even joss, who was very enthusiastic at first, then she got ut2004

Diablo II is a great game and i cant install in XP ( i dont know )
But the game keep crashing :\ been many months :\

its an amazing game, especially online. i dont know why it might not install. you might think about wether you are sharing your pc with someone else, and you have a limited user account. if you do, it wont work. unless u install the new patch, then it might, but im not sure

[}TCP{Wolf]

Transporting player data in between levels is a problem on its own. In Coop servers the function "AcceptInventory()" is being used to restore a player state upon level change. However, this only works on ONE server and uhh... well I don't know how this does work at all LMAO.

You --could-- store the date client side and have it replicate to the server upon each map join. This would be very good concerning data storage persistence, because the server doesn't have to keep all the tons of data, and of course going from one server with it to another would be a piece of cake this way.

However, cheating will become a piece of cake too, because client side stored variables can be changed at will, unless you store them checksumed and/or encrypted... But even if you do, the client will somewhere have those CRC algorithms etc so any half-way decent hacker/programmer will find out how it works and then you got the same prob again.

To avoid cheating, all data MUST be saved serverside! And there getting data from one level to another (or a different server) will be very tricky.


On ONE server, you will basically need routines somewhere here:

event PostLogin()
-or-
Login()

must intercept an incoming player, indentify him against a data base and restore values.

Function Logout(Pawn Exiting) will have to save all values.

You will have to find good methods to identify a particular player. If you only allow players with correct name/password combination, you have your id-method. If you allow any player... uuuhhh.... good luck!



That still doesn't solve your multi-server environment data transfer problem, of course...

You can write networking classes in UScript to transport data hence and forth between servers, using TCP/IP or UDP/IP. I can't give much help there, just look at the existing classes and see what you can make out of it. In that scenario you would just have to write your UScript networking code and interlink the servers by configuration. Not an easy task I believe and to be quite honest, I wouldn't have a clue how to start there myself now...

[}TCP{Wolf]

what about an inventory item that works like the warps in the tcp portal map. i say its probably not possible cause you said portals only work on a portal map, which sais to me that you need a map specifically for making portals, yes?

Not sure what your plan is here... also generally I think you may find more qualified help on THIS board

http://winged.proboards18.com/

because in my eyes WingedUnicorn and Zora are -THE- Coop experts. Nothing against Joss, but she isn't too much liked by the 2 for.... oh well... hmm... just go ask em LOL

[Xavious]

ya but winged is 'busy' or summat and zora seems inclined to ignore my emails.

[Xavious]

erm....a compltetely unrelated question.....

would it be being possibly to bind a command to such as Lalt+t or rshift+l?

i know you can add as many commands to a key using a simple txt file, but what if one wishes to be able to summon lots of different things and has run out of spare keys?

[}TCP{Wolf]

in that case, you usually write yourself a script and put it in your Unreal system folder.

You can make a script for example with Notepad or any other ascii editor. Just write all summon commands you want below one another (one line per command). Then save the file (but make sure you do NOT use the ".txt" extension.

In unreal, just bind ONE key to

exec myscript

replace "myscript" with the real filename... and whoops all will be done

[Taz]

my computer is to good my pc dont like diablo II teh :\

[Taz]

and i dont play it more cause i dont play finished games :\ i delete when im finished with them and now it sucks

[Xavious]

heh it got crap with the new patch anyways...i wrote 2 faqs for it that are now complete irreleant since they stopped all the old tactics being used.