Plunge Online

[Elachim]

Meh. Average user doesn't prefer to spend an extra minute or two write down the IP when that can be spent plunging!

An IP list might be a bad idea. This is eventually gonna connect to the net, remember? Maybe just a list for computers connected by LAN. Dunno.

[Teenr0cker]

Are you even aware of what LAN stands for? Jesus...LAN means Local Area Network. LAN's are for generally small (in comparison to say, the Internet) networks that can be found in countless homes, office buildings, and colleges, utilizing both Ethernet connection and WiFi connection (using a wire and using wireless, duh). 3 things that define a LAN from a WAN (wide-area network, aka The Internet): smaller geographic range, higher data rate transfers, and you don't need a service provider to run a LAN, just a router.


I don't find myself looking at my LAN and often discover that Telephalsion is on my LAN, all the way in Sweden whilst I am sitting at home in California. Sweden and California are suprisingly not considered local to eachother.

So yes, I say we do make an IP list available. It's convenient to have a friend-code list in Mario Kart DS, so I'm sure it'll be convenient to have a list of IP addresses available in the menu.

[Cedus]

Lots of ideas! I'm impressed.

Alundaio: Going to keep the RM2K stuff to a minimum. My idea was that people would make their own battlesprites and facesets which would then be sent to the other dude. 2xSAI and other graphical filters would be cool though and I might put them in as an extra towards the end.

dyyhpys: Currently when waiting for a connection it does hang until it receives a connection. I know why this is but haven't gotten around to fixing it yet, if it's bugging people I'll make fixing that a priority. As for an IP list, that would require a centralized server acting as a lobby if I'm thinking of what you mean. Currently it shows your IP address, though I need to update that feature to show external as well as internal IP for the benefit of those behind a router. For now, short answer is if the number you see begins with 192, you'll have to go spelunking unless your friend is on the same network as you.

Elachim: List of computers on the LAN might be a useful feature, I'd have to do some more research into networking to say. Most LAN situations I would expect people to be playing in would involve a huge number of computers such as school/college settings where people have no means of identifying who is who just by an IP address, but I imagine there are some people who might wanna play a roommate on a smaller LAN and for them this might be convenient.

Teenr0cker: I don't know how Mario Kart DS works, I imagine it goes through a Nintendo server? I don't want NetPlunge to need a centralized server since it introduces questions of deprecation as the server shuts down. But being able to "bookmark" your friends is a good idea and I'll make sure that happens.

Progress report! I've been pretty busy lately so not much work has happened on this. That's not to say the project is dead by any means, just don't hold your breath waiting for 1.2. But a couple other people now have the source and if they want to try building from there I have no problems with that. Emphasising again that this doesn't mean the death of the project from my point of view, just that I'm putting it down for a week or two. Don't want to let anyone here down.

- Cedus

[dyyhpys]

Another suggestion.
Be able to put a name to your IP address so people know who is who.
And a lobby wouldn't be a bad idea, if you can be bothered to program it.

[Elachim]

Another suggestion.
Be able to put a name to your IP address so people know who is who.

Yeah, I was going to suggest that too.


As for the character gfx, your idea rocks, Cedus.


@ teen:

Yes, I know what LAN means. I meant that a list of IPs that were on your local network might be feasible, whereas a list for the whole of the internet would not. I don't know exactly how these things work, but I don't think you'd like shuffling through a list of 2 billion IPs. Some kind of "friends" system might work though. I don't know.

[Teenr0cker]

Dammit, I had this post ready yesterday, but goddamn power outage made me lose my work and I forgot to repost.


I don't think your computer would be able to handle a list that large. What sort of fool would do that?

It wouldn't be like Battlenet for starcraft where the list of games or players is available for all to see...That would mean we'd need a global server. Here's how it works for MKDS, in terms of IP instead of friend codes. I would get my IP, send it to, say, Elachim via AIM, email, or post it on a forum topic, and he would send me his. I then open up a data file with Notepad, enter his IP, his alias, and then save the file. From the game, you would select who you wanted to connect with to fight and if the friend in question then does the same for you in the space of a minute or so, then you connect and plunge.


Another spontaneous thought...saving records of the individual matches (say for player A, he has logs of AvsB, AvsC, AvsX, etc, plus how many fights there have been between the 2 players and the results) or maybe just in general (total won, total lost, and other things like forfeits and disconnects).

[Masked Gamer]

It would be fantastic if in later versions you made a charas-generator-like program to help people who have no artistic skills make their battle sprites easily. Or at least make a template for the different possible poses a battle sprite can take.

[Elachim]

Oh! Now I get what you were saying, teen. Pardon my stupidity!

[Alundaio]

I have a solution for the ip list. If you use a mysql database you can hold an ip list, the Server/person's name who created the server, and if there is still a spot available to join. It would also be possible to code in a fail safe if the database server is down, you could type in the IP manually.I'm sure you could probably find documentation on how to do this in C++.
Those of you who don't know how the database would work, here is an example:

1.Someone hosts a game; The game writes the Host's IP Address and port, Server name, and if the server still has an open slot.

2.Someone clicks on join, then they log onto the database and retrieve the list of servers. Then he could easily click on a server and join.

There are lots of free mysql databases online. It would also be possible to add a ranking system like used in chess using a database such as this. Where rank would match class in The Way.
But of course their is obviously a lot of work to be done as it is. These are only suggestions and ideas.

[Strayed Wanderer]

Dammit, I had this post ready yesterday, but goddamn power outage made me lose my work and I forgot to repost.

Did you forget to hit "Save" on Microsoft Word? because I know you don't type your posts in the Reply Window.

[voodooKobra]

Hey, why don't you use a central server for managing the people logged in? Think about how IRC works.

[avatarmonkeykirby]

Dang it. And i was about to start a flash plunge game, oh well. this is better than anything i could do with flash. Keep up the awsome work. im really impressed!

[Teenr0cker]

Did you forget to hit "Save" on Microsoft Word? because I know you don't type your posts in the Reply Window.

Well actually....you'd be suprised if I told you I don't need to spell-check any of my stuff all that often. And the talking paper clip annoys me. And I don't get distracted, while masturbating furiously all day long, when I notice an opportunity to derail a topic and then take said oppertunity . Don't worry Strayed, one day I'll get drunk and find my way to a computer so I can give you some new material to work with, since it seems you're exhausting your current resources right now. Until then, you'll just have to keep making the same tasteless comments about my post lengths, reminding us all that "Teen can type lots".

[Shindy]

heres a quote from Lun regarding to this topic...

1/23/2004

I made some pretty decent progress this week on Episode 6. I haven't had as much time as I normally do as of late, but I'm keeping up a pretty good pace.

I noticed that some people are talking about an online plunge and maybe a MMORPG for The Way. I've always wanted to do some network programming so I actually did code the framework for an online plunge game back in December. Iamtheverb helped me test it out and it played pretty smooth. It's in a pretty raw form right now though. There are no Blade Arts or Link Attacks and I haven't set up a PHP page to keep track of hosted games, stats, etc. Network programming is probably the most difficult type of programming I've ever done so it's been a good learning experience thus far. Hopefully I'll get more done in the future as I further develop my programming skills.

Jaa, mata

Lun

http://www.crestfallen.us/phpBB2/viewto ... c&start=30

that topic had 1 page discussion of the online plunge before Impossible started a flame war. yeah thats how we looked back then.

I dont think online plunge would last long... would have to add cool stuff and maps to keep it going, which i believe would be pita.