Re: CF: Suggestion and comments

[farrarb@vnet.net (Bill Farrar)]

On Tue, 2 Apr 1996 14:22:56 -0500 (EST), Patrick Kenny wrote:

>
>2) It's not really a client/server architecture. The server really slows
>down when there are 10 or more people on.  And when some people put up 
>lightning walls all around a Jessy or fire walls around a Wizzard, then
>it gets so bad you have to log out, and this is with only 2 or 3 people on.
I know it's not a client/server achitecture, I was proposing it to
keep the server from slowing down at >10 players..Let's face it: if
the local client dealt with the screen display, then that would be n
less things the server had to do (with n = number of players), and a
complicted thing at that.  All that has to be put in place is a simple
protocol that tells the clients where are the monsters on their loaded
maps are. (and ferry movement info from player to player) In other
words, basically what CivNet is doing now already.


>3) It takes awhile to play and learn, not really bad, but most people are
>used to instant pleasure, x-pilot shoot-um up games.
>Although look at Empire, it has quite a large following, and there is a very
>steep learning curve on that.
That has *always* been the case with muds, it always takes time...
Let the shoot-em-up ppl play the shoot-em-up games..that isn't who i
am, and there has always been a big mudding contingent, i really think
that is the potential 'market' for crossfire...

>4) Once you have explored all of the maps, then that's it. No more stuff
>to do. If you had a dynamic dungeon creator like in hack or Moria or Angband
>then you would have a reason to keep exploring the same dungeon. I have 
>thought about adding this. Imagine a dynamic ever changing world. :)
Well, there *is* cross edit, y'know:)  We are workign on new maps
here, and we've only been playing for a few weeks.  The ideal thing is
to give this away as a prize for being a specific level (You made
level 100 (or whatever) you can now write new areas!!!) Again, this is
not that different than  MUDs i have played.

>5) Maybe there are servers running, but they are local. I know that when 
>the lab here played, we had about 7 or 8 people playing for about 3-4 months, 
>almost non-stop, but the server was local to cut down on lag and give more 
>control.
Well, i think with the current ability of the server to handle
players, at the speed it does, the game will have to *stay* local.
Only when that is changed will there be a major step up in external
ppl playing.

>6) Doom/Quake is where everyone is right now, not that many people are
>running under X, Quake is trying to be like Crossfire, in about 5 years it
>might. Quake is supposed to be server/client so you will see more 
>dedicated servers appear.
I don't think that crossfire is really  in the same genre as these
games...i like the fact that it isn't 3-d and has complex magical
items/spellcasting which neither doom nor hexen seem to have (haven't
seen/heard mucha bout quake)

>People will find it out, it just takes time. Becareful what you ask for.
You just might get it?  well, so long as i don't get a shoo-em-up, and
crossfire stays the same *game* that is now (i'm mainly talking about
technical implementation details) i think it will be good:)

bill

Bill Farrar, C++Windows Programmer.
The Linking and Binding is the Important step...
"60 Million Gigabits can do alot.  It can even do Windows"
Fred Pohl, _Beyond_The_Blue_Event_Horizon_