Web/map suggestion ...

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zick
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Web/map suggestion ...

Post by zick »

Before I offer my suggestion, can this website be served by a web server run on the same machine as the map server? Right now, TMW doesn't have alot of maps/players (compared to other MMO's), so what if the amount of maps and players was significantly increased?

Thanks for any answers ...
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Crush
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Re: Web/map suggestion ...

Post by Crush »

The world is supposed to be split on multiple physical gameservers when the game grows. I would not suggest to run a webserver on the same username or even on the same machine as a gameserver for performance and security reasons. But communication between the game and a web application could be done by other means like XML dumps.

What exactly are you up to?
  • former Manasource Programmer
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zick
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Re: Web/map suggestion ...

Post by zick »

Well, I was gonna suggest that Tiled be turned into a backend web app, so that you can quickly and easily make changes to maps. Also using several other webpages you could add/remove players or characters, add/remove items, change balance values (like an enemies HP, or the conversion rate between two currencies), etc. But it doesn't sound like it would work.
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Crush
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Re: Web/map suggestion ...

Post by Crush »

A web interface for administration wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

Editing maps in real-time is a bit problematic because the changes have to be transmitted to the clients, too. But it would make sense to edit the maps on the updateserver (a simple webserver) and have the gameservers pull their maps from the updateserver automatically. The same applies to all other shared configuration files (monsters.xml, items.xml...). The webinterface could even take care of censoring the client version.
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
zick
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Re: Web/map suggestion ...

Post by zick »

I was actually thinking that the login process could check for updates piece by piece. Kinda like this:
1. You double-click your "TMW" icon
2. The "TMW" client prepares a list of files on the client computer and an MD5 checksum for each file
3. The client transmits this list to the map server, which compares this list to its list (maybe updated every night)
4. If any files checksums don't match, it transmits the correct file as part of an update.
5. You hit "Play" ...

This way you can update files constantly without needing to make a patch of changed files over the past week or so (the update#.zip file). This zip file method is fine for now because the world is still growing but when TMW goes fully live updating file by file may make it easier to update and secure the data from hacks.
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Crush
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Re: Web/map suggestion ...

Post by Crush »

You aren't the first to suggest this. We discussed the update system a lot in the past and came to the conclusion that the current update concept is the optimal solution for us.

1. Calculating the checksum of every file at startup would slow down the game startup a lot. Even when we don't use cryptographically hash functions like MD5 (which would be completely oversized for this purpose) but simple CRC checksums.
2. Patch creation can be automatized.
3. "Securing the data from hacks" is not desired. We do in fact encourage our users to experiment with the game data files and the client program. That's the open source and open content philosophy.
  • former Manasource Programmer
  • former TMW Pixel artist
  • NOT a game master

Please do not send me any inquiries regarding player accounts on TMW.


You might have heard a certain rumor about me. This rumor is completely false. You might also have heard the other rumor about me. This rumor is 100% accurate.
zick
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Re: Web/map suggestion ...

Post by zick »

My idea for the updates wasn't so much about security as it was about using a web-based administration system to make changes to maps, events, balances ... and then make sure that the data is updated on the client. The only way that I thought to do that efficiently would be to use the hash test to make sure that a client as the newest files. We could use the patch version, but my idea of using this web-interface was to make several changes a week (more for a final version system once all th bugs are worked out, but why not work on it while the project is young), which would mean several patches a week. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it'd be nice to see Tiled made into a web app. Thats the short theme of this long thread.
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