Intergame communication in Design Philosophy

ID:153580
 
Sep 12 2003, 10:41 am
Recently I have been messing around with having one game I'm running communicating with another game I'm running, and I've been highly successful, I can make a locally run thing execute commands on something I'm running on my server, etc... Which leaves the door open for off-site admin programs, and a bunch of other neat stuff. I was wondering if anyone else has done any work like this, and what they found?
#1 Sep 12 2003, 10:47 am
No I haven't but I have heard of several people trying this and most say they aren't entirely sucessfull, I may attempt to do something like this.
#2 Sep 12 2003, 9:54 pm
Multiple servers could be useful for supporting extra players (like most MMORPGs do). I'm not sure how useful they'd be for administration; surely you could accomplish that by just logging on to the main server? You'd need to have BYOND installed where you were anyway. Unless you're using BYOND CGI of course, which sounds pretty useful.

The other thing to consider is that you'd need to secure the system, otherwise people could effectively take control of the server by sending it bogus communications!

I haven't done much with this - mostly because I haven't needed to. If I had access to a permanent server which could run BYOND games, I'd probably do some logging and reporting stuff with it.

I did experiment with using PHP for logging/reporting. I didn't spend long on it, but it could be quite useful; especially seeing as you don't need your server to be set up with BYOND, so you can use just about any host. I was so intrigued by the possiblities, I'm even toying with the idea of using it with a Delphi game I'm working on, to establish an online "match-making" service similar to Blizzard's Battle.net, or Microsoft's Zone, or Ensemble Studios's "Ensemble Studios Online" systems. It's a bit of a jury-rigged solution in such cases, but I think it could be done.
#3 Sep 12 2003, 10:46 pm
In response to Crispy (#2)
Crispy wrote:
I'm not sure how useful they'd be for administration; surely you could accomplish that by just logging on to the main server?

You could use it to make a truely behind the scenes administration. Admins would be able to have their own "Security Station" game which they could moderate not just one game, but all your games, all without the players ever interacting with them.
It would also give the admins a place to chat freely (Beyond a simple admin channel). It also gives them complete invisibilty. Usually you can tell when an admin is on even when they have hide commands.
Another good thing is you can keep track of all your games admins very easily. You can also back stuff up easier.
#4 Sep 12 2003, 11:54 pm
In response to Crispy (#2)
I do have a DMCGI system set up to do this already, and it works, you need an access code to send any type of communication, and a second password. I might set up a simple test server later on to demonstrate.
#5 Sep 13 2003, 4:26 am
I've tried it but its sorta useless to try because you can't have a persistent connection. Therefor if their constantly sending messages to each other every time the connected must be opened and closed making it pretty laggy.
#6 Sep 13 2003, 9:04 pm
In response to DarkView (#3)
If you integrate it into the game properly, you can make it so that login messages and so on are only displayed if the administrator specifically says so. You might pop up a dialog box as the very first thing before logging in, asking whether they want to be in "silent mode" or not. If they do choose to be in silent mode, remove them from who lists, place their mob at null (with admin commands to teleport anywhere they want on the map), and don't display any logging in/out messages.
#7 Sep 17 2003, 4:43 am
With Castle Online we had a seperate dmb running along side with some admin commands.
We also had a DMCGI page with some info, ut its pretty basic for now.
#8 Sep 18 2003, 3:05 am
Remote Gaming Link

I've been doing it months =) (maybe even over a year now)

I've only really played around with it 'til now but I've actually got a serious project underway.

Trace II will have three seperate servers running all in contact. Admins, Tracker and Hackers.

The three servers will communicate via RGL using an IP variable (ie. when u join as host you set the IP of the other servers).

The technology behind it is really really simple. I'd release a demo but I dunno wot effect it might have... (people connecting to games they don't own by having a look at that game's code etc...) I wanna do a proper study of the effects it'll have at some point.
#9 Sep 18 2003, 11:18 am
In response to Da_Rushyo (#8)
The technology behind it is really really simple. I'd release a demo but I dunno wot effect it might have... (people connecting to games they don't own by having a look at that game's code etc...) I wanna do a proper study of the effects it'll have at some point.

Not possible. Only way people could screw up is if the architecture for the target worlds accepted garbage in its Import() or Topic() procs.
#10 Sep 19 2003, 2:13 pm
In response to Spuzzum (#9)
All you need to do is use the key validation dantom provides for worlds. That way you'll be certain that it's your world trying to contact your other world.
#11 Sep 19 2003, 2:29 pm
I've got all sorts of libraries on my computer for handling communication between BYOND servers, and hopefully it'll get put to work when I start work on a new game next summer. I only wish BYOND inter-server networking were more efficient via a constant connection, instead of opening a new one each time. Any chance something like that is planned for BYOND 4.0?
#12 Sep 19 2003, 4:24 pm
In response to Crispy (#6)
I do think the editing of Seeker can allow you to bring up a pop up of a list of all connected keys in the game. Can't it Crispy?
#13 Sep 19 2003, 6:15 pm
In response to Green Lime (#12)
Editing of Seeker? Are you talking about hexediting, or some arcane command that I don't know about? =)

You can look at which keys are logged in via the hub page, but I suspect most players wouldn't look at that while playing. In case someone did notice, you could just make an alternate key that you use to administrate the game.

It might be useful sometimes, but personally I wouldn't bother. =)