Crazy idea: A distributed map.

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adameros
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Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by adameros »

Have teleports that take you to a teleport on a different map.

Imagine a meta-world tankers could wander and battle, and there would be warps that would take them to other maps, so you could emulate scale.

And while it would make for interesting opportunities for interlocking maps, the biggest advantage is to create a bigger playing area by having several smaller maps without performance degradation from having to draw and keep track of one huge map.
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joevano
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by joevano »

Very old idea.. and not possible currently.
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Quantum Tank
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by Quantum Tank »

What's wrong with just switching servers? Or have a lot of maps on one server?
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by Spazzy McGee »

joevano wrote:Very old idea.. and not possible currently.
Don't jump to conclusions, joevano, I made a map like this a couple of years ago, called Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's completely self-contained; the different 'worlds' are screened off from each other, and connected by teleporters.

http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=11293

If anybody wants to host it, feel free.
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by joevano »

Spazzy McGee wrote:
joevano wrote:Very old idea.. and not possible currently.
Don't jump to conclusions, joevano, I made a map like this a couple of years ago, called Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's completely self-contained; the different 'worlds' are screened off from each other, and connected by teleporters.

http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=11293

If anybody wants to host it, feel free.
adameros wrote:And while it would make for interesting opportunities for interlocking maps, the biggest advantage is to create a bigger playing area by having several smaller maps without performance degradation from having to draw and keep track of one huge map.
So yours isn't one huge map? ;) Sure you can simulate what he is saying, but what he suggests is not possible... which is teleporting technically between servers.
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by trepan »

I added MsgJoinServer to the code for v3.0 a while ago; that should make it possible.
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by joevano »

How will scores be kept? Would a plugin need to be written to manage the scores across servers?
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by trepan »

The MsgJoinServer protocol message has a "referrer" field. That
field can have up to 256 bytes (including the terminating NUL).
You could use it to send player information between the source
and destination servers. It would probably be wise to encrypt it
using a key known only to those two servers.

For more advanced inter-server communication, you have to
write a plugin (but it's much easier to do so now that there's the
lua bzfs interface).
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by tobylane »

I think it'd be more fun to have scores per server, maybe saved per day.

I think this only makes enough sense in closed source games with closed source maps, and even then barely. It can be done in one world, so why not?

edit: Did read, every flaw is fixed by the current method/possibilties.
Last edited by tobylane on Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by joevano »

tobylane wrote:I think it'd be more fun to have scores per server, maybe saved per day.

I think this only makes enough sense in closed source games with closed source maps, and even then barely. It can be done in one world, so why not?
Did you even read the whole thread? We are discussing playing on a series of maps connected by teleporters. Would you want your score to be reset when you went through a teleporter? No, well neither would anyone else, so they wouldn't and the purpose of the teleporters would be wasted.

There are also other issues that would need to be tackled:
1. Are there players on the map you are going? I could see this as a real game play killer, especially if someone wemt crazy with links to other maps.
2. When I go through a tele I need to wait for textures and the maps to download.. well that would SUCK, IMHO
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by blast »

I think another method that achieves the same idea would be having different "areas" in a map file. You would only be in a single area at a time, and the server could control what data spread to what zones. You wouldn't receive player updates for tanks in other areas, nor would you be able to see the other area. But a telepoter could then transport you to another area. That would eliminate the need to swap data around between servers, since it would be the same server process. So the teleport to the other area would be mostly seamless, compared to having to connect to another server and wait for that.

This could also then translate to tutorial servers. Have several areas for players just starting, and then once they master an obstacle course, for example, they get teleported into another area with other new players to go up against. That same thing could be achieved with what trepan has implemented, or in other ways (just having it broken up with map objects).
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Re: Crazy idea: A distributed map.

Post by Bambino »

What are the restrictions on it?

Ex. bztraining.org:4200 Connects to teleporter on bzexcess.com:5154
or does it have to be on the same server?
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