Network play for Scenarios? I think so!

[softcoder]

We're playing around with allowing network play for scenarios over the next while. I currently have rigged together something that works simply by setting the control type in the scenario XML to "network". Additionally I display a list of scenarios in the custom game lobby that have at least 1 network player, and when selected it sets all settings to those of the scenario + sets the scenario name which then loads for all players at game start.

While testing we will need to somehow ensure that network scenarios are free of any dangerous LUA that could cause out of synch. Eventually we may need to have a way of having server controlled instructions for some LUA script logic to ensure consistency (not sure yet). But if we get this working it could open a whole new opportunity for fun for network play (mixing campaign + multi-player).

*Update: did a quick test with Elimnator using a sample scenario he whipped together and so far so good! This will make network play VERY fun and so much more interesting, but will definitely require a whole new way of thinking when it comes to scenarios since these types of scenarios are not single player focussed (message boxes need to target the active player etc). Mix this with multi-scenario loading and it gets amazingly fun

[victorj]

We're playing around with allowing network play for scenarios over the next while. I currently have rigged together something that works simply by setting the control type in the scenario XML to "network". Additionally I display a list of scenarios in the custom game lobby that have at least 1 network player, and when selected it sets all settings to those of the scenario + sets the scenario name which then loads for all players at game start.

While testing we will need to somehow ensure that network scenarios are free of any dangerous LUA that could cause out of synch. Eventually we may need to have a way of having server controlled instructions for some LUA script logic to ensure consistency (not sure yet). But if we get this working it could open a whole new opportunity for fun for network play (mixing campaign + multi-player).

*Update: did a quick test with Elimnator using a sample scenario he whipped together and so far so good! This will make network play VERY fun and so much more interesting, but will definitely require a whole new way of thinking when it comes to scenarios since these types of scenarios are not single player focussed (message boxes need to target the active player etc). Mix this with multi-scenario loading and it gets amazingly fun

lol, very cool! very nice to have online scenarios, I know one day that this game can be compared to titles like Age of Empires, Warcraft and Megawar, especially with a campaign that I so desire, more buildings and units, explorers,aquatic(naval) attack, one way to advance level of the building ... let's go MegaGlest!!!

[Ishmaru]

Great news softcoder! This will allow for co op campains, new game modes, and other great things. Lookin forward to see what's next!

[treba]

great news!

so we can finally create funmaps and real gameplay mods, which were exactly the things that made the warcraft 3 community so big!! (think of dota, footmen frenzy, tower defence or many rpg-maps). this is what i waited for for a long time
thanks a lot, softcoder!!

and, believe it or not, my scenario editor is also coming closer and closer to completion.

[MuwuM]

I think I don't have to say it, but anyways:

I totally like the idea of network-scenarios

While testing we will need to somehow ensure that network scenarios are free of any dangerous LUA that could cause out of synch. Eventually we may need to have a way of having server controlled instructions for some LUA script logic to ensure consistency (not sure yet). But if we get this working it could open a whole new opportunity for fun for network play (mixing campaign + multi-player).

Yes I think it would be usefull to have LUA server-controlled I have done much LUA stuff last days. I noticed, that LUA is not done the same in Windows and Linux. For example need Linux-LUA 2 parameters for math.random() and windows accept 1 and 2 parameters.

[Omega]

Sounds awesome. On a side note:

"Lua" (pronounced LOO-ah) means "Moon" in Portuguese. As such, it is neither an acronym nor an abbreviation, but a noun. More specifically, "Lua" is a name, the name of the Earth's moon and the name of the language. Like most names, it should be written in lower case with an initial capital, that is, "Lua". Please do not write it as "LUA", which is both ugly and confusing, because then it becomes an acronym with different meanings for different people. So, please, write "Lua" right!

[uncle]

Great idea!