MMORPG advice
 

One day I plan on making a MMORPG, or at least being the lead programmer of an mmorpg project.

Which language will be most beneficial to learn to acheive this? I plan on learning C/C++ to eventually make my own OS.(I love to make stuff, and I love to use the stuff I make.)

Now, I'm talking about overall how the program will run, both Client and Server, bandwidth and packet handling, memory usage, system requirements, etc.

I used to play RPG World Online, a 2D Online RPG made in Visual Basic by a guy named Michael "Micky" Kudlo, it took him 2 years to "finish" it without working fulltime on it.(Website is at www.rpgwo.com).
It lags like a bitch with 70 people on one server.
That's not something I wanna deal with...

Bloodscape was also made with VisualBasic and that kinda lags too(made completely different than rpgwo was, www.bloodscape.net)


That's kinda making me wanna stray away from VB...

The graphics I'm shooting for are like Ashen Empires or Conquer Online (www.ashenempires.com www.conqueronline.com)

blah blah blah...

Any suggestions, advice... rants?

Learn C++. It's the best way; in my opinion, the only way. However, more important than the language is the code logic and optimisation - if that's crap, you're screwed no matter how you do it.

Thanks, C++ is gonna be my newest addiction

It could very well be that these are slow because they used VB, but it's more likely either low-quality code, inadequete bandwidth, or a slow server that's to blame.

Bloodscape probably is just low quality code... but RPGWO actually runs good with about 30 players playing it at a time constantly, just the server could use a reboot every now and then. The main server for RPGWO has about 70 players on at least half the time, and about 25 is the minimum that's on. The server auto-restarts every morning(my idea), and now... the server program is nerfed to hell. Ran good for about 4 months straight though.

Nice program basically, just it sucks when there's a lot of people on.
The client program loads everything needed to run in memory, everything. The server program probably does the same thing.(I'm pretty sure it does... takes up about 30K memory on a freshly opened server.)

It has so many things that other MMORPG's can learn from...

Dynamic maps for one. You can change the world around you on that game. You can cut down trees, you can plant them. You can claim a plot of land and build a house on it, etc. and the Admins can change the maps, they can edit the towns and whatever else...

blah, I'm rambling.

Interested, sounds like I an idea i've been having
 

Hey there, this is an old thread - but hopefully your still around!

I used to be quite a big fan of rpgs of the massivley multiplayer variety - and to make one would be fantastic! But one bit of philoshophy that I try to put into all my ideas is.. be different or theres not point in even starting.

I'm not sure if your aware of the game Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo? Its about 10 years old now (feels old :( ) but is still exceptional and stands out above any other rpg.. Mainly because its multiplayer and realtime! This makes the way in which the universe works so much more "realistic" and hence more engaging.. I've always wanted to make an online version of this, ALWAYS...

I'm increadibly interested in helping you in this project, although of course if you would prefer to work alone I completly understand! :)

Cheers, and hope to hear from you!

Well... I decided, that after I get competent with what I'm learning right now, I'm gonna start on C/C++ and then I might just open a sourceforge project...


But before I start on it, I'll be writing down all my ideas first.

Large 3D MMORPGs are almost exclusively written in C++, with something an embedded scripting language that handles changable game logic (for instance, mini-quests). However, a MMORPG is, by definition, a massive undertaking, and learning C++ is a mere minor part of the knowledge and experience you need to amass to tackle such a project effectively.

So my advice would be to get more experienced at programming as well as learning C++ (two activities that are not mutually exclusive). Perhaps post up examples of your code, and get people to suggest improvements.

Edit: As a postscript, I should add that the choice of language depends very much on the scale of your MMORPG. If your game is 3D, use C++. If your game is going to have many thousands of players online at the same time, use C++. However, if you can get away with using a higher level language, in my opinion it would make development much, much easier. The question is whether you can get away with the speed decrease. :)

Performance would be number one... I have a dream and a vision (same thing but it sounds cooler to list both) for a *perfect* mmorpg... most of the ones today suck.