[CF-Devel] CFMP exciting new ideas.

[dnh]

Today I have had a very long discussion with Joris (MiDS) about future
client and server handelling of the metaserver. We quickly came to the
conclusion that the metaserver is the key, and that statistical data
supplied by it is a needed features. Currently information can be found at
crossfire.real-time.com/metaserver and
     
     http://mids.student.utwente.nl/~crossfire/.
     
      The question is, why do we
have this split up system based on http? Why don't we incorporate
everything into the Crossfire Management Protocol. Basically the idea is
that each server has inbuilt scripts which when activated, send
information in a strict format to the metaserver which can then disect it
and create statistical information. Average users, hours up, are obvious
features. What makes this idea so much better is that the client also
follows the CFMP, and so it can gather this information at its own leisure
and supply it to gamers. A new gcfclient is planned, and with it I hope
will come a great change in the way we bind server and client. Within the
server selection window on startup, this client would have all the
metaserver information; Ping, #players, Build date, platform, hardware,
bandwidth. With this information players can more easily choose and play
on the most efficient, most active or most quiet server.

Simply put, MiDS is going to use MySQL and friends plus perl, to create a
far more intelligent metaserver that both dx and gtk clients can use.
Adding yet another hopefully, hopefully roWer, njh and I can start the new
GTK client very soon and all these features will be availible to Windows
and Linux users.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas you have regarding CFMP and the
metaserver. More posts will probably come with updates on client status
and metaserver status, good luck.

dnh