[CF-Devel] Future of Crossfire

[Yann Chachkoff]

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     ===== Original Message From DAVID DELBECQ <
      
      david.delbecq at usa.net
      
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       1) An attractive interface which mean beautiful graphics. An iso set 
     
     becomes
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     urgent. This set should be more complete than the actual 2D set (more monster
     
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     orientations and animations). It is obvious the crossfire server could not
     
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     handle bandwidth for loading all these gfx, so we should create a standard
     
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     pictures naming and force the clients to download, via ftp for example, the
     
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     set before playing or allow the client to use an alternate ones. So we take 
     
     of
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     this part of the job from the server.
     
     
Agree. Idea: the client connects to the server, _may_ (not _must_) request a 
list of pictures available with last update dates; if the client pictures are 
not up-to-date, it may then be able to open a connection to a 'picture server' 
to download the pictures needed. This is in fact a simple extension of the 
actual image caching system where the pictures are downloaded only before 
starting the game and requested from a separate picture server (the picture 
server may be a specific one or simply an ftp server).


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       2) a user friendly client. For the moment, most players have do do thinks
     
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     like bind cast ice storm   bind ...... This NOT attractive. We should have a
     
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     client which know most of the action which can be done on crossfire and give
     
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     player a list of these action with in front the associated key (like in most
     
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     other RPG or Quake likes) or allow binding like in diablo. 
     
     Definitely agree.

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     This client should be done for windows in priority and under GPL for faster
     
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     developpement.
     
     That I can't agree with. Why do you say 'for Windows in priority' ? To touch a 
greater number of potential players ? What I think here is that we must use a 
common cross-platform development environment, resulting in a client that may 
be compiled on both Windows and Unix systems without changes. Ever thought of 
libraries like ClanLib or SDL ?

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     The current directx client is interesting and a lot of work seems to have 
     
     been
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     done on it but am not sure this client could follow forever the server,
     
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     especially when importants changes are made (like if we run to iso gfx for
     
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     example) because his developper is alone for maintenance. Once again am 
     
     saying
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     what a lots of developper are saying: "Michael Toennies make your client GPL,
     
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     it could become crazily good".
     
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     I agree with the idea of making the DirectX client GPL. It is certainly 
interesting.

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     Performances of the server are not so important for the moment. Even if we
     
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     have a high perfomances server, most rpg players will immediately go away
     
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     because frightened by the ugly gfx. Most of the time, they will not download
     
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     the client because of screenshots they have seen.
     
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     That's true, but you forget some clear facts: the fact that some quests are 
simply unplayable because the server is unable to run fast enough to sustain 
them (Didn't you made some comments about it not so long ago ?). The most 
important thing for new players is certainly how the game looks like, but if 
they discover that their characters die because of server slowliness, they'll 
quickly go away. I don't think bringing lots of new players just to see them 
go away a few time later is really a good idea. Certainly, high performance 
server alone is not enough, but it is necessary.

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     Once again, the iso set is very interresting, if people are ready to help me,
     
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     i would be glad to work on the client side programming (In fact, am not free
     
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     before end of june because of exams). In fact, it only needs little change
     
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     (change the drawer and turn of 45° the direction in client side). To do this,
     
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     i need a small, working, iso set and we need to define the format we will use
     
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     for pictures.
     
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     Mmmm... Maybe I'll check if I can do something about this...
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Chachkoff Y.

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