Traveller, online RPG

[Psilocybeing]

Just thought I would post what I'm working on at the moment. Traveller is a game based in space, where players control ships(of course!), and explore the universe(a mapset, 16 million tiles in size currently, although that will expand) of dynamically generated objects, such as NPC spawns, asteroid belts, planets, bases, etc.

Here is an early screenshot, I'll have map update working online in a couple of days, depends when I get around to doing it. I have integrated WLAN, which has been tested and working, so it's just a matter of coding the server to go along with it.

When I've got the map update working, I'll get an eboot up for you to see how it works. For now, here's a screenshot :)

http://www.othala.co.uk/graphics/PTb.png

[xuphorz]

hey not bad, i could see how this would be a good multiplayer game
be sure to let us know when it's officially released :)

[Cap'n 1time]

cool! moving this to the submitted news :)

[tryqus]

great idea, this could be interesting.

-Tryqus

[RedKing14CA]

So umm.. whats it for?

(Am i still in the psp forum???)

[Psilocybeing]

So umm.. whats it for?

(Am i still in the psp forum???)

This game is for the PSP. The server is being made in PHP, using MySQL to store server information.

I've got the base of a game server setup, all that I need to do now is populate the initial starting area. Then comes the fun part, dynamic creation of objects..man that's going to be a toughie.

As far as usernames are concered, I thought an MD5 hash of the PSPs mac address would be acceptable. Any thoughts?

[DraconumPB]

Awesome idea dude.

The server is PHP huh? Does that mean it's played through the browser (I thought of making a game like that...)?

[Psilocybeing]

Nope, I have built a client for the PSP in C. The screenshot you see in the first post is an actual VRAM capture from my PSP :)

PHP has socket extensions, and as it is such an easy language to work with I thought I may aswell go with what works, as I've got not visual C or VB on here at the moment.

[PSP_Newbie]

this looks awsome :D
and btw, is it a massively online rpg?
as the way it sounds it will be one constant server world for everyone.
Just wondering if you could clear that up.

[Psilocybeing]

Yep, the server is scalable to work with any ammount of clients I specify.

[Psilocybeing]

Here is a quick copy of my current status on the client/server. After an hour or so of nailing down a few render errors, and teaching PHP who's boss, I've got a working mapserver. Currently nothing is supported bar connecting to the world server, sending the user-string and recieving the inital mapset, which is retrieved from my local SQL server, but if anyone could give this a quick run-down on their PSP and report back if it works, I would be most gratefull.

I'll be leaving the server up for most of the day, so you should be able to connect without any problems.

NOTE, that this is in no way accurately show what the game will be like once I am done programming. This is the first draft of the client and server, and there will many many more to come.

[CaMeL]

Can Anyone confirm that it is working, as it sounds really really cool.

See Sony this is the reason why you have to keep HomeBrew. It is what drives forward the market, spurs the masses on we live on the edge and are a huge market force. Your continual battle against us only spurs on to beat the big corporate bully. Stop changing the Rules Sony!!!

That said this is one of the best pieces of work to come out in the last 3 months keep up the good work mate.

[Psilocybeing]

Currently port forwarding is not working on my end, but the server works on local. I've removed the download link. Thanks for checking it out :)

[Jman0708]

cmon man i wana bea it can u please put link back or can some 1 please post the link or tyhe attacthment

[Psilocybeing]

There is nothing to see right now, bar an empty map screen. You're not missing anything, I can assure you :)

[Psilocybeing]

The routing is fixed, here is the demo again. I'm heading out to the pub now for a well deserved pint, I'll get the movement sorted later tonight :)

[Psilocybeing]

Just a quick heads up, movement in the universe is now sorted, and I also have a slot in the code reserved for object generation, which I will get around to doing later. The idea behind the generation will be similar to drop tables in MMORPGs, as in every time new space is explored, the server will loop through the new hex tiles, and perform counts on objects in the universe(for planets/suns) or in the local vicinity(asteroid belts, NPC spawns, etc) and spawn at the correct rate, based on the psysical width of the area in effect(i.e. so many hex tiles for a solar systems influence, new planet generation etc).

Most of the past couple of days has been spent tweaking and cleaning up the client/server code, aswell as upping the framerate of the client considerably. I will not be posting any dev copys every step of the way, but when I feel I've reached a substantial milestone, test copies will be released(after EriCKy tests them, of course :P).

The fix with the framerate was also directly linked to the slow response time of the PSPs control pad(had a recieve timeout on the socket I was using), so the exit callback will work fine now(L shoulder button).

[Psilocybeing]

Rendering and movement code has been cleaned up, the player now actually has a ship, and the display of other clients on the server should be done momentarily. Next on the list is re-making the map update network code, as currently it just sends the updated mapset as a whole, instead of the faster and more bandwidth efficient method of only sending the updated hex tiles.

http://www.othala.co.uk/graphics/PTc.jpg

By the way, anyone who has got the demo eboot I released last night, it will not work on this version of the server, as I have made significant changes to the net code. Sorry :o

[bobcobb]

Awesome work man. Keep going, you got people waiting for this. A free MMORPG for the PSP, rudimentary or not, would be revolutionary on a handheld.

[Psilocybeing]

The display of other players on the server is now just about sorted, bar a minor offset update that I need to throw into the movement function which I'll do tommorow. Next is optimising the net code some more, to get more bang-per-buck bandwidth wise. At the moment the server is spewing out unnecessarily large map update packets.

[Psilocybeing]

Here is the latest screenshot, I've dumped the old interface leaving the entire PSP screen available for gaming. I have completed the display of other players on the server, bar an initial object set upon connection, and appear messages for when the client moves(at the moment other players are only displayed when THEY move). Both of these are minor changes, and so soon I should be able to start work on actual gameplay.

http://www.othala.co.uk/graphics/PTd.png

[Psilocybeing]

First of all, merry xmas to everyone! Did anyone else get snow today, as we had a few inches overnight.

Traveller is coming along nicely, and I've sorted display of other clients(completely), although actions are still TODO. I've also whipped up a quick scrolling notice box, for messages from the server or other players to be displayed(will take input via F.O.S.K once I get it intergrated).

Another little addition, which is totally cosmetic is a little loading screen, with the Traveller logo on. Certainly looks alot better than printf eh.

Expect more and more to be added over the next few days, and over the new year. I'm having great fun coding this :)

Startup screen:
http://www.othala.co.uk/graphics/PTd1.png

Ingame display of using the scrollbox to display a 'MOTD' from the server:
http://www.othala.co.uk/graphics/PTd2.png

[Nono-O]

(>.<) yehrrrrrr
This looks nice (O.O)

[Kenosos]

Oh this looks nice =) its making me want to go buy a wirless router just so I can play it.
One thing I wanted to mention do you need like people to help you work on it? I can make sprites and things like that.

[ENGL!SH]

Will this be the first online homebrew?

[Psilocybeing]

Well, here comes one hell of an update ;). The Traveller game engine has been completely re-written from the base up, so as now to provide fluid movement in a 2D environment, dynamic loading of tilesets for both animation and sprite rotation, aswell as the base for a particle system for sexy weapon/engine effects. Below is the most recent screenshot, and you can check out the progress as it has been happening over the last few weeks at the blog(http://www.othala.co.uk/travellerBlog/).

http://www.othala.co.uk/travellerBlog/trav_particle.png

[GaMeR_2000]

Looking pretty sweet and I shouldnt really be posting this in PSP forums but a DS Opera Browser is coming out and I was wondering if you could make a DS one too...possibly...

[Psilocybeing]

I'm sorry, Traveller is coded in C(I was not going to use HTML For the client originally, just the HTTP network protocol, which I've now dumped) and I've not got a DS to hand :(

[GaMeR_2000]

Oh...I see...Keep up the good work anyway!

[Psilocybeing]

Here's another update regarding the particle system. As you can see the particle generators are now able to be linked on origin or destination to an entity, allowing for the base of weapon effects :)

http://www.othala.co.uk/travellerBlog/trav_part5.png

[wraggster]

thanks for the news :), ive made you PSP Coder so you can post any WIP news in the PSP News forum is you like :)

[danknugz]

download links are busted, where can i try it?

[Cap'n 1time]

wow. this is the most interesting thing i have seen thus far in the homebrew community. kudos for the creativity.

[vettacossx]

xuphorz
Dcemu Old Pro
I think that would be a gr8 port!!! im really hoping you do decide too give it a try!!!

[yamaneko]

download ?

send me link to [email protected]

[jman420]

sweet! this looks kick ass!

and if for any reason you'd like some 3d rendered 2d models, I can provide graphics in any state :D
and would enjoy working on another project

[Cap'n 1time]

heh. id love to see some 3d rendering.

Curious as to what type of game this is... is it anything like subspace aka continuum?
http://ssbase.com/whatis.shtml

[wraggster]

posted the news on the main psp site with download