[Help Wanted] Forgotten Darkness MMORPG

[macron12388]

I too, like devS.H., began learning c++ only recently. Note how I said "began". I believe no one can ever say "I learned x". We are always learning and progressing.

If you think you can complete this project then go ahead, we are not ones to stop you. Be warned, it will be like trying to cross the pacific while wearing snow skis, hailing down a cab in Amsterdam, while trying to keep from losing any of your 9 children, in a snow blizzard.

[mrkfc]

mrkfc, if you want to prove that your project isn't going down, tell some of your previous projects

And also, what is your job in the team? What do you do?

I am web developer and project lead of the team. I have lead smaller projects like 2D RPGs before.

If you think you can complete this project then go ahead, we are not ones to stop you. Be warned, it will be like trying to cross the pacific while wearing snow skis, hailing down a cab in Amsterdam, while trying to keep from losing any of your 9 children, in a snow blizzard.

Nothing will stop us We have basic character movements/ keyboard events built into the client and we have already added the inventory e.t.c.
We are working as a team to get this project up and running. People will always judge and doubt an indie team making an MMORPG. It is inevitable, but we plan to be one of the small percentage of teams who actually finish their project. We are aware of mistakes that others have made and I am confident that we will not join the graveyard of all those failed MMORPG projects.

Thank you for all your advice and encouragement

[hj32853]

i would like to be a Beta Tester ive tested many games outside irrlicht walls reply if needed to know which games.

[mrkfc]

The beta client of our game won't be out for a fair while but you can sign up for the beta tester list at http://www.forgotten-darkness.tk and add your name on the forum topic.

[Mel]

Start by optimizing your weapons! Too high polycount and with no textures at all

I have lead smaller projects like 2D RPGs before.

Did they get finished?

Also, a serious suggestion. If you really want to make a game like that with Irrlicht, be ready to modify any aspect of the engine in its very core. Or else, switch to a complete game engine with network support, like Torque. Because Irrlicht currently lacks (by default, anyway) some of the features a mature MMORPG really needs, like:

-Terrain Atlases.
-Resource streaming.
-LODs.
-Hardware Skinning.
-Instancing methods.
-Impostors...

And those are some of the most important ones, graphics-wise... i bet i forget many others. But, it is up to you and your team. Good luck.

[mrkfc]

Also, a serious suggestion. If you really want to make a game like that with Irrlicht, be ready to modify any aspect of the engine in its very core. Or else, switch to a complete game engine with network support, like Torque. Because Irrlicht currently lacks (by default, anyway) some of the features a mature MMORPG really needs, like:

-Terrain Atlases.
-Resource streaming.
-LODs.
-Hardware Skinning.
-Instancing methods.
-Impostors...

And those are some of the most important ones, graphics-wise... i bet i forget many others. But, it is up to you and your team. Good luck.

We are probably going to try our best with irrlicht and code our own things into the game and modify it. If we struggle too much with it we could always switch to an engine with pre built features for an MMORPG. But we want our game to be flexible and have all the features that we want.

[mrkfc]

Development for the client is going well so far, here are some of the core things which we have achieved:

- Basic character movement using the WASD keys.
- Camera follows the character.
- Inventory appears when 'i' is pressed.
- Basic GUI menu.
- Basic NPC system, NPC waves at the character if it comes within a certain range.
- Terrain rendering and sky boxes.

We are going to implement things like physics later on probably using ODE and the irrlicht ODE wrapper.

[Armen138]

i can sense that this will be awesome. will there be ninjas? i want to be a ninja.

[mrkfc]

i can sense that this will be awesome. will there be ninja's? i want to be a ninja.

Unfortunately ninjas are not yet an official class in the game but they may have some inclusion at some point.

[sudi]

Development for the client is going well so far, here are some of the core things which we have achieved:

- Basic character movement using the WASD keys.
- Camera follows the character.
- Inventory appears when 'i' is pressed.
- Basic GUI menu.
- Basic NPC system, NPC waves at the character if it comes within a certain range.
- Terrain rendering and sky boxes.

We are going to implement things like physics later on probably using ODE and the irrlicht ODE wrapper.

So you copied together some code from the examples....don't want to be mean or anything. but how is your Server System comming along? bc that will be the hard part. as well as the sync between your client and server later. keep in mind your client should be a window into your world not running the world.

[mrkfc]

We are developing a system which sends what 3D models the client should load from the server, the login GUI is also under construction and today we plan to add codes for each type of item.
For example 0.1 for a potion.

[Lonesome Ducky]

It seems that all MMORPG proposals have some form of "forgotten" in their title

[mrkfc]

This is my first update for a while and I have to say that an MMORPG is definitely not a good idea for a small indie team to develop. My team has basically fallen apart and I may have to just scrap the project. Here are some of my thoughts and analysis on my project.

- Developing the game content like quests and other things is the easy part, it takes a small amount of time but can affect the quality of the end product a lot.

- It is extremely difficult to program an MMORPG with free tools, even with a team of around 6/7 programmers we still struggled with the client, the server programming got on 'ok' but the client did not function with the server yet.

- Members of the team are not always active, it is very difficult to find people who will work daily for free on your project, people usually get fed up of the lack of progress you get with an MMORPG.

- You may think you have a super idea all figured out but at the end of the day you cannot make the next World of Warcraft without a team of experts and an extremely high budget.

- All MMORPGs seem to go down the generic fantasy path and have stuff like elves and orcs, it is very hard to create something unique which will make people pick your game over other alternatives.

- There are many high quality free to play MMOs, so at the end of the day if you released your game with a subscription price you might struggle to get enough users.

- Server costs tend to be high, and to handle thousands of players you would need more than just one server.

In conclusion my advice would be to any other keen amateur developers who want to make an 'uber' MMORPG, it is not worth the time and it is not as fun as you might think it would be. Very hard work is required and you have to invest loads of free time. Now I have learned from my mistakes and know how hard large projects are, start with something simple like Tetris and then move on to harder things.
Now I know why so many people flame on help wanted mmo threads

[Radikalizm]

We weren't flaming you, but we just see a lot of these projects and we want to make people reconsider their idea

It's good that you're not demotivated by this and that you'll continue to write some simpler games
Complex projects are manageable by hobby programmers, but never as a first project, since most people have existing codebases and tools ready from previous projects which are capable of supporting these large projects

Maybe in the future you can find an extremely solid team to work with on multiple projects, and then such a project can be viable (although I'd still advise to stay away from MMORPGS ^^)

[aanderse]

I have to say that an MMORPG is definitely not a good idea for a small indie team to develop.

Glad you have learned a valuable lesson.

We weren't flaming you

I was.
But it was for your own good.

Now I have learned from my mistakes and know how hard large projects are, start with something simple like Tetris and then move on to harder things.

Great. You learned that lesson incredibly fast. Most people take forever and then leave upset. You're now ready to start a great game development adventure. Many productive people start with the dream of making some uber game, learning a harsh lesson, and then going onto awesomeness.

I wish you the best, be sure to ask many questions and one day you'll be able to make something truly awesome