Enemy Territory + Cube 2 = wOOt?

by ezombie on 01/19/2008 16:25, 258 messages, last message: 04/03/2008 21:39, 195310 views, last view: 09/29/2024 10:22

I made an actual thread for this, since we are still yacking about it. To bring the others up to speed:

"Some of us weirdos have been kicking around the thought of making a community edition of Enemy Territory (the FIRST one). I suggested the Cube 2 engine might be a good base...

This would be a straight port of ETPro gameplay to a standalone open source game, using new 'HD' assets. Nothing too fancy, just better graphics and netcode are what we would be looking for."

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#40: ..

by ezombie on 01/23/2008 03:24

Blam Engine? as in Halo Custom Edition?

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#41: Maybe...

by jsfdlconorhjfd on 01/23/2008 05:10

Maybe...


(Good luck)

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#42: RE: Maybe

by ezombie on 01/23/2008 23:25

Since you don't feel like making a identity on the forum, I'll assume you are the bloke that suggested the Blam! engine.

I'm not sure how to evaluate that suggestion, since Blam! is not an open source engine. Heck, you need a Halo CD just to run Halo:Community Edition. This is going to be an open source project, so commercial engines are not a viable option.

We might have the master servers ad supported (ads displayed on the server browser screen/player account website, not in game), but that would be the extent of commercial involvement in this.

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#43: Re: Maybe

by Julius on 01/23/2008 23:44, refers to #42

[quote]We might have the master servers ad supported (ads displayed on the server browser screen/player account website, not in game), but that would be the extent of commercial involvement in this. [/quote]

That sounds like a cool idea, especially with the player account to prevent cheating (maybe by adding a karma system where other players can vote someone up or down and certain servers only allow you to join if you have a certain number of upvotes).

So what are your futher plans? Did you talk to Quin and Acord about colaborating on the Bloodfronteer engine?

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#44: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 00:31

You hit the nail on the head. Having central player and server registrations kinda makes sense for this. The abuse (player cheating/stat padding/server spoofing/exploit hosting) of it will be handled mostly by reputation. This is how it's envisioned:

Server admins register their server and get a key to stick in the config. Players create accounts, register nicknames and are internally assigned a GUID that is handed out directly to the servers when they join one. You would log into the game when it starts, and select from a list of nicks. All this is of course free, but not scriptable (captchas and email verification). Someone could easily create an account just to cheat, but then there stats would be wiped out if enough admins ban them. And servers that get enough player complaints could be dropped from the browser and flushed from the stats.

The current state is one where we are merely collecting & organizing information. Listening to what people want, creating a starter TODO list, getting a forum setup, registering at SF , that kinda stuff.

We do not know if we will use BF stuff yet. This is going to be a standalone, but everyone is free to snarf and new code from it for inclusion into Sauer and BF. The ET specific (non Sauer) code is likely to be license under WTFPL: http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/, with the assets being whatever the artist feels like. My employer likes it when I work on stuff using this license, since they can also snarf whatever they like. They might even let me do some of it on company time.

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#45: Re: ..

by yoopers on 01/24/2008 00:45, refers to #44

Random thought: rather than creating a new authentication system, why not use OpenID? Seems like that might lower the barrier to entry for new players, allowing them to use their email address as the account name. Also, clans could setup their own OpenID providers and truly maintain a clan identity across multiple servers.

Having said that, OpenID lives in HTTP Land, and putting a full-blown browser inside the game would be silly. Maybe some stripped-down variant could be created, where only certain HTML tags could be used. I'm imagining that each server potentially becomes an OpenID provider, and all of them speak a limited dialect of OpenID.

Feel free to shoot the idea down, I've been buried in JavaScript bugs today and my neurons are only firing intermittently. ;]

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#46: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 02:29

Yeah, but the WTFPL is much sexier, and it's publicly recognized by the FSF :P

I'll take a look at OpenID. Just hope it's not overkill. No need for a full blown browser, I got lots'o'HTTP C++ code floating around here.

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#47: Re: ..

by SheeEttin on 01/24/2008 05:48, refers to #46

I'd think any use of HTTP in a game like this'd be overkill...

Of course, if you'd prefer it to writing your own authentication system, it's your game. (I know I'd prefer it, I'm no coder. :P)

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#48: BLAM!

by fdhjkhsdkjconorhfjkdshjk on 01/24/2008 05:51

I was making a sick, sick joke about the Blam! engine.

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#49: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 06:48

Yes, it was indeed sick. Missed the joke part though <oops>

I took a gander, and OpenID seems very much like overkill. I've written a few online authentication systems (for XML payment processing gateways) - this will be cake.

So, you login to the game with your account details (username and password which can be saved). While retrieving the server list, the master server gives you a 'session key'. When logging into a server, the client passes the session key. The server queries the master server with the player's session key, which returns the player's GUID and other info. Any stats/kicks/bans would be reported back to the master server using the server key + the player session key + the player GUID.

This way there is no farming for player data by lowlifes, or messing with people's accounts. Simple, eh?

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#50: Re: ..

by a`baby`rabbit on 01/24/2008 07:35, refers to #49

Very centralised... "The server queries the master server with the player's session key.." - better check that the master server owners are okay about storing that info and providing the necessary bandwidth.

Meanwhile I thought that the cheating was at a low at the moment... did I miss something?

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#51: Master Server

by dfhkshjkfsdconorbhjfkdshkj on 01/24/2008 15:35

If you need a master server for this, I will gladly run it.
Great connection, 20megs down, 3 up.

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#52: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 16:59

Thanks, but we got a dedicated server in a datacenter in Seattle. I have had it waiting for when I picked my crusade. Even ran some ET:QW servers on it. I have contributed to various BSD projects before, and now I'm in a point of my life (kid is graduating this spring) where I want to do a big hobby project.

I checked out the CVS last night and starting to sculpt a base set of projects in Eclipse (my torture instrument of choice). I see there is some md5 goodies lying around. I also noticed how thick the client really was. Not a bad thing, as I do want to keep as much on the client as possible.

I wasn't planning on encrypting anything, unless we have to. The players password will be SHA hashed. And using the 'triangle' setup means that encryption shouldn't have to be used.

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#53: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 17:31

I just got reminded that we *will* want a secondary (and trinary) master server. So the offer is very much appreciated.

The main thing is that any additional master servers (since they will also have a copy of the master player/server DB) will have to be located in an actual datacenter, with some established organization/company/clan to keep an eye on things. You have to have something to loose, in order for everyone to trust you.

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#54: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 17:41

eihrul:

OT - How strong is that crypto you got? I might have a client willing to license it for some banking software they are working on... email me if your interested.

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#55: Urgh?

by Dr_Evil288 on 01/24/2008 19:09

I have downloaded it (ET:W) and I have to admit is is in the nicest way possible terrible. The fact that I have to download ten trillion files to gain access to ANY server is terrible. I am all for modding games but considering that the mods for ET:W are pretty minor, you know, stuff that turns me into an ant or something, I don't see why I have to spend half my time downloading something that I'l never use again. Even CS:S, TF2 and DOD:S are lower on the download list and have substantially better servers. Rant over and as always, peace, especialy to those ET:W players out there, whom I hope find a conciderably better set of games to play. (Sauerbraten!)

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#56: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 21:23

Wassa?

Yes, it's a PITA to get working. Hence the need for a replacement. SD never finished it...

Yet ET is still, after 5 years, in the top 6 online FPS games worldwide.

Must be doing something right!

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#57: Blam!

by asdfadsfconorfhdjsk on 01/24/2008 21:27

When I said Blam! I was making a sick, sick joke.

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#58: ..

by RealNitro on 01/24/2008 21:57

ezombie: what about existing ET maps? Are you planning on converting them to Sauer maps? Or will this new ET feature only new content?

RTCW multiplayer test 2 and ET used to be my favorite online games so the fact that you seem to be taking this so serious is _very_ exciting. Have you guys set up a website or a forum yet?

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#59: ..

by ezombie on 01/24/2008 23:12

Well, without the legal OK of SD & iD, the stock maps will remain where they are.

We can't even use the models or textures from ET, so it's ALL going to be new content. We will be slowly building up a base set of assets as time goes by.

As for custom maps... I suppose each individual artist will have to determine if they want to port any maps to this.

We would like to (this summer, when there is something to at least play around on), hold a ET:CE map contest on Quadropolis - like they just did with Assasin.

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