[MUD-Dev] Net protocols for MUDing (was: Moore's Law sucks)

[Chris Gray]

[Adam Wiggins:]

:So here's a question to you, Chris, and all those that have remained silent
:on this thus far: which do you prefer - a client whose speed is directly
:proportional to the speed of your internet connection so that you can rely
:on every client always being 100% "correct", or one which runs at its own
:framerate (hopefully 30fps or better) attempting to display what data it has
:about the world as best it can, resulting in some inconsistencies (or perhaps
:many if your connection is very unstable)?  I know which one I'd choose, but
:I wonder how many people feel the same?  Or perhaps there should be some sort
:of consistency sliders in the options screen which change how much prediction
:it does on its own, and how much it relies on the server for?

I'll answer since asked, but I doubt my opinion has much value. I haven't
played any serious real-time games for years, so have little in the way
of experience to back up an opinion with. I have never even seen any of
the current multi-player online action games. Maybe in a few months I'll
be able to afford a new computer.

My concerns have not been with the presentation, but with what is
presented. It seems to me that once you allow your system to display
something that it doesn't know to be accurate, you have essentially
"stepped off the deep end" in that respect. With a limited game, such as
some that have been discussed with respect to this question, I tend to
agree that doing simple physics and projections in the client is likely
good enough.

But what about a full MUD, with player written magic spells, wierd NPC's
created by builders, etc? You *can't* predict what they will do without
having all of the database available to the client. Sure, 99.9% of the
time you will have enough to run their code and get the same answer the
master server will. It's a bit like chaos theory - you can't predict all
of the answers all of the time, because seemingly inconsequential things
can combine to yield massive changes. To me, the main thing I want in
a computer interface of any kind is predictability and consistency. If
the interface does some blinking or sparkling or something to show me
when it doesn't quite know what is going to happen, then I want it to
guarantee that it will do so. But that pretty well means that it has
to do so everywhere, all the time. So, it isn't useful.

Again, my perspective here is likely different than the kind of game and
client that were being discussed, but as I said above, I don't have a
valid opinion about that kind of game.

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA