> I help moderate the VERC Wanted forums and someone recently posted a request > for a programmer to create a database system for an on-line RPG mod using > HL. Now my knowledge of the networking side of HL is somewhere between zero > and minus one but something in my gut says it can't be done. I know that > it's possible to get information from games written to HTML documents (as > some sites display player stats on websites from various games) but is it > possible for a HL server to draw information from a database like a web > server and allow for a designer to create an RPG like leveling system? I > know that it'd be easier to simply store the stats locally in an encoded > file but it's always possible for those to be hacked which is why the person > who posted wants to take this other route. > > Any suggestions or advice for me relay to the designer would be most > appreciated.
It is true that you can't use the Half-Life client/server network stream to send your own custom data back and forth (other than the standard client <-> server network packets containing entity information). However, there's nothing to stop a client or server from creating it's own Windows/Linux socket network connection to a server (using some other IP port than what the client and server are using). The database server that you connect to could store persistent information using MySQL, flat ASCII text files, or whatever you wanted. Servers could connect to this database server and retrieve information for clients, then use the Half-Life engine network protocol to stream this data to the client (sent as entity information), or the clients create a network connection to the persistent database server directly (although this might lead to client side hacking if the client used a network proxy to modify the data coming from the database). Jeffrey "botman" Broome _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
