Subject: [Nel] Re:More news from the nevrax teams...

From: "Daniel Miller" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 18:47:37 +0200

To extend the explanation a little - the way we see things is this:

- The server sets for MMORPGs and the like have to be secure - that means
that any old Tom, Dick or Harry can't send a message directly to the economy
service to tell it that they've just won the lottery :)

- This means that the clients only have access to the front end services on
the front end servers and that they don't have access to the naming service.
(in order to connect to the front end services clients have to use the login
service as a go-between... there are examples in our samples directory
showing how this works)

- So - the naming service runs on a smallish LAN that connects the game
servers.  It broadcasts messages like 'the xxx service has just arrived at
address yyy' or 'the www service at address zzz has gone down/ disappeared'.
These are cached by each service to keep an up to date address book of the
other services that they can talk to.

- In the normal way we don't see services being started or stopped as a very
high frequency event.

I hope this helps.

Daniel.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

> I have a question about the caching for the naming service. You say it
> automatically corrects caches when services move or are deleted. This
> doesn't sound very scalable, it every client querying the name server
> has to be contacted when something they asked about changed (especially
> over high latency links).

Right, but in fact, we developed the system to fit our requirement for our
game and in our system (in the shard), the naming service and all  ther
services are on a LAN, so we don't have high latency links.

regards,

Vianney Lecroart

---

From: Dim Segebart <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 19:33:30 +0200

It makes sense.
Thank you.

Thursday, June 21, 2001, 6:47:37 PM, you wrote:

DM> To extend the explanation a little - the way we see things is this:

DM> - The server sets for MMORPGs and the like have to be secure - that means
DM> that any old Tom, Dick or Harry can't send a message directly to the economy
DM> service to tell it that they've just won the lottery :)

DM> - This means that the clients only have access to the front end services on
DM> the front end servers and that they don't have access to the naming service.
DM> (in order to connect to the front end services clients have to use the login
DM> service as a go-between... there are examples in our samples directory
DM> showing how this works)

DM> - So - the naming service runs on a smallish LAN that connects the game
DM> servers.  It broadcasts messages like 'the xxx service has just arrived at
DM> address yyy' or 'the www service at address zzz has gone down/ disappeared'.
DM> These are cached by each service to keep an up to date address book of the
DM> other services that they can talk to.

DM> - In the normal way we don't see services being started or stopped as a very
DM> high frequency event.

DM> I hope this helps.

DM> Daniel.

DM> --------------------------------------------------------------------
DM> Hello,

>> over high latency links).

DM> Right, but in fact, we developed the system to fit our requirement for our
DM> game and in our system (in the shard), the naming service and all  ther
DM> services are on a LAN, so we don't have high latency links.

DM> regards,

DM> Vianney Lecroart

DM> _______________________________________________
DM> Nel mailing list
DM> [email-masked]
DM> /mailman/listinfo.cgi/nel

-- 
Dim Segebart                         mailto:[email-masked]

---

From: Yann Morvan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 19:57:00 +0200 (MET DST)

Hullo,
I've been following the development of NEL for
some time, I haven't been contributing due to lack
of spare time, but I wanted to congratulate the
Nel team for their idea and work.

However, I have one major concern with the licence mecanism.
Indeed, your idea is that what the people will pay for in
games based upon Nel is content and not code. Saying this, you 
implicitly state that content and code are completely distinct things.
It is true for the most part (graphics, sounds, AI scripts, background,
plots etc),
but I can't convince myself that it applies to the rules of the game,
for I can't help to think that for efficiency matters they should be 
hardcoded in the different services. (The reason being that because of
their level of abstraction, using a scripting mechanism would be terribly
painful and would require a design of the services architecture allowing
for total flexibility).

I played Ultima Online for 3 years, I read the rantings of lum the mad
daily, I read the dev boards of currently in development MMORPGs, I'm
aware of the specificities of the "big three" and all this leads
me to the conclusion that the rules (i.e. economy system, combat system,
advancement system etc) are a part of the content at least as important
as the rest regarding a game's interest (I wouldn't be willing to
create a MMORPG if I wasn't utterly frustrated by the current trends
in those games). 

Therefore, while I totaly agree that any improvment
or further development of Nel's features should be shared, I'd
like you to reassure me about the protection of one's rule system
in your design philosophy.

Sorry for this long mail and for reviving this probably old and well
debated issue :)

	Yann