[Nel] Some thoughts about NeL

[Vincent Archer]

According to Thierry Mallard:
> This is something I though about in the Genesis project (yes I know,
> not very original name ;-) a few years ago. The problems we found
> were the consistency of the global universe, and the trust we could
> have to any server. For example : who managed the characters ? who
> can we trust for them ? There can be a time line synchronisation problem
> too, although that seemed less important... 

In a very different world (and a closed system implementation), it's also
something Bioware's NeverWinterNights wants to achieve. Their model allows
servers (what they call modules, which is in fact a process running a
specific area - but you can have multiples instances concurrently running
on the same CPU) to link to each other.

Of course, their model is simpler: all servers are guaranteed to run the
same software (it autoupdates over the Internet), the character formats are
well defined, and the characters are ultimately stored on a central database
(the NWN Vault) who enforces "plausibility" on the characters (a level 1
cannot get to level 6 and 70,000 XP points in an hour of playtime; a level 3
character cannot have a plate+2, a cloak of displacement and boots of speed,
and so on).

And they do not want to inforce any universe continuity: each server admin
has to do it, by allowing other modules to link to yours or not.
-- 
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer@nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!