a new start

[-Ramirez-]

The single largest problem about trying to convert the built-in systems to a custom system was the fact that the built-in ones allowed a single player in a level to control where all NPCs moved and what variables they held. This player-controlled environment allowed NPCs to have data sent in 0.05 second intervals, rather than 0.1, and the movement was, for whatever reason, more fluid than what the NPC Server produces. Move() is a joke for NPCs that frequently change direction. It produces horrible results in comparison to what existed before.

Hit detection being done clientside before is also what contributed to the difficulty of trying to reproduce what we had. Everyone always tried to make it serverside, which just can't come close to what everyone played with before. I see that there's been a reversion back to clientside detection at the moment, but I don't know if this applies to both NPCs and players.

If any of this was unknown to those currently doing the script work, maybe this will give an insight into what needs to be done to allow reproduction of old-style quests. I wouldn't mind discussing various aspects further, if anyone is interested. Hopefully these things were already known though, as it was all pretty obvious if you ever scripted before the NPC Server.

Of course, all of what I've talked about is dealing with the core scripts of the server, as is usually the focus. I'm just assuming that these scripts are still a problem right now, if there's lacking content.



Btw, Tyhm, you should know that it isn't always possible to halfass things when scripting is involved. There are some things you just MUST HAVE in order to proceed, if you want something that's the slightest bit interesting, at least. For example, when I was actively rebuilding for the NPC Server, we could have made quests with no baddies, but given how integral they were to so many quests, it would have essentially been "walk through these areas and get a reward, then never come back because there's no reason to". That's a pure waste.