> Before any networking occurs, the client runs a breadth-first search using the local collision map to build a path from where you are to where you clicked, and then writes the packet for the server to read. [...] The packet contains the absolute position of the first waypoint in the path, followed by the delta of each waypoint in the path against the first one<p>How come the client sends waypoints rather than just the destination? Naively it seems like sending less data would be better. Is the pathfinding so expensive that you'd want to avoid doing it on the server? I suppose it works out as long as it's cheap to validate/correct the client's path?
I don't understand how RuneScape managed to get the traction it did. 2004 was the same year World of Warcraft came out!
It was free to play when that wasn’t a popular financial model for games at the time. The memberships were also much cheaper than WoW and accepted different payment methods that would be more available to minors at the time.
Also no need to install or commit to a guild or clan or whatever. You could just log in, screw around for an hour or ten, and log off. Then log in again from somewhere else. It was miraculous for a kid like me.
It's free and you could play it in the school library, for one. Also it came out a few years before WoW.
not to take away from the article, but some did with similar fidelity on 14.4k<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplayer_online_games" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplay...</a><p>i think the author would find ultima online emulators interesting
Oh Britannia, how you were so amazing before the Tramel/Felucia split.
Ultima and Tibia are the references you are looking for.<p>What you linked is nowhere near the same genre or remotely the same concept, nice try though
Is this article just an analysis of the Lost City[0] codebase without linking Lost City?<p>[0] <a href="https://github.com/LostCityRS" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/LostCityRS</a>