i'm developing a network RPG for my final year project and i face some problem while drafting out the game. Problems such as networking and Artificial Intelligence.
1) Any advice on the AI and Networking part?
2) What approach should i use for the networking, if i want to use TCP/IP to link the players? What field should i research into?
Thanks for the help in advanced.
AI, I can't really help you with. For an RPG AI, if you're going in the style of something such as Final Fantasy, I would basically use random numbers. There doesn't seem to be any great and powerful AI behind those monsters.
For connection, I would use UDP (if you'll be connecting multiple clients). UDP is a "connectionless" protocol, which means that it will send out packets, but it doesn't care if they get there or not. TCP on the other hand will establish a connection, send the packets, make sure they got there, and then close the connection. This, for games that involve many players, can really slow a game down. If you're going to have a limited number of players (5 for example) you could try multi-threading the 5 TCP connections, I'm not sure how that would work out though. Your best bet is probably UDP.
I hope this helps.
-Brian
