< peering near-sightedly... >
I was re-reading the
Builder's Journal compilation when I re-encountered an article by Galap:
Neverwinter Server Clustering
This article outlines a model for running multiple Neverwinter servers on the same machine in a tightly coupled cluster that is perceived as a single game world by players.
Obviously there must be at least two servers in use, with one server being designated the primary or central server and all other servers being secondary or satellite servers. The central server is the core of the cluster and acts both as an entry point for players and a coordinator for interaction with satellite servers. Communication between the central server and the satellites is performed through the Bioware database functions.
This got me percolating all over again about one of my pet projects - enabling standalone modules beyond their original scope.
I believe strongly that the brightest future for NwN lies in expanding upon the strengths that have made so many of us so loyal - the ability to create and share our own stories. It just really annoys me that some truly beautiful creations are sealed tightly into their own stand-alone universe.
Example: D/L this great module set in some obscure town beneath a brooding half-ruined tower keep (specifically thinking of my Trollsbane:Birthright module set on the edge of the Trollfells).
Play the module.
Ok.
Now what?
The next module you get will have nothing to do with that town or it's (quite finely crafted) NPCs/quests/resources.
But what if the module was built with an (easily?) incorporated hyper-module system in place?
After finishing (or tiring of) the Trollfells, your PC walks to the edge of the world (standalone module scope) and... transitions to the Walking Woods Regional module to the north. The NPCs in Birthright, the inns, the keep (which you should own by now), all the resources (that you haven't destroyed or wasted) are still available to the south but now the player can persist into new modules without the export/import character mechanic of old and with his world expanded to *include* previously played modules.
To begin with, a hyper-module system would focus on topography and geometry.
How each admin configures new modules into his particular world would need to be very flexible, meaning hyper-transitions would need to be defined when a new module is incorporated. Rather like html links and anchors (anyone remember Gopher?).
Hyper-modules would have potential, unassigned transitions in place (named anchors) and the admin would have a tool to link those transitions into the configuration appropriate to his world.
In
Amethyst, The Trollfells are to the southeast of the Walking Woods (Regional Mod). The setting for Forester (another of my long delayed mods) is *inside* the Walking Woods. The Walking Woods are to the West of the Western Demesne (Regional). The Underways (Regional) are *beneath* the Walking Woods.
But some other admin may like the Forester module and not (*gasp*) the Walking Woods. He might link Forester to the south of the Trollfells and gain the benefit of an expanded world without having to actually load the mod into the toolset.
After the topography of the hyper-module system is stable, translators for quests, spells, creatures and all those other cool CC things could make even NPCs travel between modules and quests take on a larger scope. Building quest/adventure systems that expand with added modules is another aspect of what I envision.
Note that I haven't said a word about SP vs MP. To my mind, forcing a player into one play-style or the other is very limiting. Which brings me back to the whole server-cluster thing with new insights from
Virusman (hard links) and the use of MySQL dbs instead of the native db.
Anyway, just thought I'd ramble on a bit about something I'm always walking toward. If I seem to go off on tangents, I am probably thinking about a place far ahead...
< ...down the road not yet travelled >
Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 21 octobre 2012 - 05:24 .
