Re: images and maps

[Philip Brown <philb@soda.berkeley.edu>]

>>>>[From Carl Edman]
    
    First of all, note that I insisted on two independent channels in the  
    protocol (for this very reason, among others).  Even if the  
    server->client connection is clogged up with large image transfers, the  
    client->server connection is not affected.  That means that you _never_  
    "freeze".

But you won't be able to see what you're fighting, until the update is
completely. This is crucial.  if you knew you were fighting a rust
monster, instead of some generic_monster, you would run away, not stay
and fight.

    
    Then, it is also a matter of map design.  Already I believe it is  
    considered quite bad form to place aggressive and dangerous monsters  
    right next to a map entrance because it tends to lead to fatalities  
    even now.

Doesn't matter. monsters follow players to the exit, making deadly
"traps" for the next person through.

In either the hang situation, or th generic_monster situation, a player
is going to be very pissed at the design eventually. Just because a
problem occurs infrequently does not make it a non-problem.

    
    > Anything that requires , or
    > COULD require, mass loading of data , should be done one time only,
    > at startup time. (and then never again, until the server gets
    > updated)
    
    But servers are going to be run by us hackers -- there are going to be  
    almost continuous updates.  This scheme will transmit many times more  
    images than most players will ever see, more times than any player  
    needs to have them transferred (once) and then compounds its sin by  
    doing the transfer in the way most painful for players by resulting in  
    long pauses rather than tiny unnoticeable delays during play.
    
But they are NOT unnoticable.
Personally, I do not intend playing on a "hacker" server much, and I suspect
neither will most other people. Too unstable, and you don't get to skip
loading in this fasion.
    
    Ah, but I thought that there was something of a consensus now that we  
    can not assume control over the clients and that telling something to  
    the client is morally equivalent to tell it to the user.  That was the  
    main argument for server-side LOS.
    
What's so bad about showing them pixmaps where's the cheat? It's not like
they even have names to them?!



BTW: about the MAp thing... you might want to incorprate a vertical mode,
for left-right scrolling.

eg:

MAP 0,-1 id id id id id id

Or, if we start the indexes at 1, it would be a little nicer to do
MAP 1,0 id id id id id ...