Improving Player Communcations

Ideas on improving the communication between players.

Allow players on one server to chat with another server.

Servers connect to other servers directly, and exchange messages.

Possibly have a central blacklist of abusive servers (which one can choose not to use).

Options to connect to all compatable servers on the metaserver

With a List (like ban lists, etc) of connections to make with other servers

• Can have a split network
• No one single point of failure
• more difficult to deal with abusive servers than using the “central server” method

1. Player1 on Server1 types “tell Player2@Server2 SOMETEXT”
2. Server1 initiates connecton with Server2, if not already connected
   • cache the servers?
   • callback like done with xmpp to prevent spoofing?
3. Server1 sends Player1's message to Server2 with address to Player2
4. The message gets sent from Server2 to Player2's client

• No general chat, unless combined with “Server Lists”
• No single point of failure
• More diffucult to deal with abusive servers than using the “central server” method

Use a central server (possibly runing on, or intergrated with the metaserver).

Server1 —- Chat Server —- Server2

• Easier to impliment channels/general chat
• easier to blacklist abusive servers
• central point of failure
  • use fallback servers?
• If an abusive admin takes over the central server, bad stuff can happen

• would have to redo the protocol, and its related code
• added network overhead
• interesting built in features of the jabber/xmpp protocol which could yeild interesting game features
• code/standards for interconnecting servers are widely used.
• WEIRD, but would work

• exists, in some form
  • written by Rednaxela in perl based upon the code for the seer bot.
  • Rednaxela is planning on eventually rewriting as a supybot plugin, so it can be run on cfbot that is already running on IRC. Rednaxela is not currently active in doing that though.
  • not actively running (code hasn't been cleaned up, no host to run it on)
• A significant amount of players don't use irc, or don't know how to use it.
• Simple
• Appears hackish

Allowing connections to servers just for chating

• more load on servers
• doesn't appear to be as hackish
• would increase the amount of users of crossfire (if not necessarily players)
• crossfire could end up being more of a chat protocol than a game
• A gaim plugin, and/or jabber transport would draw attention to the game.