Tinkeridoo

For a long time I have had the urge to take a closer look at the database systems developed to Neverwinter nights. I have had the impression that the build-in database system isn’t actually so good for permanent worlds, and that’s what were aiming at. I thought there would be some hack that would have somehow added ‘native’ support for most common database types, but I was wrong. Fortunately I found a solution from Nwn2x.

I have to say that I don’t like it. Meaning, that this is something that should have been added to nwn natively, and from the start. But it seems that the Nwn2x solution does the magic of adding database functionality as smoothly as it can be done: by adding an extra layer to the server process. This is something I don’t like, but the need for databases overcomes this uncomfortableness.

And this seems to work. I like the idea of having some kind of IPC between neverwinter nights and some other application. I can now use mysql-database for these needs. More common use would be saving of some permanent variables of course, which would allow better plot developement, but this IPC thing is so much stuck to my mind that I have to do some tinkering related to that. Besides that speaking signpost I made for demo purposes today, that’s not exactly sensible. But feeding the input for the sign post from WWW-form is cool :)

Anyway, need for database connectivity in Neverwinter nights? Check the NWN2X, the linux version works fine, even if it is a bit outdated.

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My NWN webgui didn’t actually pass with flying colours from the first test with several players. I noticed that more than one time the status query didn’t work, but fortunately I have a hunch why. I also fixed at least twice the saving routines, that handle the directory moving from one place to another when game is saved. It now pretty much depdends on five second delay, rather than checking when the actual saving has ended. But wwwwwwell… I can cope with that delay, though it has to be corrected. Whew.

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Again, some minor achievements on webgui tinkering-project. I decided to post some lousy pictures, I really am not good with these CSS thingies, or html-stuff at all. Found out that the subprocess-module in python is a given gift for IPC-thingies, even though I had to do some “not-so-fancy” stuff for non-blocking fifo:

infile = os.fdopen((os.open(settings.pipe_in,os.O_RDONLY | os.O_NONBLOCK)))

I guess there would be a nicer alternative, but that does it anyway. Cleaned up the scripts a bit, so the “new” version is a bit more better on the performance side (it used to do some stupid polling to the server itself, now it just checks that the process with the pid exists).

anyway, here’s a picture with the server running:

nwnguion1.JPG

And here’s a picture when the server is dead:

nwnguioff1.JPG

Try not to mind the debug stuff shown. This will probably never be so finished that I’d have the courage to publish this :)

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Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers

Indeed, I’m a bit of a fanboy what comes to Square Enix. I’ve played a few games of Final Fantasy series, that japanese styled RPG, and enjoyed. Even if the storyline doesn’t vary much, and doesn’t give many plot alternatives, the mood is downright correct all the time. They know how to do that, aye.

I bought Crystal Chronicles for Gamecube, and I liked the actionbased design. Again, the mood was right, though single player game started to get very boring. I never understood the need for integrating game boy to multiplayer mode, so I really don’t have any experience about that. Too bad, my guess is that it would be very much fun. At least a bit more much fun that Baldur’s Gate II on gamecube, which we have been played much with V. And that has been good fun.

Wikipedia article says that the Wii version will focus more on single player. I’m not sure what to think of that. Right now Wii suffers from lack of good network games, and this would have had good potential for being kind of an ice breaker in that matter. Hard to think much more fun, than gather a crystal caravan from your friends and go exploring a magical world that Square Enix has made. I just a bit afraid that they’ll screw that up, by making some kind of hack & slash vs. based network system.

I actually wonder why wii is suffering from lack of network games? Or good games at least. I should really take some time to study the network gaming framework for wii, if that would reveal some stupid things, which actually wouldn’t surprise me. All in all, I have the impression that 7th generation consoles could have really good network gaming possibilities. I’ve heard that Xbox live is good enough framework for good multiplayer fun. Why would Nintendo be any worse?

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Whew, a bit of cold sweat, but it seems that the basic idea behind the thing is okayish. Well, it’s being tested right now, as my firends are playing, and I’m heading for bed. Hopefully everything will go fine, though the current implementation is butt-ugly and hellishly slow.

Should ease up the server state questioning thing, because it’s currently checked constantly. Some pid-thing would suit better, indeed that doind status queries every now and then. But anyway, it works somehow now. Until it get’s broken, which it eventuyally will.

Still something to do, but knowing that it might be usable has dropped some weight from my chest.

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Pretty please, compile freeciv server with the auth flag. I’d like that soooooo much, because this seems to be only thing I now have to build from source, and I do need authentication. Okay, so compiling from source is not a biggie, but still it breaks the clean debian system :(

me not likey that, me not likey at all.

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But I don’t. Aye, a word about wii games. I mean, I do like to play ‘childish’ games, and I can be easily tempted by all sorts of cuddly things. Like cats for example. Usually games should be given at least two chances to prove their worth. And I usually try to get on decent playing mood, even if the first impression isn’t that good. As it really wasn’t with Catz. Nopey. In short, too little to do and too poor. Just too poor.

For instance, okay, there’s about 40 different cat breeds you can choose from, but you can’t customize your cat to be exactly like the one you own. We spent good time looking for the most close looking, and got a decent result but still. I want to play with my own cat, even on TV screen thank you very much. And when the game started, it took about 5 minutes (yes, the beginning animation), to realize that the game was just a freaking action based adventure game, where the point is to play minigames after another, after another. I wouldn’t be this pissed off, If it would be marketed to me as an ‘console’ adventure game. Which is really was not.

Poor. Very poor. This is all I have to say, from about 6 minutes of playing. Okay, maybe a bit more, to be honest, but all in all. Not very enjoyable minutes those. I don’t recommend. Don’t be fooled, if somebody calls this a cat simulator. He/she would be lying.

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Little by little, as all projects tend to do. Quickly wrote a module which handles the server starts and stops and restarts and what not. A bit spartan way of handling things, that piping thing, but well, I’m not looking for anything fancy here. It’s enough, if it works, and since I (at least yet) have some life to live besides these thingies, advancement will be slow. But it’s still there.

Anywayz, the GUI will probably ease up the administering thing whole lot.

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V. is using OpenRPG in his Star Trek RPG campaign, and as far as I know everything is going fine. Again, more that a year ago we made a Trek die-roller for openRPG engine, but that’s nowhere to be seen right now. So here’s a new one:

Trek dieroller for openRPG

There’s also instructions how to install that thingie and all. Pretty spartan solution, if you ask me, but I’m not a coding guru, and if you ask me, the openRPG codebase isn’t the most easy to cope with. Even if it is python. But anywa, there it is, if you have some use, please feel free to use it.

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