Online content idea's and motivations

[Xyno]

I was not sure where to post this, however since it has directly for me in common to ' development ', this should be the right forum.

To begin with, some of the past:

about 5 years ago i started the project HoTM (Hanno's OpenTTD modifications) basically running a customized server compiled from the openttd source to add more content into the game, like top lists, challenges, goals, city razer, etc etc.
During this process i moved to another house and had some hardware failures after that, causing me to lose the source of the modifications, to do lists and, yeah we can go on like that.
At those times i had to much pressure of my daily job to be able to start over again from the few hours of free-time to rewrite everything, so i was forced to let the hotm community slowly die as the new openttd versions were released, leaving behind a good number of active players.

Couple of weeks ago i got back into openttd again, and as most of you might already be, I've gotten totally in love with the game once again.
So this gave me the idea to restart the project again.

now my question to you is, what would be a valuable addition to the game as in multi-player (unique) content ?

so far, the top lists is a beginning.

if your interested or curious about the current state, our servers can be found in the openttd server list beginning with the name XoTM.tk *

2 live servers
1 test server (only online after a new compiled build)

also an (outdated) roadmap @ http://www.xotm.tk/roadmap.html also some of the idea's are at the news @ http://www.xotm.tk.

Best regards,
Xyno

[Eddi]

if your aim is "top lists, challenges, goals etc." then you should look at the script API and the admin port, instead of modifying the source code.

[Xyno]

Much much deeper, allready modified internals for stat tracking.
Simple scripting wont cut it.

also, prefer compiling everything on the spot.

[planetmaker]

If something's missing on the admin port it would be much more sensible to extend that for the missing info than some half-baked hacks. If your experience is from a few years back, you probably don't even have the slightest idea of the admin ports and game script capabilities.

[Xyno]

If something's missing on the admin port it would be much more sensible to extend that for the missing info than some half-baked hacks. If your experience is from a few years back, you probably don't even have the slightest idea of the admin ports and game script capabilities.

That might be indeed, well does it has the ability to directly connect to mssql / mysql db's, generate sha-256 hashes and communicate to other servers for sharing data ?

if it does, then i can use it, otherwise i still got to use my own classes / libraries to accomplish these goals.

[Eddi]

well, you still need your own classes/libraries to achieve those goals, but you can run those separate from the openttd binary

[Xyno]

Sounds like a timesaver, ill look into it.
thanks

[Zuu]

I suggest exploring what the admin port API can do directly. But beyond that, you can also access the whole GameScript API (aka NoGo API) by using the ServerGS Game Script as a proxy. You will then send commands to ServerGS via admin port and it in turn will call the GS API and then pass back return values to you.

If you want to put more logic into the GS without having to send all commands via admin port, make a custom GS which accepts only those signals/triggers that you need. This also has the benefit that you can display texts to the user with translation support.

[adf88]

...directly connect to mssql / mysql db's, generate sha-256 hashes and communicate to other servers for sharing data...

Natural way would be to implement this inside some external script. Python seems perfect for the task...

Basically you should avoid altering the source code. Admin port and GS API will remain backward-compatible. Once written script that communicates with OpenTTD via port/API will work with any superior version of the OpenTTD. Source code patches require continues attention and maintenance.