Great that you're working on multiplayer! And glad to hear you're going to put keyboard support [back] in.
I don't understand a lot of the terminology you're using to describe your problems with getting multiplayer running and I don't expect you to explain them to me. Server side extensions, room variables? But I do I do feel your pain. For my attempt at a multiplayer roguelike (written entirely in c/c++ using OpenGL) my brother suggested I tackle multiplayer first before adding any features. It took me a long time googling winsock tutorials, making 2-3 attempts at basic server-client programs, etc., before I was finally able to incorporate the code and get a server and client working. Even now I have to go back and rewrite my code because it's just a buggy hack in its present state. I start my server, players connect and can see each other on their screens and as they move around but there are some weird things going on and a lot of times players just lock up, unable to move. It's been fun though.
Speaking of server-clients, and to elaborate...I would have the server program create the Star System. How many planets, moons, distance from sun, etc. I imagine it takes up very little memory. Then when each player connects you send that info to the player and the client creates the Star System from it on their end. When each player connects you also need to send that player a list of all players currently connected, and you need to send every player already connected a message indicated there's a new player. Likewise when one player leaves/disconnects all remaining players need to be notified. I imagine you've already thought of these things but I just wanted to throw it out there just in case.
Good luck and I'm really looking forward to your next playable version!
Great that you're working on multiplayer! And glad to hear you're going to put keyboard support [back] in.
I don't understand a lot of the terminology you're using to describe your problems with getting multiplayer running and I don't expect you to explain them to me. Server side extensions, room variables? But I do I do feel your pain. For my attempt at a multiplayer roguelike (written entirely in c/c++ using OpenGL) my brother suggested I tackle multiplayer first before adding any features. It took me a long time googling winsock tutorials, making 2-3 attempts at basic server-client programs, etc., before I was finally able to incorporate the code and get a server and client working. Even now I have to go back and rewrite my code because it's just a buggy hack in its present state. I start my server, players connect and can see each other on their screens and as they move around but there are some weird things going on and a lot of times players just lock up, unable to move. It's been fun though.
Speaking of server-clients, and to elaborate...I would have the server program create the Star System. How many planets, moons, distance from sun, etc. I imagine it takes up very little memory. Then when each player connects you send that info to the player and the client creates the Star System from it on their end. When each player connects you also need to send that player a list of all players currently connected, and you need to send every player already connected a message indicated there's a new player. Likewise when one player leaves/disconnects all remaining players need to be notified. I imagine you've already thought of these things but I just wanted to throw it out there just in case.
Good luck and I'm really looking forward to your next playable version!
Take care.