Forseen problem with dynamic infestation...

Alcapwn

<div class="IPBDescription">...hopefully they have already thought about this...</div>So dynamic infestation is supposed to be randomly generated. Thats cool, and looked awesome in that video.

But is it server or client side?



If its client side, then you run the risk of the infestation looking different for everyone; which could lead to massive game play problems. A vent or skulk that might be hidden from view from player 1, might not be for player 2, as both the players see different shapes and heights from the infestation.

If its server side, then that could potentially put tremendous strain on the servers; and NS1 already wasnt very server friendly. (It used quite a bit more bandwidth and CPU then most HL1/source based games, correct?) the servers already regulate players, structures, etnies etc, and now dynamic infestation?


Head asplode!

Drfuzzy

I also see it having problems with transparent brushes, elevators, and doors....

the_x5

It would have to be client side but you could streamline the updates into data shards the same way Google handles search querries. Yay for RedHat customization!

c0ke

its enough when the server generates a random code, telling the infestation where to go and expand. this code(coordinates) is being broadcasted to all players. that wont take much cpu/bandwith. and the rest is handled clienside

dont think you should worry about this <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

edit:
to imagin better how this could work, a very simple example:
the server dices twice per second for each infestation thats growing (each hive gets one?).
so when theres 1 hive, 1 infestation thats growing, the server first dices which area is growing in the next second/step. if there are 20 possible areas that could grow, the server takes a 20sided dice, and depending on whats diced, the 2nd dice takes effect on this area. so when the first dice says 4 - area 4 will grow the next. now the second dice rolls. its, lets say, 6 sided. 1=wait, 2=grow north, 3=grow east, 4=grow south, 5=grow west, 6=grow bigger. so if the server now dices a 2, area 4 will expand to the north.
now the server sends this information to all clients to generate the infestation

Rokiyo

And let's not forget that servers have grown immensely more powerful over the last 4 or 5 years. There is more grunt to play around with these days. I'm not advocating being wasteful mind you!

toAzron

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Your still thinking about the NS load on a HL1 engine, it maybe be totally different on source when its released. Which is why I'm not learning anymore about sourcemod plugins (modnsforns2yay) until more information is available.

TychoCelchuuu

You're confusing random generation with dynamic generation. The infestation isn't random; they control where it goes via the code. It's like dynamic buildings or something, which even NS1 has, only instead of being shaped like offense chambers or turrets and being built on the ground, it's shaped like a blog and it's built everywhere. There's no more difficulty with infestation than there is with anything else.