Choosing the correct network protocol for my type of game (its Wc3 Warlock style)

Posted by Moritz on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Moritz
Published on 2012-10-05T17:13:34Z Indexed on 2012/10/05 21:55 UTC
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I need to code a little game for a school project.

The type of the game is like the Warcraft 3 map "Warlock", if anyone doesnt know it, here is a short description: up to ten players spawn into an arena filled with lava, the goal of each player is to push the other players into the lava with spells (basically variations of missiles, aoe nukes, moba spells etc)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3PoO-gcJik&feature=related

we need to provide multiplayer-support over the internet, for that reason I am looking for the best network protocol for this type of game (udp, tcp, lock step, client-server...)

what the requirements are:
- same/stable simulation on all clients
- up to ten players
- up to ~100 missiles on the field
- very low latency since its reaction based (i dont know the method wc3 used, but it was playable with the old servers)

what would be nice (if even possible, since the traffic might be too big):
- support for soft bodies over the network (with bullet physics), but this is no real requirement

I read several articles about the lock step method used for RTS games, this seems to be great, but does it fit for real-time action games too (ping-related)?

If anyone has run into the same problems/questions like me, I would be very happy about any help

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