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[The_Piper]

Hack 'n Slash Online is a multiplayer dungeon crawler in a semi dynamic world.

It is a browser game, so no need to download and install anything.

Your browser must support Java applets.

http://www.hackslashonline.com

The game is now open for a technical test, to see how it works, when more than 2-3 players are active at the same time.

The Game
========
Right now you can go exploring, kill creatures (and players on a PK map), get loot, make money and such.

The dynamic part of the world are the dungeons.
When a dungeon is cleared, all monsters inside are dead OR the boss monster of that dungeon is killed, all players inside the dungeon will be teleported out to the start map and the dungeon will be generated again with different levels, different monsters.

The static part of the world are some outside maps, where creatures respawn, when they get killed, so you can train there and collect keys, you will need them inside the dungeons to pass doors.

Testing
=======
If you find any bugs or want to post a comment or make a suggestion, post in the games forum, which is here: http://hackslashonline.forumer.com/index.php

[AlexRamallo]

pretty cool idea, just really need to work on the lag. it takes like 5 seconds for my player to move after I click on a spot. Seems like it would be really fun if it wasn't for that.

Also, the GUI was really cool. A little stiff but I liked the move able windows and the drag&drop

When i dragged stuff around it lagged as well. It seems like theres something thats always running even when your not doing anything. (like the network and gui stuff are all on one thread)

btw I disconnected like 3 times while playing. on the 3rd dc i had to go

[The_Piper]

Thanks, Alex, for posting.

You were 3 times eaten by the grue, the algorithm, which checks if players (their client) don't sent the heartbeat anymore.

So i have something to fix now, the heartbeat :D

About the lag, can you post which computer, operating system, you are using?

The Java applet does a lot of things, and calculating the fog of war costs some time, but i thought, i optimized that.

Obviously not good enough

Thanks for reporting and hope to see you in game from time to time again

Piper

[AlexRamallo]

I was using google chrome build 14.0.835.186 on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) with an intel dual core 2.6ghz processor, 5gb of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4870 gfx card(512mb DDR5).

The problem seemed to be that the network code had to wait for the fog calculations to finish before sending the data. If you had the network code on a separate thread then that would probably solve the problem since the two processes would be running parallel. The movement would probably still have to wait until the fog is calculated, but the network won't disconnect you

[The_Piper]

I was using google chrome build 14.0.835.186 on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) with an intel dual core 2.6ghz processor, 5gb of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4870 gfx card(512mb DDR5).

The problem seemed to be that the network code had to wait for the fog calculations to finish before sending the data. If you had the network code on a separate thread then that would probably solve the problem since the two processes would be running parallel. The movement would probably still have to wait until the fog is calculated, but the network won't disconnect you

Okay, i changed the server a little bit, the way when and how and how many creatures are moved and the input from the java applet is handled.

Now i usually get a #ping between 49-250 ms, moving works fine, drag&drop has a little delay, but at least not 5 seconds, more like 200 ms.

Going to look at the applet later, right now it doesnt use threads, maybe it would be a good idea if it would 

And the disconnects should be gone too. Since i changed that stuff, more than 20 ppl logged on and no one was eaten by the grue (disconnected).
(Of course, the server will still disconnect players, when there is no heartbeat for a given time, and thats 2 minutes right now.)

Thanks to all who tested the game (more than 50 people until now).

It would be nice, if you could create an account in the game's forums and post about problems, like a big lag or any other stuff, which happens.
http://hackslashonline.forumer.com/index.php

Thanks and cheers! 

[Muz]

I'm getting a "my actor is not here" error

[The_Piper]

I'm getting a "my actor is not here" error

Thats a debug message, which is gone now.

And hopefully too the black screen you've got.

Further i removed the very dangerous rat from the startmap and replaced it by some more peaceful ants and scarabs, so the game should be now more safe for newbies 

[AlexRamallo]

Going to look at the applet later, right now it doesnt use threads, maybe it would be a good idea if it would

That would eliminate pretty much all the lag on the clients side, and possibly speed up things significantly on the servers side(depending on the hardware)

[The_Piper]

Going to look at the applet later, right now it doesnt use threads, maybe it would be a good idea if it would

That would eliminate pretty much all the lag on the clients side, and possibly speed up things significantly on the servers side(depending on the hardware)

Fixing some server problems made the game faster, at least for me.

Would be nice to know, if that removed some of your lag too.

Changing the applet later, when i have some more spare time

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Looks nice, and I think multiplayer dungeon crawlers are a great idea, but I'm getting about the same amount of lag. I'm running the latest Chrome, Windows 7, and a pretty high-spec laptop. Tried it in Firefox and got the same result. It's not too much to play with, but I imagine it could be in battles where a mis-click could spell death.

[The_Piper]

Another one has problems with lag? o.O

I can't reproduce that, and yes, i am playing the game from my home PC via browser on my game server via the internet too.

Of course, if i am running stuff like downloads, youtube and such while trying to play the game, it becomes laggy.

Are you running stuff like downloads, watching youtube while trying the game?

[The_Piper]

Server update.

Fixed some stuff valgrind reported.

New feature:
You can use the right mouse button now to eat/drink/wear/unwear stuff.

NPC Schoppo sells a healing potion now.

Dunno if that fixes the problem with the lag, but hopefully the problem ppl have sometimes to log on.

[The_Piper]

Another update of the applet client and server.

Fixed a really nasty bug, which was causing performance issues, did some profiling on the server and modified the applet a little bit.

Even my host of the vServer, where the game server is running on, changed his network configuration, which increased the performance aswell, for me, it is nearly playable without a lag, but some other players with a slower internet connection reported lags (no surprise IMO, but i can't fix their connection to my server).

Any reports, suggestions, ideas are welcome

[The_Piper]

First release in 2012 with another performance optimization.

The lag should now be way better, but, of course, i can't remove the lag coming from the internet itself >.<

The "make" window is now working, you can now make a few items, like fire essences, leather strings, healing potions or fill water into an empty bottle.

More monsters implemented, you can see now all available monsters (in game and coming later) at the zoo. Where that is, is your job to find out

More harvestable stuff in game, like ores and gems, which will be used later to make stuff.

And if you're totally bored, you can visit the theatre and watch a group of actors performing Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Where that is? Go exploring, the hint is, on that entrance door is an image of an actor with a mask.

Plus some very nasty bugfixes..

Any comments are welcome!

http://the-green-leaf.de/progue_applet.html