Hi Tom,

Hope you are well.

Basically, I've been speaking with Jeremy in regards to your future projects whether it be a Java based client of the standard First Star Online engine or a completely new engine altogether and I have a proposition for you that I would appreciate if you took the time to think about. From what I can tell, your aim is to offer both web-based and standalone clients for the game, which has been possible with Adobe Director since around 2002.

I've been working on my own engine over the past few months. I guess the main benefit of my engine is that it has all the fundamentals of the First Star Online engine without all the client-sided jibberish and unorganized source/server files. All actions are completed via the server, including movement, attacking, monster artificial intelligence, map loading. If you take a step, the server does all the hard work. The client is just a dummy that gets informed what to animate on a players screen. It's a server tell client scenario, not the opposite like First Star Online. Good news for you, no more annoying client backdoors or security holes which First Star Online game seem to be plagued with.

I have made the effort to keep everything organized and efficient. All handlers and functions are documented entirely with the correct parameter data types. Instead of delimiting strings, I use the inbuilt Director array functions to store all character data in an easy to modify property list. Basically, implementing a new skill or spell is a single line of code with my setup.

It has all the features of First Star Online plus more. Dynamic on-the-fly mapping is available however with much more possibilities. Blocked tiles can be toggled without having to specify in a field member which tiles are or are not blocked. Items, monsters, NPCs, quests, etc, are created from an in-built editor however standalone offline editors are easy to implement if that is something you are looking for. This means that the entire game world is completely dynamic and can be updated with new items and quest opportunities with minimal client updates, which is important when it comes to large MMORPGs.

I know you are most likely not approving of a Lingo based system because of the apparent limitations. Please be aware that I have taken some time to develop server based xtras for database access as well as posting data to another server, which means you can completely integrate the engine with your current website/forum database. Adobe Director 11.5 has brought some great features and although Java is what you know best, Lingo is not as limited as you think.

My plan was to have this engine completely finished and open my MMORPG, but now that I am working full-time, I honestly do not have much time for the community and support side of it. I had forums running and before the base engine was completed, I was having to spend hours dealing with bullshit from community members. Running a game is just not for me at all.

I however enjoy the development and am offering to work on this project with you if that is something you would like to undertake. I don't want to put a well created project to waste and from what I can see, both you and I have the development knowledge to create a successful game and dominate the 2D MMORPG market. This new engine is easily comparable to games like Tibia.

Please let me know your thoughts. I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards
Jordan Berlyn