Technical Details

[chrisinajar]

There's been a lot of confusion as to the technical details, possibilities and limitations of this project, so I've decided to lay it out as best I can...

• The game will be 2D -- This does not mean it needs to look like shit. We can even have real 2d physics if we need to. We're not doing 2D because we're awful at programming and can't make 3D, but instead because really good 2D can top shitty 3D any day... Anything in the realm of 2d is possible, including isometric, side scrolling, top down, and -- although I'd like to avoid it unless there is a damn good reason to use it -- doom style 3d (it's just fancy looking 2d, doom is not a 3d game at all.)
• The netcode cannot be intelligent -- But it will be good. Netcode in online games like TF2 use techniques called "interpolation" and "extrapolation", this, basically, means it smooths the jerky movement caused by lag and then predicts what will happen next to catch up with the smoothing. This is referred to as "lag compensation" in gaming terms. We will have very good very fast netcode, but it will not have lag comp.
• The game can have a lot of content -- We just need to write it. The more content, the longer it'll take to make. We don't have the time to make the most expansive RPG ever made, but we can definitely have a lot of content. We can write systems for easily adding content, to make development smoother.
• The game logic will be written in Javascript -- Not PHP, not HTML, not Java, not C++. "Game logic" refers to everything that is actually in the game. The entire compat system, movement, items, skills, story... All that shit... Javascript is stupidly easy to write in, and we will supply you with help once we have a Javascript API to work with. Yes, Javascript is the scripting language used by browsers, no our game will not be browser based, and no javascript is in no way related to java -- Confusing those two will result in me going on a rant about how Java sucks. Just don't. Since Javascript is a browser scripting language, every tutorial out there will be showing you how to make the browser do things. Don't bother learning Javascript, as everything you'll learn wont be used in the game, because the game is not a web browser.
• Javascript is really easy -- Seriously, shut up about Javascript
• Don't learn C++ for this project -- There is a 100% chance that all of the C++ work will be done before you're good enough to even begin to understand how the engine works. If you want to learn C++ because it's awesome then do it, it is awesome.
• Read what I'm typing -- The tl;dr version of everything I'm saying is "Don't respond because you didn't read it"...
• Seriously though -- Shut the fuck up ExShinobi.

I think that gets everything that I was going for...


tl;dr -- Don't respond because you didn't read it, that means you.

[Trazgo]

Sounds good.  I've always found that a good foundation for a program makes adding content infinitely easier like you said. (In our case, once we have one place/character/spell/whatever it will pretty much be copy, paste, tweak, and harass the art team for new graphics.)

[chrisinajar]

That will be exactly the development flow for that part of the game logic... The art team will be getting lots and lots of "requests" from the other teams to fill in all the gaps... The art team will be very todo list oriented.

[Tetrodotoxin]

Meep.
Since Javascript is a browser scripting language, every tutorial out there will be showing you how to make the browser do things
That's what I was Confused about.