Torque Game Builder for RPGs?

#1 Check out the TGB Adventure Kit.
http://www.garagegames.com/products/90/

It has some nice scripts and artwork to get you going. So yes, TGB would be a suitable engine for an RPG. I believe you'll need to code your own stats system, inventory, etc.

Be sure to check out : www.garagegames.com/products/torque/powered#TGB
For a list of games that have been made with TGB. Quite a few of them are RPG's/adventure games.

I'm not familiar with TGB's networking, so I can't answer that question accurately. However, I believe it is a turn based system (not real time). So my inclination is to say TGB is not meant for the scale of an MMO, unless you design the game around a turn based system, which is not uncommon for RPG's.

#2 It's not really "turn-based", but event-based. You need to know what you are sending rather than a ghosted network system like in TGE. You update as soon as things need sending. The confusion comes from turn-based games like chess and checkers using event-based networking and so it gets muddled. If you decided to take the MMO track with TGB, you would definitely want to have the source and roll up your sleeves for some hardcore netcode hacking to tailor it to the system that you want. It especially depends on the type of game you're looking at making since some 2D MMO's are actually rather low on the network traffic because they do not have to do nearly as many updates (location, and any specific action, and message HUD). A fast-action RPG, however, would need a lot of data to track players swinging swords at hordes of networked enemies.

#3 M'kay. It would be turn based play, battle wise. I dunno if a consistent WORLD would be possible, though...

#4 A persistent world would possible. Whether or not the multitude of actions you put in that world that need to be synced up for accuracy could handle it. For example, a race to see who crosses the finish line first could be hard to validate in the event-based system since the server is not constantly ghosting the information.

You would definitely want the source code for TGB, though, if you are looking at database handling.

#5 Right. So basically...it's doable with some work and a bit of spare cash, then?

#6 As long as you know what you're doing, the work part might get done. But if you're not an experienced network and database programmer, you'll probably pull your hair out learning the basics enough to implement it in a meaningful manner. It's a certain shock of recognition if you've never really worked with networks or databases before and suddenly find yourself trying to make difficult code decisions.

Getting the pro version for the source code is a must if you are looking at core engine changes (changing the way the networking works or adding in database support for your backend).

#7 It's absolutely possible, but it's not an easy thing. Making an MMO isn't easy and you'll have to do a lot of work to make the server side work with a database (I'd recommend MySQL), then translate that information into usable game data for the players connecting with their clients. Also, you would probably want to make it zoned and it would be possible to have multiple TGB-driven servers talking to each other and hand a player or entity off from one to the next. Doing that in real-time is probably not going to happen without some extensive re-working of the code, but to have one server redirect a client to disconnect and reconnect to a new server that hosts the dungeon or whatever and then pass the server hosting the dungeon the relevant information wouldn't be impossible.

Do not interpret "wouldn't be impossible" as being anything remotely close to easy. This is still a lot of work and you'll need a couple of instances of your server running to validate anything.

#8

Quote:Right. So basically...it's doable with some work and a bit of spare cash, then?

It's doable if you have a whole lot of programming experience.

#9 Or enough spare cash to hire someone with a whole lot of programming experience. :)