good platform for ASCII game

[hallsofvallhalla]

Need some ideas on what to use for a multiplayer ASCII game. Would be a fast paced battle game. need something quick to load and quick to capture server to client requests or vice versa.

Javascript and Ajax or comet?
Unity?
Flash?
Java
VB.net and ASP?
C.net?

[Jackolantern]

Do you mean a rogue-like game? I would probably say our typical PBBG design patterns would be the fastest way to get something together, using PHP, and AJAX (and Comet if needed). Every other platform you mentioned has a fair amount of work overhead that will slow you down. While they do offer benefits, most of those benefits would be lost on a project that is solely based in text, such as a rogue-like game.

[hallsofvallhalla]

somewhat like that but much more fast paced and must be capable of 50 or more players on one map.

[Jackolantern]

I still think PHP/AJAX could handle it. We know that today's internet connections can send massive amounts of text with basically no downtime, and you can manipulate it in pretty much any way you want with Javascript. Trying to picture this in another technology just seems like overkill unless there is something more to the idea I am missing.

[hallsofvallhalla]

yeah I agree.

I have been dodging learning ASP.Net to the fullest for quite some time. My company keeps pressuring me that way and to get back to VB.net. So I was thinking what better way to get started than build a ASCII game using them.

Could build a server and client based system. Run the server on a home system, then use the browser to display the maps and talk to the server. Maybe overkill but its a learning experience.

[Jackolantern]

If you are going to learn ASP.NET, I would seriously learn C# while your at it. If you already know VB.NET, you can learn C# in just a couple of days since all it requires is flipping through a book to see the "C# way" of doing all the things you already know how to do. Not that C# has any advantages language vs. language, but there are just so many more resources for C#. Every new .NET technology gets a crapload of C# documentation first, there are more communities catering to C#, and there are even a few platform features not ported for VB.NET. Plus, as unfair as it is, C# developers get paid more than VB.NET developers on average because HR departments and management think VB.NET is "easier" (not realizing that the easy language was VB 1 - 6, not VB.NET).

EDIT: And as for building a server/client architecture, that would be cool, too. As you said, it is overkill for this project, but it could be very useful to build up a web server from scratch, or build Apache plugins. You could extend it to create your own server-side language, or do all kinds of neat browser game stuff. I have had interest in doing something like that for some time, but have just not had the patience for doing something as big as that in a while.

[hallsofvallhalla]

haha i may not have the patience either. Figure I better give it a shot, I am pretty good about sticking with it until I at least get to the point I know I can do it.

[hallsofvallhalla]

another option might be perl.

[Jackolantern]

Not sure what this project needs that Perl could provide and not PHP. I personally cannot stand Perl. I feel that its "there are a thousand ways to do the same task" ideology just doesn't jive with serious coding. Not to mention that CGI scripting is excruciatingly painful compared to modern web platforms.

[hallsofvallhalla]

eh i caught glance of a perl server that would help but after reading more about it I decided against it. Looks very painful.