Online HOMM3 style MMORPG design

[leonig01]

Hi guys.
First of all, I'd like to express my gratitude for what you're doing, been watching halls tutorials 'bout browser mmorpg - great job!

I've been thinking of creating a browser mmorpg, with a combat system of HOMM3 (Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - hex grid turn-based strategy). That's my global idea.
About myself - I'm a c/c++ programmer, with little knowledge in web. So I might ask "stupid" questions

1. What would be a more preferred way of creating animated graphics? From what I heard, and correct me if I'm wrong, prior to flash they used javascript to play a serie of sprites. Some claim it is still lighter than embedding flash .swf
What would be the pros and cons for each approach?

2. How would you design the battle engine for HOMM3 style?

Thanks in advance,
Leonid.

[Jackolantern]

I would definitely go HTML5 for any new development, as that is the future. HTML5 includes a new element, and perhaps the most substantive addition in HTML5, the Canvas tag, which allows you to use Javascript to script a 2D drawing context.

Javascript is a bit lower on the design totem poll than something like C++, but maybe perhaps comparable to C (there are no traditional classes, although there are objects, and ways to do things in an OO way).

I would suggest to read through that Canvas tutorial I linked above to get an idea of how to use it. You could also check out the commercial HTML5 game engine, ImpactJS. Halls is writing a good video tutorial series that uses ImpactJS, node.js, and Socket.io, although if you don't want your game to be online (I have never played HOMM3, so I don't know if you are aiming to be online), you can just focus on the ImpactJS parts. You can find that tutorial series in the YouTube Tutorials section of the forum

Beyond that, I am really not familiar enough with HOMM3 to give much game-related advice. However, Impact is far and away the best game engine in HTML5 now, capable of creating most any genre.

EDIT: Lol, I didn't see that you had "MMORPG" in the title of the thread, so I am assuming you want it online haha! That tutorial is probably an excellent place for you to start. Here is a link to it