Hello,

So far I am pretty impressed with Esenthel and am seriously considering buying a license to use it to make an MMO. I have already bought the Ineisis source code am in the process of going through that.

Well, just saying hi for now. I'll be lurking around this forum and any tutorials I find for a few days I'm sure then hopefully I find that it is what I'm looking for and buy a license.

Hello hightreason and welcome to the forums. Glad to hear you like the look of the engine and are reading through tutorials.

You have chosen a good time as our engine designer has just recently published some new video tutorials which serve as a good introduction. Nothing better than getting deep into the code examples though.

I wish you luck and hope you decide to join us.

Hi there!

Welcome to the forums. I hope you'll find it as enjoyable as we do.

May I ask if you're new to programming? If so, I would actually recommend not to buy a license to create an MMO.
I could write down a variety of reasons, but I'll just link to a guy that did so better than me: http://devmaster.net/posts/15565/a-guide...r-mmorpg-s

On top of that, Esenthel requires you to program a lot before you'll get to an MMO. There are a couple of users on these forums currently working on one; I hope they'll read this and step in with their opinions.

However, if you do know how to program, welcome to the forums, and go make something nice!

With regard to the linked article .. as amusing and informative as it is:

I personally don't think that the misconceptions and delusions of new would be 'game designers' matters that much so long as they have sufficient drive and ability to learn and don't expect others to hand it to them on a silver platter (which no one will do and it serves no useful purpose anyway).

Lets face it, most of us come into this arena pretty green and un-knowledgeable and very quickly acquire a massive 'wake up call' as we start to realise the sheer enormity of what we have taken on.

I started four years ago in my spare time and only now consider I have sufficient knowledge to put a basic game together let alone a MMO (not that an MMO holds any interest for me tbh). I am still learning every day! I seem to recollect I was pretty deluded about how easy the process was likely to be too; when I first started.

Either way, by far the majority of people coming into this arena will leave fairly quickly as they literally don't have what it takes to succeed. But every now and then one will drop their initial unrealistic goals and buckle down to learning the craft and the years it takes to perfect it ... and that's a good thing!

I'm guessing if hightreason has bought the Ineisis source code and is working his way through that then he probably is a programmer or he will die of boredom before he reaches the end

PIxel Perfect:
Of course, good points.

The best way to realize how hard it is to make an MMO is to try and make one. However, I want to make sure he doesn't learn that lesson after paying for the license.

(03-03-2014 07:09 PM)Tottel Wrote:  ...
The best way to realize how hard it is to make an MMO is to try and make one. However, I want to make sure he doesn't learn that lesson after paying for the license.

Well I admire you for that, unfortunately the reality is most Indie game engine API designers rely on the majority of people who will never complete a game buying a licence, otherwise they could not survive on the income from those who do (as the numbers are too low).

This is why my previous engine designer spent time re-inventing his engine to cater for the 'make it easy brigade' rather than fix the bugs in his existing engine that prevented those who could from completing their games.

It's a sad reality unfortunately.

Fortunately, Esenthel is a mature and practically bug free engine so that's not an issue here

Hi hightreason! welcome to the forums!

I agree with Pixel Perfect, please don't forget Tottel that thanks to the income, I'm able to survive, and keep working on the engine.
Getting a license is recommended no matter what, because by getting it, you can make use of the license, the software, -and- at the same time you're supporting the developers, thanks to which they can survive, and continue working on the software, adding new features, and making it easier to use.
Which means that by getting the license, you're helping yourself, because the engine gets more powerful and easier to use, thanks to which the process of making games is much faster and simpler

Thanks for the responses so far, folks.

Thanks for the honesty Tottel. As it so happens, programming is my day job. I will admit, however, that I have not used C++ in years and need to do some refreshing (been using mainly Java and C# for over ten years now).

I have completed 4 online games in the past: Two text MUDs (one in C++), one online poker site (onlinehomepoker.com) and one 2D MMO. The two text muds were all coded from scratch including network code. The poker site uses smartfox server, and the 2d mmo used the Arianne framework with all graphical elements written from scratch. I have a lot to learn about 3D.

I do realize, however, that developing an online game is tons and tons of work. One thing that I cannot do is art. I have no talent for it at all. Really. I am hopeless. This has always been a hindrance in my game-making endeavors. For now, I'll probably buy stock models and textures and whatnot and hope I can entice an artist when the game has something to it and I can demonstrate something interesting an artist might want to be involved in.

Thanks again for the responses. Besides saying hello, I have to admit this post was a sneaky attempt at seeing how active the community is by how many people respond. Three people including the developer of the engine in 12 hours. Not bad

(03-04-2014 03:35 AM)hightreason Wrote:  One thing that I cannot do is art. I have no talent for it at all. Really. I am hopeless. This has always been a hindrance in my game-making endeavors.

...brother? Is that you?

"Programmer Art". Just show it to a real artist and they will help out of pity.

(03-04-2014 03:35 AM)hightreason Wrote:  ... As it so happens, programming is my day job. ...

That's great to hear! Nevermind my caution then, give the engine a go

(03-04-2014 03:35 AM)hightreason Wrote:  ...
I do realize, however, that developing an online game is tons and tons of work. One thing that I cannot do is art. I have no talent for it at all. Really. I am hopeless. This has always been a hindrance in my game-making endeavors. For now, I'll probably buy stock models and textures and whatnot and hope I can entice an artist when the game has something to it and I can demonstrate something interesting an artist might want to be involved in.
...

I'd say that's a really good approach. Look forward to seeing you around and seeing your project develop should you chose to join us

Welcome to the community. I look forward to seeing what you work on. I love this engine and I am sure you will as well. The community is great as well.

If you are studying Ineisis then you should check out some tutorials I put together in the video tutorial section. They are a bit long but may be helpful.

Welcome again!

(03-04-2014 03:35 AM)hightreason Wrote:  Thanks again for the responses. Besides saying hello, I have to admit this post was a sneaky attempt at seeing how active the community is by how many people respond. Three people including the developer of the engine in 12 hours. Not bad

aceio76's right... we troll
A better gauge are the unanswered posts.
Welcome

I haven't has too much time the last couple days to work with the engine as much as I want to. I have watched two of your tutorials, Ozmodian. Good stuff.

At this point, I feel like I am certainly going to buy a license. I just want to work with it a bit more first just to make absolutely sure I don't hit a snag that makes the engine somehow unsuitable. I do really like the fact that it seems you can probably do anything with this engine because of the freedom to code in C++.

What I will probably do first is create a simple single player game to get used to how everything works and then move on from there.

My plan for an MMO is something like a cross between Wurm and The Sims but with theme park aspects like quests and such for people who like more directed play. Characters will have actual life spans and grow old and eventually die. Leaning toward it being set on another planet full of hostile alien life forms but not sure yet.

(03-06-2014 06:04 AM)hightreason Wrote:  ... My plan for an MMO is something like a cross between Wurm and [some obscure game] ..

Wurm is fantastic, I love you.