Different forms of MMO programming

Hello, I'm new to 3D GameStudio, though a reasonably experienced programmer overall. I've been studying different forms of MMO programming the past year and I'm curious to know what 3dGS if capable of.

A recent idea for an MMO system I've come up with is to divide the world into many seperate "zones" and have each one hosted by a seperate server. The twist here would be that these servers are not dedicated machines paid for by the company. Rather, the servers would actually be the players themselves. The first client to enter a zone would become the host of that zone and all others to enter would simply stay as clients. Should a more capable client enter the zone they could take over as host, so as to make that the most efficient machine is always hosting. I'm working on a tight budget and am unable to readily afford expensive machines and a high-end connection, so this theory of programming would serve my purposes very nicely.

However, everything I've come across so far involving 3dGS and multiplayer makes the server seem to be a permanent installment. This is not to say that a player can't be a server as well as a client, I know this is quite feasible. What I mean to say is that when a server closes so does its hosted session, meaning that its particular zone or part of the game world would vanish with it, which creates potential problems for an MMO. My theory requires a very fluid system in which not only does a client switch from server to server, but the servers themselves switch from machine to machine as players join, leave, and move about the different world zones.

Can 3dGS accomplish this? When a host player enters a new zone and becomes just a client, can a former client become a new host? If a current host drops out unexpectedly, due to connection failure, can a client take over the hosting responsibility and the session continue without the game crashing?

I know this is a mouthful. I'm not looking for someone to program it for me or anything like that. I'd just like to know if it's possible. Thank you.

Well, yes. But you need pro, half of your live and would have just a hand full tutorials... A6 Mp sucks

Thanks you for the reply, but now I'm concerned.

Is 3dGS not very capable when it comes to multiplayer? What are some of its advantages and disadvantages?

as far as multiplayer shooters... capable afaik, but as far as mmo, well lets just say we havent seen many results yet

If you would know c-script and 3dgs basicly, I could send you a plugin which implements raknet into a6, but it´s not much testet yet

When you think about a real and flexible multiplayer system for 3dgs,
you should really look into external programms / dll programming.

3dgs is not mainly developed towards a multiplayer part,
the multiplayer part is more of an addon to complete the features list.

I do some tests with java, to handle the multiplayer part, and link 3dgs to the java-client.

Others made some dlls to support multiplayer.

Damocles, you you want to test my damm Dll? I don´t find any testers, without making to much noise...

It is as good as finished (in my point of view).
A basic manual is written, explaning all stuff. But the Dll itself is totaly untestet and I don´t have time and motivation to test it -.-

From your methods-description it is a very nice dll.
I will have some test if these functions work properly...

I just made the wrapper for the a6, thank Kevin Jenkins for his perfect RakNet

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A6 Mp sucks

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It actually does not, you just have to know how to handle it right.
Requires quite some patience in the beginning, but then its as easy as making a rotation script.