...has decent built-in networking for up to 8 players, and allows a sort of "server chat-forum" start up where players can gather to join up with each other and then, when they are ready, the leader hits the "start game" button and everyone starts.

Basically, I'm looking for something almost exactly like how it is set up for multiplayer in ye olde game "Dungeonsiege".

Of course, cheaper is better, but I'm not adverse to spending $$$$. Graphics, sound, etc. should be at least "average" for nowadays (shaders, normal maps, etc.).

Anyone?

Or, doe anyone have a third-party tool for A7 (or other game engine) that would allow this?

PS: I'm not a programmer; I know just enough to get myself into serious trouble, but not enough to get myself out.

well anet accomplishes that pretty well. It's pretty user friendly, although i wouldnt really take on the task of multiplayer by yourself regardless of what engine unless you have an experienced programmer working with you.

You can achieve that with 3DGS without any problem (network-technical wise). Especially when it doesn't have to be as accurate as for a shooter game, you can handle way more users.

You could also use Torque, which is actually build on a FPS Multiplayer engine. But it is kinda tricky to build in new content (programming wise) if you have no experience with Torque. Dunno the current price though but i bet it will handle the multiplayer part the best.

Unity is free and you can use the multiplayer functions too but i never used them before so i actually have no idea what their limitations are, but probably easy to use too.

So maybe stick with your A7 com if you only need 8 players.
But as lostclimate said, you won't come far without an experienced programmer as multiplayer is always a bit tricky.

A7 can do everything you need it to do (8 players, lobby/chat system), so you really don't have any reason to switch to another engine. They won't be any easier. And you really don't want to go with the WYSIWYG editors, like FPS Creator. Every game you make turns out the same and the engine itself is lame, to say the least.

In otherwords, if you don't know how to program, you have two options:

*Learn how to program yourself
*Find someone who will program for you. 90% of the time you'll have to be ready to pay.

Like the others have said, multiplayer is a tricky thing to work with. If I were you, I wouldn't start learning to make multiplayer games until I knew the rest of the engine very well.

Don't know whether you already saw Schokokeks' project and free source code:

http://www.opserver.de/ubb7/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=283739#Post283739

Workshop 25 in the online tutorials gives a great intro to multi-player programming with A7.

Jibb

Hiya.

Thanks for the info. I knew that A7 could do it with some programming. I guess I was/am just curious if there is a engine out there that has a sort of "client / server" set up out of the box with minimal fuss.

Oh, and yes, I do own Torque ('regular', 'Advanced' and '3D'), as well as Realmcrafter (Standard and the Pro...which is, IMHO, in perpetual beta-hell and has been for YEARS; but that's another thread).

I guess I'll look more into A7's tutorials for multiplayer to see how it grocks with what I have envisioned.

Unity's a good way to go. You can either use the in-built Raknet-based support or just use Unity's c# sockets to access any back-end you create. Furthermore there exists API bindings for great server tech like smartfox server and exitgames' neutron. Also it's free.

3dgs is a software u can use to do that. have you ever heard of it?

Mikaldinho, now you'll be warned, stop creating senseless Replies or you'll get banned.

cYa Sebastian