[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Peer to peer Freeciv

[Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Ian McKenna wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Im a computing student at trinity college in dublin and as my final year
> project im thinking of modifying an open source multiplayer game to work
> in a peer to peer environment. I have been looking at a number of games
> and taking on a peer to peer freeciv seems like a good idea. At the moment
> though, nothing is set in stone, i was just wondering if you had any
> thoughts on the idea? Thanks for your time and congratulations on an
> excelent project,

Hello,

Freeciv relies on mostly a thick server - thin client solution. Nearly
invariably this has proven superior because it moves complexity away from
the client, while also making it harder to cheat, which will happen on a
shared main state open source game.

This does not mean such an idea as turning it into peer to peer is
impossible, just that you need to think this carefully before starting.
IMHO you will still need a trusted server somewhere which contains a
coherent game model to ensure there isn't any cheating involved.

Most peer to peer software bypasses this problem by assuming the peer
nodes can be trusted, but this does not apply to open source software.

---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa