a_bertrand

I would simply add something to Zeggy post. Depending on your application, different functions could run on different servers of the cloud and therefore work in a more load balanced way. A cloud VPS the whole system could be migrated but cannot be easily split, where an appropriate application (read developed with the right API) could run as "pieces" over the cloud. For example if you have a "report" function running it could use the physical host A and in parallel a "order" function on a host B. That could vary over the time with the load of the different nodes of the cloud and the requirements of the application(s).

There is luckily a lot more quest types, some of which are a mix of different base quest types some are simply much more complex. Making a full list of quest types is nearly impossible ;) Same for skills and stats. It all ends up about your game and this is the base of the content writing / rules writing job. What you could try to do is pick up some pen and paper RPG (better being open content) rules and check what's inside.

No as I doubt there is really some flash developers on this forum. If there is a need for it then sure but unless we have at least a couple of developers or somebody highly skilled I would say it is a non sense.

well then... stick with what works :P

You could use CSS to make all the DIV of class XYZ with text color blue and bold and / or you can then query all the tags in JS which do have a certain class...

Then if this is your goal you should instead use CSS and not JS and custom tags ;) Anyhow I remain with my idea that custom tags are not the way to go.

Sorry but JS have all the tools to navigate through your document, via ID, tags or the hierarchy. For that you don't need at all to define a custom tag...

Well I started myself with Truespace (quiet some time ago) and won even a caligari (past owners of Truespace) contest in Jan 2000 (http://www.caligari.com/gallery/imagesgallery/2000/Jan00/index.html) and some mentions (http://www.caligari.com/gallery/imagesgallery/2000/Jul00/image09.html, http://www.caligari.com/gallery/imagesgallery/2000/Sep00/image01.html). After a while, Truespace simply wasn't enough for me as I was trying to work more with Subdivision Surfaces and Truespace was quiet lacking in this department, I switched then Lightwave which honestly is a complete different world. And now, after long years of fidelity to Lightwave, I decided to purchase Modo 501 as it offers me a few features which simply are not there in Lightwave and I'm waiting since too long, also Lightwave do currently have a split between the modeler (create 3D models) and the Layout software (where you setup your models, create the anims, lighting, and render). For me I find it annoying and prefer a single application. Modo seems to be a good choice but yet I don't own it since long enough to tell beside the renders are incredible and the speed is amazing.

I don't really see the goal of creating your own custom HTML tag...

Yes? Which is?

As all, 3D softwares are not all equals, some offers more features than others, some are free some are extremely expensive, and yet some are specialized in some domains where others are more all rounded. So how can you pick one? What should you learn? How much you should expect to pay? Requirements: Well, as always you must first think what are your goals: - Use pre-made objects? - Use pre-made human models and just setup the poses? - Create CAD designs? - Create relatively simple 3D models? - Create models with displacement maps, complex textures or more? - Paint on 3D models? - Sculpt 3D models? - Render static images? - Render animated movies without bones deformations? - Render animated movies with bones deformation? - Render as quickly as possible? - Render with all the possible features (Global illumination, Sub surface scattering, ray tracing, refractions, micro displacement, fur and more)? Of course the more features, the more likely you will not find them in a free or cheap package. The packages: You may start with THE open source 3D package: http://www.blender.org but you may get annoyed by its interface and the lack of features of the renderer. On the other side you can fully develop for it in Python. On the free packages: - http://www.daz3d.com/ (just to setup & render, no modeling tools) - http://www.caligari.com/downloads.html - Udini apprentice http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=589&Itemid=221 - 3DCrafter http://www.amabilis.com/products.htm Then if you have a little budget (count about 1000$) you could pick one of those: Lightwave http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/ Modo http://www.luxology.com/ Cinema 4D http://www.maxon.net/ (for the minimal version) Project Messiah (excellent for animations / soft bodies) http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/index.html Electric Image (render & animation) http://www.eias3d.com/ On the higher level you will find between 3-10K: 3D Max http://www.autodesk.com on the same site you will find maya and softimage (yes they bought their concurrents) Cinema 4D http://www.maxon.net/ (for the complete version) Houdini http://www.sidefx.com/index.php I will stop here the list as it is nearly without limit. Most softwares runs on Windows and Mac OSX... Some on Linux too. What could you expect of softwares like Modo ? BTW this image as been rendered by me and took 2 min and 30 sec to render. That's also what offers a good software: very quick render times. (Goal was to test furs, global illumination and micro displacement not to create a great image ;) ) Remember: Most if not all softs offer a demo / trial version. So try them, check the features, check the work-flow (as this changes A LOT from one soft to the other) and then only then decide which one suit you better.

It is much safer and smarter to encrypt the data on the hard drive with some good encryption tools like http://www.truecrypt.org/. So I hardly see why somebody would send you any sensitive material. Also safety is not only against people which want to steal it but as well against elemental issues like fire, water flood etc... so if you want to offer true safe backup services you must massively invest into infrastructures and get some trust (like certifications) such that potential customer could get some ideas about how trusty you can be. Honestly I doubt you can do that without massive investment and loads of contacts.

Well call it like you want but taking more than 20 sec for a page load is for me slow... Specially with my connections

It is indeed not much better...

Well doesn't seems to work so well, first thing I try: send message => doesn't work well. For example all the smilies are missing. Also what do you offer to the developer?

Beside if you have a huge network like gamepoint.de I see no reason why I would share my donations with somebody else. Even if I would get 100% of the payment the middleman would know how much I gain which is already quiet some sensitive information. Yet if you can handle micro payment via payment cards or other stuff then maybe it could start to make sense, but just handling phone, credit card, paypal make no sense.

I personally know none for those... I fear you must code it yourself which have the advantage that you will do exactly what you want.

Well instead of asking generically for a full code, tell us what kind of game you want to do. A text based mafia / clan war game? A 2D mmorpg? A strategic game? Or what?

Actually any game developer / owner should think about the game he / she want instead of picking up simply the first engine he / she find. But thinking is something which requires too much effort those days it seems... Due to that people are then glued to what the engine offer and do not think out of it.

True ruler, but sadly neither zap not ezrpg are full ready to play games, and for those new players in the field this is what they are pointing at.

Hi, I'm working on a set of tools one of which is a RegExp tool which allows to try your regular expressions live and see how it works out. The tool will be improved over time and I quiet certainly will move it to some domain later on: http://tools.nowhere-else.org/regexpTools.aspx Feedback wishes, comments, congratz are all wished ;)

Here you are, should work as reader. With this you can certainly port the writer as well, isn't it?   function readInt($file) { $val=0; for($i=0;$i < 4;$i++) $val=($val<<8)|ord(fgetc($file)); return $val; } function GetData($key) { $crc = 0; for ($i = 0; i < strlen($key); $i++) $crc = $crc ^ ord($key[i]); $file=fopen("data.db","rb"); $nodePos = 0; while (true) { fseek($file,$nodePos,SEEK_SET); $ns=fgets($file); $cs=ord(fgetc($file)); $a=readInt($file); $b=readInt($file); $c=readInt($file); $d=readInt($file); if($ns == $key) return fgets($file); // return the line of data if ($key > $ns && $crc >= $cs) // Go to A $nodePos = $a; else if($key > $ns && $crc < $cs) // Go to B $nodePos = $b; else if($key < $ns && $crc >= $cs) // Go to C $nodePos = $c; else // Go to D $nodePos = $d; if($nodePos == 0) // Found nothing... quit... return ""; } }   btw you could use the pack / unpack functions to store / retreive binary numbers (http://ch2.php.net/pack)

Well the same thing could be without any troubles ported on PHP. If you want I can make the reader in PHP just to show how to do it.

doesn't surprise me much :D

I do have a wiki for my own game since quiet some time and the wiki is on a shared hosting. The wiki uses mediawiki. I never had any issues with it, so wonder what you did to get such situation. Also what kind of bots do you want to prevent? Google to crawl your pages or bots which spam your wiki?