TheFury

You do not stay on top without investing back into your product and to have greater earnings you need growth. One method of gaining new customers is through advertising. While google might be on top of the pile, they like any other business knows that to maintain that and to grow further they need to advertise. Business only cares about growth and google is not different, they may be philanthropic in some of their actions, and they might have the motto "Don't do evil" but they still care about shareholder returns and profits. Shareholders will dump the stock if they do not grow or make a proffit, which leads to the stock price falling which in turns means that the founders with their huge stock options are not as rich as they once were. $$$ might is right as they say.

Yeah if you find the font i can change the text in 2 seconds. I do not have a lot of fonts on this machine, as the only one i use is a fixed width one to program with.

Ok, i have no skills with photoshop, but here is my attempt. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I know your not going to like my response, but honestly forget it if your thinking of making a 3d online game. It takes teams of highly skilled people in fields such as programming, modeling, sound production and story writing a couple of YEARS to create even a basic game, let alone something as polished as WOW or Guild Wars. At a guess it takes a team of 60, 3 to 4 years to put together a top quality offering. That said, if you still think that you have a great idea, then the first step is to spend a few months in a word processor and write yourself a design document. A design document is the all important thing. Even if you never cut 1 line of code, you can submit it to all the big production houses for review and if they think that it is something great they might even buy it from you. However, every man and his dog has a great idea for a game, probably 5 or 10 and all of them are nothing special at all. Mostly they are the rehashing of the same ideas and plot with goblins instead of dwarfs or light sabers instead of broad swords. To be successful you have to have something that has not been done, that is not a twist on an existing game, that is well... original and if it is truly original or ground breaking then one of the big production houses will pick up on it eventually. So what goes into a design document. Well everything, a full outline of the plot, the characters and the games background story, creatures that might be encountered, the type of skill system, advancement system, quest plots, concept art that shows off characters and monsters and game scenes, a map of the game world and well the list goes on and on. So, what options are there for you, at this point you have no skills, if design is what your interested in, then a word processor is all you will ever need as well as a over active imagination, some photoshop and 3d design apps skills will come in handy as well. If your really serious about making a game, and i can tell you from experience that it is not easy, my first game was in construction for 18 moths and was live online for 5 years before i closed it down, my current project has been in construction for a little over 6 months and will not be realy to play for another 2 years at least, what i would recommend is to start with creating a design document and also look for another project to contribute to, there are a lot of open source and indie games out there in production that could use an extra pair of hands to bring to completion certain tasks. The game i develop The Oriental Dojo is such a game, i could list 30 or 40 others in short succession that could use some help in bringing along their games. There is a lot to be said about contributing to an existing project, you will make friends, make connections with people who can teach you skills that you might need or are interested in, and learn about the software development process. Ultimately if your really serious then this is the rout you should take, find a project that interests you and find out about what you need to do to be able to help out. Also get a spell checker, as most games developers even us indie ones like to see people use correct spelling, there is nothing more unprofessional then seeing a typo in a dialog in a game. If your not really serious and just want to tinker, then there are a number of existing game engines that cater for the novice that require little or no skills at all to make a functional if not cookie cutter type of game. Eclipse Engine, Ogre, Realm Crafter, Multiverse, Smaug and Circle Mud are some examples of such engines, in side scroller, 3d and text types of games. I hope that this has been helpful, if you would like to know more or have any questions then by all means ask them, i will see what i can do to help.

What are the Conodonts, an overview of Class Conodonta. The Conondonta are an extinct class of worm like Chordates that exhibit bilateral symmetry. First described in 1856 by Christian Heinrich Pander, the conodonts were thought to have been the fossilized teeth and jaws of an extinct group of fishes. Pander used the term Conodonten to refer to both the animal and the fossilized jaw parts. Today, we use the term conodont to refer to the whole animal and conodont element to refer to the mineralized skeletal structures. In 1934 Hermann Schmitt and Harold Scott discovered groups of conodont elements preserved in the same bedding plane of black shale. This led to the theory that the individual elements in life, were in pairs. They were termed an apparatus, similar to mouth parts. (Donahue 1998, Sweet et al, 2001, Prothero 2004) The fossilized conodont elements are constructed of calcium fluroapartite and represent the teeth and jaw like structures found in the head of the conodont animal. In the fossil record the conodonts appear in rocks from the Precambrian. However they are more abundant in rock from the Cambrian onwards. Conodonts like many other creatures of the Paleozoic and mesozoic eras went through a number of radiation and extinction events. During the Ordovician, Devonian conodonts diversified and remained widespread throughout the Carboniferous. During the Permian they suffered a major extinction and finally disappeared from the fossil record during the late Triassic. (Bergstrom 1977, Orchard 2007, Habibi et al, 2008) The conodont elements range in size from 200 microns to 6mm. Found in marine rocks, they can be easily extracted using a simple three steep process. Firstly the entombing rock is disaggregated into smaller pieces 1 to 2 cm, then the carbonate matrix is decomposed with a week acidic solution like acetic acid. Next the wet residue is sieved through a 100 to 140 mesh screen using a gentle stream of water. Finally the conodonts can be concentrated by differential density using heavy liquids and magnetic separation from the insoluble rock residues. (Austin et al, 1987, Sweet et al, 2001) Conodonts have a high significance in paleobiology. Generally recognized and vertebrates. Conodonts form one of the earlies and longest lived clades of jawless fish. They show the first direct evidence of macrophagey in vertebrates and their feeding mechanism hold a significant importance in understanding the evolution and diversification of aquatic vertebrates. (Donahue et al, 1999) Within the field of biostratigraphy, conodonts play an important roll as paleothermomitors, a proxy method to show that rocks have been altered by heat. Conodont elements contain traces of organic compounds with their apatitic structure and when subject to heat undergo a chemical transformation. Elements unaltered by heat present a pale yellow with a smooth surface. Gradual increases in temperature change the colour from light to dark brown, to black then grey, white and finally translucent. The Conodont Alteration Index (CAI) is a scale of 1-8 where each colour change is represents a specific temperature band. This makes conodonts useful in petroleum exploration, for dating source rocks and the temperature and pressures that these rocks have been exposed to. (Rasmussen, 2001, Voldman et al, 2008) The morphology of the conodont elements can be broken into 3 main types, Coniform, Ramiform, Pentiform. Each type can perform a number of basic functions, grasping, filtering, cutting, crushing and grinding. The coniform element is the most simple in structure, consisting of a single curved denticle with a sharp pointed cusp on a rounded basal structure. The convex edge was on the anterior side and the concave edge was to the posterior side. The primary functions of the coniform element were grasping and filtering. (Black 1988, Zhuravlev 2007) The ramiform elements consists of elongate base with to form a bar like structure with smaller conical denticles in front of and behind the main cusp. The basal cavity is deepest under the main cusp. The first order denticles are stout and stand above the more numerous second order denticles. The primary function of the ramiform element was filtering, grasping and cutting. The roll of cutting has been evidenced by wear marks along the flattened lateral surfaces of the denticles and scissor like arrangement of the elements.(Black 1988, Zhuravlev 2007) It is believed that the pectiniform elements evolved from the ramiform elements with the development of broad flanges into plates. Pectiniform elements probably performed the widest range of functions. The free blade could have been used for cutting while the platform was used for grinding and crushing. Pectiniform elements without a pronounced blade would have primarily functioned as grinding and crushing apparatus. (Black 1988, Zhuravlev 2007) Consisting mostly of soft body tissues, the conodont animal does not preserve well as a fossil. There have been very few full bodied conodont fossils. The best examples come from the Granston Shrimp Bed, lower carboniferous period rocks in Scotland. (Sweet 1985, Aldridge et al, 1993) The Granston specimen appears to have an eel like body, with a complete conodont apparatus in its mouth and throat region. The anterior end features large sclerotic ring (Prothero 2004) that some describe as functional eyes. (Bergström 1998) Also present are ears and a pharynx, mouth and apparatus. The conodont also have fins supported by rays and segmented mussels that run the length of the body with a dorsal fin completing the posterior end. The conodont once reconstructed is much like a modern day Hagfish or Lampray, with an array of conodont elements in its pharyngeal region. (Aldridge et al, 1993 Prothero 2004, Donahue et al, 1998) References Aldridge, R.J., Briggs, D.E.G., Smith, M.P., Clarkson, E.N.K., Clark, N.D.K., (1993), The anatomy of conodonts. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser B 340. p. 405–421 Austin, R.L. (editor). (1987). Conodonts: investigative techniques and applications. Chichester, England: Ellis Horwood, 422 pp. Bergstrom, S.M., (1977). Early Paleozoic Conodont Biostratigraphy in the Atlantic Borderlands. Developments in Palaeontology and StratigraphyElsevier. Stratigraphic Micropaleontology of Atlantic Basin and Borderlands, p.85-110. Bergström. J., Naumann. W.W., Viehweg. J., Martí-Mus. M., (1998), Conodonts, Calcichordates and the Origin of Vertebrates. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Geowissenschaftliche Reihe 1 (1) p. 81-91. Black, R.M., (1988), The Elements of Palaeontology, Cambridge University Press. p. 271-274. Donoghue, P.C.J., (1998), Growth and patterning in the conodont skeleton. Philosophical transactions-Royal Society of London. Biological sciences. 353, P.633-666. Donoghue, P.C.J., Purnell, M.A., (1999), Mammal-like occlusion in conodonts. Paleobiology, 25(1), p. 58–74 Donoghue, P.C.J., Purnell, M.A., Aldridge, R. J., (1998), Conodont anatomy, chordate phylogeny and vertebrate classifcation. Lethaia 31, p.211-219. Habibi, T., Corradini, C.,Yazdi, M.., (2008). Conodont biostratigraphy of the Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous Shahmirzad section, central Alborz, Iran, Geobios, doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2008.04.002 Orchard, M.J., ( 2007). Conodont diversity and evolution through the latest Permian and Early Triassic upheavals, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, PalaeoecologyVolume 252, Issues 1-2, , The Permian-Triassic Boundary Crisis and Early Triassic Biotic Recovery, p.93-117. Prothero, D.R., (2004). Bringing fossils to life: an introduction to paleobiology. McGraw-Hill 2nd ed, p.353-356. Rasmussen, J.A., Paul Smith. M., (2001), Conodont geothermometry and tectonic overburden in the northernmost East Greenland Caledonides. Geological. Magazine. 138 (6), p. 687–698.. Sweet, W.C., (1985), Conodonts: Those Fascinating Little Whatzits. Journal of Paleontology 59 (3), p.485-494. Sweet, W.C., Donohue, P.C.J.,.(2001). Conodonts: Past, Present, Future. Journal of Paleontology, p.1174–1184 Voldman, G,G., Albanesi, G.I., Do Campo, M., (2008), Conodont palaeothermometry of contact metamorphism in Middle Ordovician rocks from the Precordillera of western Argentina. Geological. Magazine. 145 (4), p.449–462. Zhuravlev. A. V., (2007), Morphofunctional Analysis of Late Paleozoic Conodont Elements and Apparatuses, Paleoontological Journal. 41 (5), p.549-557.

Yeah do it all in php, html is an overhead thats just ot required. Download and take a look at Legend of the Green Dragon code as an example of how to make a game that will scale from a few users to a few thousand concurrent users.

Yes, do not use frames and forget html, your using php, so do it all in php using CSS to arrange the elements. If you take a quick look at an existing codebase you will see that there is little to no html at all.

There are a couple of open source web game engines that you could use easily for this type of game if a web game copy is what you were considering making. I cannot think of any of them off the top of my head, but a quick google will find them for you "open source php web game engine" Web games have become a dime a dozen, with very little difference between them, as most are using the same basic templates with different graphics and slight modifications to the story. What does your game design have that will set it apart from all the others in the same genera? Also do you have experience with php and mysql, as php is the language most of these games are written in and if you want to make a game that will be different from anything else out there you will need to do a lot of programming.I know this usually becomes the standard reply to anyone who is trying to make a game, but there is a lot to be said for it, and that sometimes it is better to join an existing project to get a feel for how all these things work and to learn as much as you can before venturing off to attempt to do something that is over your head and outside your current level of skills. There are lots of projects out there that are looking for team members that will be able to teach you a lot of what you will need to know about php and mysql among other things.

Its hard to tell what the op intends on doing, but if he was wanting to run multiple virtual servers on the one box, Xen or Virtuozzo along with something solid like Redhat/Centos would give a strong foundation for running multiple servers on the one box. As for the question of 64 vrs 32 bits, unless you are crunching huge numbers, the average server running a LAMP stack is never going to see any benefits from one or the other, adding more cores will give you noticeable gains, as well as more ram will give you more capacity of run more servers.

I do all my games development and a lot of my day to day computing using Andlinux. I like having the best of both worlds without having to dual boot. I can run all my linux apps right inside windows.

Your old friend wiki is great for this sort of information, i would suggest this page as a starter and to just follow the links provided as there are a lot of different systems mentioned there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_process

Great list man, thanks for sharing, there are a few things there that i am going to give a try. There is one plugin i use a bit and thats one from http://www.onlywire.com/ its a social bookmarking plugin that allows onlywire to send your bookmark to abut 40 different sites. It just hurts your fingers signing up to all of them.

There are a number of different ways that you can approach things, each one has its advantages and disadvantages, in all honesty, the best place to look up various design methodologies is on Wiki, top down, bottom up, rad among other systems are a good place to start. The way i have approached The Oriental Dojo design was to start with pen and paper and outline with specifics what the aim of the project was and slowly broke it down into smaller more specific elements, all the time asking the question does this element fit with the original project goal. If something did not fit the projects goal it was not included into the design. As for implementation, i started from quite a high level of sophistication by using a preexisting project, removing parts and modifying others to fit my general goals, this allowed me to fritter my time away with whatever took my fancy at the time. Most importantly, tackle things that you can achieve in a session that can be complete, start with critical functionality and work out form there. Large projects can be very daunting when your the only person who is working on it and it is easy to be discouraged when you do not see any progress.Hope that explains some of your questions

Hi Howard, Im a bit of an Autoit fan myself, i dont know how many game bots i have made using it, but it would be quite a few ). It is so simple to get really useful programs up and running in no time at all. Oh and Welcome to the forums.

LOL i will start clicking on the report button now and make it 3, the more the merrier i hope

Nice tutorial, i will give this a try myself sometime, it might even improve my graphics abilities

Hi and welcome, I am rather new here also, there seems to be some quality discussions, its a bit of a shame about the spam that has taken over this thread however.

Something that a lot of people do not know about is Andlinux, it is a port of the Linux kernel to run in a windows 32 bit environment. Andlinux installs into windows just like any other app, adds a small launcher application to the toolbar to start applications from. Andlinux is a Debian derivative much like Ubunto is, which means you can install apps with apt-get or synaptic. However what Andlinux does thats different is not use Kde or gnome as its desktop environment, it uses MS windows. I have developed code on linux for 8 years, at one time being a Mandrake/Mandriva user as well as Suse at different times, since finding Andlinux i have done away with a full blown Linux install and have used it exclusively from within Xp for the last year and a bit. If your like me and need to do most of your day to day work in Linux but have need for a few windows apps, (Games) Then Andlinux is the ticket.

I agree, the Xbox has been a very good product from start to finish and while i do not use any Microsoft products directly i will say that some of their development tools are pretty neat, .net has huge potential and being and open standard as long as MS plays nice the Mono project on Linux could make this an appealing development environment.

Open Office in Andlinux on Windows Xp.

Something that no one else has mentioned is Avast, its free and i have never had any trouble with it, works perfectly and has stopped a number of viri and trojans from being executed on my computer from malicious websites.

While i use windows Xp for my desktop, i use Andlinux for just about every other application that i use. I develop a game in C, so i use Kdevelop, Gcc, Svn, Konsole, Valgrind, Gdb and the like daily + all the normal productivity apps Open Office, Mozilla, Filezilla. Pretty much open source and open software is my day to day computing experience.For those that have never heard of Andlinux, check it out, its a port of the Linux kernel to windows, and it means you can run Linux at native speeds within a 32 bit windows environment. There is no emulation hassles associated with it like you have with Cygwin or Vmware. Just pure Linux with Xp's somewhat ugly window dressing.

Well at least this stand off ended without anyone getting killed. I think that the courts decision to end the government had a lot to do with the protectors leaving peacefully.

I used to play CO on Nanya server, Once ninja comes out i will come back and see how it plays. Its been a long time comming, cant wait to see how it turns out.

Im not too sure exactly what you would like to achieve, but there is something called the Indigo Codebase which is written in php for the development of text based games in a similar vein to MUDS. Other than that, if you dont mind moving away from a web based architecture and into a server/client architecture, you could use a myriad of different mud servers to create your game and use a web based client interface to connect to the game server. If you would like more information on any of these things, by all means ask. I develop a text and 2d based hybrid game using the EldhaMUD game engine, take a look about my site and if your interested in the sort of thing i have been doing im sure i could assist you in getting your own project started.