Daimonin Update 2008

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Daimonin is a free open source Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-playing Game (MMORPG) under the GPL license.

Please note: The media files don't fall all under the GPL. Please look at the artistic licence and the artistic credits.

Some tiles/graphics for example are by David E. Gervais and used with his express permission.
David's current project Space Empires 5 can be found at Malfador.com.

Daimonin was created in the year 2002 by using the Crossfire project source as a base.

I had found & played around with crossfire in the early 90's as I studied computer science on the university of Bremen in Germany.

Because I worked over the years as prof. game programmer freelancer, I never lost contact to crossfire. In my university time, we had done some patches to crossfire. Then I spent some outdated code from my work to create a so called "DirectX Client" for crossfire in the year 1999.

Later I also coded the "Daimonin Java Map Editor" (I was ill and I thought "lets learn java" - so I coded the base editor in 3 weeks).

Because at that time there was no serious online gaming company here in Germany, I used crossfire to come in touch with MMO games.

One of my money projects was an isometric RTS - so I asked the crossfire dev team to change crossfire to an isometric look too. But they didn't like the idea (what was ok - perhaps it would had changed cf really too much). I created an "iso-crossfire" fork of crossfire to play around with that stuff.

I removed for that most parts of the original crossfire - including the original cf clients, the crossedit called cf editor and all maps & cf related objects. My editor, the server source of cf with the data arches and a from me new coded client called "SDL Client" was the base of that new project.

At that point, only the server source was original from crossfire - and, of course, the "project architecture" - which is very solid and one reason I sticked to crossfire.

People outside the unix/university area underestimate the impact of crossfire to the online gaming a lot. Many game coders and even companies were inspired by crossfire. In the early 90's, cf was able to spend a "MMORPG" atmosphere using the powerful university networks half a decade before the first real graphical MMORPG appeared - the needed network infrastructure was only available in universities at that time.

In fact, several other games have copied that structure or server code of cf. Two examples are "Graal Online", which used at last half of the same source as we do, and "Wyvern", a java game which doesn't use the source but "copied" the game play and structure of cf even in game details.

At that time, early 2001, I was working on a business model for online games. What I needed was some real numbers in terms of bandwidth, users and such and an example project.

I remembered my "iso crossfire" and decided to create a fully new game out of it. It should serve as example project for me and, because it's open source nature, perhaps as a serious game for others. A fine solution because then I didn't spend my time and work for nothing. Normally, example projects are thrown away after you don't need them anymore.

At this time, early 2002, Daimonin was born.

The main idea was to have a real MMORPG but fully streamed and with a core in the "rogue like games" and not in the MUDS.

What many people don't know is, that EVERQUEST for example is in the core a text MUD. All game commands and how they work and are connected are the same (in name and syntax) as in one of the big MUD sources. Over that text MUD core is the graphic layer part of the server.

Most, when not nearly all MMORPG are related to that roots too. I wanted a bit different style. In fact, the MMORPGs are now moving more in the direction we go as they follow the original MUD idea.

The idea of "instanced maps" for example, which are now added in the last 2 years to most MMORPGs as "new feature", was implemented in the cf engine since early 90's. Our apartments in Daimonin or the tutorial are real instanced maps.

The Daimonin engine can implement and connect for example the whole nethack game as instances - even for 1000 player where everyone has its own instance. The server is able to handle it. In fact the server map system is that powerful that there is no difference for the server in instanced or multi used maps.

The game play in Daimonin is totally different to crossfire - starting with the handling of objects to how the player interacts with the game world.

Daimonin is NOT a "game fork" nor a "derivative" of crossfire.

We don't use anything of cf except the server source and the base structure - for example how server objects are scripted (arches). But cf and daimonin are totally different in maps, scripts or other game elements. Even porting is not possible, because the server uses things different.

The part where cf and Daimonin still meet are technical things. We both use a script plugin interface. Our maps are fully streamed. The tiled map system was first implemented by the cf dev member Mark Wedel. Both projects have open client sources and don't trust the clients - with all technical problems. And so on.

One thing people don't understand is, why Daimonin has still this "primitive" tile based moving.

First, I planned since 2002 to change that. In fact in 2005 we have started a 3D client which will allow smooth moving like for example in ultima online.

BUT: For the server systems (AI, Pathfinder, ...) there is no difference in "tiled moving" or "soft moving". In fact NO MMORPG and game calculates this things on a "soft moving" level. Everquest or Word of Warcraft: Their AI and moving system also use "tile spots".

The difference is, that their server/client protocol are able to calculate out of that "point data" a soft "moving line" which are then animated by the clients in a soft animated way.

I decided to code first the server features - and then the client interface with "player prediction" and "soft animation". What I wanted first was a solid, MMORPG server - and not a shiny client for a not done and imperfect game.

The original cf server is a multi player server - but it's not massive. That was never the intention of the crossfire project - to serve hundreds or even more people on one server. So, no one really cared about that.

For Daimonin I had to change that first. In 2005 we had done first tests with 1000+ bots on the same server and it was running fine.

Also, we wanted a real AI system for the mobs (mobs = mobiles = monsters and NPC's). Also a real pathfinding system. Both connected to the tiled map system which can load and save maps flawlessly by the server at runtime and stream them to the client. That and some more technical changes (socket, scripts, plugin interface, object handling... I can add here 100 more points) eat up a lot of work. The original tiled map system from cf was never fully finished by the cf dev team. It missed 2-3 high end features I had to implement first. In fact that was the work of the last 2 years.

We drive now a "3 part strategy":

1. Improving the server (softscrolling, smooth animation, customizable players, ...)
2. Improving the game (NPC gui, shop interface, auction interface, quest systems...)
3. Creating a real 3D client where all that can be used in a modern way

The result - is and will be a unique, modern MMORPG which not only has all what other games have but also brings in new ideas from new roots.

I also don't work longer alone on the project as I did in the first 2-3 years. Now, other people have added their work too to the project. You will find them in the dev IRC channel of Daimonin.

And in fact: With the years Daimonin has become a very unique game and one of the very few open source MMORPGs which is fully playable and still growing.

Michael Toennies and the Daimonin Development Team

Daimonin MMORPG - FREE fantasy online multiplayer game