Doubt they could ever replicate a real FFXI server, ever. There is so much hidden shit that the only way would be if SE gave it out.
Doubt they could ever replicate a real FFXI server, ever. There is so much hidden shit that the only way would be if SE gave it out.
Nocturne: there is a button next to "Reply with quote" that let's you quote multiple posts. Or you can edit your replies if someone posts right before you do. You do not need to make a new post to respond to every quote.
I'm impressed to witness some constructive talk here after the slow start.
I think about contributing to the project to improve my C++ knowledge. There are a thousand other projects but that one deals with my love for FFXI.
It may not be possible to replicate all aspects of the server but enough can be done so large parts of the game can be enjoyed.
AzureSky (the predecessor of Dark Star if you put it this way) was already at this point although a lot of stuff was missing. It was based on pXI and DLC (?) or whatever that is.
http://thegeeksftw.com/wp-content/up...07/dexter2.jpg
Someone called for the bloodguy?
Obviously the game is only fun using the exact formulas SE uses. Something close enough that nobody knows the difference would be terrible, and everyone would hate it.
I really doubt any FFXI Private Server project would get too far.
If they do, though, grats to them.
Though, even if the emulator manages to perfectly emulate our live FFXI servers someday, there will still be a lack of players to make the game worthwhile.
Of course, having the emulator in general could open up possibilities.
You could even use the client and server to make FFXI into a whole new game, technically.
Make your own formulas and such, but all of this would be pretty annoying.
When you compare FFXI to say, Ragnarok Online...
RO had not only much simpler formulas to make up out of thin air, but the majority of emulation was being taken from the original source and edited into different coding.
To this day RO still has many private servers, most of them with their own uniqueness that separates them from another.
I can't really see myself playing an FFXI server at this point, unless the server had something special to offer that I'm not getting from the official server.
Reiterating Kari's point, what RO had was people hacking the fuck outta the servers and extracting the data. It's not the first game it's happened to either; when Yogurting went offline, up went the private servers. Some games didn't get as much love either, Tokimeki Memorial Online wasn't around long enough (and didn't have the fanbase, I guess) to have the server code yoinked (afaik... if I'm wrong do let me know!)
My roommate was actually one of the more notorious "pseudo-GM"-type hackers and kept making nifty tools for the real GM's to try to control the bot problems, so much so that at one point he was even filling in for KR GM's during some special event.
Player written servers have been around as long as mmogs have. They don't need to steal the original source code to do it. I understand being too young to have heard of UO or EQ, but surely you must have heard of that "WoW" thing?
We could always take that example even further back, and point toward one of the MMO genre's inspirations: MUDs. Considering how instrumental those were in forming the concept that would one day become Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs, and that they themselves were user created (another primary factor being tabletop RPGs) -- well, it's only natural for modern MMOs to be reverse engineered.
Fun fact: I was a wizard on a MUCK a very long time ago. It wasn't a popular one, and doesn't exist anymore today, but that was enjoyable. It was the first time I was able to write for an audience in game form, as I created a multitude of areas (including a desert with "rooms" linked to one another so people could get lost/warped back to the entrance). My seemingly abandoned home was, perhaps, the most detailed thing I created. Ah, fun indeed.