Skinnable Client
 

I been waiting for this add a while:
When are we the Playerworld Owners (ignore for a moment I don't have a PW) going to be able to customize the Graal client? What if we don't want it to say Graal Online, but instead Valkorlia Online? What if we want it to be a black interface with red letters? What if we want the serverlist to put our own server on top, just for when people downloaded the client through our website? If we bring in our own customers to play our own game, shouldn't we be able to put our product on the client? It's kinda chintzy to say "Just download the Graal client and look for our server on the list" - it'd be like saying "Just download VBasic, connect to the global network and look for Hearts.vbp! Here's a link!"

Am I alone on this one? Did I miss this feature being added three months ago?

Well, too bad. This is Graal Online!

So do it?

That wouldn't be secure, nor would it be very compatible with automatic updates. Nor would it be very friendly with other playerworlds.

[QUOTE=Tyhm]If we bring in our own customers to play our own game, shouldn't we be able to put our product on the client?[/QUOT

Ehm... graal://Era works fine for me. :)

1. I think that playerworld owners should be allowed to design their own client interface which is triggers via the graal.exe -pw Playerworld# which loads a local client interface which is downloaded via connecting to graal online for the first time ( succesful login) that way when the -pw is used in the shortcut it will only show their server on the list or any of their IRC channels.

2. I also thing PW owners should beable to resell graal accounts and offer a 2checkout style interface where PW owners can modify the header/footer but keeping it safe for buyers by having it on official GO servers only. (anonymous as possible) It could be an amazing thing because people want to make their own MMO games, but right now I think that the next step is making PW Owners have the ability to run their own 'MMO Business" since they put so much work into it.

graal://server is pretty cool, but having a custom interface for clients to login for your server just makes it more professional than a cheesy link; reminds me of bittorrent or edonkey.

I am sure it stefan could do it fairly easily. plus I am 2 for 2 on ideas put through in some way. So hopefully this will make it through in the future too

See, Fukie gets it. The great thing about Graal is that you can develop your OWN game, rather than a Flavor of Graal; but the interface is very much FLAVOR OF GRAAL. I'm all for Graal getting a slice of the splash screen, much as Sega and Nintendo and Playstation do, but when I plug in FFX it goes to FFX, it doesn't ask if I wanna play Playstation Online first.
The way I look at it, people should be able to go to [Tyhm'sGame].com - even if it's just a front for tyhmsgame.graal.net - register an account (and the money goes first to Graal, so everyone's happy) - download the client (from Graal's server) - and when it installs, it's Installing: Tyhmsgame, and when it opens it's Tyhmsgame - powered by Graal Online. The serverlist is

*Tyhmsgame

[] Other Graal Servers
in a closed folder...when you're tired of Tyhmsgame, hey, your subscription lets you play alll these other worlds too. What a neat feature! Hey Billy, Tyhmsgame rules!
Graal gets richer, I get my game hosted at minimal cost to myself, and it's MY game hosted by Graal, not Another Flavor of Graal In One Of The Folders.

I'm not saying tyhmsgame.graal.net hosts its own deprecated copy of the setup files, but it hosts more a batch file; it hosts a program that unzips a batch file, quietly downloads the most recent setup file (with all the automatic updates and other playerworld stuff intact), says it's Installing [name from the config file], then installs the skinned version of the exact same Graal client everyone has. It doesn't look like the Kingdoms client, but that's entirely a matter of aesthetics.
Do you get what I'm sayin'? I mean, the way it is now it's like downloading BattleNet to play Starcraft rather than playing Starcraft to get on BattleNet.

I do like this, and it would be nice to see. All I wish to have is an OASA'S FAVORITES, which would have GK and NPULSE, and an ability to add private playerworlds to it. Also adding a feature to hide certain things, and then your own customizable picture, which would show your player ect. (( Which I dont think would be to hard, loading attribs? ))

Also, I would like to see the playerlist improved, with bigger text, and a better color scheme (sorry, but I dislike the blue, and I do not know how to change it.)

Rick, sinse you seem to be so fond of chaning text/colors, could you possibly forum PM me directions?

How about a alt+r thingy like irc has got?
Where you can do own scripts(like redoing the playerlist or some interface things just for yourself, or you could post the script up so others can use it)
Sure functions like player.x and so on should be declared readonly and setlevel2() and so on deactivated, but it would be very nice to make your own interface(some of the newer games provide this function(wow, eq2, etc))

*skips all posts*

You could simply make people install the graal game client and create your own web interface using the graal://.. command.

Alot of the custom gui's can also be rescripted using the Gui commands. You can also alterate the graal4 installer to overwright the custom gui graphics (this would require some skill, sure)

Ps, Tyhm I agree with some of your points but disagree with others "like server on top" there are only a few servers and it wouldn't hurt for people to addicently stumble upon some other servers.

And graal doesn't realy have seperate games now does it, they all use the same damn default boddies/tilesets ect. The only servers being a little bit diffrent and public right now are G2K2 and Era (for their genre and tileset.. but thats all)

Defense rests.

We have some plan related to this idea, we are planning to work this year on a Online game construction kit including the branding of the graal game client...

This sounds exciting, but my question is; will you be working with PW Owners on this project so it is 'tailored' for business purposes? If so I would be very interested in helping perfect the system with ideas and give feedback, I am sure Tyhm would also!

The MMO industry is booming, and there is no sign of slowing down. Hopefully everyone is excited about this confirmation from Unixmad; that something is in the works to allow skilled desigers use their powerful client as a backend and hopefully allow us to get a piece of the 'pie' :)

Heavens yes; I'd love to have my own game hosted on my own website, particularly for a hundred bucks a year. I get a cut of the "Accounts upgraded via my site" fee, and my customers get access to my game first and foremost, everyone else's game as a bonus - sort of like buying Diablo II and it's bundled with Commander Keen 1-4 for free.

And I especially want to prove that 2d still has life left in it. It's ridiculous that everyone's so amped over polygons when they just get flattened into a 2d representation of a 3d world anyway; if the camera doesn't rotate, who cares whether or not Aya Brea is defined on the reverse-angle? Some of the best games ever didn't have or didn't need polygons - Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Disgaea, FF6, Super Metroid...sure, it's a nice effect, but given that you can't rotate the camera in FFX, why define the summons as polygons? They're FMVs for chrissakes...Donkey Kong Country had it right, sprites of polygons, the end.

Everything stated by Tyhm and Mafukie is brilliant. I've been waiting for something like this for a long time to come. Maybe this could finally help graal and increase players and the quality of graal.