Online plugin-Updates

I agree with Taitu on this one.

People seem to be worrying about the plug-in being all-inclusive, like they deserve free online lobbies for their games.

You want to set up an MMO or an online lobby? That is YOUR responsibility to get it set up. Scirra should not be in no way required to supply a public server in this regard.

I feel like we have missed half the picture in this thread somehow. For years people have been getting along fine with simple P2P and LAN functionality. A lobby makes P2P easier, sure, but a lobby for YOUR game is YOUR responsibility to set up.

And just in regards to the question of "how many people will use" the plugin without a supplied server. I, and quite a few other people here I am sure, primarily play games for the multiplayer experience. A few years ago this may not have been true, but gaming and multiplayer really do go hand-in-hand in this day and age.

Hell, If I understood C++ to any reasonable degree, I would be making a Raknet plugin right now. All of my W.I.P games depend on it.

Have there been any updates in the development of this plugin?

I have experimented with Python scripting and the Twisted library, a python networking library, to see whether I could achieve some networking between instances of Construct.

A lack of familiarity with Twisted's API and its 'way of thinking' kept me from any good results. I implemented a basic client in Construct that could send a message (UDP or TCP were doable) to a server and received a response that I had Construct spit out. This worked fine and in fact multiple clients could connect to the server but tracking the clients on the server or even implementing a Construct program as the server had issues.

When attempting to use Twisted's listening socket for the server it caused the Construct program to hang, I imagine a solution to this may be to thread the code to Twisted. Importing the Python Threads library to Construct worked and I found threads instantiable but I have had some difficulties communicating with the running threads and the threads communicating back to Construct's events.

Without much more of a rant, can I ask if anyone has experimented with this approach, i.e. leveraging Python's networking capabilities into Construct? Based on the discussion here it sounds like the intention is to write a plugin using standard C++ socketing.

And regarding the discussion of lobbies, I agree that creating a public server to provide support to the community in general and the games developed in the community is bad. As noble as it sounds it will introduce monetary and technical issues to the maintainers of the server.

On the other hand, if a cool protocol and plugin were developed that worked great with Construct's engine and its OO design, that "just worked" then I think the Construct developers could potentially look into:

a) developing a simple server to support that protocol, releasing its code and build instructions.

b) deploying such a server and introducing a system for developers to pay X dollars per month for its use or base the payment on the number of users of the game.

Attempting to simply provide a free public server will just cause problems imo.