Open source server code for the BitCraft MMORPG (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

60 pointssfkgtbor2mo ago14 comments

14 comments

SpacetimeDB looks interesting as a concept (the tech behind this server) but I could never sus out how could it would be in actual practice. I’ve always been interested in some post-mortems or reflections on the tech from other companies besides the founders

Devont2mo ago

Personally I think they launched their 1.0 prematurely. The community seems a bit mired in constant rewriting and immature tooling. Because this setup owns your whole stack, when they having a breaking change it ripples through the whole thing and your on the hook for that as a consumer (prob more so if they control your hosting). Someday they might reach a stable state, but for now if you don't want to bleed for them, I’d be weary.

(I think there are technical and marketing reasons to be weary of as well, but the degree to which that matters is application specific. The above is universal and will probably continue to be the case through at least a few more major revisions if I had to guess).

sigseg1v2mo ago

I had some design questions about the server here if anyone is familiar with the answer.

Specifically, `spawn_enemy` here: https://github.com/clockworklabs/BitCraftPublic/blob/master/...

It makes many db calls interspersed throughout synchronous code inside the application. Normally I would assume this is super slow and has many round trips (unless it's transparently committed to memory and batched to db later). I also don't see anything about connection pool management eg acquire and release.

Does this code work efficiently because it essentially gets compiled into a type of pseudo "stored procedure" that runs all the application code on the db and as such avoids those problems?

If yes, is that a scalability issue to have so much going on in a heavy infrastructure unit such as a db?

If no, then is there a perf issue here based on my initial assumption?

torlok2mo ago

> You cannot:

> Operate official, unofficial, private or any otherwise competing BitCraft servers

Doesn't this contradict the Apache license? Isn't this "source-available"?

dfajgljsldkjag2mo ago

I think that they mean that you can't make a "BitCraft" server as it would infringe on their trademark. If you made a "ByteCraft" server with all of your own assets, and didn't mention "BitCraft" at all, even if the code was exactly the same, I'd imagine you would be in the clear.

I'd imagine that by making a "BitCraft" server, it actually wouldn't violate the source code license terms at all, but they are putting you on notice that it would violate trademark and copyright on non-code things, so it wouldn't be legal irregardless of the code license.

observationist2mo ago

>>> The BitCraft source code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. See LICENSE for license details. The license applies only to the contents of this repository. It doesn't extend to any other assets or code that is not part of BitCraftPublic.

Contents of the repo are fair game, anything bitcraft related outside the repo is not, and you have to share attribution under Apache - seems fair. I don't see any bitcraft assets or trademark things in the codebase, but I wonder how much of the game logic and play has to change before it's sufficiently different from the things being protected?

Manuel_D2mo ago

You can use the source code to build your own MMO, but not one that replicates BitCraft's servers. Since the assets themselves are not open sourced, it wouldn't really be possible to do that anyway.

It's much more permissive than source available: you can use the source code for nearly any of your own projects, just not one specific application.

mathnode2mo ago

Old man here shaking his fist. While I acknowledge and appreciate the technical effort and let’s face it, an exemplary example in preserving games long after they are maintained by the original creators. But this is not an “rpg”, it’s a gathering, crafting, and hanging out simulator. That’s fine by its own definition, but I don’t see any mechanisms which allow for actual roleplay? Please prove me wrong

zetanor2mo ago

RPG designates a game with less reliance on a player's actual execution and more reliance on their character's simulated execution. Video games aside, plenty of people run full TTRPG campaigns without ever meaningfully engaging in RP.

natebc2mo ago

This is really cool. If you've never seen it before BitCraft is quite a lot like Runescape. Great art style and very crunchy gathering/crafting gameplay.

The developer open sourcing all of this is awesome.

Here's an blog post from them last year covering their open source plans: https://bitcraftonline.com/news/open-sourcing-bitcraft-onlin...

whou2mo ago

Apparently they are planning to also open source the game client in the future [1], which seems cool.

[1]: https://bitcraftonline.com/news/bitcraft-open-sourcing-updat...

frosting13372mo ago

This is really cool, I don't really recall another MMO server written in Rust like this.

TheRoque2mo ago

Maybe Veloren: https://gitlab.com/veloren/veloren

But I don't know if it really fits the "Massive" aspect of MMO

cheschire2mo ago

I guess that’s one way to deal with a mixed review score on steam.

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