choosing a script

[astromonkeyx]

well i've done a bit of C++ before and "programming" on my TI, but a friend and I came up with a pretty good and original idea for a mmos(trategy)g(ame). i've never really done any scripting before (except for a few code snippets on my site), and i was wondering what would be the easiest script for me to learn and use? i've heard of javascript, actionscript, lingo....thanks!

the game would involve use of tiles, a (very) large map, and hopefully lots of users, so the script would have to be able to implement all of these easily. thanks

btw, i'm looking more for a language like C++, not VB

[Ricod]

Welcome to the board !

Each one of them has their own pros and cons. I'm sure there are a few sites with extensive comparisons. Ofcourse, javascript is less dependant as opposed to Flash and Director, but if you ask me, Director and Flash are more suited to work with graphics. The biggest advantage to Flash would be the penetration. What was it ? 97% or so ? Director is really Flash's big brother. If you want to incorporate 3d, well .. Flash has no 3d engine. But since u have a c++ background, what would be the reason to not do it in c++ ? As far as I know, its the strongest one from the list you considered ? Does it has to be webbased ? If its just a quick way to get an engine, you are probably well aware that their are free, solid, tile engines available.

[senocular]

Id say director but since you're talking about multiplayer, Flash might be better with flashcom. Still, director can handle the maps better - Flash much slower in comparison. But it really depends on the setup and complexity. If you're really involved, Java would be the other route to take, and that is the closets to C++ as any of them. You also have much more control but the ease level drops a bit. Lingo in Director is more like VB - very verbose in its syntax. Actionscript on the other hand is like javascript, based on the ECMA-262 specification. So in terms of syntax you have something more like C++ but its no C++ and of course the performance coming out of the Flash player is less than desirable for big game projects espeically with no memory management.

But really, it just depends, as I said before, on the scope of the project and how involved you intend to be, budget, time, experience and all those other things.

[astromonkeyx]

wow, thanks for all the replies!

i'd prefer for the game to be web based for convenience (it's supposed to be "massive" after all ;P). i'd do it in C++ if I wasn't so lazy...i hate windows programming, that and i haven't used it in a while and flash seems cooler

on complexity of the maps, they should be pretty simple, the only thing i'm concerned about is the lag if/when a large of people join, causing the maps to be huge...100 squares per person, and we're hoping for big numbers (though there will be 2 worlds)

this will all be in 2d as well in all its pixeled glory

i've already got the concepts and how i'll be storing everything if i were doing it in C++ worked out (this was over a couple of days talking and writing a bit with a friend (no computers), so this shouldn't be too hard to make and shouldn't take that long...but I always was the type that forgot semicolons at the end of lines :P