After re-reading this post before sending it, I realize I make several assumptions about how RPGWO is coded and I come off as some high and mighty game programmer telling you how to do things. That is not at all my intention.
I do have some lag dealing-with code for movement. Never trust the client for absolute collision checking though. The server always needs to check everything.
That doesn't mean you can't offload SOME of the work to the client though. Have the client do the first check. If I try to move right and my client thinks there's no wall there, let me move. Then tell the server. If the server checks and says "Yeah, that's fine", there's no change. If the server does find a wall there, the server can correct my position.
Making movement but rather player placement finer is something possible but I am not sure what value the players will get out of it. Yeah it will look better but selecting things and doing usage might become confusing and difficult to manage when items get bunched up in an area. A conventional RPG would not have that issue since they don't have a dynamic, sandbox usage/crafting system. Plus adding in real elevation data, fouls that up even more. But I will look into it.
I am not really sure why this finer movement change would be an "absolutely huge" game changer.
It's about the feel of a game. I cannot stress how important player/game interface is from a player perspective.
Imagine putting on a pair of heavy winter gloves. A bit bulky.. you won't be able to do anything intricate with them but they work for most things. If you wanna text a friend you're probably out of luck. This is how most games are. Can perform most functions with ease (movement, combat, dialogue, etc), but some more specific or intricate functions require you to press function keys or click through menus.
The current system feels more like giant foam fingers. You can poke and do a few things, but it mostly feels pigbersome (I realize this will be edited to "pig", you know what I mean). There is very little responsiveness. I feel like this is almost made WORSE with the movement animation. It's really the same thing as v1/v2 except now that instead of moving to a new block after a delay, you're forced to watch the player move slowly.
Not everything needs to work with a higher resolution map. For example, if you have an area that's 100x100, it could be composed of 10 10x10 "tiles". Keep all objects like trees and walls locked to the center of a tile and allow players to move freely around them. You wouldn't even need to change collision at all. If the player tries to move onto a tile that has an object on it, don't allow it. No need to let them move around the edges of trees, etc. Simplifying it in this way allows the player to not feel so burdened down and doesn't force over-complication of everything else.
I always backup my code to a USB drive.
Hindsight. I may actually have an older version of it somewhere but .. I'd need to strip it down to almost nothing anyways if I'm converting it to singleplayer.
Keep in mind, a lot of online games don't have dynamic maps. The client has a full copy of the server maps and no map data gets sent to the client, at least all the time, like RPGWO. Just player and item movements.
One thing I was dabbling with in my game before I lost it was sending players chunks of the map. Basically their immediate area and the surrounding areas. It was pretty easily compacted and sent to the client. Then, whenever anything in the world updated, it would also tell any clients that had loaded that area to update it on their end as well. Obviously it would be a huge strain on both the clients and server if you needed to sync the entire world all the time, but their immediate area could work. The player having a copy of the area would allow them to perform client side collision checks, taking some stress off the server (again, server can correct the clients if it detects an issue).
Click to move can't me removed. A lot of people still use the mouse plus in the mobile versions, it is the only way to move. If you have an Android phone/tablet then please try it out and download the .APK from rpgwo.com. Also, click to move sets a "goto" spot that keyboard can't do accurately.
That's true about the phone app. I keep forgetting you're pushing for that too.
For PC though, it feels like another "foam finger" interaction method. I guess there's no issue if arrows work though.
Also, what do you need an accurate "goto" for?
To me, the new dynamic NPC interaction I am trying to implement is huge and a real game changer. Remember I have always been about features and not fanciness which was why V1/V2 has a lot of features here and there but sadly a lot of them were never fully worked out with content and lacked an attracting appearance. But I am not a full, real 8player (50% developer, 40% creator, 10% player, 100% lover) so I don't really know for sure, heh.
I agree, that is also absolutely huge. I just don't think interface should be undervalued as it is pretty big in creating the player experience. I guess I can't speak for the entirety of the gaming community, but if I load into a [new] game with a clunky interface, I usually don't stick around long enough to find out how well AI has been implemented. If I need to play with foam fingers, I usually don't.
There's something else to be said here though. Obviously no one is expecting or looking for HD graphics, 3d models or particle effects. I just feel like.. 12 years later.. SOME improvements should be made to how players interact with the game.
Don't feel like an ass. RPGWO is a rare gem that the loyal players don't want to see tarnished. V5 IS a new creation though.
I also may have underestimated how much you've done with v5. I admittedly didn't stick around long enough to discover what you had implemented.