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For the past month, I've been sampling and reviewing several Free MMORPGs. A majority of the MMOs are Point n Click, very few FPS Style (which is what I'm aiming to develop.)

Although I'm not a fan of Point'n click movement, I've come realized a possible reason for its popularity, reduction in Network Lag. The simple fact is that amount of constant update required in a FPS will eventually suffer from lag resulting in jerky movement. I would expect this lag to be fatal to a FPS game with 1000's of simultaneous players. I suspect this lag occurs less often with a Point n Click because the reduced number of updates.

Soon after this realization, I had an inspiration for a hybrid movement system that combined point 'n click with FPS. A system that would resemble a non-linear Rail-Shooter. With this System of movement Players create Paths of Movement (Rails) via Point 'n Click from a FP perspective, then execute the move in which the player is autonomously propelled along the Rail. During this Movement the player has a limit control over the camera's range of rotation. Weapon(s) are mounted to the camera ala FPS style which can also be fired like weapons in a traditional FPS.

Perhaps this system of movement could introduce a tactical game play allowing the player to create more complex Rails and add Power-move triggers to perform somersaults and other cool FP visuals.

This method of movement should not be difficult to implement. From a 2D Top Down perspective the Pointer X,Z is based on the Camera's orientation. Ray Casting Collision can be used to measure ground height with terrain and structures. Collision against the structures may be used to limit pointer movement. Condition checks against the distance and height can be used to control accessible areas. The player clicks the LMB to create a Waypoint or POW at the location of collision.

There will be a minimum requirement of 3 Waypoints to create a path. The path can be straight or smoothed out with Splines. As the player gains XP, they can add more waypoints to create larger paths.

Although, I haven't made a solid decision on wether or not I want to use this system of movement, I really do like the idea of including non-linear railshooter functionality in the game.

As a FPS, players would be expecting the constant freedom of movement thats typically associated with an FPS, not Point n Click from a First Person Perpective.

I can also visualize GMs creating rails for certain scenes in their stories as to move the players from one point to another or creating shooting gallery style mini games.

It could work, but it would be highly annoying I'd imagine, and campers would be rewarded as they would get a greater advantage. As an avid FPS player(mostly online), I know how important fluid movements are, what you're proposing makes such movements very hard to perform, while I don't know what kind of FPS you aim to make, let's say I was attacking a house and knew someone was inside. If I went toward a door and opened it, I'd then have to set my movement destination to be inside the house slightly so when I move there I can kill anyone who's potentially watching the door right? But such a move in a game like Counterstrike-source would be a sure easy way to get yourself killed, assuming the opposition doesn't suck. The ideal method, for me at least(assuming I have no grenades handy) would be to quickly pop my head around the door for as little time as I can, to see if I spot anyone. It's highly unlikely I'd get killed by doing that as the enemy can only partially see my body and for a very limited time, typically I will then straight after pop back and kill them as I now have the advantage. Because I know their location, how many there are, maybe what weapon they have etc, so killing them isn't an issue. However with the point and click movement this isn't really possible, I don't have time to look and see them then look around and click to move elsewhere, how will this be fixed?

Similarly, if I'm being overrun by enemy forces, it would be wise to retreat to a defensive position further back as you'd get some advantage there, how would this be quickly done in the game? I'd have to turn around and place where to move then look back and hope during this time they didn't see me as I had my back turned. So the whole moving backward really is an issue, with typical point and click games you usually have an overhead view of the player so you can click to go one way and see anything behind and attack it or whatever.

Also I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "The simple fact is that amount of constant update required in a FPS will eventually suffer from lag resulting in jerky movement", as there are many types of client-simulation that can be done on both the client and server, i.e. a game in the battlefield series, CS:S etc all send player keystrokes, this can be bandwidth intensive, but also allows the server to accurately simulate the client(not to be confused with a dead terminal), and assuming 0 packet loss and a consistent latency, the server should be able to predict the exact path of the player, of course this will be their position in the past, depending on the latency to them, but you could use dead reckoning/input prediction to simulate where their current position most likely is, if the latency is too high and/or the server is CPU or network bottlenecked then it can become laggy, but having accurate movements like this alone doesn't cause lag.

If bandwidth is an issue, then instead of relaying client keystrokes from the server to the client, you could instead just send positions at set intervals, this would essentially be a waypoint, as the clients getting this info will then have to predict the current position of that client based on the latency to the server, but of course the client will potentially see some strange movement depending on your positional packet interval, such as layers clipping through objects at corners and such. I just don't see multiple waypoint based movement working from an FPS perspective, though it might be nice to see.

Hi dark coder, thanks for the reply. Your detailed insight has motivated me to use both Traditional FPS and (Point 'n Click) PnC Route Movement.

More investigation on this subject is starting to suggest that Fluid FPS Movement may not be achievable on massive scale with 1000s of player simultaneously.

If this is the case (which i have yet to prove) I believe offering the player an alternative movement system will be beneficial during high lag. On the other hand, I feel as if Feature Creep is upon me.

You should look into an MMO called Tabula Rasa. It resembles an mmo fps. I believe there is a free trial, but more importantly in some of the videos on their site Richard Garriot, the creator, explains some of the concepts he uses to make a mmofps more acieveable. Overall not a great game but some very interesting concepts. Just might give you some ideas.

As for the movement in your game it should not be any more difficult then any other movement. Simply sending the players x y and z positions in every packet would take care of this. In any game lag will disturb the game. Your goal should simply be to keep lag at a minamum.

Hope this makes sence

Thanks Jerok for the recommendation. I've have elected to remove the player point-n-click (rail) movement and settle with traditional FPS Movement. After playing Dungeon Runners I realized I didnt like Point Click movement and felt it would distract from the freedom of movement I find in a FPS.

Ok guys I scrapped the point-to-click idea. However, now I'm getting into the nitty gritty of Dead Reckoning. For some unknown reason, I'm having a difficult time rapping my head around how I can implement techniques with DBPro. I'm completely open to all ideas on the subject.