advice

Yall are prob sick of this question but...
what would you tell a PHP newbie that is trying to make his fist (simple) multiplayer web game?

not much I guess

In my opinion its a bad idea to just throw yourself into a big project if you consider yourself a "newbie". But thats just me

I'd suggest sawing your arm off with a spoon would be a less painful alternative.

Now honestly, when I first started with PHP, I tried that, and it was pretty ummm... difficult. I'd suggest getting very comfortable with SQL first. Thats a must for that. Then I'd get some paper, and plan everything out. Alot of people want to just dive into the code, but you need to have a plan. And third, I'd try to find someone to help you with it, because depending on what you are planning on, coding an entire game singlehanded might prove to be more difficult and time consuming than you are expecting.

Though the spoon is always a good option ;)

what about those spoon/fork hybrid things called sporks? That might be fun too.

Seriously, Pyro, kendo and pickleman are right. It's a big undertaking... and that's fine if that's what you want to get yourself into.

What type of game were you thinking about?

-Tim

Becuase I think those only come in plastic, you'll at least need a metal spoon to get through an arm.

Though ya, definately find a friend to help or design. Alot of times the code falls together better when you lay it out on paper first, then you just figure out what goes where, and it all works better in the end. Also, do little chunks, look at it in little bits and it won't be so bad.

Oh, and if you plan on using a metal spoon, make sure you have an up to date tetnus shot

lol

ok guys I've got all my spoons and sporks and forks spread out on the table and haven't decided which one to use yet, I'm probably go'n for the metal spork and a tetanus shot. as for help, haven't looked around yet.

The game would be based on an old palm os game "Strategic Commander". ZindaWare.com may sill have it i don't know. the players would sign on and battle (in turn based combat) to control the solar system. may get slow with more than eight players so I'll have to have multiple game rooms.

as you may have noticed its still on the drawing board. if would like, you can check out the palm game and give some me some suggestions.

If you want real time battle type things, that may be difficult to achieve with PHP, since PHP is designed to execute with each page load, so it would take alot of refreshing. Are you aiming for real timeish?

No. i was not planing on it

Sounds like a job for a java applet *shudder*

Ya, I was thinkin the same thing as nawlej, the only problem with the turn based type thing is waiting a long time for a response. As I recall, neopets had a batle system like that, and the most annoying thing ever was waiting like 10 minutes for the person on the other end, and then realizing they had signed off.

well i was hoping to make a progress bar type thing. as the other players progressed Thu their turn (you know as they moved thu pages) you would see a progress bar and then a "completed" graphic for each player

Well, I hate to say this, but there are definitely better tools for the job I think.

Ya, I'd have to agree. Of course, overall, battle things are generally difficult to make on a webpage because its done one pageload at a time, which makes people get impatient, or annoyed, or bored. It makes the action feel really slow, and has a tendancy to make it feel sluggish and boring. Thats my opinion however, some people spend their lives playing these games. (kingdomofloathing.com I believe is one of them, and its done in PHP as I recall, and probably in a similar manner to what you are planning). So its a matter of preference there I guess