MaximumPC 2005 05

FIVE TICKS IN THE MATRIX ONLINE

Even something as seemingly simple as killing a single mob—a computer controlled enemy—requires lots of com-

munication back and forth between server and client machines. Here’s how a simple one-on-one fight works in The

Matrix Online. As you add more players—or monsters—the fight grows ever more complex.

The zone server’s job is to keep track of all the

players and all the non-player characters (NPCs) in

a specific area. In this case, the zone server tells

you, the player, there’s an enemy nearby.

Say you decide to attack the mob and you press

the attack key. Your machine sends a message to

the server. Then the server pulls information about

the monster—the number of hit points it has, and

attacks it can use—from the database server.

As you fight, the server calculates the damage the

mob does to you, and that you do to the mob. When

you activate special attacks, skills, or healing pow-

ers, your PC informs the server of your actions.

Eventually, you either kill the mob or die. If you win the

fight, the server sends a message to the client machine,

which tells it to play the monster’s death animation. The

server calculates the experience gain for killing this

particular monster, and adds the gain to your character’s

experience table on the database server.

To the victor go the spoils! Once you vanquish the

enemy, you can grab whatever loot it was carry-

ing. The server tells the client what loot is on the

corpse, and the player has the option to “pick up”

any items he wants. All he’s really doing is copying

that item to his character’s database entry.

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CLIENT ZONE SERVER