Rolf 'floR' Raven on B.O.T.S. II

Feature

October 25th, 2005 by Howie Howard

Hooked Gamers: Where did you come up with all of the various names for the different weapons and equipment in the game?

Rolf: I was inspired by some of my favorite games that I played in the past. Many of the players have also designed some of the equipment and specifications.

Hooked Gamers: What programming languages did you use to develop Bots?

Rolf: I made an early version in Perl. Version 2 was designed in Python and QSP (a parsing language I had developed). Later on I decided to completely rewrite it in PHP. The client (website) is written in (D) HTML and JavaScript. All of the data is stored and retrieved using MySQL.

Hooked Gamers: I understand you have the servers running from your home. Tell our readers a bit about this.

Rolf: The game runs on 2 desktop PC's, (one for the web server and one for the database). These 2 machines can smoothly handle the current load and traffic. If I didn't have the game online I would still have a decent Internet connection so there really isn't much additional expense other then a little higher electric bill each month. In addition to this I also run a second version of the game I call the 'Blue' version. It is exactly the same as the green version but it has different players. The 'Blue' game is hosted by an Internet provider company on a dedicated server, this is where most of the costs lie.

Hooked Gamers: Will there be an upgrade to the equipment in the future?

Rolf: Since the community has been stable (some people come and others go). I do not see a need to upgrade at this time. One area I would like to upgrade would be to a bigger hard disk. This is needed to store the ever-increasing backups and logs.

Hooked Gamers: Will the game ever be expanded or made larger so that more players can be on line at the same time?

Rolf: At present, expansion is not needed. Perhaps in the future I will consider expanding again. One of the reasons I started the 'Blue' version was because the community was growing too large for the server/connection to handle.

Hooked Gamers: Have you ever had a problem with hackers or other unscrupulous persons trying to beat the game or to gain an unfair advantage over other players?

Rolf: Yes, cheating, or rather attempting to cheat happens on a daily basis. In the time I have been running this game I have spent about half of the time developing systems to prevent or catch these in-game cheaters. Once in a while an occasional hacker comes by and tries to ruin the game by finding flaws in the code. In the past I have had to solve extremely difficult problems and repair hacker damage. Each and every time I have succeeded in fixing these breaches. This has actually made the game better security-wise. No, I definitely do not appreciate the hackers' work. These hackers have always prompted me to improve security though.

Hooked Gamers: Do you see yourself creating and running other Internet games in the future?

Rolf: At the present time I would have to say no. The fact that this is a never-ending game, (there is no maximum level) and many people have been playing for quite a long time everything is running fine. There is a need to build new game items and equipment, so this should keep me busy. Maintaining the game and answering mails takes quite a bit of my time. Since I have a new addition to my family, time has been scarce.

Hooked Gamers: Do you see a sequel to B.O.T.S II coming around in the future?

Rolf: I have started working on sort of an expansion. It might be called B.O.T.S. III. This new game would run separately from Bots 2 and would be a fantasy RPG. It would still be text-only, but much more elaborate. I would like the new Bots 3 game to require more player brainpower in order to succeed. There would be an extensive stat system, quests, huge map, etc.

Hooked Gamers: Do you run the game by your self or do you have other people that help you?

Rolf: Basically, I run the game by myself, but since we also have a chat line and forums, I get help from players to moderate these. As for the game itself, it is pretty much self-running, apart from the required upgrades once in a while and administrative in-game roles that I fulfill.

Hooked Gamers: My favorite game developer is floR, who is yours?

Rolf: Well actually I'm my favorite game developer too! No, seriously, there really isn't any one person per say. But my all-time favorite games are Diablo II and World of Warcraft. So I guess you could say my favorite developer is Blizzard for making very addictive games.

Check it out!
There you have it folks, in my opinion these are the words of the next Sid Meyer. Here is another as yet to be discovered talent in the game development and production world. floR may not think he is in the same league as the top game developers in this industry but after sitting down to chat with him I believe that the sky is the limit for this developer and producer. He is much too modest, he is also a real nice guy. If you get a chance to go over and visit him and his game you will definitely not be disappointed. This is a great online game experience. The players are cool, the operator is friendly and there is always fun to be had by all!