How Would One Make An Online Multiplayer Game Lobby

[keepingitmetal]

I have enjoyed using Lacewing for IP-to-IP connections and playing around with various prototypes with friends, as such, but would love to create a game where I have a dedicated server which players can connect to "the servers" to be match-made/etc. WITHOUT my players having to know their friends IP, go into port-forwarding, etc.

Of course, it is a SERIOUSLY big asset to have "tear-free" online play.

So I have an idea of how to approach it and would like others to weigh in. I'm certain there will be several holes in my idea:

1. Have a machine of mine personally set up to be a server. A normal PC machine. This machine has several ports open for communication for my players to connect to. The machine is not running an .exe made with fusion. It is just serving as an interim means of communication.

2. My players click on "Online Play" and their game is updated by the server to show the status of each port AKA each "game in progress". They select an "open room" or open port.

3. My players play through the server port they selected, communicating using it.

Since my server is port-forwarding... they'll be communicating through my router. Does that mean my router will be slammed and wrecked with overload?

Is such an architecture possible? I'm a long time user of MMF2, but n00b of network programming and configuration. Does anyone have an example of a "game lobby" or external hosting in Fusion? I've searched a lot on the Internet and it's all IP-to-IP port forwarding stuff. Fine, but not the most exciting stuff there is.

[Magnum Force]

Hmm, basically that setup should work, but I wouldn't choose this approach to be honest.

Depending on the type of online game your're (about) to create I would use your game lobby server for nothing more than just that.

Example:
1) Players can choose to host and or join a server.

If the players choose to host a server, then the server logs in to the master server.
The player server sends the I.P., port and channel name to this master server.

Players who want to just play connect to the master server to receive the hosted server list.
As soon as a player selects a server from the list their client disconnects from the master server and connects to actual server that's hosting a game.

That's how I would do it in a nutshell (in theory), just to keep master server traffic at a minimum.