Communicating through MasterServer?

Okay,
I have a game where people are put onto a MasterServer for the Lobby and they have the option to ‘fight’ the other people there. When the person clicks ‘fight’ I need to send a message to the second person asking them if they want to fight. But I can’t use RPC calls because they are not on a Server ( unless you can send RPCs through MasterServer ), so how do I send the message?

  • WolfShield

Then you need an actual lobby to which users are connected and this lobby server should be able to send requests to clients.

Another option is that everybody has to host a server to connect to the master server, which isn’t very appealing.

But that would require that one person be the host ( server ) and they wouldn’t be able to play. I could have a dedicated server, but that would cost more money and I’d like to avoid that if at all possible.

Right now that’s what I have, everyone hosts a server and connects to the MasterServer. But I don’t see an obvious way to send messages to each other as none of them are clients.

  • WolfShield

Why couldn’t somebody who hosts a game play it? There are no technical reasons this can’t happen.

The person who hosts the Lobby area couldn’t connect and play the game at the same time, as far as I know.

  • WolfShield

In your first post you said the master server was the lobby, why would players host the master server?

The MasterServer is the Lobby. I thought you said that one option was for a player to host the Lobby instead, to which I responded that they would not be able to play the game if that were the case.

  • WolfShield

No, the players should host game servers, otherwise people won’t be able to join them. You have to host the Master Server. Otherwise, you could just host everything yourself.

I’m pretty lost as to what you’re trying to do, honestly it doesn’t seem to make much sense. On the Master Server, which is more of a lobby server, one player can fight another player. Where does the game take place? How do you intend to connect those two players?

Yes.
On start, player is made a server and connected to MasterServer ( registered ), then their name appears with a button next to it. When a player presses the button the two players connect.

  • WolfShield

It’s a goofy setup, but not that complicated. When I hit “fight” on your name, I connect to your server. That’s it.

Exactly.
Only, I want to send a message to the other player asking if they want to fight, give them an option.

  • WolfShield

No, that wouldn’t work, would it? So you would have to have the player join the server, then have it ask them locally if they want to play that person.

Okay,
Talking to someone else on the project, it looks like that is what we are going to do anyway. Thanks for your time and knowledge.

  • WolfShield