I know just about nil when it comes down to network programming, so this is a sort of a shot in the dark.
OP2 was and still is a great game. There are a lot of people out there who want to play it but don't know how to find games.
Now, here's the question:
Is it possible with the resources that we have to create a sort of "chat-room" program... sort of like WON or Battle.net or the MSN Game Zone... but specifically for OP2 (Let's call it the OP2 Game Room).
This software would be a relatively small client program that would connect to a dedicated server that would keep an updated list of IP addresses of games that are "Open", "Closed", "Password Only", or "In Progress" (sure there could be a zillion other options, but this is theoretical!)
I'm assuming that somewhere somehow there would need to be a dedicated server that keeps the list up to date.
Users could log into this client program with a user-name and password, just like anything else (or maybe like IRC, just a username?) and then join or create games.
This program would then launch OP2 on all the players computers with the hosts IP address (I'm sure OP2 has a command line option somewhere that allows it) and sends them all into the game.
These are just thoughts and rants and raves from a rather looney programmer myself (as creator of OP:MIA) and maybe I'm way off the money. But hey, it's an idea and, if it could work, would be an interesting project that all the programmers here at the OP Forums could work on? Like an open project or something.
Anyway, just a thought...
Leeor...