[Inquisitor]

Most of that is in the data file for configuring services

I agree with Kazan, lets build off of vanilla IRC.

UnrealIRCD might be a good start

[penguin]

I'm with you both re: vanilla IRC -- that's what it looks like it is now for the chat stuff...

The chat channels are also directly related to the game channels (the channel list comes from the IRC server).

The other "out-of-band" stuff that we would need is the listing of games, (game name, IP address of server).  I think the functionality of the "game server" and the "user server" can certainly be rolled into one, but I don't know if this would fit with the IRC service.

[Inquisitor]

It doesn;t have to.

I have a java based master4 server that MIGHT work, from the megamek CVS.

Anyone good with Java?

I keep telling folks that a while back the Descent 3 community had a java based master server PXO replacement, this could be a contender

[penguin]

I can do it... this is right up my alley.  I seem to suck as a graphics programmer My background is in all the back-end stuff anyhow.

I like the idea of doing it in Java.  If we write the server in Java, we have instant portability... were you thinking of a standalone app, or something that would run in the context of Tomcat (or something similar)?  Either one would work, might be nice to have a web interface like PXO does, though...