Multiplayer Browser Based Game -- A Few Questions

[Smarto]

Hello there everyone!

I plan on making a medieval browser-based game where you can gain trade skill, build up your stats and level, and eventually buy property and a castle once you have been playing for a while.

But I have a few questions as to the mechanics of working out a game. I am currently using Coldfusion but i switch back and forth between it and PHP.... you can do the same pretty much with both so I am trying my luck here. PHP code examples would be great, I can transfer them over between languages.

So, here is my first bit of questioning: How would I go about having their Hit Points regenerate every hour, or reset to full at a certain time? Possible Cron Jobs maybe... and would doing this need any tinkering with a database? I mean adding time variables and the like - I would also like to know how to automate this to happen.

I forgot all the rest but if i remember I will post here. Thanks anyone that takes the time to read this!

[ForgotMyPass]

Umm like

$get = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM players WHERE lastregen<".time() - 3600);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($get)){
$fullhp = $row['maxhp'];
mysql_query("UPDATE players SET hp='$fullhp' WHERE id='".$row['id']."'");
mysql_query("UPDATE players SET lastregen='".time()."'");
}

or something