Idea: Local Multiplayer

This is a 'Think tank' forum, where this will be a base idea that we can further refine into something cool, this is on Multiplayer (as the title suggests)

[Please use this format for major Ideas]

Aspect of Game:
<Description>
<Why you think it is a good idea>
<How it will be managed>
<Anything else>

Well here is the Base Idea:

'Plot':
Upon starting the game, you and up to 8 players (in one game) will spawn as part of the same starting species/things but you can go in seperate directions, however, you will all be on one planet until the space stage (when you can colonise other planets) and you have to cooperate towards advancement and perhaps you own survival...

Gameplay:
General gameplay involves one common goal, which is to progress, but players also have personal missions, depending on how they have played the game previously, and they can choose to live and evolve symbiotically or separately. Players' species can evolve to be separate animals but will still be cooperative players.

I've alredy mentioned many times that anything other than local multiplayer (sharing the same computer) will be really hard to do (unless we do it the easy way, which will take a LOT of internet). That said, i am always talking about this case.

8 players? You wont be able to see anything with so many players on a single screen.

Controls. If we make the mouse be one of the main controls (and thus, required), any kind of multiplayer is impossible, as the mouse is unique per computer. That means that some other kind of control is required. It also means that rts is impossible as well, as for rts a mouse is a must.

Evolving: Evolving (in the editor) will need to be taken in turns. Thats quite straightforward.

Advancing stages: That will need to be simultaneous. In the millions of years that it takes for a specie to evolve a bit (going through the editor once represents enough time for a civilization to advance to ascension)

Overall, there are so many limitations that i would drop anything multiplayer-related. Some small minigame is possible, but not anything close to the full game.

Multiplayer: Local multiplayer will not track each player on the screen simultaneously, each player would have their respective species on their screen, and internet stuff will be handled on the host computer, while other computers will receive the internet, or we could implement Multiplayer features, allowing users to join a seperate online server that was created by the users, using IPs etc, like minecraft's multiplayer.

Controls: some people prefer to use keyboard and mouse, i would recommend allowing mouse-centric and keyboard and mouse settings.

Evolving: Players in a 'game' should be able to evolve and edit when they want rather than in turns, unless the user's server sets it otherwise

Stage transitions: in order for players to switch through stages, all players should agree to move on, in 75% of the votes say 'Move on!' then all players will be forced to move on.

I believe this should be something we implement after the game's fist release, to see whether it would be worth adding Multiplayer features or not, and server should be mostly handled by the users, as I have said, like Minecraft's multiplayer.

Quote :

This is a 'Think tank' forum, where this will be a base idea that we can further refine into something cool, this is on Multiplayer (as the title suggests)

[Please use this format for major Ideas]

We have made it abundantly clear that new ideas do not immediately go on new threads. Use the miscellaneous thread for new ideas first, and if they develop from there they can get their own thread.

Furthermore, you have left many of Dani's valid points unaddressed. The mouse is crucial to both pre and post sapience gameplay. I would never sacrifice it just to have a LAN party with some friends. What's more, stage transitions aren't as clear cut as you make them out to be, so that a simple vote can pop-up to handle it. The transition from Microbe to Multicellular occurs when the player bonds with another cell, and that is not something that should be monitored by a vote. Their is also a point during multicellular during which your organism goes from 2D to 3D after reaching a certain size. Again, restricting that with a vote would be unpractical. From Multicellular to Aware is another seamless transition that is only really marked by a higher degree of intelligence. I can continue to make this case for every scenario, all the transitions are supposed to be seamless. Therefore, it would be both difficult and detrimental to the fun to impose sanctions on the player's organism just to keep the other players in check. Editing cannot take place whenever they want. Editing takes place by the player whenever a new generation is born only.

p.s. It has become impossible for me to use the reply option "Quote", since when I do I cannot select an empty space outside of the quote box to type in my response.

The final button in the new setup looks like a page with some text on it and allows you to switch back to the regular editor style, enabling you to quote and then type. Hopefully at some point forummmotion will fix quoting in the regular rich editor.

Okay:
Firstly, you guys are missing the point, THIS WILL NOT BE ON ONE COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I have no idea where you got the idea that that was the case)

By using separate computers connecting to a users' server, multiplayer can be more than possible without sacrificing the mouse control for any of the players.

Secondly, We can sort something out where players can freely advance without the other players, but I tried to stop players from being left behind in pre-sapience while there are players already colonising other planets in the same game, it would ruin the game for anyone left behind. 

Also the think tank thing was poorly punctuated, the whole Idea thing is the premise of it, an Idea is presented in a think tank forum, and multiple people further refine it until a usable gameplay aspect is created.

Well, the thing about using only one computer was probably from my post, as i said anything other would be either extremelly hard to implement, or take a HUGE amount of internet.

Actually, maybe some quirk for lan could work. Something like the main server handling all the calculations, and sending each client a video stream of their screens. Then, the clients send back all the user's inputs. Thats something thats alredy been done.

However, that would require a good conection between server and clients, as both the upload/download speed must be quite high as the ping must be low enough to be negligible. On top of that, we are alredy worried the game will be too much for today's computers with a single player. Puting many players on one computer, with the adition of the video stream that needs to be sent over the conection will probably mean the server will need to be really good.

Doing it so the online play is possible would mean starting the coding from the floor again, and doing it around it. And personally, i dont think it is a good idea, as there are many limitations with the concept itself.

Well in that case if online is impossible due to having to rewrite the entire code, then I would vote against having multiplayer if that is the cost, but if LAN is possible after the game release and thrive is successful then just LAN games would be a suggestion, but I would make a topic after release asking players what they really want, because multiplayer is one of the thing I want and i'm not the entire forum.

Cobalt58 wrote:

Secondly, We can sort something out where players can freely advance without the other players, but I tried to stop players from being left behind in pre-sapience while there are players already colonising other planets in the same game, it would ruin the game for anyone left behind.

Its not a question of fairness, its a question of possibility, and quite frankly, based on what Dani said about differing timescales, it is quite impossible to have such a feature for multiplayer.