Idea for multiplayer (saves transfer)

[Eliijahh]

Hey. Watching a Avak video I had an idea. We all know multiplayer it’s impossible, and that is not a problem at all since the game just really has nothing to do with multiplayer. Usually with old games you would play-by-email. You’d do your turns and then you would send the savegame to the other player and let him do the same. Rinse and repeat.

So what if: you make a NPC when you start the game. You design the NPC in the same way you would design a normal player character. You can choose traits, stats, profession etc etc. You would make the NPC spawn close to the player character. Then one player would play a set amount of turns (decided with the other player of course, no in-game restriction. That NPC would be the character that the other player would then play when he’s sent the savegame. And the previous main-character would become an NPC. Maybe it would be cool if the player could give some orders to the NPC, such like behave aggressively, hoard resources, or just follow the main character.

Is it remotely feasable? I guess the only thing would be switching the character from player to NPC state, if at all possible. In any case, I just wanted to share this idea even if not possible. Just for fun

(BTW we should probably do a game where we do like one season each and then we send the savegame to another player. Of course he’ll be schizophrenic)

[Midaychi]

if it were just straight an npc that existed until the other player picked it up, then you run into the issue of npcs in cataclysm being maximum derpy and hard to handle or keep tabs on. And even then, its not really multiplayer so much as taking turns.

I dunno could be neat I guess.

As a side, multiplayer is totally possible in a game like catacylsm dda, just that it’d involve a sweeping huge change to how everything works. You’d have to do it more like project zomboid and cataclysm dda’s current interface would really get in the way.

[Eliijahh]

[quote=“Midaychi, post:2, topic:9110”]if it were just straight an npc that existed until the other player picked it up, then you run into the issue of npcs in cataclysm being maximum derpy and hard to handle or keep tabs on. And even then, its not really multiplayer so much as taking turns.

I dunno could be neat I guess.

As a side, multiplayer is totally possible in a game like catacylsm dda, just that it’d involve a sweeping huge change to how everything works. You’d have to do it more like project zomboid and cataclysm dda’s current interface would really get in the way.[/quote]

The main problem is that it is turn based. And also making a new infrastructure for multiplayer means that almost all the code would have to be modified. I mean, it would be too much of an effort for the gain.

I agree with you. I didn’t write it into the first post, but this eventual feature of “kinda of multiplayer” would be done absolutely AFTER the npcs get a lot of love.

EDIT: I see this idea of mine being more of a little quirky thing to add on top of the many features of the game. Something small that would be probably a bit of fun, but that is just a small addition that many player will probably never use.

[Shoes]

I read embarrassingly little, but what if you could retire your character as an NPC instead of committing suicide? It would hardly accomplish anything because it’s not like your self-NPC would carry on as you were… but a thought.

[Eliijahh]

I read embarrassingly little, but what if you could retire your character as an NPC instead of committing suicide? It would hardly accomplish anything because it’s not like your self-NPC would carry on as you were… but a thought.

I gotta say that while I was suggesting this sort of multiplayer thingy, I was also thinking about what you just suggested, and yes that would be very cool. It’d be cool to see two you’s, all geared up, practically on a sort of transcendence level, fight against each other. Whole cities would burn xD It also would be cool if you could play as them again whenever you want.

[Zero]

The main problem is that it is turn based.

What if it were done under some sense of time dilation. Basically, as you get nearer other players you can only go so far out-of-sync. If your reality bubbles don’t overlap then there’s no restriction.

[Eliijahh]

[quote=“Eliijahh, post:3, topic:9110”]The main problem is that it is turn based.

What if it were done under some sense of time dilation. Basically, as you get nearer other players you can only go so far out-of-sync. If your reality bubbles don’t overlap then there’s no restriction.[/quote]

Man, I really have no idea. From my gaming experience, and cataclysm lurking experience ( I’ve been following cataclysm since whales version ) I can say that multiplayer is very very very imp(ossible)robable. That is why I gave this idea, to find a sort of medium between an impossible multiplayer (which frankly I’m not even sure I’d like ) and a “let’s play together” old style sort of mode. I guess we could try to find a middle ground between just sharing our stories with other players and really playing together. Some sort of compromise. I think we should probably brainstorm in this direction, more than in a full fledged multiplayer way.

[Zero]

Well, everything is possible, the question is whether it’s valuable enough to overcome the difficulty. I don’t think it’s all that difficult, really. Add a terminal connector to make it a client-server system, rate limit actions based on player proximities. It’d be annoying if you’re trying to speed read and someone comes up next to you and starts just hanging around you, but then you’d chat with them, ask what’s up and ask 'em to move along or something.

[Eliijahh]

Well, everything is possible, the question is whether it’s valuable enough to overcome the difficulty. I don’t think it’s all that difficult, really. Add a terminal connector to make it a client-server system, rate limit actions based on player proximities. It’d be annoying if you’re trying to speed read and someone comes up next to you and starts just hanging around you, but then you’d chat with them, ask what’s up and ask 'em to move along or something.

I don’t really think everything is possible. ( but let’s not delve into this sort of conversation or we could go on for hours and hours hourse ) BTW, I gotta be honest. Having multiplayer I guess would be good for this game, because a lot more of people would play it, of course. I don’t know whether I really like the idea, but I guess it would be fun to try once in a while. I guess you could start your own thread to make a sort of call to arms for the multiplayer idea.

The reason why I’m not being very positive and helpful is that I probably know where that thread would go. If you search the forum for multiplayer suggestions, you’ll see what I mean. Also consider this, the game has been built for single player. A multiplayer game has a completely different framework. ( please people with more knowledge than me in programming correct me if I’m wrong ) So the job would consist in rewriting the whole game architecture. Which is…well…really a painful thing to do.

Also the development team priorities, from what I understand, is focused on making more more and more features, following a sort of plan that you can find in this subforum. The multiplayer part would be overlooked for focusing on making the game features-full (if ever a game can be considered perfect ). So multiplayer would be something that’d be made in the end, meaning that the rewrite would have to deal with a much bigger game than today.

TLDR: I’m not trying to say yours is a bad idea, actually it might work I guess. ( I can’t tell you that because I really don’t have the know how ). And I also believe that it would be cool to play multiplayer with a friend of mine, since he loves this sort of games and we would probably never have a social life anymore What I’m saying is not to get your hopes up, and probably try to contribute to making up some ideas closer to my approach, like, no multiplayer but something that is close to it, I guess.

[Zero]

Yeah, it’s cool - I don’t want to sidetrack this thread any further.

Back on topic: It’d be cool if there were an AI learning system that created the NPC’s decision tree based on your actions. Are you melee-prone? Weapons prone? Do you methodically clear buildings or do you just grab a few things, set it on fire and run? Do you raid during the day? At night? Do you read? Eat meat? Live in town or in the forest? Stay in one area or move around a lot?

Could be fun.

[Eliijahh]

Back on topic: It'd be cool if there were an AI learning system that created the NPC's decision tree based on your actions. Are you melee-prone? Weapons prone? Do you methodically clear buildings or do you just grab a few things, set it on fire and run? Do you raid during the day? At night? Do you read? Eat meat? Live in town or in the forest? Stay in one area or move around a lot?

Well it would be awesome!

[i2amroy]

A note, but you can already have multiple people playing in the same world simultaneously, a couple people have already run servers like that in the past. The only big limitation is that you can’t overlap your reality bubbles, and sometimes the difference in turns will make things a little wonky with rot and whatnot. (That said you can still help each other out by doing things like the person in trouble logs out, another comes through and does some stuff before leaving, and then they log back in).

[KA101]

A note, but you can already have multiple people playing in the same world simultaneously, a couple people have already run servers like that in the past. The only big limitation is that you can’t overlap your reality bubbles, and sometimes the difference in turns will make things a little wonky with rot and whatnot. (That said you can still help each other out by doing things like the person in trouble logs out, another comes through and does some stuff before leaving, and then they log back in).

On logout/in tricks, best one I’d ever seen came from Pthalocy: stuck in burning building, no way out? Save and exit that char. Bring another up to watch the building burn down, save and exit once it finishes, load formerly trapped char who will be as saved, but more-safely in the rubble.

[Arek_PL]

I think a hot-seat multiplayer is possible, other turn based roguelike with zombies had this by bug but it was buggy

creating second player character maybe even more is possible by way what is described by Eliijahh

it can be created like that:
-1 turn = until player run out of speed
-after end of player 1 turn player 2 make turn too (during this same time)
-after all players make theira moves characters do this and monsters have their turns like in normal game
-unfinished actions from previous turns are continued in next turn taking more speed

even sleeping and crafting do not get in the way but i am not sure if i understand actual mechanic