Multiplayer Implementations

[jacko21297]

Firstly some not so multiplayer based ideas;

Mounts for colonists:

Firstly you could include animals such as horses into the game, these horses can then be ridable, however you must first create a saddle on which to ride it on. Now obviously horses should not be the only mount under which you could ride. For instance if you tame a large animal such as muffilo's, Bears, or even alpacas the user should then be able to ride them with a sufficient saddle. Maybe even ride it bare back and suffer minor groin injury or bruising depending on the gender of said colonist. Another implementation, could be to allow smaller trained animals such as monkeys to ride ontop of other animals including tortoises or wargs.

Explosive Vests.

A feature I feel could be added is an explosive vest, Which can either be remotely or manually detonated. You could attach these explosives to prisoners, Send them toward the enemy and use a separate colonist to activate the explosive detonation. This could also be combined with the animals that you have tamed, perhaps attaching an explosive device to a monkey(Sitting atop a tortoise:/?) and sending them towards enemy raiders. Of course any one of your colonists could easily attach a vest to themselves and manually detonate it once the target is close enough. I do not find this particular feature to be incredibly difficult to program, as Boomalopes and Boomrats already exist and most likely already contain the functions you would need to implement such a feature.

Access to different locations within the world.

Once the user reaches a certain point in gameplay, the map will start to become either overcrowded or resources will have been depleted. Because of this I believe allowing the user to access other area locations to be a vital part to the success of this game. Not only that, but once these kind of features are enabled, moving forward toward a multiplayer game would become more of a reality. Multiplayer is also a feature I would very much like to see, and i'm sure many other users would too. However I will talk about this later in more depth. The user should be able to send out raiding parties of their own to attack other tribes or factions. The users colonists could act in a similar way to which AI colonists do, especially when moving through locations to reach the targeted destination. If you choose to send your colonists to a location to collect resources or start a new colony, On the travel to this location The user could follow his colonists through each map until the chosen destination is found. If this was then ported to multiplayer, You would be able to see other users colony's as you passed through it, perhaps making trades, or initiating an assault. Or of course passing through peacefully, staying for a short while to enjoy the view and catch up on some well earned rest .

Multiplayer Specific:

I do feel I should move onto speaking more in depth about multiplayer as I have many ideas as to how it could be implemented. Now I understand that if you do not wish to include multiplayer, then that is your decision, it is after all, your game. However I fully believe that introducing multiplayer aspects into this game, could drastically improve user feedback, and also massively increase player popularity and playthrough possibilities. I know that creating a good story is what you're all about, and nothing would be more emotionally tied, or heart throbbing as getting crushed by real players. If anything it would want me to keep playing until I beat that player. Obviously the way in which you could introduce multiplayer is quite broad, and there are many ways in which you could present it. I do however suggest that maybe some of these implementations could suffice. Firstly, Several servers could periodically be introduced, and players can be added to a particular world up until a certain point. This would prevent players from being placed in a world that is already highly dominated, and a victory would seem uncertain if not unlikely for the user to say the least. Users will be randomly selected locations, and randomly selected their survivors. As allowing the user to keep randomizing their initial characters until they find a 'Perfect' setup, does seem disadvantages especially to players who do not use that particular tactic. When a world is loaded there are certain victory conditions that have to be met, before that said world is finished and a victor is declared.

An implementation that actually makes escape pods useful would be that once the victory conditions are met, either the winner or winner's have to eject a certain amount of colonists into space. Which could then enter them into a new world, which would only be filled with users who had won their previous worlds. Of course this could then keep going up until the last planet is created and a final victor is declared. I find that introducing some sort of scoring or leaderboard system into your game, will make it far more competitive. Enticing many more players to play the game.

Each world could also contain varied or specific biome types. Perhaps the first stage of the "tournament" is quite varied in terms of biomes. The second tier world is completely desert, and then maybe a different world that is entirely tundra or ice cap biomes. This would mean all players participating in that world are all under similar conditions. Now of course if the user is playing a world that contains a variety of biomes, and one user spawns in the tundra, the other in the desert, and one in a temperate forest, the odds are going to highly favour the user that colonises in a more relaxing and forgiving climate. So maybe some sort of buffs and debuffs should be included. IE users that spawn in the tundra, all their colonists have parkas, and there are extra little stashes of food or something located around the map. However if something like this happens, perhaps a user can instantly decide they are gonna grab what they can and head south toward warmer climates.

This would also suggest the idea of including some sort of backpack or horses and cart like implementations that would allow the user to carry more than normal. However to prevent anything that would seem overpowered, colonists wearing huge rucksacks to carry resources, cannot carry a weapon etc..

Let's say for example the user decides to leave some of his colonists to continue to survive in a location, and sends some of their other colonists to re colonise a separate location, Should the user still be able to visually switch back and forth between his colonists on the move, and the colonists at the base? Or do they have to stick it out, maintain the camera on the party and hope fate doesn't crush their colony at home whilst they're on the move. If you decided that the user would have to leave his remaining colonists to fate, perhaps when loading multiplayer worlds, you start with only one colonist, of whom you follow everywhere, if they die, Game Over.. This could be a victory condition for a world: Assassinate all opponent's faction leaders. This also creates a difficult decision for the user, 'Do I have to bring my faction leader with me on my conquest so I have the ability to protect him, or do I leave him at the colony, and hope my colonists manage to protect him.

Another issue you may face, is that different users will play on different map sizes, and so for this reason, perhaps per world or server there are certain characteristics listed, IE the world contains all map sizes of 300*300, Or "This server contains map sizes of 400*400, only enter this server if your sure your computer can handle it."

Servers should be able to be played privately by users, For example a world could be loaded up for multiple friends, who have the ability to set their own win conditions, biome specific worlds, starting conditions etc.. Worlds of this making should be allowed to let users access multiple map areas in one go, unlike one of my previous suggestions where I stated, only allowing the user to view the map under which that faction leader resides to be possible.

On Top of this perhaps some sort of CO OP mode, where either 2 players have a faction leader each but are both allied and spawn either in the same location or in near proximity(This could be for the tournaments.) Or the users could play simultaneously on a 'Single Player' world, as if it were only being played by one user. However both the users can spawn in the same colony location, each only being able to control their colonist. Perhaps some sort of hierarchy system on which orders can be carried out, IE as colonists join the colony, they can both vote on who that new colonist be ruled under, Or if they both wish to have the colonist predominantly under their rule, a coin toss, or a virtual rock paper scissors could settle the tie break. Under certain situations the users can allow the user to access their individual colonists to perform tasks. However typically, combat specific tasks should be the only place where a user has overruling control on a colonist over the other user. 

Or a different type of online, where you are both spawned in a very large map, each of you on different ends of said map. There is a grace period let's say that prevents you from attacking each other, or there is a line that your colonists will not go past until a certain time period. Your aim is to kill all opponents colonists. A Fog of war prevents you from seeing what your opponent is doing. and when the time period is up, all hell breaks loose.

For the online play, I believe a character leveling up would be rather entertaining. So when creating your character to be your faction leader, you get a certain amount of points to allocate to skills, you can choose their childhood and adulthood backgrounds, As well as apply buffs or debuffs to the character to allow for more point allocation. IE The user will start with 10 points to allocate to their skills, but to get an extra point if they add a debuff of depressive, and to get a further 2 points they prevent their character from being able to mine(A rather silly decision if you ask me, as how are they going to get resources when playing as a solo character -__-).

If the user's character dies, they should either lose points in someway, suffer no setback at all, or have a perma death, where they need to re-create a character. However depending on that character's level before they died, the user is entitled to a few extra points, so it does not create such a major setback.

I think some sort of overall online character leveling system could also be included. For example; The user starts his online level at 0(obviously) after gaining XP through leveling up the character, this will then add xp to the online level of the user. Some sort of tiered unlocking system could be added:
Level 0 - 1 New Character slot, Certain traits, 10 points to assign, 1 interested passion flame.
Level 1 - access to the beautiful and ugly trait, 1 extra point to assign, 1 extra interested passion flame.
Level 2 - access to careful shooter trait.
Level 5 - 1 New Character slot, Extra traits, 1 extra point to assign, 1 Burning Passion flame.
Level 10 - Childhood backstory Vatgrown soldier unlocked, Certain scars unlocked etc..

Some sort of leveling up system in this manner would suffice, what I wrote was simply to give a mental image of what I am trying to represent. I wrote 'New Character slot' in the above bullet points, This could help the user save particular characters upto a maximum of 5? And then use a separate character to level up the user's online level, which allows them to add extra points to their existing characters.

[Thane]

First:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ptdJFFAy68

Second:
Mounts are cool.

Third:
Not sure the game has an engine that can support thtat sort of multiplayer. Though I agree with the moving off map stuff.

[ChillinVillian13]

Firstly some not so multiplayer based ideas;

Mounts for colonists:

Firstly you could include animals such as horses into the game, these horses can then be ridable, however you must first create a saddle on which to ride it on. Now obviously horses should not be the only mount under which you could ride. For instance if you tame a large animal such as muffilo's, Bears, or even alpacas the user should then be able to ride them with a sufficient saddle. Maybe even ride it bare back and suffer minor groin injury or bruising depending on the gender of said colonist. Another implementation, could be to allow smaller trained animals such as monkeys to ride ontop of other animals including tortoises or wargs.

Explosive Vests.

A feature I feel could be added is an explosive vest, Which can either be remotely or manually detonated. You could attach these explosives to prisoners, Send them toward the enemy and use a separate colonist to activate the explosive detonation. This could also be combined with the animals that you have tamed, perhaps attaching an explosive device to a monkey(Sitting atop a tortoise:/?) and sending them towards enemy raiders. Of course any one of your colonists could easily attach a vest to themselves and manually detonate it once the target is close enough. I do not find this particular feature to be incredibly difficult to program, as Boomalopes and Boomrats already exist and most likely already contain the functions you would need to implement such a feature.

Access to different locations within the world.

Once the user reaches a certain point in gameplay, the map will start to become either overcrowded or resources will have been depleted. Because of this I believe allowing the user to access other area locations to be a vital part to the success of this game. Not only that, but once these kind of features are enabled, moving forward toward a multiplayer game would become more of a reality. Multiplayer is also a feature I would very much like to see, and i'm sure many other users would too. However I will talk about this later in more depth. The user should be able to send out raiding parties of their own to attack other tribes or factions. The users colonists could act in a similar way to which AI colonists do, especially when moving through locations to reach the targeted destination. If you choose to send your colonists to a location to collect resources or start a new colony, On the travel to this location The user could follow his colonists through each map until the chosen destination is found. If this was then ported to multiplayer, You would be able to see other users colony's as you passed through it, perhaps making trades, or initiating an assault. Or of course passing through peacefully, staying for a short while to enjoy the view and catch up on some well earned rest .

Multiplayer Specific:

I do feel I should move onto speaking more in depth about multiplayer as I have many ideas as to how it could be implemented. Now I understand that if you do not wish to include multiplayer, then that is your decision, it is after all, your game. However I fully believe that introducing multiplayer aspects into this game, could drastically improve user feedback, and also massively increase player popularity and playthrough possibilities. I know that creating a good story is what you're all about, and nothing would be more emotionally tied, or heart throbbing as getting crushed by real players. If anything it would want me to keep playing until I beat that player. Obviously the way in which you could introduce multiplayer is quite broad, and there are many ways in which you could present it. I do however suggest that maybe some of these implementations could suffice. Firstly, Several servers could periodically be introduced, and players can be added to a particular world up until a certain point. This would prevent players from being placed in a world that is already highly dominated, and a victory would seem uncertain if not unlikely for the user to say the least. Users will be randomly selected locations, and randomly selected their survivors. As allowing the user to keep randomizing their initial characters until they find a 'Perfect' setup, does seem disadvantages especially to players who do not use that particular tactic. When a world is loaded there are certain victory conditions that have to be met, before that said world is finished and a victor is declared.

An implementation that actually makes escape pods useful would be that once the victory conditions are met, either the winner or winner's have to eject a certain amount of colonists into space. Which could then enter them into a new world, which would only be filled with users who had won their previous worlds. Of course this could then keep going up until the last planet is created and a final victor is declared. I find that introducing some sort of scoring or leaderboard system into your game, will make it far more competitive. Enticing many more players to play the game.

Each world could also contain varied or specific biome types. Perhaps the first stage of the "tournament" is quite varied in terms of biomes. The second tier world is completely desert, and then maybe a different world that is entirely tundra or ice cap biomes. This would mean all players participating in that world are all under similar conditions. Now of course if the user is playing a world that contains a variety of biomes, and one user spawns in the tundra, the other in the desert, and one in a temperate forest, the odds are going to highly favour the user that colonises in a more relaxing and forgiving climate. So maybe some sort of buffs and debuffs should be included. IE users that spawn in the tundra, all their colonists have parkas, and there are extra little stashes of food or something located around the map. However if something like this happens, perhaps a user can instantly decide they are gonna grab what they can and head south toward warmer climates.

This would also suggest the idea of including some sort of backpack or horses and cart like implementations that would allow the user to carry more than normal. However to prevent anything that would seem overpowered, colonists wearing huge rucksacks to carry resources, cannot carry a weapon etc..

Let's say for example the user decides to leave some of his colonists to continue to survive in a location, and sends some of their other colonists to re colonise a separate location, Should the user still be able to visually switch back and forth between his colonists on the move, and the colonists at the base? Or do they have to stick it out, maintain the camera on the party and hope fate doesn't crush their colony at home whilst they're on the move. If you decided that the user would have to leave his remaining colonists to fate, perhaps when loading multiplayer worlds, you start with only one colonist, of whom you follow everywhere, if they die, Game Over.. This could be a victory condition for a world: Assassinate all opponent's faction leaders. This also creates a difficult decision for the user, 'Do I have to bring my faction leader with me on my conquest so I have the ability to protect him, or do I leave him at the colony, and hope my colonists manage to protect him.

Another issue you may face, is that different users will play on different map sizes, and so for this reason, perhaps per world or server there are certain characteristics listed, IE the world contains all map sizes of 300*300, Or "This server contains map sizes of 400*400, only enter this server if your sure your computer can handle it."

Servers should be able to be played privately by users, For example a world could be loaded up for multiple friends, who have the ability to set their own win conditions, biome specific worlds, starting conditions etc.. Worlds of this making should be allowed to let users access multiple map areas in one go, unlike one of my previous suggestions where I stated, only allowing the user to view the map under which that faction leader resides to be possible.

On Top of this perhaps some sort of CO OP mode, where either 2 players have a faction leader each but are both allied and spawn either in the same location or in near proximity(This could be for the tournaments.) Or the users could play simultaneously on a 'Single Player' world, as if it were only being played by one user. However both the users can spawn in the same colony location, each only being able to control their colonist. Perhaps some sort of hierarchy system on which orders can be carried out, IE as colonists join the colony, they can both vote on who that new colonist be ruled under, Or if they both wish to have the colonist predominantly under their rule, a coin toss, or a virtual rock paper scissors could settle the tie break. Under certain situations the users can allow the user to access their individual colonists to perform tasks. However typically, combat specific tasks should be the only place where a user has overruling control on a colonist over the other user. 

Or a different type of online, where you are both spawned in a very large map, each of you on different ends of said map. There is a grace period let's say that prevents you from attacking each other, or there is a line that your colonists will not go past until a certain time period. Your aim is to kill all opponents colonists. A Fog of war prevents you from seeing what your opponent is doing. and when the time period is up, all hell breaks loose.

For the online play, I believe a character leveling up would be rather entertaining. So when creating your character to be your faction leader, you get a certain amount of points to allocate to skills, you can choose their childhood and adulthood backgrounds, As well as apply buffs or debuffs to the character to allow for more point allocation. IE The user will start with 10 points to allocate to their skills, but to get an extra point if they add a debuff of depressive, and to get a further 2 points they prevent their character from being able to mine(A rather silly decision if you ask me, as how are they going to get resources when playing as a solo character -__-).

If the user's character dies, they should either lose points in someway, suffer no setback at all, or have a perma death, where they need to re-create a character. However depending on that character's level before they died, the user is entitled to a few extra points, so it does not create such a major setback.

I think some sort of overall online character leveling system could also be included. For example; The user starts his online level at 0(obviously) after gaining XP through leveling up the character, this will then add xp to the online level of the user. Some sort of tiered unlocking system could be added:
Level 0 - 1 New Character slot, Certain traits, 10 points to assign, 1 interested passion flame.
Level 1 - access to the beautiful and ugly trait, 1 extra point to assign, 1 extra interested passion flame.
Level 2 - access to careful shooter trait.
Level 5 - 1 New Character slot, Extra traits, 1 extra point to assign, 1 Burning Passion flame.
Level 10 - Childhood backstory Vatgrown soldier unlocked, Certain scars unlocked etc..

Some sort of leveling up system in this manner would suffice, what I wrote was simply to give a mental image of what I am trying to represent. I wrote 'New Character slot' in the above bullet points, This could help the user save particular characters upto a maximum of 5? And then use a separate character to level up the user's online level, which allows them to add extra points to their existing characters.

Love the idea, possibly explosive vests on animals, charge and the blow up your enemies??

[jacko21297]

Yeah that was what I was tryna suggest, because I would find it hilarious to see a monkey running at the enemy with an explosive vest, kinda just saves your colonists from being blown up instead.

[GrumpyGrobby]

Explosive Vests.

A feature I feel could be added is an explosive vest, Which can either be remotely or manually detonated. You could attach these explosives to prisoners, Send them toward the enemy and use a separate colonist to activate the explosive detonation. This could also be combined with the animals that you have tamed, perhaps attaching an explosive device to a monkey(Sitting atop a tortoise:/?) and sending them towards enemy raiders. Of course any one of your colonists could easily attach a vest to themselves and manually detonate it once the target is close enough. I do not find this particular feature to be incredibly difficult to program, as Boomalopes and Boomrats already exist and most likely already contain the functions you would need to implement such a feature.

I'm not so sure that turning my Rimworld into a Taliban simulator is a very good idea........

[Thane]

I'm not so sure that turning my Rimworld into a Taliban simulator is a very good idea........

ALLAHU ACKBAR!!!


Don't kill me. It's a meme.

[Mikhail Reign]

<snip> people

[Simon_The_Space_Engineer]

easiest way i see multiplayer coming in is either a high score leader board for others with similar starting conditions or similar climate, as well as a global one. or just a pre generated map that is changed every week or so and players compete on that to try and get to space faster than the others (maybe colonists are all the same leaving it down to luck with rng and skill)

[Azzarrel]

easiest way i see multiplayer coming in is either a high score leader board for others with similar starting conditions or similar climate, as well as a global one. or just a pre generated map that is changed every week or so and players compete on that to try and get to space faster than the others (maybe colonists are all the same leaving it down to luck with rng and skill)

well, this would also be the most boring way i guess.
Something like the simcity4 multiplayer would be nice to start with. Different colonies on the same map, which influence eachother, while 'the player' can only play one at the same time. But i guess that's already a direction in which the current game deveopement might go, as it would give a meaing to the maps finally ^^

[JesterHell]

I personally don't want dev-time spent on adding any type of multiplayer.

[Simon_The_Space_Engineer]

I personally don't want dev-time spent on adding any type of multiplayer.

agreed, id say that finishing the game first would be the best way. if someone wanted multiplayer really badly someone could try to make a mod that adds it but with my little knowledge of how monogramming works i can tell that it would be a huge mod and really require some changes in a lot of coding