Multiplayer

[daymickcorr]

Multiplayer is a feature that definatly needs to be inside rimworld. Either it is direct or indirect multiplayer at the current state of the game i think changing the game to an rts would make this game epic. But i understand the game is not initialy meant to be played this way. Actually at the moment i think that i great way to integrate multiplayer would be for the multiplayer to act as events. example:

A generated world map would be shared between multiple users where the players select a tile and playes in this tile it is only 1 player per tile like it is currently working at this moment you generate the map you select your tile to build your base.

We could interact with the tiles of the map. Lets say i want to send troops to attack another player i would send colonists on his tile, the player recieving the attack would recieve this attack as a raid event. The player attacking does not control the colonists he has sent, they act as normal ai raiders.

An other example would be exchanging ressources you would make on offer to a tile and it would work as merchants through the comm station.

The idea is we can interact indirectly with other colonies on a shared map which would just trigger events affecting both users

Their could even be some upgrades and be able to build other colonies as factions on other tiles which could share ressources colonists etc

Since the game was not created  to interact as an rts and it would have to be rebalanced this way of interacting with other players would not affect much the game. It will interfere with the storytellers.But it would be a great addition to the game. it would work a little bit like the web based rts games you dont manage you players you send troops they loot etc.

[Pax_Empyrean]

Just pitching in my $0.02 that I don't think multiplayer is worth the time it would take to implement.

[ToXeye]

Indeed, implementing is a question of making a game next to the already existing game.

There's the argument that the game is already "out of alpha". I have no idea why people say that, since it's still A14.

Multiplayer games would usually require some kind of lag compensation.

Then there's the lan coop possibility. I have often wondered "why don't they make games with multiple screens, keyboards and mice?" Lag-free coop instantly! Computers generally benefit from having a low ping when playing. The pawns (colonists, raiders, animals, etc...) would succumb to lag, flying all over the screen. Since the game is so slow to move pawns around, it would be possible to compensate for lag somewhat. I recall from playing online in terraria and minecraft that lag simply ruins the game using the meagre internet connection that I have here. So... even if the game would benefit from coop, the game would require a very specific multiplayer server code to make dedicated and thus somewhat lag free game experiences. When you throw in multiplayer, a lot of weird heavy duty questions arise. Things like "who is going to have the save files". "Who is going to decide over which character". In MMO's this is usually solved by giving one character per player, one save file per world. If the world or server is central to a certain region, it will attract people from that region and thus reduce lag.

I remember wanting to make a Dwarf Fortress multiplayer where the players would control parallel forts, in conflict with each other. It is a strange idea but it's not strange to have it.

[Maelstria]

I just discover the game and coop multiplayer may broke the gameplay.
But i have a suggestion :
Why dont make like simcity a server where lots of players can land and try to survive with interaction like visiting, trading, and take a lost spot if all colonist die ?

[DaGirrafeMan]

That's kind of already happening with a recent mod. This mod is called "Phi," and it allows you to trade with colonists and even give away colonists in a SimCity-like experience. Proves that Tynan isn't the only expert with coding from this humble community. You need to try it out! 

[keylocke]

hmm.. this "phi" sounds interesting. does the modder plan to add further functionalities?

[samuk190]

Solution to time control with multiple players (a HUGE problem!), encoded save system, mods detection, multiplayer mods implementation, in-game chat system, bigger maps, net-code, multiplayer balancing, cheat protection (especially with how easy it is now), multi implementation to every module yet to come...

So yeah, just wanted to point out it's a tad bit more complicated than "just put two players on one map" If multiplayer was a throw-away feature, Tynan would make one already. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near that.

Anti cheat system is for the server. The server will develop this.

[solomax]

Some ideas about multiplayer and co-op in RimWorld:
1) [MP/CO-OP] What if make 1 world (planet), but players are playing in different colonies and they can trade/support/help/attack each other? Like a server hosting world/planet and players are just controlling they're own colony.
2) [CO-OP] Some players just controlling the same colony, like if you have some friends who help you control the colony (example: you're fighting with mechanoids and your friend at the same time is making a new room in a cave-home). It is useful to distribute tasks.

Tell me if these ideas are good. And tell me about some mistakes in these thoughts.

P.S. Sorry for bad English.

[Naithin]

This is probably better suited for the 'Suggestions' forum, and I don't even know that MP is on the roadmap for Rimworld at all, but I would be very much in support of your first idea.

The second I could see being a little more problematic, you'd need to perhaps split 'ownership' of the population with each player's population prioritising first their own player's priorities and plans before assisting the other players.

[solomax]

This is probably better suited for the 'Suggestions' forum, and I don't even know that MP is on the roadmap for Rimworld at all, but I would be very much in support of your first idea.

Many singleplayer games can be better with multiplayer/co-op support

The second I could see being a little more problematic, you'd need to perhaps split 'ownership' of the population with each player's population prioritising first their own player's priorities and plans before assisting the other players.

Imagine that you play in something with friend at your home. But you only have 1 keyboard and mouse, so you can't do two or more things at the same time. So I think that it better for co-op to have different colonies for players like in MP or to control the same colony. So when you're fighting with some enemies and having troubles, your friend can help like if he was on your computer, but connected with LAN/Internet. But population separating is also a good idea.

[killer117]

I think that the best idea is still having a sort of arena match with several players interchanged on offense and defence. each players teams would be made up of colonists and resources from their single player games, that have dev mode disabled. and team balancing could be done using the point values of items like prepare carefully does. the teams would alternate with offense and defence of a certain location. the centre of the map would be blacked out for a certain amount of time, like 10 mins. in this time both teams can prepare their defence and offense. the defending teams could either be defending an item, location or individual, and both teams have all the rimworld options at their disposal, except the time options.

I don't see how having small server over steam or at least lan capacity in the game would be hugely difficult or time consuming, and since the devs are talking about how they are about to complete a huge feature add to the game I'm sure they would have a great deal of spare time afterwards in order to do fixs and small additions and this would be a small but fun and important addition to make.

[ninboja]

I think that multiplayer would be a cool addition to the game, being able to build colonies with your friends or make separate colonies and decide if you want to be allies or work against eachother. There would have to be a friends system though or work from steam friends as it wouldn't be cool if you played with a random and he would just grief your base, but I think a buddy system could get rid of that.

[Brutetal]

I don't get this fuzz about multiplayer.
This pattern is just disturbing. Nearly everytime a solid SP Game comes out there is a crowd shouting "why not multiplayer it's so cool".
Ugh.
I understand that you want to share your experiences with friends. But I don't think Rimworld needs that. Well I may just bought it two weeks ago, so I didn't see the progress from the previous alphas. But I do not think it's clever for Tynan to put his effort there.
The game may be stable and running, but it's not where it's aimed to be, hence the Alpha status. MP would be something that could be included via DLC for those who want that.
I just don't see the sense here. I enjoy this game solo like many others do. And we have the opportunity here and via youtube or who knows where else to share our stories.

[ninboja]

If you had read the previous posts you would notice that multiplayer would get created after the game is finished, and imo multiplayer would be nice in RimWorld, true that not every game fits a multiplayer but I think that it would be a cool addition to this one, anyway if it the multiplayer gets created I don't see anyone forcing you to play it, people that want to stick to sp can stick to sp and players that want the mp experience can go for mp.

[Brutetal]

I have read the previous posts
I was just stating my point. I understand yours completely, I just do not share it. That's why I said it could be sort of a DLC thingy. Or, like in other games, via update and a button ingame. I don't mind the MP part if it gets implemented. I just don't see the need for it that's all.
Maybe I would even try it out if it were there. Just wanted to state there's no point -at the moment- in forcing effort into this
Didn't want to be offensive, sorry if I did word it so.
(Not native speaker, so words sometimes sound better in my head than written ^^)