Multiplayer [WIP]

[Joker]

(Not another will this have multiplayer thread)

So I'm thinking about creating some sort of standalone multiplayer for Endless Sky.

Any fan boys who want multiplayer post your ideas here This won't be an official full multiplayer and won't be released until I finish my other Endless Sky projects.

Planned Features/To Do List:
Make ideas - I haven't 100% decided to start development yet and it will be a while before I do because I want to finish other projects + I have to work and do life stuff. Don't let the not 100% commited yet crush your dreams of MP because I will most likely be making something even if it's just a simple multiplayer.

Ideas from community/random thoughts:
Prepare for the longest wall of text of your life.
// A new post or different person will be sperated with //
It could be a coop with friends or more mmo style. It could be exactly like Endless Sky or it could be on a smaller scale and more arcade like or it could simply be some sort of battle royale type of game with DM/TDM/etc and perhaps leveling and upgrading outfits. Now that I think about it there was an MMO space game on Kongregate long time ago that's kind of similar. (Starfighter Disputed Galaxy) The list goes on.

What do you guys want, and what are your ideas? Finding out what you guys think is the main purpose of this thread for now.

Here's my five cents: players should only be allowed to be merchants, with an ambitient civil war going on and possible "support war effort" quests on either side.
-The players should be allowed to get NPC fleets as in SP original, but maybe they could desert if the player is attacking ships a lot to prevent trolling.
-Some system of reputation should be implemented, and if a player goes below a certain level, they will be attacked by NPC ships and generally show as pirates.
-There needs to be a non-hostile docking/equipment exchange system to allow players to exchange resourses.
-A "Union" system should be introduced which allows multiple fleets to receive each others information (like the fleet display, but for multiple fleets at once).
-IF a players ship is destroyed, they should have the option to make a different ship in their fleet the flagship. If there are no other ships, the player should at least keep their bank balance (and maybe a compensation from the sector's goverment in the form of a starter ship?)
-In the long run, it would be interesting to have a law enforcement faction of devs.

//
About the deserting, I made some rules:
1. If attacked ship is both player and non-criminal, desert
2. If attacked ship is both player and criminal, don't desert
3. If attacked ship is NPC, desert if its reputation with the player is positive.
//

Hmm you said, "players should only be allowed to be merchants", but then continue on to talk about players being pirates...
Adding on to those ideas:
-Instead of players just being merchants let them be whoever they want
-Limit player owned fleets to a few ships (imagine just 5 players each with their own fleet of unlimited size, now imagine 15 players...it'd be a mess)
-Reputation system: Gain bounty for being a pirate, and reputation with other factions based on relations. ie helping republic hurts reputation with free worlds / opposing factions.
Some More Ideas:
-4 Starter factions: Republic, Syndicate, Pirate(?), and Free Worlds
-Can join the other factions but not start as them
-Pirates have fewer npcs and are more of a player faction, they own the planets and everything, but harder to be a pirate.
-Players in the regular governments can't own planets, but are safer and easier to live.
-Main ship dying in battle causes fleet to fight to death or flee.
-Lives system(?): Start with an amount of lives lose them all and account gets reset, but can obtain more lives.
(?) = not sure if it'd be good or not
//

Maybe make lives work like insurance? i.e. you could buy more at a bank OR you have to pay premiums.
If there is no permadeath, I don't see a reason not to allow players to be pirates or anyone else.
Fleet size limit might be done in the form of "ship taxes" after you get some number, and the tax should be overwhelming. The additional benefit of this is the fact that it makes trolling much harder (see comments above).
Another small idea: a "radio" outfit which gives you access to chat, and a much larger outfit that does not come with the default ships, an "FTL comms" system which allows to communicate with other star systems.
Also, a bit on the technical side: which multiplayer model are you planning for? Because the most fitting one would be MMO, but it will be expencive to set up the servers. If you are serious about this, you better start collecting donations ASAP.

//
-Well, it would be permadeath or worse account reset.
-Fleets are a tough question...if they just have high tax rate that leaves only rich players and cheaters obtaining them. I think starting without fleets for a while then adding them later would be good.
-I like the radio outfit idea I think it should be a required item to join or create clans
//

[Amazinite]

Originally posted by Legolas:

It will be free, and open source of course.

Guess what else is free and open source.
Endless Sky

So that answers this:

Originally posted by Legolas:

Can I use the sprites or would MZ not like that?

Creditting is important, though. :)

[Joker]

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

Originally posted by Legolas:

It will be free, and open source of course.

Guess what else is free and open source.
Endless Sky

So that answers this:

Originally posted by Legolas:

Can I use the sprites or would MZ not like that?

Creditting is important, though. :)

Thanks, better to check than get sued or something

[Amazinite]

Originally posted by Legolas:

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

Guess what else is free and open source.
Endless Sky

So that answers this:

Creditting is important, though. :)

Thanks, better to check than get sued or something

As long as it remains open source and free, I'm pretty sure you'd be fine.

[Joker]

Yeah, I wouldn't think I'd have any problems with that. Hoping for some good ideas from the community since there have been so many "will this have multiplayer" posts.

[Anima]

You'd probably have a better chance of MZ responding if you brought this up on GitHub

[Amazinite]

Originally posted by ¬°OmegaZanicus:

You'd probably have a better chance of MZ responding if you brought this up on GitHub

Getting MZ to respond is not the point.

[Anima]

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

Originally posted by ¬°OmegaZanicus:

You'd probably have a better chance of MZ responding if you brought this up on GitHub

Getting MZ to respond is not the point.

I only said that because

Originally posted by Legolas:

Can I use the sprites or would MZ not like that?

But okey then

But playing with your friends would be pretty cool, maybe just locally hosted/temporary servers.

I only hate the "will this have multiplayer?" Threads and people that say "But its not THAT hard". Seeing someone maybe actually doing it is pretty cool.

[Joker]

Originally posted by ¬°OmegaZanicus:

But playing with your friends would be pretty cool, maybe just locally hosted/temporary servers.

I only hate the "will this have multiplayer?" Threads and people that say "But its not THAT hard". Seeing someone maybe actually doing it is pretty cool.

Well, didn't need MZ to answer it himself, I was just double checking that the sprites are free to use, I'll take Derpy's word for it and the copyright in the files.

I agree those people are the worst lol. Literally any feedback that's not "it's not THAT hard" could be helpful here.

I haven't decided how I'm going to make it. It could be a coop with friends or more mmo style. It could be exactly like Endless Sky or it could be on a smaller scale and more arcade like or it could simply be some sort of battle royale type of game with DM/TDM/etc and perhaps leveling and upgrading outfits. Now that I think about it there was an MMO space game on Kongregate long time ago that's kind of similar. The list goes on.

What do you guys want, and what are your ideas? Finding out what you guys think is the main purpose of this thread for now.

[Anima]

I think I already mostly described it, but what I see in a multiplayer set up for endless sky would probably be a temporary server, kind of Space Engineers kind of style if you've played that, where your friends can just join in and play a normal game of endless sky.


I'd be fine with almost anything, as long as it doesn't fly too far from the original

[Lt_Duckweed]

Originally posted by Legolas:

Now that I think about it there was an MMO space game on Kongregate long time ago that's kind of similar.

Starfighter Disputed Galaxy?

[Joker]

Originally posted by Lt_Duckweed:

Originally posted by Legolas:

Now that I think about it there was an MMO space game on Kongregate long time ago that's kind of similar.

Starfighter Disputed Galaxy?

YES! I can never remember the name of that game Thanks, I'm going to play it right now

Can't thank you enough for knowing what game I was talking about given the vague description. I could never find this game when I wanted to and I love it. (even the random ambushes) http://i.imgur.com/iXSUBAf.jpg

[Joker]

I'm thinking I'll start it as just a fighting dm/tdm game then work into a Starfighter Disputed Galaxy type game. Open to ideas though.

[Ker]

I am not encouraging anyone to play this game, nor am i discouraging people from making stand alone multiplayer mods. I am simply sharing it because people are clearly looking for it, and its been around for a very long time.

http://www.starsonata.com/

[Anima]

Originally posted by Kiko, Killer of Threads:

I am not encouraging anyone to play this game, nor am i discouraging people from making stand alone multiplayer mods. I am simply sharing it because people are clearly looking for it, and its been around for a very long time.

http://www.starsonata.com/

Kiko how dare you betray Endless Sky's honor by linking us to a similar game and discouraging our lovely players

[Joker]

Originally posted by Kiko, Killer of Threads:

I am not encouraging anyone to play this game, nor am i discouraging people from making stand alone multiplayer mods. I am simply sharing it because people are clearly looking for it, and its been around for a very long time.

I go to the website and the first thing I see is no credit card required... seems legit...
I'll try it and maybe get some ideas from it thanks for sharing