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« on: March 07, 2012, 01:36:58 PM »
Yes, I know, I know, multiplayer isn't planned for Starfarer, or at least certainly not for 1.0.
But let's talk about ways that, once Starfarer hits 1.0 and assuming it's a financially successful release for Fractal Softworks, it could be implemented.
Two big design issues stand out as problems for implementation in the game's current form: battles are auto-paused when opening the map (to give orders), and battles are disconnected time-wise from the world-map.
However if we take examples fro,m other games (holding some similarities to Starfarer) there are good solutions for both of these.
Obviously in a multiplayer battle, we can't have the battle pausing every time someone opens up the map. So instead, it'll have to stay playing the whole time. Initial orders though, there could be a 30s-1m "setup" period where all of the players have a chance to issue orders to their fleets.
In terms of how battles are shown (and handled) on the world map, we can take a page out of the (not-so-great) MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea. To deal with the same issue, what happens is that when two fleets run into each other they create a "battle" icon on the overworld map that remains there until the battle is resolved. The world keeps moving around them, and for the first (brief) time period, others can enter the battle as well. After that, it's closed until the battle is resolved, and ships/fleets exiting the battle have a brief period of invisibility to get away safe from "vultures" surrounding it.
So why would multiplayer be so awesome? Think private servers with your friends, Minecraft-style. How awesome would that be?