Well, if MP did ever happen, it would probably be very hard to get any profits at all, as usually when you get out of a "safe-zone" (tutorial) you will be eliminated by OP enemy players with 25 ships in their fleet. You will not be able to level up, so anyone will be able to catch up to you will defeat you.
So really it wouldn't be fun. Its like Minecraft with diamond vs wooden sword.
Oh god no, a multiplayer MP campaign isn't even under consideration; it'd require total overhauls of too many core systems, not to mention a persistent universe.
What I'm talking about is standalone multiplayer battles; 1 fleet vs 1 fleet.
Initially 1 Player v 1 Player, but Many vs Many might be viable in the more distant future.
It'd go something like this:
- Main menu -> multiplayer
- Connect to master server to retrieve live players list. Interface for chatting(via master server), and selecting an opponent.
- Once opponent (peer) is chosen, and successfully connected to -> game configuration screen. (various game options & fleet building screen)
- peers share game/fleet configurations, and sync input states.
- begin synced* game simulation (*deterministic lockstep; buffer inputs & transmit, UDP -> concatenate un-acked packets for minimum latency)
- (for the future)transmit user inputs to the master server too (TCP), allowing for archival of games, and even near-realtime spectating of games in-progress.
- (for the future)back-end database (hosted on the master server) for recording games, player stats, managing leagues etc
SSME provides the means of hooking into SS classes for enforcing determinism, input capture/replacement, injecting the new front-end menus, and mangling the various parts of the game logic that will need it.
Though this is highly coupled to internal SS code, so to avoid wasted effort I shan't progress any further with it until 0.7 is released.
The master server stuff is work-in-progress.
The deterministic lockstep simulation engine is planned out in my head, and can be implemented stand-alone as it's not fundamentally tied to SS.
The other back-end spectating/persistence stuff are just ideas for 'added value' features that would be possible to pull off with such a multiplayer model.
Kind of derailed this thread; sorry.
Back on topic!
Enforcer for life!
Honestly, its hardpoint selection + armour + speed make it totally awesome! A very powerful & flexible yet forgiving ship.
Better than a Lasher at.... Lashing.
Better than a Dominator at.... Dominating.