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[That-One-Random-Kid]

Reddit post I made about it here https://www.reddit.com/r/starsector/comments/1bm643c/ok_guys_hear_me_out_fully_multiplayer_campaign/) but I improved on the subject and I wanna ask you guys

Say if Alex, or someone, or me created Starsector multiplayer, what would it look like?

note: I'm not trying to create it, I just wonder what it would look like. I'm sure some people, including Alex, are probably creating it.

Of course, Starsector on the campaign level is impossible, with pauses and battles that happen on a different time frame, it's impossible to synchronize it with other players

So instead, we focus on the fleet combat instead!
What would multiplayer fleet combat look like?

Me, I assume it would be a lot like Nebulous Space Command.
You can build your fleet up to a certain amount of credits, (say, 1mil, 2mil, 500k) and you battle with other player's fleet with similar cost until one side remains, or the objective is completed. You get a limited amount of s-mods to put on your ship, (say 5 s-mods for 1mil), and officers cost extra, with more for higher levels. D-mods will actually lower the cost of the ship, and reduce the DP requirement. Certain ships (Usually ships that can't be bought) will be unavailable, like Omega ships and the Ziggurat. Of course, civilian ships are useless and therefore won't be there (With the exception of tankers, for...reasons)

One problem that we might face is phase ships, since they slow down time. The simple fix to it is remove the time dilation completely, and just have the phase ships move faster.

There are many types of game modes I thought of:
Frontline: All ships battle it out until one side remains (There's no DP, all ships are deployed immediately)
King of the Hill: Hold on to the center control zone until you get enough points.
Domination: Same as king of the hill, but there's more control zone
Station: You have to destroy the enemy's station, while protecting your own.
Convoy: One side protects a few civilian ships, while the others tried to destroy the ship before it escapes.
And many more!

Of course, I'm just imagining. I always have ideas such as that. What you guys think?

[Phenir]

There's already AI vs AI using player built fleet tournaments occasionally.

[That-One-Random-Kid]

There's already AI vs AI using player built fleet tournaments occasionally.

Well, I'm more talking about an actual game where you can control the fleet, along with other players

[Zsar]

I mean, multiplayer campaign would certainly work, straight-forward e.g. with

• no pause (very reasonable even in single player right now)
• only auto-resolve battles (judging from AI engagements, might even work well enough, but time to adapt would have to be budgeted into development, in case it does not)

Even better would be, of course, if player battles simply required on-map time, just as AI-on-AI battles already do. It is pretty much cheating to kite one fleet just outside another fleet's intervention radius, beat it completely safe from the second fleet, and then promptly escape or even engage the second fleet alone right after the fight. Even the single player game would be better for it, if this were resolved.

Specific game modi might do away with these problems with even less work: E.g. if all players were in the same faction, players could take over officered ships in battle, even while their main character is elsewhere on the map. The campaign map could simply remain paused in the meanwhile just as it is right now.

PvP could possibly work in such a way as to make everyone not involved spectate, though this would certainly have undesirable balance implications: Battles would have to be optimised in general, to be quick and brutal. Some players would like it, but many would feel put off, and I do not think it is reasonable to expect two separately balanced datasets for multi and single player.

[That-One-Random-Kid]

I mean, multiplayer campaign would certainly work, straight-forward e.g. with

• no pause (very reasonable even in single player right now)
• only auto-resolve battles (judging from AI engagements, might even work well enough, but time to adapt would have to be budgeted into development, in case it does not)

Even better would be, of course, if player battles simply required on-map time, just as AI-on-AI battles already do. It is pretty much cheating to kite one fleet just outside another fleet's intervention radius, beat it completely safe from the second fleet, and then promptly escape or even engage the second fleet alone right after the fight. Even the single player game would be better for it, if this were resolved.

Specific game modi might do away with these problems with even less work: E.g. if all players were in the same faction, players could take over officered ships in battle, even while their main character is elsewhere on the map. The campaign map could simply remain paused in the meanwhile just as it is right now.

PvP could possibly work in such a way as to make everyone not involved spectate, though this would certainly have undesirable balance implications: Battles would have to be optimised in general, to be quick and brutal. Some players would like it, but many would feel put off, and I do not think it is reasonable to expect two separately balanced datasets for multi and single player.

That seems like a really great idea! I'm actually staring to think it's possible!

The only problem I have is that auto-resolve kinda sucks. It's COMPLETLY POSSIBLE for a weaker force to destroy a larger force with a skilled captain.

I guess campaign multiplayer if fleet battles take the same amount of time as campaign time, so the ppl not involved aren't forced to spectate. It'll take a while, so I'm sure we can add like a time limit or something. It also means that other players can join in on the battle, but I think it's reasonable, since we do it all the time.

Yeah, your idea is really good, except for auto-resolve

I dunno

[Bungee_man]

I remember, a long time ago, someone demo'd a live, real-time multiplayer for fleet combat. Just another player controlling a ship in a player's fleet. If I were a guy being paid to get a functional, fun, engaging multiplayer mode for Starsector out the door as soon as possible, I'd add a mode that lets players in the menu screen matchmake with players in campaign mode in active battles, taking control of one of their ships in battle. Players would get to have fun with more than one well-piloted Odyssey at a time, and people who are good at the game but don't want to spin up a whole new campaign can have fun jumping into a newbie's game and showing him how to make a Hyperion earn its DP cost. I think this could more-or-less be done with existing code, and it'd be one of the most fun mods out there, assuming it got enough users.

As for something more ambitious, a campaign mode with multiple players should also be doable, in theory. You'd need to change up or remove some of the story missions, to account for other players doing them first, and battles would need to be made synchronous with the campaign layer, but I don't see anything that'd make it impossible. Maybe someone will eventually make another prototype, someday.

[That-One-Random-Kid]

I remember, a long time ago, someone demo'd a live, real-time multiplayer for fleet combat. Just another player controlling a ship in a player's fleet. If I were a guy being paid to get a functional, fun, engaging multiplayer mode for Starsector out the door as soon as possible, I'd add a mode that lets players in the menu screen matchmake with players in campaign mode in active battles, taking control of one of their ships in battle. Players would get to have fun with more than one well-piloted Odyssey at a time, and people who are good at the game but don't want to spin up a whole new campaign can have fun jumping into a newbie's game and showing him how to make a Hyperion earn its DP cost. I think this could more-or-less be done with existing code, and it'd be one of the most fun mods out there, assuming it got enough users.

As for something more ambitious, a campaign mode with multiple players should also be doable, in theory. You'd need to change up or remove some of the story missions, to account for other players doing them first, and battles would need to be made synchronous with the campaign layer, but I don't see anything that'd make it impossible. Maybe someone will eventually make another prototype, someday.

That seems like a lot of fun!

[Killer of Fate]

I imagined Starsector could work with a Dark Spirit has invaded or summon ally system (forgot how the latter is called in Dark Souls). You can summon an another player to take control of a ship in your fleet, could be a bigger one or a smaller one, depends on the phase of the game I guess. And they get to control it. And then on the other hand a player could join the enemy fleet you just engaged and take control of one of the ships with their own fit for it.

So, like... Imagine there is a mercenary fleet from the Tri-Tachyon Crisis, and the enemy Doom suddenly gains sentience. Or you are fighting a swarm of pirates, and ask your friend to join, so they take control of a Fury and strafe till the night ends.

Something like that would be actually kinda possible...

[yajusenpai]

The easiest would just be a bunch of guy co-op doing mission. Playing with friend is fun, The game often doesn't even need to be good if you can get your friend to play with you.
Campaign wise, maybe let everyone have their own fleet as normal and i would imagine the Fleet size by DP thing would be quite useful to limit player's power and limit s-moding to only one ship or ban them outright.
Just let people join whatever faction they want and fight however. Thing shouldn't go too wrong.