Stonehearth Multiplayer

Development
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Is it just me or this game really going to sink close to the beach?

Seriously, a lot of games failed because they have postponed multiplayer development, just to mention a tiny little game recently launched: Duke Nuken Forever, kindly called Duke Nuken “ForNever”.
Their development team had to change the entire game engine, just because of this multiplayer thingy… (They also changed the game engine entirely for other reasons, several times, just for the sake of being the greatest game on earth, but that is another story…)

I am not saying you devs don’t have a plan, but that is the kind of thing that has to be developed from ground up, just like voxels, probably you guys did notice that playing with voxels is pretty much a lot different than playing with polys alone.

You probably will fail trying to change the game engine to include Multiplayer in a much later development stage.

Please! I REALLY like this game, start development on multiplayer, otherwise, it will remain forever Single Player.

Also, including Mac and Linux Support isn’t that easy, not that hard as multi-player I’d say, but also difficult if not prepared on the early stages.

If you guys have already developed something on these fronts, please, update the Trello and main site, and sorry for ranting about those things.

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I approve of this. But, the whole starting all over thing depends on:

  • What kind of game it is.
  • How flexible the engine is.

Honestly, I think that Stonehearth wouldn’t struggle too much with creating a well-balanced multiplayer mode, but it all depends on the engine, since we know nothing about how flexible it is, due to the fact TR made it from the ground up. But it seems like this is a noteworthy topic.

draws incantation circle on the ground

@SteveAdamo, I SUMMON THEE!

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Doesn’t SH’s engine already have a client/server setup in single-player? [I recall there being folders named like that in stonehearth.smod at least.]

So it shouldn’t require a complete redoing of things, but the game in general needs to be more stable before they’ll throw in the extra obstacle to debugging that is multiplayer.

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…Whoops. You got the wrong Steve. @SteveAdamo should be along soon, hopefully.

In all seriousness, the issue of multiplayer has been something that’s concerned me for a while as well. I suppose part of it’s an issue with the coding (which I don’t know much about, especially since it’s their own engine):

Is it easier for the team to implement multiplayer first, then correct issues that pop up with new elements they introduce (such as a projectile system or more classes)? Or is it better to put together those features now, then adapt it to multiplayer?

My uneducated guess would be the former, but the other issue that Radiant mentioned is this: we need more stable content in the actual game to make multiplayer worthwhile. Given the current status, it is almost guaranteed a player will do everything there is to offer. That is, so long as the engine doesn’t encounter a bug. This is part of the reason I think we still need to wait–the engine needs to work well with only one person to start with.

Personally, I hope will start seeing progress towards multiplayer the beginning of next year if not sooner (a hopeful estimate, of course).

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i’m pretty sure thats the case…

[quote=“Sandwitch, post:2, topic:16339”]
@SteveAdamo, I SUMMON THEE!
[/quote]though @SteveAdamo is very resourceful and full of knowledge about TR that few others know… wouldnt it make more sense to just summon TR themselves?

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Sorry, that’s a level 52.5 spell. I am only level 52.

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well i guess i’ll have to do it for you then…

i summon thee oh great and powerful devs, @sdee @yshan @Albert @Tom @Ponder @brad @not_owen_wilson , come shine thy vast knowledge upon this subject for thine loyal servants, and depart unto us thine wisdom…

that should do it… i hope, i’m getting a little rusty in my summoning skills these days…

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Don’t worry, we have big comments all over our code that say “Put multiplayer here.” And “This will change like THIS in multiplayer.” Tony is thinking hard about it.

Yes indeed. So we do already think about what data belongs just to the current player, and which belongs to the whole world state.

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Multiplayer?! You’re my hero.
Is there anything that says (insert ginger here)?

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Well, that puts some of my fears to rest, then. After all those discussions about having to test branches before incorporating them to the main game data, I had no idea how much incorporating multiplayer might throw a wrench in the system.

Is the team still considering multiple basic forms of multiplayer, specifically a co-managed settlement and a versus/team mode?

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wait, THAT’S what the summoning class does? dangit, I selected black mage, and now I’m stuck blasting bugs with fire, just to find they’re fire resistant. I knew I should read the classes more carefully!

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don’t worry… i’m a bit of everything, but my main class is derailer… :laughing:

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Hmm I just don’t get what is so important about multiplayer. I mean don’t get me wrong I love games that let me play with friends or agents others, but idk. People get a little cut throat when games don’t have or haven’t implemented multiplayer. Like I said I love to play with friends and others, its fun to interact or be challenged by another person, but I do feel like a solid single player game should be established before the fancy stuff. eh but that’s just me, back in my day we didn’t have any of these fancy multi-persons games just good old solitaire ahaha =^.^=

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while I whole-heartedly agree that a single-player base should be established before a multiplayer aspect, and much prefer single-player games myself (namely RPGs), when it comes to games that allow for creativity, such as stonehearth, MP is much more needed. creativity only really shines when you have someone else lobbing junk at it. much of the fun in MP games is fun made up by a group of players, and doesn’t work when the player is left by themselves. solitaire is fun and all, but without your friend flipping the table while you’re stacking the cards into a pyramid every now and then, it quickly gets boring.

in cases like most of the games nowadays that heavily push MP, like FPS games (I’m looking at you, cawadoody!), MP is not important at all, and should be considered secondary, or even tertiary, and a single-player base should be established so that the game itself is fun. that’s because those games are severely limited in the creativity department. but games like minecraft, terraria, and even stonehearth, thrive off of player ingenuity, and nothing sparks ingenuity like “I can’t wait to see the look on bob’s face when I do THIS”.

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Well, this is true, but we’re a little ways off. After all, we’ve only got about half of the rainbow at our fingertips (where are you, orange, green, and purple?) Heck, we still need a way to plant grass/move dirt. How else can I get a sustainable floating city/empire working?

I think the important point for now is that the team’s leaving space open for multiplayer functions to be implemented–they’re definitely keeping it in mind and planning for it. But I personally wouldn’t mind if they started fishing for community feedback during the next few Alphas regarding what sort of multiplayer features they’d like seeing…

…huh, guess I’ll take a shot at reaching him. @SteveAdamo, what would you really like in multiplayer?

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@SteveAdamo, are you ready to die by my hands in multiplayer?

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I’m not at all surprised Team Radiant is on it. I’ve been consistently impressed by their technical competency in dealing with complex problems in Stonehearth. This may be a little indie dev studio, but they’re not amateurs like some other indie games that suddenly got big and turned into a clusterfuck when they started implementing new features.

Heck, Tony created GGPO. AAA games license that technology.

I don’t think anyone should be worried about Team Radiant knowing how to implement multiplayer. Remember that multiplayer is something they had as a stretch goal on the Kickstarter, so they had it in mind before starting the campaign, and it’s something they’ve known they’ll need to do before Alpha 1 even came out.

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hahaha… a multiplayer thread that hasn’t been merged yet? this must by a sign of the apocalypse! :smile:

bring it, son…

to be honest, I am not a big fan of multiplayer … but with a game like SH, I can see it being rather fun to work cooperatively with other folks (excluding @Zilla)…

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I personally think it’s great that they are thinking already on multiplayer, but in my book multiplayer should be one of the lower (if not the lowest ) priorities. It makes developing a game very complicated, especially if it is in the alpha phase. so many things are a subject to change, it would only complicate the other features. But I have great confidence in the team to work it out as they see fit.

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Yeah I don’t think we need to worry too much about multiplayer. They created the most effecient means for fighter games to be multiplayer and i’m sure they’ve had multiplayer in the back of their minds since day 1!

The game is resource intensive as it is! Radiant is doing what they can to reduce this footprint and have already made some big steps! Yes voxel building can be complex and porting as well but i’m sure they had a roadmap setup and some basic architecture planned.

They’ve been in the business for a while (not as Radiant but they’ve worked in the industry) so i’m sure they’ll get something proper together. It’s taking more time now because they’ve built their own engine and that in itself is a major endeavor; especially with an indie sized team (granted i’m not sure their size now)!

Not to mention they’re all probably severely dehydrated so that’s going to slow things down as well; current events ftw!! :stuck_out_tongue:

But in all seriousness I don’t think Radiant is going to have the same issue with multiplayer as other companies have. As @sdee said

We gotta think about how far they’ve come as well and what aspects are implemented that will make a great single player experience but also lend themselves to possible multiplayer epicness

  1. They created their own engine!
  2. Modding capabilities (ALREADY IN PLACE!!!)
  3. Water (yeah this is a big deal…at least I think so)
  4. A single player expreince that’s…what…60% complete…and is still FUN TO PLAY!!!

I wouldn’t worry @Carlosgrr Radiant has done a wonderful job blowing my mind time and time again…they’ve got the know how, the experience, and the community! Any anxieties I normally have with games are nil :wink:

YOU GO RADIANT!

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