Ghost multiplayer mode
Racer1
Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
Alternative multiplayer implementation that addresses most of UWE's concerns:
Make all "other" players (and the stuff they have built, not including terrain) be ghosts, such that you cannot directly interact with them, but you can see them and what they are doing and building.
Other players could be shown with a slightly different color/shade/transparency than your own stuff, to differentiate. You could build bases "next" to each other, and even go exploring together - but wouldn't be able to touch or help each other physically. However, you could help each other over voice or text, or by leading people to a specific area.
Would the lack of physical interaction be a deal breaker?
Make all "other" players (and the stuff they have built, not including terrain) be ghosts, such that you cannot directly interact with them, but you can see them and what they are doing and building.
Other players could be shown with a slightly different color/shade/transparency than your own stuff, to differentiate. You could build bases "next" to each other, and even go exploring together - but wouldn't be able to touch or help each other physically. However, you could help each other over voice or text, or by leading people to a specific area.
Would the lack of physical interaction be a deal breaker?
Comments
I'm not sure that the lack of physical interaction would make multiplayer any easier to implement. There are still tons of networking issues that would have to be solved to be able to sync up two or more clients with all of their interactions with the world. Even if you specifically couldn't interact with their stuff, any change you made to the would would still have to be replicated in theirs, and vise versa. Even killing a single fish or harvesting a resource node would have to be synchronized between all connected players, not a simple task when dealing with a game as complex as this.