Why no multiplayer?

Carlo the Curious · Post by **Carlo the Curious** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 22:39

fud wrote:I have to admit, it's been a while since I've seen this debate.

[grabs popcorn]

You like watching repeats then?

Pogi · Post by **Pogi** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 22:56

What is it about the following that people just can't seem to grasp?..

"My idea has no fighting among other players at all"

Electric-Shadow · Post by **Electric-Shadow** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 22:57

KennethX3Freak wrote:NO NO NO NO NO!!!

NO MULTIPLAYER EVER UNLESS ITS A SEPERATE GAME!!!!

how would it function??? how would any server handle it??? how would you be able to empire build in a game where you have little stupid kids blowing up all your crap? how would you weed out hackers? how would you stop scripts and mods from affecting your online game?

you say multiplayer! multiplayer! multiplayer!

but you dont say how? how? how?

it will never be a multiplayer. no how, no way, and i would seriously be unimpressed and disappointed if X3 pulled a stunt like that.

That's what I meant when I started the topic, I was suggesting a stand alone multiplayer game, if you'd look at the example title it might give a hint lol. Obviously there would be no point in having a single player in it like you said it would make sense to have it as online only which was my intention

Also as to your question about cheats and mods I allready answered that in the first post too...

Perhaps disabeling scripts & mods for this game may be an idea to stop people cheating, as that may obviously be a problem.

and now for your question about how it would function. I posted a possible solution recently.

Each player could have their own universe but trade and fight in others, say each player names their universe and then it can be accessed by via a list of all the universes, but each player may only build in their own universe but travel to any.

For the matter of newbie killing you could introduce some sort of universe protection where other players cannot attack new universes, or even enter them unless the player wants others to be able to enter their universe but they still wouldnt be able to attack.

KennethX3Freak · Post by **KennethX3Freak** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 23:00

Electric-Shadow wrote:
KennethX3Freak wrote:NO NO NO NO NO!!!

NO MULTIPLAYER EVER UNLESS ITS A SEPERATE GAME!!!!

how would it function??? how would any server handle it??? how would you be able to empire build in a game where you have little stupid kids blowing up all your crap? how would you weed out hackers? how would you stop scripts and mods from affecting your online game?

you say multiplayer! multiplayer! multiplayer!

but you dont say how? how? how?

it will never be a multiplayer. no how, no way, and i would seriously be unimpressed and disappointed if X3 pulled a stunt like that.
That's what I meant when I started the topic, I was suggesting a stand alone multiplayer game, if you'd look at the example title it might give a hint lol. Obviously there would be no point in having a single player in it like you said it would make sense to have it as online only which was my intention

its still a bad idea because we all said so.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 23:06

Pogi wrote: "My idea has no fighting among other players at all"

Since I'd guess a majority of those people who want multiplayer want it so they can fight against their (hopefully human) friends, I suspect a non-fighting multiplayer would be even less likely to get made than one with combat...

Post by **CBJ** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 23:19

Hmm.... Pogi's suggestion is actually the first time I've seen someone come up with a form of multi-player interaction that would actually be simpler to implement than full multi-player. Having a very limited form of interaction that involves a single static location so it doesn't need the rest of the game universe to be synchronised, and isn't time critical so it doesn't require clever handling of latency, would actually make things somewhat simpler.

I don't want the uncharacteristically positive paragraph above to give people the wrong impression: it would still be a lot of work and would almost certainly still only be something that could come about as part of a longer term development leading to something like an MMO, but it is still an interesting idea nonetheless.

Of course the other problem with it is that it also doesn't provide what most people who think about a multi-player X-series game have in mind. Worse still it would lead them to think that the multi-player development work must be "done" and therefore even more likely to start threads like this demanding to know why Egosoft isn't taking that "small" extra step to enable things like combat in multi-player mode!

em3e3 · Post by **em3e3** » Fri, 10. Oct 08, 23:20

pjknibbs wrote:Since I'd guess a majority of those people who want multiplayer want it so they can fight against their (hopefully human) friends, I suspect a non-fighting multiplayer would be even less likely to get made than one with combat...

Oh great, you sucked me into this thread. Instead of PvP, which I don't really care for (unless I know the vP), PvC would be better. Gang up on the Xenon in an Invasion-mission-only game, since they are already computers!

Demolisher 2 · Post by **Demolisher 2** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 00:10

em3e3 wrote:
pjknibbs wrote:Since I'd guess a majority of those people who want multiplayer want it so they can fight against their (hopefully human) friends, I suspect a non-fighting multiplayer would be even less likely to get made than one with combat...
Oh great, you sucked me into this thread. Instead of PvP, which I don't really care for (unless I know the vP), PvC would be better. Gang up on the Xenon in an Invasion-mission-only game, since they are already computers!

If multiplayer does get implemented I expect the gameplay would be radically different, and a lot more mainstream. Which is why multiplayer is bad.

Hob Anagerik · Post by **Hob Anagerik** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 00:55

KennethX3Freak wrote:how would it function??? how would any server handle it??? how would you be able to empire build in a game where you have little stupid kids blowing up all your crap? how would you weed out hackers? how would you stop scripts and mods from affecting your online game?

For the record, I wouldn't be much interested in MP either, unless it was just small scale like 2 or 3 people playing co-op for instance.

How would it funtion? How would any server handle it? One word answer. Eve.

em3e3 · Post by **em3e3** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 01:21

Hob Anagerik wrote:For the record, I wouldn't be much interested in MP either, unless it was just small scale like 2 or 3 people playing co-op for instance.

How would it funtion? How would any server handle it? One word answer. Eve.

Two acronym response: p2p PvC

Hob Anagerik · Post by **Hob Anagerik** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 01:23

I think a limited scope MP experience would be great. All players on a capital ship, one piloting, the others manning turrets. Or piloting ships docked with the mothership. Much better than PvP in my humble opinion.

Pogi · Post by **Pogi** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 02:55

@CBJ...Thanks for seeing where I am coming from...You hit it right on the nail head...With as much talent that is floating around here, if we had a simple gateway, with a simple user interface, having the ability to pass credits, wares, software etc. you would be amazed at what some of these guys would come up with to expand and enhance that system...Not something that is forced on anyone, but rather an alternative...I feel it would satisfy the urge that many have (me included) to interact with the human element while playing this game. ...The only thing that I would like to see if something like this could be implemented is the other coop players stations spawning in your game sectors as they are built on their end...That would provide some measure of trade influence in the coop game world the clan was playing...It could even provide some measure of combat influence as well as these stations could spawn Race1 Race2 etc. combat ships to assist in your battles if certain parameters were met in the coop game..The possibilities are enormous.

nataq · Post by **nataq** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 08:30

x3 cant be made into MMO, but in my opinion adding some nice multiplayer battle mode like deathmatch or team deathmatch where u can set sector, ship limit, what ships can be used, team victory rule. Like in x-wing alliance multiplayer. That would be awesome.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 09:02

Doesn't matter how awesome it would be, it would still cost considerable amounts of money to develop. Are you going to provide that money?

BigBANGtheory · Post by **BigBANGtheory** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 09:14

If I was working for Egosoft I'd be keeping a close eye on how Jump Gate Evolution performs to help assess their own market position and future goals.

For Egosoft to go it alone in a full multiplayer experience I think could be a step too far, I think they need a partner and dare I say investor to make the project a success.

There is also a good market for single player games, quite a large section of the gaming market which buy games that have a multiplayer service don't actually use it. I play multiplayer games but if I gaze up at my shelf I can see Stalker:CS, SinsOfaSolar Empire, SupremeCommander, UT3 which I have hardly played at all in MP.

To curb my ramblings and bring this to some sort of point, a great game doesn't have to provide a MP element, generally you have a great MP game or great SP game.

Big_Mike_643 · Post by **Big_Mike_643** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 10:14

Hell, I would be happy if I could dog fight one of my buddies and that is the only multi-player.

Well I would be happy with just that till you gave it to me. Then I would want more!!!

Electric-Shadow · Post by **Electric-Shadow** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 11:29

wow, lots of replies lol.

I think before egosoft even think about implementing multiplayer they need to do some research as to wheather us players will actually want it or not, granted it would be absolutely awesome if egosoft could get the funding but perhaps egosoft could do some surveys and stuff to see if people want it, otherwise it would be a big waste of money of noone really wants it. As awesome as i think it would be

clcabbage · Post by **clcabbage** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 11:56

em3e3 wrote:Why does this even need to be discussed again?

From Bernd himself - Collecting ideas: multi-player in games like X3

WOW, ... Thanks em3e3 ; that blast to the past really shows me to lay off the forums while tanked...

... unfortunately my thoughts just don't seem to make it to text

"

" as the old post show..

Nyax · Post by **Nyax** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 12:37

Electric-Shadow wrote:I think before egosoft even think about implementing multiplayer they need to do some research as to wheather us players will actually want it or not

You're a long, long way behind the times with that thinking Electric shadow. Multiplayer has been talked about since X Beyond the frontier. Egosoft have been asking for, acting on and implementing player suggestions ever since. There have been no less then four games released in the X series since then (including X3TC) and not a single one of them has had ANY multiplayer capability whatsoever. What do you think that shows about the results of their ongoing research?

Egosoft target the single player market. It should therefore come as no surprise that most of their existing customers are not interested in going down the multi-player route. If Egosoft DO eventually go down that route (and of course there's always a market for it) then they will be doing it for a substantially different customer base to the one they currently have.

Theonegod1 · Post by **Theonegod1** » Sat, 11. Oct 08, 12:53

Err, I can think of a good reason why there is no multiplayer.

One person could technically dominate the universe.

If they made enough factories and enough money, then they could have an army of destroyers eventually.

And an army of destroyers.... well can destroy basically anything, think, you just got your own first shiny factory, and then some jerk comes in with a few capital ships and blows it to bits because he doesn't like the competition.

So for a proper multiplayer to be released, there would have to be a LOT of changes, to prevent complete monopolisation of... well... everything.
And I think that would have to be a game of its own (although if done right it may be a damn good game).

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Why no multiplayer?