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Multiplayer - My take on it.


RedneckZedSlayer01

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What would you say about my previous, turn-based multiplayer gameplay suggestion?

The server starts at 7am ingame time with 12h duration. All of the players play and get tired with the same rate (players with less sleep perk dont get tired). After 11.55h of the gameplay all of the players get the message on their screens: you will pass out in 5 minutes. Players have some time to find a bed. If they dont, they will pass out somewhere on the grass and may be nomnomnommed. The time speeds up for everyone and they wake up after 8 hours. Now the server (as everyday except the 1st one) sets up the turn's length (the rate of players becoming tired). So once you play for 8 ingame hours, and another time for 16. This would make people play in daytime and at night. You will also approximately see how much time left to sleep as your character becomes tired, so you can decide if you go for a scavenge mission or stay near your safehouse.

I think the idea wont break the gameplay and noone will kill you with a pillow.. Please comment.

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Well, I don't know about turn based tbh - it'd pretty much make this a completely different game. I see a coop scenario where I play with a friend, he has done a few things with his character that tire him earlier than my guy, he goes to sleep and I get to protect him. Meantime, my guy gets sleepy so takes a nap when coop buddy is back up. This can work with a mechanic that allows you to wake your friend from sleep at any time, prolly with a few penalties for being aroused too soon and not being properly rested etc. 

 

No matter how far away mp is, I'm really pumped about the idea of it. One question however is how death will be handled. I mean, coop is about playing together for hours on end right? What if one of the coop partners dies? Allow the guy whose character croaked to rejoin the party with a new character? Does the game end right there and then? Many options, but if a wrong one is chosen it has the potential to really spoil the experience. 

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I dislike this pretty extremely. It cuts out all kinds of tactical value and would be a big loss to the depth of the game in my opinion.

 

I'm sure permadeath will still be around. Likely you will be able to rejoin the same world as a brand new character, but worlds will likely be persistent.

 

Yeah, being able to rejoin a game like you say in the world you started the mp session in originally is kind of a must, otherwise it'd become kind of tedious. Also, with NPCs very likely fleshed out by the time mp is done, they should also totally be in mp - actually, have it be the exact same game in mp, just with added playable characters. Considering persistent worlds, if, say for example, 32 players are maximum on any given server, even rivalries/open war between player factions should be possible. The options are quite endless tbh...

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If multiplayer co-op was limited to ~4 people or less at a time then sleeping could still be a feasible feature. Anyone who is tired can sleep like normal, but time wouldn't accelerate until everyone is sleeping, and they would see their character in bed (or where ever) on screen.

 

Since this mode would quite obviously be co-op it wouldn't be an issue for friends to sleep for the night if someone else needed to. Once everyone is ready and sleeping (wouldn't take long for everyone to get out of danger with only 4 people) time starts accelerating. If someone is woken in the night by a zombie, then everyone else goes back to seeing their character sleeping - presumably to wait for the other player to either die or get back to bed, with the option to get up if they need to. Not exactly ideal, but with a low number of people it would still work, quite similarly to how it does in Minecraft.

 

If sleeping does need to be removed from multiplayer modes with more people then so be it - but a 2-4 player game could still use this method. Alternatively sleeping could just be replaced by 'resting'. Being exhausted could take 1-2 minutes to cure sleeping on a bed, with the time decreasing the less tired you are (and it increasing when you're in a less comfortable place). Not realistic, but it solves the problem.

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I agree with most of what Geo said. The main thing is, we have no idea how multiplayer will work at this point, so speculation/suggestions are largely pointless.

The solution is going to depend. If its a 60 person persistent world server, taking out sleep might be best. If it's four person coop, it could just e kept as is and not fast forward unless everyone is sleeping. At this point we just don't know!

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Yup, multiplayer is planned for a major future (distant) feature. I wouldn't worry about it not coming, simply because half the community wants it (even though I still believe it'll be a pain to implement... :P )

 

Sleep immunity wouldn't be such a great idea. One of the important parts of the game is the ability to be attacked by threats during sleep, hence the nescesity to actually build barricades and protect yourself. It is tricky, though, since I really don't know how they'll go about the sleep problem. :)

i think more than half of the ppl that plays it wants it

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Sleeping... If everyone goes to sleep at the same time game fast forwards itself. If someone has to stay up and watch, you can use the fast forward. If someone is in a pinch, he can run, loose the zombies, find a safe spot and turn up the time or die and the game will fast forward itself. Anyway, the time when most of the players sleep, will be night time, and those more daring players can search up for sleeping players to grief if they want to be hineyholes, I think the mp element as an idea would be great addition to the game. There would be real distrust between players as it would in real life, you never know when someone is bollocks. Also, when it comes to being wary of others, pc:s have a feature npc:s usually don't, the way of making errors in very human way. My thoughts.

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Personally could not care less about multiplay. I know it's a desired feature by many. But I am glad they are focusing on the core single player game right now. Because as current mechanics are. The current game will not work in multiplay for various reasons posted. Sleeping especially. Having everyone sleep at same time will not work the higher the population on the server gets. It will most likely play very differently if it is going to work at all. For now though there should be a strong single player mode before multiplay gets gets focused on. 

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It's a zombi wolrd after all, each one is fighting for his life. Why blaming people who killed you?

Because in real life the power to kill another human being without remorse - regardless of circumstances - is not in every person, and people in video games jump to "I better just kill him/her" a hell of a lot quicker than someone in real life.   What I say is each server would have to have a limited number of character roles, ala Space Station 13.  There would be a psychopath role (or several) all roaming around the world doing whatever, given freedom to kill others whenever they see fit with no consequences.  Other roles would be restricted to killing only in dire situations, or in self defense.  There would be no way to tell if a player is the (or a) psychopath.  The problem is that this relies on role-play, which usually has to be moderated and enforced.

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Fair enough. That being the case, it seems like vanilla online play will be limited to working with friends in small servers and not cooperating with strangers in large servers, because I'm guessing if it's unrestricted it will devolve into a dayz deathmatch with bands of killers everywhere.

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