Bay 12 Games Forum

Its really not that much work. The server core would be based around DF itself. It just needs to track entities and move data.

But I have said my piece (as has everyone else over the years), using ideas and how they would work and what they would be based off of, instead of just saying "Lets have multiplayer" and leaving it at that.

Your army would get destroyed. If the person is willing to play without sleep to do so, more power to them. I had this issue when playing DF on Vista that slowed the game down in every aspect so you could set it to where the server runs time on a slower scale (via a config file) so it would take longer for a year or two to pass. If you are willing to blitz early in the game, you should also be willing to accept the consequences of it.

*update* And even then, if you are prompted before the assault, you can still call it off. If the other person sent an army in retaliation, you get to watch it coming and hope you have enough defenses to last the siege until your dwarves get back. Honestly, would make for good use of dwarves with Liar and Negotiator and suck to be used as "spies"

Im honestly enjoying this, you may not. Because I am seeing where my judgement is in err and what parts I have overlooked, allowing me to find a solution.

-Final note- I will be at class for the next few hours and playing Star Wars: D20 after class, so I will not be able to continue this discussion until later tonight or tomorrow. Have a good night, Wyrm and all of the forums I expect to have some posts to read through later to solve issues in my ideas D:<

-NK

Alright. Yea this has been discussed in GREAT detail but none the less I was told to put my ideas in here (where it had been discussed more). If you dont think MP DF would be fun, cool. Thats your opinion. Personally, I like games like that and they can take a while (which Im also ok with)

The Idea is simple: Allow players to LAN their world together via a server and pick fortresses in different parts of the map (or in the same if on Adventure or whatnot).

This would allow others to interact with both NPC fortresses and players or even declare war on them. Leave any chat function up to IRC or some other chat medium (like Skype or Mumble).

What we would need: A server set up that runs like any Dwarf Fortress world. Generation same, time placement and all that the same but just has to watch the placement of several fortresses. Also has to be able to read the data that a player creates using their own fortress. I understand that this game can kill even the most die hard of computers in the "end game" but the Server just manages the info and relays it to other players (when they would go into a world map-esque thing) while the player's box still deals with all of the items on their end.

Why would we want this? Because I have played DF for a while (still run on DF df_28_181_40c) and while I love the game, I would love to see another player's trade caravan come into my market and offload goods that they made. Might also increase the time before the merchants leave (seeing as sometimes you lose the chance when your dwarves are running a large amount of supplies and your trader doesnt do his job).

What about that pausing shtuff that happens? Well, if the clients are transmitting their data to the server host, then the host can organize the files to where they run smoothly (or as smoothly as any box run server can get). If a player leaves the game for whatever reason, the server still has all of the players info in use. Think about it like this; when you save and end your game on single player, everything on your end stops, right? Well the same could happen on a server. The person is ending their session or closes unexpectedly and the server receives that end of stream packet, saving the last known info set it had (could have the server save everything that goes on every few minutes, that means that it only saves world info and info regarding active players) and waits for it to activate. When the player disconnects, all his stuff saves and then his Fortress "closes their doors" so to speak. They come back, and their doors "open" back up to the world. The server sends the last known packet it had to the client to restore the player's game.

What happens if the server crashes? Then whatever packet it had last is the last save. May be out of date by a couple minutes depending on save frequency. All players would be kicked like one might on any other game that uses a server host and gets DC'd.

Depending on how angry people get at me for giving ideas with specifics on how it could be done (if I could code, I would try and get this working based off other box-side servers), I might add more.

*update* I was reading through the thread and found an issue I hadnt addressed. When the player pauses their own game. The server just receives the info and organizes it so it is still receiving information from every player (even if they are paused). It just keeps track of how long they are paused and what they were doing. When the person unpauses, their world map updates for what everyone else did in that time (if able to be seen at that time) but their specific area is untouched. So, say I pause for five minutes, and you are doing your own stuff. I unpause five minutes later with what I was doing before the pause. World map updates with what everyone else was doing and game continues. If you were sending an envoy or invasion, it would move on the map (and take a while because one does not simply move across the world). In short, you pause and do your things, server still receives info on what is done by everyone (even you and what you are planning) and keeps on running.

-NK

Sorry I brought up an idea that has been brought up a thousand times before. Took a skim at some of the old threads and see where error lies.