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[Servant Corps]

Okay. Let me be clear. I dislike multiplayer. I dislike the lulz and the w00ts and the grind. But I think I know how multiplayer can be created in DF. As a thought experiment, here we go.

1. You generate a World. You create a Fortress/Adventurer. You have fun/lose horribly.
2. You upload that World to the main server.
3. Somebody else downloads the World onto their computer. They create a Fortress/Adventurer. They have fun/lose horribly
4. They upload the World onto the main server.
5. Repeats until everybody gets bored.

Basically, this system would be very similar to the Succession/Bloodline/Community games. Except you are interacting with a complex World, created by people before you! Your adventurer may stumble upon an old Drawven Fortress, created by somebody else. All that is really need to be done is to create the "main server" where people upload and download Worlds, but that can easily be done right here.

There is two problems I note with this system. The first problem is, what if two people download the World at the same time, and then upload their two copies of the World? I could see it being a good feature, by creating a diverigence where two universes are formed. However, this does harm in creating a coherent World backstory created by previous players, so you need to get the support of all the Players within the World, and make sure they don't

The second problem would be griefers. Somebody may decide to do something so terrible to the World that it would be unable to continue. Such as, say, kill all Drawves. Then one needs to reload an earlier version of the World in order continue, but it would still be a major irritant.

[PTTG??]

Let me be frank; I was worried, when I saw the title of this thread, that annother noob had come up with the DF equivalent of "how do you type with boxing gloves on?!"

That said, an automatic world sharer does sound pretty awesome. Whenever you loose, you could add a note about your achievements, and you could download a new randomly-selected world OR browse for one with interesting history.

In fact, this could be done with existing DF and a clever utilities programmer, after all, all it needs to do is zip a save file and any related mods, ship them to, well, any server (or Peer-to-Peer-em) and download or stream a new world.

SC, this is solid gold!

[Footkerchief]

I wonder if you could just use like a SVN repository or something for this.

And to be clear, you're talking about this strictly as a community endeavor, right?

[Servant Corps]

Strictly as a community endeavor.

This was in the Suggestions forum, but I decided to move it here because I doubt Toady would implement an automated world sharer (because the community can easily do it if it wanted to).

[Chromie]

I'm no programmin' type, but I can imagine there would be a way to, once one person has chosen "World A", to remove "World A" from the list of accessible worlds until it's returned. my Uni library's version of E-Book checkout is like this

(Which makes no sense to me. I get why only university computers can access the E-books the uni has bought, but if it's a PDF, why is only one person allowed to read it at a time?)

[Eagle]

I fully support this idea, but there a few problems ive thought of that might happen:

1. What if someone downloads the most popular map, then forgets about it, or worse, looses it in a hard drive crash? Solution: Keep backups of all worlds in the system.

2. What happens when a world is completely filled up? A Pocket sized world doesnt offer much space to build...

All that being said, this would be an awesome thing to have. Maybe it could be a section on the File Depot?

[Dasleah]

HOW DARE YOU

THIS IS AN ENTIRELY REASONABLE AND PRACTICAL SUGGESTION FOR "MULTIPLAYER" IN DWARF FORTRESS WITH A WELL THOUGHT OUT AND REASONED PREMISE

Obviously, the hardest part about it would be the checkout system. It'd take a while for people to be bored of worlds before re-uploading them and whatnot, but I actually rather like this idea. It'd also be a welcome feature for people running succession forts, as it'd be an easy way to pass the file around, and having a system of backups stored remotely means it'd be easy to start again should someone fail on their turn or disappear.

[uberubert]

2. What happens when a world is completely filled up? A Pocket sized world doesnt offer much space to build...

Adventurer mode heaven!

[Davion]

An SVN repository would probably be good. You could just batch generate a bunch of worlds to play on so you wouldn't have people waiting around, and then when they are done someone else could pick it up. You could even share the entire Dwarf Fortress folder on the repository and have like one vanilla version going with say 20 worlds, a modded Dwarf Fortress with 20 worlds, etc.

It'd probably be a nightmare to organize at first and I'm not sure how SVN would handle the fact that Dwarf Fortress deletes saves after you're done, but it might be pretty cool.

Biggest problem would be getting people used to something like SVN, when I was using it on a group project every once in awhile someone on the team would mess up the files when uploading or something. The good thing is you can just revert back.

[PTTG??]

I have some cobwebbed sever space for the next... 6 years? More? If somebody makes code go, I'll host it.

Hmmm... Tahin knows how to make code go... And all I have to do to get a development update from him is hit him with a stick.

[Cheshire Cat]

this thread is making me think if the world of traps and attractions thread. it is a great idea, but is grinding along so miserably slowly.

my feeling is that most casual players can and will spend months playing an individual fort, and many of them will depopulate the worlds megabeasts and goblin civ leaders in the process. a check in and check out system sounds pretty good though, so it would still be great as an optional rather then forced thing. ie, the worlds are allways available, however, each one has a list of players who have used it and reuploaded it, with an option to view how many abandoned forts and living/dead adventurers there are in it.

you could, with some smart presentation, have all variations of the one world available on the one page, and when a player wants a world, they can browse to the page that has the one particular world, and have the link for the latest version of the world that has had the most players use it right in front of them, but with a few clicks they could check out how many versions of the world there are, who played in them, and sort by how many forts there are etc. idealy, you could also have a program that read the legends entries and threw up the number of megabeasts and civs, and what races there are present, allowing you to browse and search accordingly.

also, if you gave everyone a profile, you could create a voting system whereby worlds used by players who are perceived to have routinely created epic forts without killing off every megabeast and goblin weaponmaster can be easily found, and worlds used by several such players in succession float to the top of the reccomended list. this is something i wish was on the dwarf map archive, so you could easily find maps or players that other browsers generally recognize as awesome.

it would not be hard to also allow players to upload worlds that are rigidly controlled for succession games and the like, the initial uploader could add a list of players, and the world is only made available for download after the player before them has finished their turn, with the option of the organizer to skip anyone who stops responding, or simply make the world become automatically available again after a set time period with no updates.

anyways, ive ranted more then enough. hope i am coherant, it is late and i am tired. this idea is great.

[Overkill]

This could be epic win. More so if "Just let this fort run itself" was implemented.

[Cthulhu]

HOW DARE YOU

THIS IS AN ENTIRELY REASONABLE AND PRACTICAL SUGGESTION FOR "MULTIPLAYER" IN DWARF FORTRESS WITH A WELL THOUGHT OUT AND REASONED PREMISE

Obviously, the hardest part about it would be the checkout system. It'd take a while for people to be bored of worlds before re-uploading them and whatnot, but I actually rather like this idea. It'd also be a welcome feature for people running succession forts, as it'd be an easy way to pass the file around, and having a system of backups stored remotely means it'd be easy to start again should someone fail on their turn or disappear.

Okay, Dasleah, I have to ask.

Wtf is your avatar?

[Rilder]

I'd say make like 5-10 worlds, then have this started, allow people to each have a turn on a world, so if 5-10 people want to play at the start they can all have a world for a bit without waiting in line,  then when they complete their turn on that world and they still want to play they could have a turn on another world

[Jurph]

I think it would be interesting to do a super-succession game using the suggested model.  Generate a world that everyone likes, post the Legends data for a few major Dwarven civs, look them over and pick one as a group.  Collectively we declare that this particular civ will become the ascendent Dwarven Dynasty, and that its final seat of power will be in the center of the world map (or at the north pole, or in the caldera of a volcano, etc.).  Then play a series of "successful" games where an embarking Fortress eventually becomes the new Mountainhome for its civ, each time moving a little closer to the ultimate destination.

The only flaw I have found in my cunning plan is that I don't actually know if it's possible to start a new fort whose parent civilization is my old fort.