.

[pizzaoverhead]

It depends on the player count. For large numbers of mainly independent players, KMP's method works well for ad-hoc synchronisation. It's essentially single player, with save sharing and an in-game lobby for starting true multiplayer sessions (syncing).

For small player numbers, particularly teams focused on single goals such as races, vote-warp or the more advanced alarm clock that Keymaster89 mentions is the best solution. All players are kept in sync, warping at the lowest common rate requested. Seeing as this method would be used by small groups of friends, there would be less concern over one person doing in-atmosphere flight with another doing a Jool transfer. Vote-kick solves issues in this case. This method also encourages running multiple missions at once.

[Dodgey]

RedIronCrown, I'm not sure if you missed my post so I will post it here again.

Simple. Well for the fuel depo anyway. It is in its own time zone like any ship. In order to dock with it you sync with it. Bringing it forward or you forward in time. You need to match game time with it to use it. This solves the paradox issue. Not good for races but it still works. As for the asteroid I guess you could bring it forward in time when you sync. Again not good for races but I don't know how to fix that.

To summarize, when syncing with a different craft (to go into the same time) one of the craft has to be brought forward in time (whichever is behind the other). So the first craft in your situation got to the fuel depo he synced with it, doesn't matter which was ahead in time. But when the second craft gets there (the one that took more time IRL) he has to sync forward to the depo preventing the paradox. Not good for races I admit. Also the same principle could apply for asteroids.

[Red Iron Crown]

RedIronCrown, I'm not sure if you missed my post so I will post it here again.

To summarize, when syncing with a different craft (to go into the same time) one of the craft has to be brought forward in time (whichever is behind the other). So the first craft in your situation got to the fuel depo he synced with it, doesn't matter which was ahead in time. But when the second craft gets there (the one that took more time IRL) he has to sync forward to the depo preventing the paradox. Not good for races I admit. Also the same principle could apply for asteroids.

I didn't miss it, but I did misinterpret it. I think I understand now that you've clarified.

So when does the sync happen? If it's once docking is complete, what happens if the player arriving first in game time flubs the docking and destroys the station? If it's before docking, how will rendezvous work? I.e. if you have a big warp to do to sync before you dock, you won't be close to the station afterward.

[cantab]

If it's before docking, how will rendezvous work? I.e. if you have a big warp to do to sync before you dock, you won't be close to the station afterward.

You either forward time until shortly before you'll sync so you can rendezvous afterwards, or the game could include an automatic stationkeeping feature.

Fuel depots in general I think would have problems with providing a good service though. Let's say your fuel depot is currently on day 70, that's no good to me if my launch window is on day 50. Conversely for my friend who's on day 90, he can't use the depot until you advance forward to day 90. (And no, he can't pull it forward, or else Mr Mischief could pull it forward to day a zillion in an effective "denial of service" attack.)

With per ship timewarp, you could throw up multiple fuel depots and keep them in different "eras", but it'd be a lot of work.

Alternatively, maybe there could be a special part that acts as a bottomless or self-replenishing fuel supply, and then allows a station equipped with it to supply any ship without needing to sync. Perhaps "admin only", perhaps otherwise limited to avoid it being over-powerful.

[Dodgey]

The way I see it is that you sync with it before you can interact with it. Perhaps you could go into the map view, select the depo and click a "sync with" button. It would make sense to give each ship a set of permissions. Say who can control it; creator, admin, public, and a whitelist of players. You could do that for docking and syncing as well. So only authorized people could bring it forward in time, and to prevent mishaps only craft which aren't currently being controlled could be bought forward in time.

After reading over my original post I can see why you misunderstood it Red Iron Crown.