Do you think KSP will ever have online gameplay?

[Pedro_daher]

Forget the multiplayer plugins, I'm talking about an official release, allowing you to create servers with friends and stuff... Do you think it would ever be possible? I guess the only thing that makes it hard is the Time-Warp in multiplayer mode...

[panzer1b]

It was announced by squad that it is something they are looking into.

Not by any means in the next update, might even take a few years, but based on what i took out of the dev notes and comments in the past its a likely probability.

That said, for the near future, DMP is the only real solution. And sadly that thing is so bugged it makes interaction tough.

[Clockwork13]

Squad said somewhere that they were already implemented the framework for KSP multiplayer, but still don't think it's going to come out for a very long time.

[NFUN]

"A very long time"? I'd say by 2017 KSP will have official multiplayer, probably earlier. Prior to 1.0, Squad's main goals were the implementation of resources, Unity 5 and multiplayer. One of these objectives has been filled, and the U5 update is coming out in a month or two. After U5, Squad will hopefully realize a patch of bugfixes, assuming most bugs haven't been patched in 1.1, and then what else would they do? The game is pretty fleshed out, and though it could use some polish, Squad generally prefers to realize new features before finishing old ones. Multiplayer will probably be added in version 1.3 or 1.4.

[Guest]

I don't care if the ever do. Frankly, I don't see the point of it. KSP is more about competing against yourself and the challenges of the solar system. How someone else manages it all is no concern of mine.

[Clockwork13]

I don't care if the ever do. Frankly, I don't see the point of it. KSP is more about competing against yourself and the challenges of the solar system. How someone else manages it all is no concern of mine.

Yeah, KSP is most fun in singleplayer, but building a station or space colony with someone else on a server would be fun though.

The biggest problem to KSP multiplayer I could see would not be timewarp but the trolls who would launch rockets at people's stations.

[DrMarlboro]

I don't care if the ever do. Frankly, I don't see the point of it. KSP is more about competing against yourself and the challenges of the solar system. How someone else manages it all is no concern of mine.

I think it would be cool to get a space race game mode. where you had to compete to be the first in orbit, first on the mun, first on minmus, first on duna, first to establish a base on the mun, and so on. time warp would be a difficult thing to work out though.. maybe implement something where as long as someone else's ship isn't within physics range of your own, you could warp, and no warping while on kerbin.

me and my friends already do this. we all start a new career, then we assign points to the various tasks, then extra for being first, then subtracting a certain amount per day that it takes for the other to get there or establish their base. we've been doing one with the kolonization mod where we are racing to kolonize duna. but it would be very fun to be able to do this in real time... and possibly throwing a wrench in the others plans by say... sending an unmanned probe to destroy their ship or stuff like that... or a telescope you can put into a keosynchronous orbit over their station to keep tabs on what they are doing...

[NFUN]

I think it would be cool to get a space race game mode. where you had to compete to be the first in orbit, first on the mun, first on minmus, first on duna, first to establish a base on the mun, and so on. time warp would be a difficult thing to work out though.. maybe implement something where as long as someone else's ship isn't within physics range of your own, you could warp, and no warping while on kerbin.

me and my friends already do this. we all start a new career, then we assign points to the various tasks, then extra for being first, then subtracting a certain amount per day that it takes for the other to get there or establish their base. we've been doing one with the kolonization mod where we are racing to kolonize duna. but it would be very fun to be able to do this in real time... and possibly throwing a wrench in the others plans by say... sending an unmanned probe to destroy their ship or stuff like that... or a telescope you can put into a keosynchronous orbit over their station to keep tabs on what they are doing...

Squad could do it the way KMP/DMP did/does it, where each player would get their own time zone, and would be unable to interact with other players who aren't synced up with them. However, this method has some problems, like with players in the past interacting with unmanned vessels changing their state in the future (DMP just doesn't allow people to do this), and I believe Squad has stated they don't plan to do it this way.

And Clockwork13, with the amount of practice it takes to be able to reliably rendezvous with vessels and the initial learning curve of the game, I doubt many people would bother to troll KSP multiplayer. The types of people who get their kicks from sabotaging other people pointlessly probably don't overlap much with the type of person who plays KSP.

[Alshain]

Squad could do it the way KMP/DMP did/does it, where each player would get their own time zone, and would be unable to interact with other players who aren't synced up with them. However, this method has some problems, like with players in the past interacting with unmanned vessels changing their state in the future (DMP just doesn't allow people to do this), and I believe Squad has stated they don't plan to do it this way.

Bear in mind also, there are limits to what mods can do. Multiplayer needs to be integral to the game, not an afterthought, which is basically the definition of a mod.

[Clockwork13]

Squad could do it the way KMP/DMP did/does it, where each player would get their own time zone, and would be unable to interact with other players who aren't synced up with them. However, this method has some problems, like with players in the past interacting with unmanned vessels changing their state in the future (DMP just doesn't allow people to do this), and I believe Squad has stated they don't plan to do it this way.

And Clockwork13, with the amount of practice it takes to be able to reliably rendezvous with vessels and the initial learning curve of the game, I doubt many people would bother to troll KSP multiplayer. The types of people who get their kicks from sabotaging other people pointlessly probably don't overlap much with the type of person who plays KSP.

Depends how far away it is from the surface of Kerbin

[regex]

with the amount of practice it takes to be able to reliably rendezvous with vessels and the initial learning curve of the game, I doubt many people would bother to troll KSP multiplayer. The types of people who get their kicks from sabotaging other people pointlessly probably don't overlap much with the type of person who plays KSP.

Clearly you've never played EVE Online.

Multiplayer is going to revive this game for me, especially if people have open servers.

[selfish_meme]

I actually think the one thing they have ruled out would be the saviour of multiplayer, and thats FTL. Wormhole drives or something similar would reduce the need for time warping, you just need to get to say for example 500km apo before engaging the drive. Get rid of physics time warp in Multiplayer, or maybe do it in shifts, would add a strategic value to physics warp.

[Zucal]

I actually think the one thing they have ruled out would be the saviour of multiplayer, and thats FTL. Wormhole drives or something similar would reduce the need for time warping, you just need to get to say for example 500km apo before engaging the drive. Get rid of physics time warp in Multiplayer, or maybe do it in shifts, would add a strategic value to physics warp.

it would also remove any semblance of realism the game tries to cling to.

[AbhChallenger]

Squad would have to be pretty stupid to not move the priority of multiplayer to near the top after they have stabilized KSP x64 on Unity 5. Multiplayer = Sales

So yes I think KSP will eventually have multiplayer. Developing it is not going to be easy. Yet I think they will do it.

[Rath]

Timewarp in multiplayer WILL HAPPEN the devs have confirmed it, calm down.

[DocMoriarty]

I hope KSP never ever becomes any type of multiplayer, be it online or offline because due to it's nature of relying on real physics it needs time compression and anything deviating from that (such as FTL, Teleports or Wormholes, Supercruise or whatever) will take away from the true core of the game. That said, any type of MP will certainly drive me away from the game. Not every game needs multiplayer or is suitable for MP.

IMO they should improve the game and stick to single user instead of wasting time and resources on MP.

Edited September 21, 2015 by DocMoriarty

[regex]

That said, any type of MP will certainly drive me away from the game.

Why would it drive you away from the game? It's not like you have to play it multiplayer.

[Alshain]

My prediction is 1.2 will see multiplayer. Just comments from the devs saying things are going well and there was something about Harvester moving to work on it (albeit that was before the U5 release announcement). I think once U5 and 64 bit come along Multiplayer will become a priority, and that means 1.2, maybe 1.3.

[Lord Aurelius]

As others have said, multiplayer is one of the confirmed long-term features that Squad is working on and has been mentioned repeatedly in the devnotes. The implementation details have been pretty light, but I could see minecraft style working well (support for opening up your local game for simple coop with your buddies or alternatively hosting a dedicated server for larger games).

[cantab]

Unless development abruptly stops then yes, I expect multiplayer. The timewarp problem has its challenges but they can be overcome. Hopefully Squad won't resort to FTL travel - warp drives and jump drives are fun but so are orbital mechanics and interplanetary transfers and that's KSP's unique selling point.

[Frozen_Heart]

That said, any type of MP will certainly drive me away from the game. Not every game needs multiplayer or is suitable for MP.

Why would it drive you away? You wouldn't be forced to play mp and sp would still be available.

[More Boosters]

Why would it drive you away? You wouldn't be forced to play mp and sp would still be available.

Because of entitlement and selfishness. It's not enough to have the option to not have something, nobody should be able to have it even if they want to.

[Yukon0009]

Have they announced how they are going to deal with time warp?

[sal_vager]

Moved to Dev Discussion, though the original question is moot as Squad already intend to add multiplayer and are developing it.

As for how any part will work I'll leave you with these sage words...

"All content is subject to change"

[DocMoriarty]

Why would it drive you away from the game? It's not like you have to play it multiplayer.

That has nothing to do with selfishness or so. Multiplayer will have impact on the game by making otherwise unnecessary compromises in design and functionality which might pretty much destroy the original game.

Selfishness expresses itself pretty much tho in people demanding MP for a game that is the perfect example of where not to add MP.

Edited September 22, 2015 by DocMoriarty