Some useless thoughts on Multi-Player game mechanics

[Whirligig Girl]

KSP multiplayer would, obviously, not be an MMO experience. But it could be a role-playing one to some extent. Just as in Minecraft, there maybe be servers with hundreds of people playing. They would almost certainly be forced to play in some form of career mode to keep huge launches to a minimum. Here's some thoughts on how special game mechanics for large-scale KSP multiplayer servers would work. The idea came to me when reading the Atomic Rockets entry for [URL="http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/approcketcatu.php"]"RocketCat's Universe."[/URL]


[B]The Probe Tax[/B]
[IMG]http://www.pin-plus.ca/orbiter/data/9/p/0/1-3.jpg[/IMG]
In a large KSP server, there will be lots of people launching rockets, and many of those rockets would leave debris or empty ships. One way to ensure people do not leave their junk in space is a parking ticket, or to be more precise, a parking orbit ticket :P . Every amount of time, defined by the server settings, users will get charged (in funds, not real money) for any spacecraft that does not have crew in it. A more accurate name might be a "Probe tax" or something. The point is that if you don't want to loose money, make sure you clean up your junk. If it can be settled that your ship serves a public purpose (permanent fuel station), then the server owners might exclude your Probe Tax for that vessel. Alternatively, the server owners might put a fairly high tax on that can not be removed, so you must charge a fee for any other players who presume to utilize the services of your station.

[B]Contracts[/B]
In addition to the contracts from the various companies on Kerbin, you may also get contracts from another player. For instance, imagine if you are stranded in orbit around Duna, but don't want to send a rescue mission yourself (you don't have the skill or a good rocket, or it might be cheaper to have someone else do it). Post a contract for another user to rescue your ship, and they will do the mission, take the funding, and you will have done business! You might also ask someone to send a fuel station to their location to kick-start operations in a single planet/moon system.

Note that the player who is creating the contract has to say whether you have completed the contract. If you have definitely completed the contract that you started, you can "downvote" their space program and lower their reputation so that other players can know not to trust this player. This can also go the other way. You can downvote a space program if they did not satisfactorily do their job but you paid them anyway.

Alternatively, Contracts might be challenges like in the KSP Forum's Challenge sub-forum or the KSP Subreddit Weekly Challenge. Imagine if the official KSP subreddit server put weekly challenges in the form of contracts!

[B]Laser-Launching ?[/B]
[IMG]http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/SPBI10152.JPG[/IMG]
In a highly rocketpunk environment like this, companies who are near the end of the tech tree will have unlocked laser-thermal-rocket power sources (you know, the laser part) and can set up, for a decently large fee, laser stations. Server settings or rules limit the number of laser-thermal power sources a single company can have, as well as their range. If you want to rent laser time from their station for use with your thermal rocket (which you will have unlocked much earlier than the lasers to power them), you will have to pay their price, which they can set themselves. If a monopoly forms, they may sell their laser time for a high price. They have a limited effective range of course, so another player or company may decide to send their station further out. From Kerbin, a laser station may only reach out to the Dresian closest approach, so another player might put their space station in Jool orbit so that they can reach the rest of the solar system.

Such players might also rent out laser-thermal rocket stages to push your payload out, if you can not supply your own rocket.

[B]Companies/Conglomerates[/B]
Of course, such role playing would never be fun on the KSP forum ;) , but could totally make sense in a multiplayer server. You and another player (or a whole group of other players) might decide to conglomerate into a single space program. You'd be able to launch from either player's launch site, your craft files would become available to eachother, and you would all have a single funds, reputation, and science number. Upon conglomerating into a single company, the space programs involved would have their reputation averaged, funds added, and the science value would go to the largest science number between the companies. All tech nodes unlocked between companies would also be added. (If you unlocked only the fuel tank line of tech nodes and you joined a company who unlocked only the engine line of tech nodes, you would have both engines and fuel tanks available.) Launch sites with R&D buildings less than Tier 3 would only be able to construct and use spacecraft with tech below the limit for that building. (A Tier 1 R&D facility would mean that launch site could not launch nuclear engines or other high-tech part, even if it is unlocked.)

[B]Nuclear Tax[/B]
[URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1r23rf/none_of_the_nuclear_rockets_are_getting_any_fuel/"][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/1A0QY1b.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Crashing a nuclear engine on a planet is a bad idea, and, depending on server settings, might cause you to be fined. Additionally, to limit nuclear engine use (and potentially to encourage laser-thermal propulsion), you may be taxed just for [I]launching[/I] a nuclear engine.

[B]How To Make Money[/B]
You can make money several ways.
[list]
[*]Completing contracts. This could be either game-generated contracts or player-generated contracts. Think of these as missions.
[*]Cargo boost services. People can send you a payload, and you get to launch it into orbit, potentially cheaper than they could have launched it.
[*]Renting out spacecraft. Other players might be terrible at building spacecraft, so they will rent out your spacecraft types to fly. If they don't pay, you lock out the controls.
[*]Renting out laser time in laser-based launching stations. Players can pay you to fire your lasers at their ship to power it.
[*]Selling propellant or fuel from orbital/ground space stations. Players can pay you to have access to propellant in space station. Of course, you can set the rate of each fuel in funds per liter however you want, so if you are on an ore-poor planet, you will make your fuel more expensive.
[*]Mining MacGuffinite and selling it to Kerbin or other players.
[/list]

[B]MacGuffinite[/B]
[IMG]http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/images/macguffinite/macguffinite02.jpg[/IMG]
A more informal currency. Instead of just being a number in a bank account on a computer on Kerbin, the resource MacGuffinite is a rare resource that is only found in large quantities on Eve and Tylo, or in medium quantities on Moho and small quantities on Eeloo. Everywhere else it is extremely rare, and on Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus it is nonexistent. It is extremely valuable in terms of funds, but also serves a practical purpose. It can be used to create liquid fuel (but not oxidizer), it can be used to create rocket parts like Extraplanetary launchpads, and it is a very tasty snack food when sold to Kerbin. MacGuffinite can only be mined with the large ISRU drills and must have an engineer Kerbal supervising it. Edited November 24, 2015 by GregroxMun

[Sanic]

The only problem is timewarp. Besides that, great ideas :D

Edit: Timewarp may not even be a problem. Given that Duna's transfer windows occur every 230 or so Kerbin days, with the transit taking 150 or so Kerbin days. Doing all the math makes 95 Earth days. A long time, but... Edited November 24, 2015 by Sanic

[Whirligig Girl]

My model for timewarp mechanics is that the universe is partially consistent after every time warp.

Let's have a temporally-stationary Player A and a timewarping Player B.

Player B departs from Player A Station on a mission to Duna. Player A stays in orbit and does no timewarping until Player B is at Duna.

[B]Player A's view[/B]
As Player B turns on timewarp, he immediately zips away from Player A based on their actual distances relative to Kerbin from player B's point of view. Player A will see Player B zip across the sun's SOI, teleport to Duna, and stop at his Duna periapsis, before circularizing into orbit. Now Player B stops his timewarp and Player A starts hers. She zips around the planet and sees Duna move very slowly around the sun, but when looking at Player B, Player B's ship rotates only slightly faster than Duna does, as he is not warping.

[B]Player B's view[/B]
As Player B turns on timewarp, he watches Player A's Station zip away from him. When looking at the Kerbin reference frame, he sees that Player A is only moving at timewarp=1 orbital velocity. He goes on and sees Duna approach and follow a normal, seamless path. He seamlessly enters Duna's SOI, and circularizes at Duna periapsis. He looks back at Player A, who then starts timewarping. He is not moving, nor is Kerbin or Duna, but he sees Player A's station fly very quickly around Kerbin.

[B]Synchronization[/B]
To synchronize, Player A could just continue timewarping until the same amount of time has passed for her and passed for Player B during his trip to Duna. [I]Or[/I] she could press the "Synchronize with Player B" button. This will skip the planetary clocks ahead to match, but not change the positions of any controlled ships or uncontrolled ships with a timewarp blocker turned on.

This is probably not the best system, but it is, you know, one of them.

[EdusacconBR]

i think multiplayer is mostly going to be griefing, stealing ships, exploding stations and unwanted dockings :P

[Whirligig Girl]

[quote name='EdusacconBR']i think multiplayer is mostly going to be griefing, stealing ships, exploding stations and unwanted dockings :P[/QUOTE]

Hopefully KSP's learning curve will keep the trolls at bay to some extent, if not I did mention that some servers might have anti-griefing measures (ship-specific pre-encounter quick-saves, perhaps). You might also have an option to have a huge fine for destroying someone's station unless the other player is okay with it and willing to go to war.

[322997am]

I'm for it. But I would honestly like a system where you have a button called I want to time warp. Once all the players approve and are in a steady position for time warp then you press it and you fly across the solar system. And when you are done just hit done time warping and then life resumes as normal.

[JedTech]

I'm still voting for a no time warp implementation. Everything should happen in real time. Within days, there would be plenty of people hopping around the Mun.

[Whirligig Girl]

[quote name='JedTech']I'm still voting for a no time warp implementation. Everything should happen in real time. Within days, there would be plenty of people hopping around the Mun.[/QUOTE]

That is a terrible idea. Have you every actually tried a real time Mun mission? It's not fun. Most of space is just waiting for gravity to do its thing.