Multiplayer in KSP 1.8

[Piatzin]

5 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

The problem remains:  How to handle Timewarp.  He's on Jool, you're on Kerbin, how to meet?  Unless you just teleport ships around.

I feel like multiplayer would be a more sandbox-type mode, and not a serious grind for money and science points. Teleporting could be an option to be enabled in the F12 menu, or the participants could simply agree when to time warp, and for how long. Really, it's not too hard to just talk with each other for five or six seconds and agree to time warp. Not if you're all friends. With random strangers, though, yeah, there would  be issues.

[Corona688]

1 minute ago, Earthlinger said:

I feel like multiplayer would be a more sandbox-type mode, and not a serious grind for money and science points.

That would work.  If you teleport ships around it doesn't really matter whether Duna's in phase.

What if you want to cooperate on a project, though?

 

[John FX]

There will be no multiplayer. All the signs are there to people who see them. Heck, we have yet to see any progress on a relatively simple Dv readout.

Still, these threads pop up every now and then and they play out and fizzle by themselves when nobody agrees how to deal with, or whether to even have, warping.

Crack on.

[xXKSP_playerXx]

No Official multiplayer will ever be a thing. The server hosting would be a hard task. And it would not fit KSP.

Edited December 19, 2017 by xXKSP_playerXx

[Mukita12]

37 minutes ago, xXKSP_playerXx said:

No Official multiplayer will ever be a thing. The server hosting would be a hard task. And it would not fit KSP.

unless someone want to host server anyways i agree with you. Sorry @popos1 it will not happened

[julman99]

What if multiplayer timewarp is implemented as a shared timeline in this form:

• Imagine there are three players, A,B and C
• All three players start at the same time
• They can see each other and interact with each other, for example A can crash a rover into B and both of them will be affected by the crash.
• Now imagine the three of them go into Kerbin's orbit (without timewarp). Then A does a transfer to Mun and time accelerates to get into Mun Orbit
• While this was happening, B and C did not time accelerate, so they still see A doing the burn and then going away to the Mun in realtime.
• However, from A's point of view, he is already in the Mun. This is what each player would see at this point:
  • A can see himself at the current time, and can see B and C positions in the past. KSP could render B and C indicating that is the position in the past for them. A is unable to interact with B o C since they are in the past, they are like ghosts.
  • B and C can see each other and interact since they are in the same time, and they can see where A is in the future as well as A in the current timeline. 
  • KSP could provide an option for B and C to timewarp to A's current time, and that way they can catch up to A and interact with him.

I think this mechanic could lead to very interesting gameplay. You can have a bunch of people trying to build a giant station in Jool, and each of them could be bringing pieces from Kerbin at their own pace, but in order to be able to dock to the station they need to timewarp to the "head" of the timeline. 

Tradeoff this approach has:

• What happens if B or C bumps into A while A is traveling to the Mun. KSP would be rendering A as a "past location of A", so it could actually make A to be completely on rails. Even if you crash into A with a huge ship, or even an asteroid, you will end up blowing up and A would be untouched
• If B decides to orbit the moon and timewarp to A's timeline, A will just suddenly see "past" B location catching up and then all of the sudden become "current B". 

I can't think about any other tradeoff now, but I am sure they may be more.

What do you guys think? 

[John FX]

1 hour ago, julman99 said:

What do you guys think? 

I think that every method of solving the time warp problem moves KSP away from the core gameplay Squad want for the game and as such, there will never be stock multiplayer for this version of KSP.

If/when there is a KSP 2, with possibly different goals, at that point the question `will we get multiplayer` might be worth asking.

[pandaman]

I can certainly see a stock multiplayer option at some point, as it opens up new gameplay options.  But my guess is that it would, out of necessity, restrict timewarp to 'all or nothing' so all players are always at the same point in time.  I see that as the only safe 'stock' solution to the multiplayer timewarp conundrum.

This would mean that several players could explore the same planet or indulge in co-op missions etc without any major problem, but it would prevent one player nipping off to Eeloo whilst the others carry on doing their own stuff on the Mun unless they agree to 'freeze' whilst the time warp happens.

[rocketbuilder]

What about a turn based system sort of like Civ but not exactly? eg:

• You have player 1, 2, 3 and 4 and you've all agreed you want to build go to Jool and some people want to land on Bop, others Laythe etc.
• Everyone builds ships in real time at Kerbin and sends them to orbit. People can warp up to 50X (could be configured in server settings) speed during this phase, so it can allow you to set up burns in Kerbin orbit and maybe go to the Mun.
• Then when everyone has got their ship into a safe orbit/on rails place they can hit a button that completes their turn. After this, everyone syncs up to the person furthest in the future automatically.
• Then everyone picks a point that they want to orbit to (you can place a marker on your orbit, or set a time to warp to) and the game warps to the earliest point that people set to warp to.
• The host can choose to warp at any time to a certain point but only if everyone agrees to the warp.

It has it's limitations and cannot have more than about 6 people, but it might work.

 

[Harry Rhodan]

How about making the game universe so small that it would only take a few seconds to orbit and a minute to Jool?

[Enceos]

I doubt anyone is going to bother adding a multiplayer to this KSP on Unity. But it sure will be a core for KSP 2 if Take Two Interactive decides to invest in its development. I don't see why would they bother buying rights for KSP in the late stages of its life if they didn't have big plans for the game.

[popos1]

Just changed the title to 1.5  

[Frozen_Heart]

19 minutes ago, popos1 said:

Just changed the title to 1.5  

Would love to see it but i'm expecting we'll see the heat death of the universe and Bannerlord before ksp multiplayer.

 

In that order.

[RatchetinSpace]

No

[PrestonF]

The DMP mod is fine for the most part, but I think official game support for 1x play in same time/space would be a really nice addition.

A few use cases that are either not possible, or a tad buggy in DMP:

1) Simulating a falcon heavy launch with 4 people

2) Rover races on low-gravity moons

3) Multiplayer EVAs

4) Multiplayer docking

[qzgy]

Dead point. Let's move on shall we?

[Wjolcz]

I'd rather see a stock dV indicator and some sort of alarm clock in the game than MP.

MP would be good if this game didn't have time warp. So maybe a server would consist of one planet/moon and then people would build stuff and drive/hop/fly around without any time compression. Otherwise it would be pointless, boring and probably painful to play.

Either that or every person is one member of the crew of the same ship.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Wjolcz

[Redneck]

There are 2 Multiplayer for KSP in current ACTIVE development. DMP and LMP both have career and science modes. And as with ANYTHING that is being developed they have bugs here and there but they are functional and fun. So if multiplayer is something you have wished for (as i have since 2011) I think the good out-weighs the bad. If flying around with friends in a space plane or building space stations with friends or meeting each other in LEO around EVE is your thing among others..then give it a try. Dont let the multiplayer ney-sayers that dont have a clue what they are talking about and that dont care much for the idea of multiplayer in KSP to influence your decision. They can sit over there in the corner and play by themselves in single player, while the rest of us have a blast playing it. If you want to reply to this crying about bugs and how bad it is blaa blaa blaa. Thats fine. But then im going to ask you to name the things you didnt like. And the very first thing i will ask you is "When was the last time you tried it?" Because like i said "Active development" means a particular thing might not work today but it very well could work tomorrow. So before you throw out a negative comment think! And before you ask "does it do X?" and "have they fixed Y?" im going to tell you....".try it, and you will know!"

[RedPandaz]

 

On 8/26/2017 at 7:00 AM, qzgy said:

This has been asked to death. From what I remember, the main problem is a working timewarp system. For example, I timewarp to go to Eve for instance. That takes a while, more than a day. But you are on Kerbin flying a jet plane or something. So what do you do? 

 

And besides, it's arguable that other areas of the game need to be addressed, such as the lack of a reason to go to other planets.

Maybe real time would only work in-atmosphere/planet range [sayyy, 1000km?], and outside of the atmosphere it would work like singleplayer? If you wanted to go with buddies you could form into an in-game group and have the same local time, all agreeing on a time warp?

On 8/26/2017 at 9:33 PM, AlamoVampire said:

Nope. Not going to happen. Not any time soon, if ever really.

Why?

Its complicated. BUT, I will share again, my views as to why this is not going to happen, and it has some newly updated reasoning behind it.

1. Mod Compatibility. I run certain mods. You run other mods that I do not run. KSP has a history of obliterating ships in orbit that have missing or outdated parts as a result of missing or outdated mods. Will the fact my space station is constructed mainly of Planetary Base parts conflict with you? If yes, and you get into my session, BAM there goes my station. Hours of work gone. OR if not that, and it doesnt kill my station from me, what if you launch something and it then plows through me because YOUR game didnt load my station, but MINE did? Same result, but you sit there wondering if its a kraken attack.

2. Trolls. Lets say we are running totally stock, no mods. I put a station up. You put a station up. I decide to walk off for lunch but keep my system logged into KSP as Im only going to my fridge to grab a sandwich and a drink. In that time, some punk decides this is the perfect time to trash my station either by going full Space Cowboys <the scene where the over eager astronaut ignores Eastwoods character and connects to the missiles and it nearly kills him> OR go full on Gravity and send debris on a retrograde orbit on MY orbital plane and it obliterates me OR they just go Asteroid Redirect and drive my station into a decaying orbit I cant fix. OR any number of OTHER troll behaviors I am not mentioning because of brevity or I cant think of them. What then?

3. Part Counts. My station is 90 parts atm with more getting ready to come up. I can comfortably run around 200 parts in physics range at any given time. Lets face it, I think Im running on a potato. You however are on a Bugatti Veyron powerful machine and 5000 part ships are NOTHING to you. You get 60 FPS even with 5000 part ships. You come into physics range on me and suddenly I go from my 30FPS to 1 FRAME PER MILLION YEARS. No real decent way to handle that. Some have suggested making your parts physics less on my side and vice versa, well, if thats the case how do we dock to each other? Because the INSTANT my ship docks to that 5000 part station, its now part of MY ship and BAM no frame rates, just a picture.

4. Lets take a moment to explore mods becoming stock, or taking the idea from a mod and making a stock extrapolation. In stock, fairings are needed now with the "new" aerodynamics. SO, Squad made fairings. Neat idea, but, the execution of this idea was atrocious. I remember when they first came out. It took me 45 minutes of scaring my cat to DEATH before I learned: Click, drag, Click to place THAT level, Click again, drag some more, Click to place THAT level and so on. THEN, I spent another 45 to 90 minutes scaring that poor cat AGAIN as I had NO CLUE I needed the tiniest amount of space to grab the fairing in the first place. SO, here we are about 2.5 HOURS into the new fairings, and then I fly my mission only to discover a critical failure in the stock fairings. They confettied. UGLY as sin, but, my mission was still going, and then my mission itself failed because in my frustration with these abominations I forgot RCS, RCS fuel, Batteries and solar panels. SO, revert to VAB. To my horror <at the time, I was a Procedural Fairings Veteran>, I expected the stock fairings even with the confetti/potato chipping ugliness to behave for alterations like PF. They didnt. They still do not to my knowledge. I had to REBUILD the fairing to allow for the redesigned payload. Not ONCE was any of this explained in game about the stock fairings. We have a mod out there, Procedural Fairings that is super simple to use, even easier to understand because the instructions are laid out in an easy to understand format. Need to fix your payload, simply remove the shell, alter the payload and reattach to the node on the base of the fairing and the mod does the rest, pending proper symmetry of course. They had the PERFECT blueprint to follow and made a horrific mess. The mod for multiplayer Dark Multiplayer I think its called, from my understanding is a glitchy mess that does do multiplayer with some massaging. I have absolutely zero faith given the fiasco with the fairings that they will do any better with multi player. <personal opinion and outlook here>

5. Time warp. I have a TINY launch window for Duna, and you have a mission to Eve, that has a launch window just ahead of mine <not sure if a real possibility, but, Im running with it!>. I am in the VAB putting the finishing touches to my mission, and you hit your window. You launch and choose to time warp your way to Eve. Well, that just trashed my window by making it go away. Time warp is an absolute MUST if you wish to go beyond LKO and not do this in real time. I see no real way to get around this one.

Look, please, PLEASE do not get me wrong, I LOVE multiplayer, I am nearly a rank 80 in Battlefield 1, I am a level 70 Samurai in Final Fantasy XIV, Stormblood. When a game is designed to BE or HAVE multiplayer at the start, its a beautiful thing, but, to frankenstein it into a game that was designed so so long ago to be single player cannot work out well. It would be wonderful for KSP 2: KSP ONLINE <free name to Squad > where it can be designed from code character 1, code line 1. Not now. Not 5+  years after KSP first came to this world.

op 23:32:30

1. Simple. Just have Multiplayer disregard mods

2. Well, I mean, Minecraft has that problem too, and people play that. Furthermore, you could set it so that your ship could only be interactable with certain other players, say, like a friendslist.

3. Easy- just run most of the calculations on the dedicated Squad computers already there for running the servers. 

4. Maybe real time would only work in-atmosphere/planet range [sayyy, 1000km?], and outside of the atmosphere it would work like singleplayer? If you wanted to go with buddies you could form into an in-game group and have the same local time, all agreeing on a time warp?

On 9/1/2017 at 6:52 PM, Confused Scientist said:

I think multiplayer would be great for in-atmo flight around the KSC. Not too sure how good it would do for timewarp-heavy missions; thinking about that makes my head hurt.

...Are you sure we can't just add more power and see if that fixes things?

Best solution. Just do this, run like singleplayer for between planets, and jump-cut things to sync with the server once you get to a new planet

On 8/26/2017 at 10:06 PM, qzgy said:

And for things not that? Like interplanetary travel for instance?

I've answered this, and it will merge with my other replies, just scroll up or somethin'

On 10/12/2017 at 8:47 AM, The Dunatian said:

There are a lot of problems that will be caused by a multiplayer.

1. Some people play stock while others mod heavily. This will cause compatibility issues unless everyone on the server has exactly the same mods installed.

2. Trolling. A trolling user who knows what he is doing could easily cause the entire game to crash, potentially destroying a lot of work.

3. KSP is already a huge application for a computer to run, a multiplayer would only double the size and would cause crashes for some computers. This begs the question, how many people will actually be able to use the multiplayer? I have a friend who's motherboard was permanently damaged while using the KSP dark multiplayer.

4. As stated earlier, time warp is also a major problem.

Likely if multiplayer is added, I will never use it not only because it will likely crash my computer, but also because I enjoy the fact that KSP is a single player game and because many of the above mentioned issues will be very difficult to address.

Answered; will merge

[RedLeafPatriot]

LMP has been out a little while and it’s working! 

 

Support the free Mod!

https://github.com/LunaMultiplayer/LunaMultiplayer/releases

[Lumafepe]

You can play ksp multiplayer I use the LMP nod search online its working for 1.4.4

[Tyko]

On 5/8/2018 at 11:21 PM, RedPandaz said:

Maybe real time would only work in-atmosphere/planet range [sayyy, 1000km?], and outside of the atmosphere it would work like singleplayer? If you wanted to go with buddies you could form into an in-game group and have the same local time, all agreeing on a time warp?

All you're really doing is creating lots of splinter timelines with no elegant way to merge them back. You'd start off playing with friends on the same timeline, but as soon as any person / group time warps they're in a new splinter timeline.

For example. You have a team working on LKO on a space station. Your other team travels to Eve and returns to Kerbin. For the Eve team many months have passed, but for the LKO team it might have only been days. They're now on separate timelines that can't be merged without seriously bending the "time/space continuum". If you let them re-merge then either time really slowed down on Kerbin or the Eve team was using near-instantaneous travel.

This might work within the new Missions system where you could define the roles and mission components with a limited scope. I don't see how it would work in a normal open world KSP game though

Edited July 6, 2018 by Tyko

[Akoumoudjian]

I think they should do instant time warp.

[popos1]

Any news?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

1 hour ago, popos1 said:

Any news?

No news, is good news!