The New Coop Approach ?

Warsoul · April 4, 2018

I play KSP for many years and we still waiting for the multiplayer features.

I know somes mods who mimic a ''Multiplayer'' but it has somes flaws with the warping's gameplay but i had a idea today to fix that warping gameplay issue in multiplayer !

For the Time Warp issues; the solution is simple; Play with friends on One Ship at a time or design rockets and ships when your friends are flying !

Your rocket can hold 4 kerbals ? Then you can Coop with 3 friends. We all Warp together !

All we have to implement is a system to share each controls separately and give them exclusively for each player.

Example A :

Player 1 : Control WASD

Player 2 : Control SAS's Force

Player 3 : Control RCS

Player 4 : Control Thrust and Staging

Example B :

Player 1 : Control Piloting stuff : WASD + SAS + RCS + etc

Player 2 : Control Sciences stuff : Execute minigames in flight to conduct sciences experiments

Player 3 : Control Engineering stuff : Execute minigames in flight to stabilise the rocket's components and temperatures

Player 4 : Control Recording Camera : Move around the camera to record epic adventures and stream online.

Docking and Undocking Phase

In a radius on 50 Km, the player can split into many group to take control of others vessels.

If others players exit the 50 km radius around the Player 1; they are teleported back into the Player 1's Vessel ( Player Only, not the Kerbal itself if he was in EVA ).

In Radius Coop mode, the time warp is limited to X speed and only Player 1 can Warp if all others players are inside and accept the Warp Vote.

It's simple enough to be implemented in the next Update. Sincerly; i don't know why Squad didn't implemented that Solution yet.

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A: That sounds like it might work on a planetary transfer with a large ship, but with something on the order of a small Mun lander, with the controls all in different hands? Coordination sounds like a nightmare! Then throw in a bit of lag at the wrong moment.

Answer : This isn't the point of making a Coop ? Getting challenged ? Nasa pilots doesn't have member to assist him ? For the Lag issue ; can we consider them like malfunctions and communications noises ?

B: This sounds somewhat more logical a way to divide tasks, but Science seems a bit thin to justify a player dedicated to it. Same with working the camera.

Answer : That's why we need to implement minigames and more sciences test in flight. More than a simple clic experiments. Enough to make the scientist rushing to get all science he can in one flight. Same for the engineer, he must watch and tune fuel balancing and temperatures at same time to solve malfunctions warnings with the scientist.

For the Cameraman ; he must have plenty of options to record a nice video with post-effects and transitions. Cameraman, it's a career, he will have plenty to do if you want a nice stream on twitch.

Four players, three seats on the ship. This leads to a problem. Also, "Player Only, not the Kerbal itself"? What does the "disembodied" player get to do then?

Answer : Consider Players as ''AI'' who can get control of Functions or Kerbal. If the ''AI'' go to far away with a kerbal; the ''AI'' came back into the Player 1's vessel and the kerbal need to be rescued like a normal rescue mission.

All Players ''AI'' will get access to a HUD panel where he can cast a vote for each functions he want or the Kerbal he want to play. Player 1 will accept or not the requests.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Warsoul

razark · April 4, 2018

A:
That sounds like it might work on a planetary transfer with a large ship, but with something on the order of a small Mun lander, with the controls all in different hands? Coordination sounds like a nightmare! Then throw in a bit of lag at the wrong moment.

B:
This sounds somewhat more logical a way to divide tasks, but Science seems a bit thin to justify a player dedicated to it. Same with working the camera.

51 minutes ago, Warsoul said:

If others players exit the 50 km radius around the Player 1; they are teleported back into the Player 1's Vessel ( Player Only, not the Kerbal itself if he was in EVA ).

Four players, three seats on the ship. This leads to a problem. Also, "Player Only, not the Kerbal itself"? What does the "disembodied" player get to do then?

Note:
Not saying it's a completely unworkable idea. I'm just noticing some issues that would have to be worked through before considering an implementation of it.
(Also, it's going to really annoy the people that want to play Kerbalwar. )

Edited April 4, 2018 by razark

Airdude · April 4, 2018

I had an idea like this a while ago. What if you could hand off the major controls to other another player when you’re done (I’m thinking like shared-cockpit FSX), while anyone else could handle tweakables/science/maneuver nodes?

razark · April 4, 2018

8 minutes ago, Airdude said:

... while anyone else could handle tweakables/science/maneuver nodes?

Now I'm thinking that some tasks could even be handed over to "ground control", such as handling the navigation, and then letting the pilot-player handle the actual maneuvers.

Warsoul · April 4, 2018