My problem with multiplayer and the lost of ownership (what you create, take)

[we6jbo]

I'm a long time youtube viewer and recent player of the KSP game. So far I've had a mixed enjoyment and fusteration of the game but overall I've really enjoyed it. I also visit an IRC fan chatroom by the name we6jbo-ircforge and I've heard through the chatroom that there are plans to add multiplay to the game.

I'd like to shed my own opinion on multiplayer in games that have sandbox elements. When Minecraft added multiplayer support to the game I tried it once and never again. To me, adding multiplayer to a game takes away ownership of all my creations and hands it to the server owner. When I leave the server, all my creations and my own stuff is instantly wiped from me. Even a game like Terraria where you keep your equipment has the same problem. Nothing can be built without it being given away. It's my opinion that games like Minecraft, Terraria and maybe even KSP needs to adopt a ownership system.

I'm not sure exactly how an ownership system could be implemented into a game but I have always liked Spore for being able to send multiple copies of the creations people built to the different worlds. In that regard, the content creator still retains their work and only a copy is made available to everyone else.

[GluttonyReaper]

I think that not owning something personally is kind of a hard fact of multiplayer, which people either love or hate, rather than an actual issue. Minecraft is quite a good example. In a large, hundred-player server, creations tend to blend together, giving a general sense, rather than an individual one. Whether or not you would like this is simply preference. Of course, this is different with small servers between friends. Here, each person naturally can associate a creation with a specific owner, giving a sense of ownership that is recognised by both the creator and the viewers. It's this second type which KSP seems to be moving more towards, if only for the vast computing power needed to simulate hundreds of ships at once.

As for a Spore-esque system, I think the Spaceport is based around a similar idea - people can use other's creations, but the original still stands as is.

[Ravenchant]

I'm not sure exactly how an ownership system could be implemented into a game but I have always liked Spore for being able to send multiple copies of the creations people built to the different worlds. In that regard, the content creator still retains their work and only a copy is made available to everyone else.

You can do that now by sharing craft files, and I'm pretty sure we will be able to save the stuff we built on the server locally.

Unless you're talking space stations and bases. Then I don't know.

[Captain Sierra]

The current multiplayer plugin actually has this. You can set your craft as public or private. In the case of the latter, you cannot take control over it if you don't own it and you cannot dock with it (because if you did, your ship would become part of that ship, which you cannot control). By setting it as public, anyone can get control of it. The only downside is that ownership privileges are not retained so anyone can reset it to private, thus claiming it. I am sure that stock multiplayer will be slightly more refined and not permit such exploits/bugs.

[we6jbo]

The current multiplayer plugin actually has this. You can set your craft as public or private. In the case of the latter, you cannot take control over it if you don't own it and you cannot dock with it (because if you did, your ship would become part of that ship, which you cannot control). By setting it as public, anyone can get control of it. The only downside is that ownership privileges are not retained so anyone can reset it to private, thus claiming it. I am sure that stock multiplayer will be slightly more refined and not permit such exploits/bugs.

I did see the Kerbal lifefeed mod and I'm actually quite interested in it because it does take into count that everything you build is yours. In the case of a collaborative build on Minecraft, the build still resides on the server and therefore is owned by the server owner. If the server owner gave you the server's map after you were done with the build then I'd say that the ownership has switched.

[Captain Sierra]

Not Kerbal Live Feed, Kerbal MultiPlayer (which is partly derived from KLF), working, synchronous multiplayer.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55835-KMP-v0-1-5-0-0-23-wip-alpha

[Superfluous J]

If you play with friends this should not be a problem. Sure the server owner technically owns your ship but it's still yours in his or her mind. If it's not, you may want to reconsider your friend group.

If you can't trust someone to respect your stuff, don't play multi-player with them. If you can't trust anybody to respect your stuff, don't play it at all. Lucky for you, there's a great single player version of this game available *right* *now*