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Elemental Multiplayer Revealed

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Elemental Multiplayer Revealed

from JoeUser Forums

Come Beta 2 (end of February), multiplayer should come to Elemental. 

Multiplayer in Elemental is going to be done in an unusual way for a strategy game. In fact, Elemental’s multiplayer is more akin to what you would typically see in a first person shooter.

Here’s how it works:

Option 1: Play on the Stardock servers:

Player loads up Elemental, chooses Multiplayer, selects “Host” (or Join). If they select Host, it will find the nearest (geographical) Elemental server run by Stardock and put them in the lobby. From their point of view, it’s almost exactly like any other game. But in reality, the player is now part of a client/server setup where Stardock provides the servers.

If the user chooses “Join” they instead get a list of “Worlds”. These are servers that have at least 1 human player already in them. The display will include the map name (random or a specific name), host, and ping time.

Next to each of these worlds will be a symbol. Stardock servers will have a Stardock logo. But third-party servers will have their own symbol (a checkbox at the bottom will toggle whether third-party servers are displayed or not). This brings us to Option #2…

Option 2: Play on Custom servers:

In the Elemental folder will be a program called “Elemental Server”.  Launching this will add a custom server to the list of available “worlds” for people to play on.  By default, it’ll be just like the Stardock servers.  But these servers, run on third-party machines, can be highly customized.

Players can mod their servers with custom content, custom rules, and lots of other things that we’ll get into later.  If you ever played Stellar Frontier ( a game we made a long time ago) players created all kinds of different server mods and set up entire star systems with custom planets, custom ships, etc.

The video below outlines the strategy below:

Elemental Beta 2 is due at the end of February.  The modding features won’t be supported until release (we won’t stop people from modding but we won’t support them as we’ll be constantly changing the data formats as the game progresses).

A note to people not in the beta: You’re not missing anything. The betas are NOT fun. These aren’t demo betas. These are real, painful, boring, ugly betas.  The graphics engine is disabled in both beta 1 and beta 2.

The suffering of beta testers:

105,603 views 59 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

So does the game itself only run on the server then and the clients only display graphics and provide the interface?

If that is the case then what I would consider great is if you could connect to a running game and not only to a newly started game. In so many games it happens that people lose connection or leave and the game gets bad from then on. With the possibility for people to rejoin a running game even if their client crashes or whatever that problem would be reduced.

The AI could play for the player in the meantime until another player joins and you could even start with some AIs and have players join later. Especially in long variants that could help a lot.

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

Multiplayer is gonna rock :) Well done Stardock.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

I hope the 20 or 30 people who will play mulitplayer enjoy it.

I will not.

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Ashbery76, reply 28
I hope the 20 or 30 people who will play mulitplayer enjoy it.

I will not.

I, for one, plan to play the living ****out of this game, and I know at least 3 others will be joining me via LAN or internet depending on the day. If this will make it easier to do so then I love it!. You have no idea how many truly great games are simply not played among my group of friends because there's always one of us who can't connect to the game no matter how we try to troubleshoot it. At least running our own servers on LAN should help some.

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

What was that I heard about being able to walk around within a tile and interacte with objects there. I hope that's not going to be gameplay significant. I would really hate to have to zoom in on every little tile I went to and search for some little grotto I may have passed up otherwise that would give me the Singing Steel Sword of Death...

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Xan, reply 12

Am I missing something? I didn't hear anything especially new or unusual in the video, except maybe that they're providing official servers while still supporting private ones, instead of doing either/or like most companies. Other than that, it looks like the same multiplayer matchmaking used by pretty much every game ever.

You're kidding right?

Name one strategy game that works like this. One.

 

Every game that has ever used battle.net uses the exact same method as Option 1.  Also, Empire Earth, Age of Empires III, and Dawn of War all use option 1. Its not a new idea whatsoever. Option 1 is used by virtually every single multiplayer strategy game that has had enough success to catch my eye. Option 2 however, I have yet to see in anything but Stellar Frontier.

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Ashbery76, reply 28
I hope the 20 or 30 people who will play mulitplayer enjoy it.

I will not.

You gotta be kidding. MP [combined with mods] will be epic in a game like this. :rolleyes:

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

Absolutely, Tormy, MP will rock.  I'm having to set up space for the 6+ people I know wanting to play this on my LAN at home.

Reply #34 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Circumstantial, reply 31
Every game that has ever used battle.net uses the exact same method as Option 1.  Also, Empire Earth, Age of Empires III, and Dawn of War all use option 1. Its not a new idea whatsoever. Option 1 is used by virtually every single multiplayer strategy game that has had enough success to catch my eye. Option 2 however, I have yet to see in anything but Stellar Frontier.

Actually, Bnet uses a hybrid system of P2P, however I won't go into this. Almost all RTS games use some instance of P2P technology for the synched mechanic it provides. Turn Based games, like Elemental, are in a great position to use the Client/Server model because they don't need the synched mechanic, and other games are starting to make the transition over. Modern Warfare 2, for example, practically destroyed it's PC multiplayer scene by using P2P technology - albiet this was to combat piracy, more than anything else.

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Nesrie, reply 21

Civ has mods, but it's not server specific if i recall. I used something with UT 3 that simply sent out required files to the players that connected to my game whereas CIv just rejected them and I had to direct them, online, to the mods.

This is a good point.  It would be nice, with all the expected modding, to have the server automatically detect needed mods/files/etc. for a hosted game and download them (after a prompt, for security reasons) when required.  It would save a lot of time/effort for players, and remove the delays that can make MP modded games frustrating (as experience with this has shown in games without this feature, causing them to not be played as often as they otherwise would).

I just want to repeat my thanks and respect to the Elemental team for this (and similar efforts).  It shows great dedication to us players and the game itself.

I just checked when Civ came out -- 1991.  I've been playing that, and every version that's come since, for almost 19 years.  It's still one of my most-played games.  Due to updated versions (I-IV and all their expansions), mods like FFH2, MP, the community (HOF, Succession, GOTM, etc., it's stayed on my computers all these years.  I expect/hope for similar things from Elemental, and it looks like I won't be disappointed.  Here's to 20+ years of playing Elemental!

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

Nice options. You'd exspect a game with official servers to have Battle.Net functionality (automatic downloading of maps) by now but I've learned that's not always the case. Like when Games For Windows Live came....Instead of typing "/w Nick-Danger how ya doing?" You send a type of e-mail....From what I recall, I'm fairly certain that automatic downloading of maps wasn't possible either.

 

I ofcourse expect Elementals MP to beat Battle.Net but not Battle.Net 2.0 ;)

Reply #37 from Elemental Forums Top

Is this Beta will be available to people who pre-ordered the game after the 1st october date?

Of course, knowing that Beta will not  be fun, doesn't have the full graphical engine, ...

it seems, there is a lot a people loving playing not funny game!   |-)

Reply #38 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Nick-Danger, reply 35

This is a good point.  It would be nice, with all the expected modding, to have the server automatically detect needed mods/files/etc. for a hosted game and download them (after a prompt, for security reasons) when required.  It would save a lot of time/effort for players, and remove the delays that can make MP modded games frustrating (as experience with this has shown in games without this feature, causing them to not be played as often as they otherwise would).

This is sorely needed! If we're going to be able to use mods on a custom server, it's a must to let the game download what is needed. Sending someone to a website before they can play is a PITA. Battle.net's automatic custom map downloads are a major reason that the custom game scene really took off in Starcraft and Warcraft 3. It's EASY to get into a custom game.

Elemental needs to do the same thing for modding to reach its potential.

Reply #39 from Elemental Forums Top

Just like in Stellar Frontier, if a given user doesn't have a particular mod or asset it would be uploaded to them.

We don't expect users to have to hunt down for mods.

Reply #40 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 39
We don't expect users to have to hunt down for mods.

Except during the beta. You don't want to make it fun after all. :P

Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 39
Just like in Stellar Frontier, if a given user doesn't have a particular mod or asset it would be uploaded to them.

We don't expect users to have to hunt down for mods.

Thanks god !

Supreme commander badly needed that feature, and it killed the modding community (there were always a good community, but really small. It was hard to get games runing to try new mods)

Autodownload mods is absolutely needed.

Reply #42 from Elemental Forums Top

So does the game itself only run on the server then and the clients only display graphics and provide the interface?

If that is the case then what I would consider great is if you could connect to a running game and not only to a newly started game. In so many games it happens that people lose connection or leave and the game gets bad from then on. With the possibility for people to rejoin a running game even if their client crashes or whatever that problem would be reduced.

The AI could play for the player in the meantime until another player joins and you could even start with some AIs and have players join later. Especially in long variants that could help a lot.

This might be possible, but we'd have to account for it in the ranking code, achievements, etc beyond just the implementation of the feature.

Reply #43 from Elemental Forums Top

Yea, Stellar Frontier, which we released back in the 90s, would automatically upload to the user any content or mods they needed.

So people would make the Klingon home world.  Heck, some fans and us made a GalCiv mod where all the planets, ships, and other assets came from GalCiv. Users didn't have to do anything. It automatically just got uploaded to them.

Reply #44 from Elemental Forums Top

I repeat my question again: Can't we save and reload LAN MP games just like in Civ4 or Dominions 3? [So the host won't have to maintain the server 24/7..]

I suppose the answer will be no, so is it possible that we gonna have a save/load MP game feature later on?

Reply #45 from Elemental Forums Top

I can't wait to start trying this out. If I can make a Dark Republic server, I will.

I repeat my question again: Can't we save and reload LAN MP games just like in Civ4 or Dominions 3? [So the host won't have to maintain the server 24/7..]

I suppose the answer will be no, so is it possible that we gonna have a save/load MP game feature later on?

I would also very much like to know the answer to this.

Reply #46 from Elemental Forums Top

I suppose the answer will be no, so is it possible that we gonna have a save/load MP game feature later on?

The plan is, yes. Your saved games will be on our servers. Once the game starts, all the "mods" are part of a single data. Its location becomes irrelevant.

Reply #47 from Elemental Forums Top

Is there any chance the idea of a 'gamemaster' role for mutiplayer is still maybe on some dev's wish list? It would be a real multiplayer revolution to carve out space for folks who want to role-play a TBS rather than compete for scores.

Reply #48 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 46

I suppose the answer will be no, so is it possible that we gonna have a save/load MP game feature later on?


The plan is, yes. Your saved games will be on our servers. Once the game starts, all the "mods" are part of a single data. Its location becomes irrelevant.

Awesome. :)

Reply #49 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 39
Just like in Stellar Frontier, if a given user doesn't have a particular mod or asset it would be uploaded to them.

We don't expect users to have to hunt down for mods.

Awesome. :)

Reply #50 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 2
The guy running the custom server would have to keep the server running. It would be like having a website except in this case it's an Elemental world.

 

 

i dont get it

server running?

cant we just create a custom GAME, play it and then byebye ?