Flatfingers wrote:Co-op in the standard dynamic universe might still work.
I suppose PvP could also still work, assuming a way can be found to insure that everyone's starting system isn't TOO far from everyone else's.
The old question still remains, though: does every player connect somehow to a single universe existing only on one person's computer? Or does everybody get their own local universe, generated from the same seed value, and sync every event that occurs in every connected player's universe across all connected instances?
The only correct way, is server-client.
The server spawns a shard universe, with a number of systems equal to its capability to handle player interaction among them.
Bigger servers, or systems with more shards attached get more player capabilities.
I was only thinking of hosting the one primary "official" server for this, so that there was a primary game universe.
And releasing the code so other people can mod it into whatever they want.
Any attempt at peer-peer or "ghosting" as is described by others, would be both a waste of time, and network capabilities.
Having watched the evolution of multiplayer gaming, and having seen the issues with P2P and Server/Client models.
The server/client model wins out in every possible way.
Unfortunately P2P only works for very small scale, very localized games, that have no one who wants to cheat.
P2P dictates high bandwidth and low ping, so relegates you to a LAN.
P2P allows any client to make changes, and you must explicitly trust input from all clients. (Freelancer had this problem, one client sets all guns to infinite refire, zero damage, zero energy usage, he fires beams of power that cost him nothing, and when he gets hit takes no damage, but the other clients take the normal damage per shot. Very, very bad)
P2P scales poorly with multiple clients. The more people the worse it handles.
Look at Factorio, they went from a P2P to a Server/Client model, and went from handling maybe 6 people on a LAN, to handling >100 people spread around the internet.
<Cuisinart8> apparently without the demon driving him around Silver has the intelligence of a botched lobotomy patient ~ Mar 04 2020
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