Massive multiplayer suggestion thread

[3trip]

Okay folks, bring on your suggestions for massive multiplayer games.

First I'd like to suggest some settings that should be on by default when a server is set to say 50 or more players.

Auto teams, when you join a massive game you should automatically join a team, with its own color/colors, and most importantly, it's own team chat which will be the default chat option for everyone. you have to manually select global chat if you wish to tell the world you love/hate Arumba. This will greatly clear up chat spam.

Remove player join/leave messages from chat, stick them in another column.

Another thing that may help with chat spam is to localize some or all of chat, so you can only see messages from those close to you.

Decrease alien numbers and increase individual alien strength, more aliens take more resources right? Also make killing larger aliens a team effort, please consider giving us some weapons/traps to encourage team work, say harpoon gun, or bear traps to slow down or stop the enemy.

scale alien health with player count.

Players who continually have trouble catching up need to be temporarily banned for x amount of time, and/or until the player count and or item count goes down.

That or maybe have a some sort of bandwidth/performance check/rating system and deny access based on that.

Anyone else have something they'd like to add regarding massive games?

[bobingabout]

Decrease alien numbers and increase individual alien strength

That was the idea behind Behemoth biters/spitter, but I think that basically just turned into harder enemies to kill with the same numbers.

scale alien health with player count.

Another good idea, though, that can also be a can of worms... you wouldn't want it so that if another player joins, the aliens are then able to just eat through your turret barricade because the bullets/lasers are just tickling them.

[3trip]

Decrease alien numbers and increase individual alien strength

That was the idea behind Behemoth biters/spitter, but I think that basically just turned into harder enemies to kill with the same numbers.

Really? Huh, well I guess that part of optimizing the AI code is either low priority or forgotten.

Just had another thought on biters numbers, some sort of burrow or warren which spawns a bunch of units when the player is near, so you don't need as many aliens hanging around the base taking system resources.

scale alien health with player count.

Another good idea, though, that can also be a can of worms... you wouldn't want it so that if another player joins, the aliens are then able to just eat through your turret barricade because the bullets/lasers are just tickling them.

Hmm, good point, instant changes could be nasty, so incrementally scale up their strength each wave.

the only issue I see is when players leave, will the biters de-evolve? low player count would easy mode, not good.

[keatsy]

hi, with regards to the massive multiplayer, having played both steejo and arumbas servers would it not be a good idea to limit the size of the map? i only just noticed this setting. As I said last night the map is potentially exponential therefore the server can't handle the massive increase in size of the map including the new biter spawn areas which i assume just continue expanding outwards as the pollution grows.

In short there isn't enough power in the world to load that many people and constantly keep their data upto date.

maybe loading areas as players reach them would help (if that's possible) so each player has a radius of loaded map.

ps. great game last night, good to see the devs mucking in with the general public.

regards

keatsy

[TheBard74]

When joining a multiplayer game with only some or none of the mods you currently have enabled, have the game automatically disable the mods that are not compatible with the server.

Example:
PC has the following mods:
Mod A1
Mod B2
Mod C3

Server 1 has the following mods:
Mod C3

Server 2 has no mods:
Vanilla

When attempting to join a game on Server 1, Factorio should automatically disable Mod A1 and Mod B2 and then join the game.
When attempting to join a game on Server 2, Factorio should automatically disable Mod A1, Mod B2, and Mod C3 and then join the game.

[golfmiketango]

Although it would detract from initial sheer hedonistic fun, I think maps with scarce resources might be a good way to "force" players to decide on some sort of social organization, play collaboratively, and also avoid an exponential proliferation of factory structures causing megabase-style lag in the early game. I think the fundamental issue with massive multiplayer is basically that having so many pick-axes and pocket-crafting queues instantly at the crowd's disposal unbalances the early game and results in huge chaotic factories that quickly succeed by brute force despite enormous waste and a lack of planning.

Of course non-coop team structures are another interesting prospect to fix this, but human opponents might just be too powerful a destructive force for any productive activity to ever ramp up, resulting in a Hobbesian "nasty, brutish, short" type of outcome (not sure anyone's tried it yet; I'm curious to see if that's the actual result or not).

Perhaps some sort of CTF structure where teams start in their own heavily fortified prebuilt, un-mineable defensive structures would help with this hypothetical problem -- or even creating peripheral zones where only friendly people are able to go and then a central "contested" zone where everyone can go.

[ssilk]

would it not be a good idea to limit the size of the map? i only just noticed this setting. As I said last night the map is potentially exponential therefore the server can't handle the massive increase in size of the map including the new biter spawn areas which i assume just continue expanding outwards as the pollution grows.
In short there isn't enough power in the world to load that many people and constantly keep their data upto date.
maybe loading areas as players reach them would help (if that's possible) so each player has a radius of loaded map.

Hm. Many misinformation. Please understand, that the game works in a way, that everything runs synchronized.
Most things are explained in all the FFF's.

[hitzu]

would it not be a good idea to limit the size of the map? i only just noticed this setting. As I said last night the map is potentially exponential therefore the server can't handle the massive increase in size of the map including the new biter spawn areas which i assume just continue expanding outwards as the pollution grows.
In short there isn't enough power in the world to load that many people and constantly keep their data upto date.
maybe loading areas as players reach them would help (if that's possible) so each player has a radius of loaded map.

Hm. Many misinformation. Please understand, that the game works in a way, that everything runs synchronized.
Most things are explained in all the FFF's.

That's why one could potentially griefing by exploring maps uncontrollably, increasing the save size and the number of chunks that should be calculated.

[3trip]

would it not be a good idea to limit the size of the map? i only just noticed this setting. As I said last night the map is potentially exponential therefore the server can't handle the massive increase in size of the map including the new biter spawn areas which i assume just continue expanding outwards as the pollution grows.
In short there isn't enough power in the world to load that many people and constantly keep their data upto date.
maybe loading areas as players reach them would help (if that's possible) so each player has a radius of loaded map.

Hm. Many misinformation. Please understand, that the game works in a way, that everything runs synchronized.
Most things are explained in all the FFF's.

That's why one could potentially griefing by exploring maps uncontrollably, increasing the save size and the number of chunks that should be calculated.

Greifing by exploration, yeah, easy fix would be limited map size, another may be using biters to attack anything that strays from the group, or outside a certain area, or stray into their territory.

what about a total structure/entity count for all players and/or factions? that could cut down on necessary stuff, set that maximum value real low, and the players/factions would go to extremes in factory optimization.