Multiplayer - use autosave file if possible instead of sending a new save every time
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 2:12 pm
This is probably my biggest annoyance in multiplayer right now. The longer we play the larger the save file gets. Right now the 20mb save file takes ~5 minutes to transfer with our garbage 3rd world internet upload rate. Every time one of us dies we load the last autosave, and the one who joins has to wait 5+ minutes.
Wouldn't it be so much better if the host and each client autosave at the same time, and then when a new client joins a server, if they have the same autosave file the game was created in (and the game was created less than a minute ago), the host just skips the whole sending process and only the "catching up" part has to be carried out. This would reduce join times from 5+ minutes to mere seconds and I think it would be a huge QoL improvement.
As a further step, the system could even be made dynamic, so the client calculates how long the "catching up" would take, and how long receiving a new save file would take (with a quick download speed test), then it would automatically decide whether it would for example be faster to get a 20mb save file, or do a "catching up" process of the last 20 minutes (the time difference between the host and your autosave file).
Wouldn't it be so much better if the host and each client autosave at the same time, and then when a new client joins a server, if they have the same autosave file the game was created in (and the game was created less than a minute ago), the host just skips the whole sending process and only the "catching up" part has to be carried out. This would reduce join times from 5+ minutes to mere seconds and I think it would be a huge QoL improvement.
As a further step, the system could even be made dynamic, so the client calculates how long the "catching up" would take, and how long receiving a new save file would take (with a quick download speed test), then it would automatically decide whether it would for example be faster to get a 20mb save file, or do a "catching up" process of the last 20 minutes (the time difference between the host and your autosave file).