why multiplayer?

[tekenden]

Just wondering, since every server i've been to so far seems this way. What are you guys doing to help out the new people? I've been to every server in the list and every dungeon/tower has been cleaned out within 2000 blocks from spawn. That means no chest loot. Only good drops you get are from random spawn mobs, which are few and far between, depending on server settings. Don't get me wrong, it looks great for a multiplayer setup, but unless you join when the map just comes out, you're left behind with no way of catching up.

[Pilchard123]

IIRC, it has said it was more designed to be a 'raid some dungeons with your friends on a private server and then shut it down' type of game, rather than a persistent world. I don't know Frizzil's position on that though.

[Frizzil]

My position is I want to support small groups of people tackling dungeons together, but I see no reason why this can't be done in the context of large servers. I'll include an option for dungeons to automagically reset at some point, among other things, so large servers have some means of maintaining so many people. I've mused about having in-game castle sieges, where large groups of players defend their fortress from the tides of darkness, but I'll have to play with it before I can say anything definitive. Generally though, if I really want something to happen, it'll happen That's definitely a long term goal, but I'll experiment with it once I feel the basic gameplay is more stable. You know, that'd be a fantastic end-game activity...

There are much bigger problems than this for SMP atm, mainly just crashes and griefing, but the update this weekend will fix a good bit of it, along with adding a few awesome features.

[Pilchard123]

I'll include an option for dungeons to automagically reset at some point, among other things, so large servers have some means of maintaining so many people.

How hard would it be to make each dungeon act as a new set of dimensions? At the risk of making it sound too much like WoW, could you not have each dungeon be accessed through a portal to an instance of it, then delete that map when it's either been finished or is empty of people. Re-entering a portal to a place with a map that has been deleted would regenerate that same dungeon, unless there was some reason it should not, such as it containing unique loot or something. If you want, I'll post a flowchart of the logic for this.

Just make sure nobody can get Corrupted Blood.

[Killer-of-Lawyers]

How hard would it be to make each dungeon act as a new set of dimensions? At the risk of making it sound too much like WoW, could you not have each dungeon be accessed through a portal to an instance of it, then delete that map when it's either been finished or is empty of people. Re-entering a portal to a place with a map that has been deleted would regenerate that same dungeon, unless there was some reason it should not, such as it containing unique loot or something. If you want, I'll post a flowchart of the logic for this.

Just make sure nobody can get Corrupted Blood.

I would just like to take the time to expound a little on your siege castle idea. I for one find it a fascinating idea, and would love to see it implemented. That said, it isn't to hard to make happen now in a limited respect for servers. Really, a high level area is already under siege by mobs in this game. If there were some way for players to plop something down in their home base to keep spawns out of it, then that'd be a big start. It'd also do a lot for new players who try and make a hut at spawn and find a rofleconda outside their door.

Another nice thing to have would be a spawn command that ops could use to just plonk a bunch of mobs right down around them. If we had those two things then we could be running sieges.

Anyways, thank you so much for this mod. It's pretty amazing. I've been watching it for 6 months or so. Keep up the good work! I hope you give some thought to some early siege implementation.

[Windoom]

My position is I want to support small groups of people tackling dungeons together, but I see no reason why this can't be done in the context of large servers. I'll include an option for dungeons to automagically reset at some point, among other things, so large servers have some means of maintaining so many people. I've mused about having in-game castle sieges, where large groups of players defend their fortress from the tides of darkness, but I'll have to play with it before I can say anything definitive. Generally though, if I really want something to happen, it'll happen That's definitely a long term goal, but I'll experiment with it once I feel the basic gameplay is more stable. You know, that'd be a fantastic end-game activity...

There are much bigger problems than this for SMP atm, mainly just crashes and griefing, but the update this weekend will fix a good bit of it, along with adding a few awesome features.

I find that post extremly informative. Additionally, you could develop more Unique items, a few new spells every class (I can think of alot) and some additional inventory storage room. Oh and include a Method to warp to Higher level zones since traveling 4500+ blocks for your zone is a bit harsh ;D Maybe some High end content and Bukkit support (would solve alot of issues in 1 step) aswell

Good Job until now though, this is awesome

[Pilchard123]

KoL - I suppose you meant to quote Frizzil's post, not mine?

Frizzil - How easy is it to edit this mod? I mean, if I were to have an idea, could I go about testing it's feasibility before I bother you with it?

[Killer-of-Lawyers]

I did.

[Rastem]

How hard would it be to make each dungeon act as a new set of dimensions? At the risk of making it sound too much like WoW, could you not have each dungeon be accessed through a portal to an instance of it, then delete that map when it's either been finished or is empty of people. Re-entering a portal to a place with a map that has been deleted would regenerate that same dungeon, unless there was some reason it should not, such as it containing unique loot or something. If you want, I'll post a flowchart of the logic for this.

Just make sure nobody can get Corrupted Blood.

This concept may not be terribly hard to implement*, but you do need to keep in mind the amount of memory such a system would need. Whenever a group of people went into an instanced dimension, the server would have to generate the area they were in, or at least put a version of a premade map into memory for them to play on. If you have multiple groups of people running the same instance, then you would have multiple versions using up more and more memory and eventually bogging the server down.

Now if you meant that the entire server would have only one copy of the dungeon, and when that one copy is completed and vacated it is deleted then remade. That would save much on the memory side of things (think a 40-man run instead of a 5-man).

*note, I have not even breathed towards the code in this and in no way want my hypothetical brouhaha to be thought of as fact for that one statement.

[Frizzil]

How hard would it be to make each dungeon act as a new set of dimensions? At the risk of making it sound too much like WoW, could you not have each dungeon be accessed through a portal to an instance of it, then delete that map when it's either been finished or is empty of people. Re-entering a portal to a place with a map that has been deleted would regenerate that same dungeon, unless there was some reason it should not, such as it containing unique loot or something. If you want, I'll post a flowchart of the logic for this.

Just make sure nobody can get Corrupted Blood.

I love this mechanic! I could definitely repurpose the dimension mechanic for temporary worlds. I'm not thinking it should be "dungeons" exactly, and it'd be different than static "instances" The mystery dimension present in the game already is intended to later be a hard zone you can only travel in temporarily for bonus loot, but having a new dimension spawn every time for players and randomizes itself would be really thrilling. Imagine (since I don't want to give what I've definitively planned away) you teleport out into space, and there are randomized land formations that follow a linear path (in a chronological sense), with a large boss at the end. Having huge battles with massive explosions would be MUCH more feasible, since no one is worried about defacing their precious homes or scenery, and it would regenerate every time someone wanted to enter it. The entrance, among other possibilities, could be a simple portal at the top of a difficult tower. Or, it need not necessarily (try saying that 3 times fast) be an experience leading into a boss battle, it could just be a fast, but dangerous, way to travel half-way across the world, like a wurm hole of sorts

HHRRRMMMmmmmmmm...

As for castle sieges, the trivial implementation would be pretty easy, but slow as christmas. It would be pretty expensive if you didn't just have mobs blowing up walls everywhere, because you'd have to ensure at all times there was a path to the, er, throne, let's say, otherwise it'd be an invalid siege (what fun is it if monsters can never get to the throne?!?) There's lots of ways to do this I think, but the best I've thought of so far is a path finding algorithm drawn out over time, limited by NE and SW blocks (attached magically to the "throne" somehow), that starts at the throne and performs a few steps of the search with each tick, tracking important nodes in case of path changes (iow ROFLCONDAS).

The multiple dimensions wouldn't be possible to reuse unless you're making all blocks indestructible : / Don't see any great way around it. This is a good bit limiting in terms of having lots of small "instances," so instead, just have a few big ones (like how dimensions already operate.)

I don't see it being any more expensive than having the same players just spread far apart in one world, because it's an issue of managing more chunks, really. Generally though, I'd expect players to cling together most of the time :P

[hack]

Wow Frizzil you have some great idea's for this mod and I am excited to see where this goes. It seems like an quick fix to the problem of starting zones getting cleared out on big servers is to make mob spawners never actually destroyable but just temporary disabled. So you clear a room then 'break' the spawners and keep on going. An hour or two later after you have left the dungeon the spawners and chest reset and the dungeon can be run by a new group.

I like the multidimensional idea and I want to know if you have thought about adding a safe area starting town. My idea would be a town of portals that is 100% safe zone inside of a bubble. Give a short roguelike story intro (something evil happened to the world and the town mages created a bubble around our town to protect us, you must travel though the portals and gather items for our survival and figure out a way to make the world safe again) and give all players a hearthstone/town portal type spell. On a new server only a portal to a level 1 zone will be accessible but as more players join and more dungeons are conquered open new portals to higher level zones. You could put a 'mini-boss' spawner at the top of every tower and the end of every dungeon. Killing the miniboss would drop a 'miniboss' token and turning in enough tokens could be used by your party to open a temporary portal to a instance encounter with a final boss.

I have read people complaining about how hostile world is with day creeps and and rolfcondas blowing up your buildings and I think the portal town would solve a lot of problems . Multiple portals would making spawn camping less of a problem. If someone is spawn camping outside this level 1 portal then just take the other level 1 portal to a different starting zone. To make the town safe you could make it so no weapons or items could be used but crafting and using your inventory can still be done.