FOnline Development > Questions and Answers

Co-op

<< < (2/2)

hexer:
Good answer, bro! Yes, this is indeed something we have to think through better before deciding if we're going to do it immediately or later.

Lexx:
About FOnline Coop, some points of thought:

- All variables in the game always need to be saved for every player, even if only the host is online (so everything must be a global variable OR a variable tied to NPCs only (if in dialog)). This helps to avoid breaking quests and such.
- Also this way, every player can talk to the NPCs. If you end the dialog and a different player talks to the NPC, the last "spoken progress" remains saved, due to global variables. Why this is good: Less prone to bugs, less work with writing the dialog (why does he talk like we meet the first time? You just talked to my friend a second ago!), easier to track progress for the writer.
- everything the NPC "says" needs to be a float text over his head. Same applies to the player: Every option he choses must be shown to other players as well, or dialogues will turn into two guys looking at each other for every player who isn't talking to an NPC.
- All players must be forced to stay in the same map at any time. Having players wander over the worldmap generates problems:
   1. It's a source of additional bugs (players conflicting each other in quests, for example)
   2. you can't advance the daytime if one player is in a town and another traveling on the worldmap. Everyone traveling at the same time will allow progressing time / make it more believable.
- You might want to allow players to stay in different maps in the same location (location is split in multiple maps most of the time) when they have radios equipped or something. Helps for believability (staying in contact with each other without being right next to each other).

There was more stuff we talked about a while ago, but I don't remember the details anymore. Players dying / reviving is something you'll have to deal with too. It is highly unfun to die fast (and you usually find your death fast in a Fallout game) and then your character is gone. So it needs a new mechanic that deals with that.


I always wanted to make a small coop game prototype to prove that this stuff can work. But it's hard to find someone to help with that, as it relies a lot on (AngelScript) programmer skills, and less on game design (this doesn't require to be a tale of superb game writing, it's just about the mechanics and proving that they work, after all).

hexer:
Thanks for your insight Lexx, we can work on that co-op prototype together later. I will certainly try next year when we start with serious programming!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page