Is multiplayer Fallout 4 in our future?

[TripleSLeague]

https://youtu.be/zxDLPoks6M4

The video above contains the full run-down, but here's the gist:

 

There already exists a Skyrim mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67038/?) that allows you to set up a game lobby where you and a few friends can have a private game together. Since Fallout 4 runs on an upgraded version of the Skyrim engine, it shouldn't be too difficult to get something similar up and running for Fallout 4 as well (for the PC version, anyway). We predict that we should (and hopefully will) be able to play with a friend or two in the wasteland within a few short months.

 

Since this is a modding community, we expect there will be a lot of opinions about this. What do you think? Are we out to lunch? And if it is possible, is it a good idea?

[JustATac0]

I doubt that Bethesda is going to put multiplayer into the game but I can see modders making it happen eventually.

[TripleSLeague]

I doubt that Bethesda is going to put multiplayer into the game but I can see modders making it happen eventually.

 

Exactly. In the video we discuss that possibility based on the existence of the Skyrim co-op mod.

[Chambers14]

Jesus I hope there is no multiplayer in it. I like to play Fallout alone. If multiplayer is in it I hope to god Bethesda does not let randoms just join your game.

[JustATac0]

Jesus I hope there is no multiplayer in it. I like to play Fallout alone. If multiplayer is in it I hope to god Bethesda does not let randoms just join your game.

I hope the same

[iXenite]

While I am certain that modders will try, and likely get it started, I know for a fact Bethesda will not be implementing native multiplayer. That is if their word is to be trusted (which I think it is).

 

Article about it if you're curious (who knows, maybe you've already read it):

http://mashable.com/2015/06/25/fallout-4-multiplayer-nope/

[KaeusGrim]

I haven't actually touched code now for 5 years so I cannot say for sure,

but I've spent a lot of time looking at the coding for Bethesda's creation engine and at other people's attempts at multiplayer mods.

The creation engine has no networking for multiplayer built into it at all..

Now that doesn't mean it cannot be done.

The co-op mod for Skyrim is limited; It doesn't give you player position very well and there aren't any NPCs for anyone but the host.

The same thing would happen for Fallout 4. Mostly you'd have to use it for PvP. Remove all of the NPCs through moding.

Hopefully the base building shows up for everyone. Mod in vending structures to replace NPC stores.

You would also have to mod out the VATs system because it would slow down time for everyone when one person uses it;

or it could even break the game and force everyone to crash.

Effectively you'd make Roleplaying and Death match servers with players only.

Mod it so that players can be Ghouls and any other humanoid race.

But that's as far as I see it feasibly going. Syncing up player location will be hard enough.

 

*I hope this doesn't count as thread necromancy.

There isn't a useless, or baseless, reply that could be considered spam.

And most of these threads are older so it feels like it would be borderline on any topic.

Edited October 3, 2015 by KaeusGrim

[billyro]

Elder Scrolls and Fallout games (with the except of MMO spin-offs like ESO and some mods) are exclusively single-player. Mod support plays a large part in that, as mods generally don't play well across multiplayer (and I don't see Bethesda ditching mod support in favour of multiplayer, ever).

Edited October 3, 2015 by billyro

[KaeusGrim]

Agreed. You have to tear a lot out to make multiplayer work in the Creation Engine.

I'm still not saying it can't be done; it's just that most of the mods I've seen don't go far enough to make it work.

There's a lot in networking;

My game prototypes all start out in single-player and then there's a lot of coding i have to do to make everything sync up properly.

So when you want to take a completed single-player game like the fallout serious and make it multiplayer..

You gotta pull the game apart and code it all back together so that it works with servers and syncing player, entity, etc., etc. positioning.

To get mods to sync up everyone has to have the exact same version of the mod and then there needs to be some server modifications.

but i'm a small time, self-taught developer and modder so it could be less complicated than I think.

[Vagrant0]

Elder Scrolls and Fallout games (with the except of MMO spin-offs like ESO and some mods) are exclusively single-player. Mod support plays a large part in that, as mods generally don't play well across multiplayer (and I don't see Bethesda ditching mod support in favour of multiplayer, ever).

While multiplayer mods do exist, their actual functionality tends to be mostly lacking since you end up having to essentially use a mod that syncs an NPC with movements of another player, which results in a number of oddities. These have gotten better over the years, but still remain very limited as far as what they can do and how well they work with the presence of other mods. Using these as an example of what could be is possibly missing the point.

 

I would also point to ESO and say that despite potential interest in a multiplayer game in a Fallout world, it is unlikely they will want to take the risks on a Fallout MMO. ESO is regarded by most as being a failure both financially and in the eyes of the community. It's like players asked for a pony, but got an ox instead.

 

The other part of the issue is that these games really are not designed as a multiplayer experience. Although the worlds tend to favor a more sandbox approach, none of the content in these worlds really utilizes the sandbox. In Skyrim, Fallout 3, Oblivion, ect the player is given too central of a role and all narrative is built around the player. Even in ESO, the same thing is true, a very large part of the content is centered solely around the player, making it more of a solo experience that happens to have dozens of other people moving through a very similar solo experience at the same time. Arguably this is one of the reasons why these types of games just don't work as multiiplayer. and possibly why the design of them has always had that feeling of being flawed (since people play them like a sandbox, but content is decidedly linear but limited in effect because it tries to fit within a sandbox world).

 

 

I would however say that doing a Fallout or Elderscrolls with multiplayer support is not impossible. You could very easily build a game around cooperative play (similar to Divinity:Original Sin style) where you have the game designed either around two people working together, or having a single player switch between them with the AI controlling the other. Also, like Divinity, mod support can still work both in regards to changing vanilla content as well as designing stand-alone or side modules. There is no reason why modding cannot work in a similar way in the creation engine if there with the addition of version control and the removal of needing to deal with load orders. Not all multiplayer is competitive or global. That said, it is unlikely Bethesda will ever do anything like this since it requires changing their overall mindset of approaching their games.