Multiplayer

[borgmaster]

At one point anyone who has played Oblivion has thought to themselves, "If only I had a smart mage with me so I could just slash this stupid troll". We have all also seen this, "Skyrim will not have multiplayer." There have been mods in the past to try and make TES multiplayer, none have ever made it past a beta stage. But for this game I would think that maybe there is a way to make it so, if only given the chance. What would happen if Bethesda left the door open to modders to try and rig it themselves, their only excuse would be ruining the heart of the game. But if there is a crowd of ballsy modders out there why not give them a better chance at it.

 

What im getting at is if Bethesda gives modders a stick to work with on Skyrim how do you think the community would react and what kind of a multiplayer mod would they need to make in order for people to not riot. As a man of little knowledge in modding I also ask the question of what would be needed for modders to be able to work at a multiplayer mod.

 

There will always be people against the idea of a multiplayer mod but it also has a great potential for RPers who love this game and simply want to get a band of heroes together to save the world.

 

In my opinion the things required for a decent multiplayer mod would be as follows.

 

 

 

 

A separated world apart from each players world, basically a dedicated world someone would host with a limit of 5 players. Character data can either be uploaded from another computer or created on the host computer. Both options should be kept open in my opinion. Character data should also be downloadable.

 

A tweaked AI system during multiplayer. All that really needs to happen is for an AI to realize that there are several individual unique people playing in the same world. On that note faction AI would need to undergo the same tweaking.

 

Death will need a revamp. If a player dies he either needs to be resurectable, or he needs to reload his character data to the world. There will be people with far better ideas than that.

 

Mods: I cant give an opinion on this because it would be out of my scope. Mods would need to find a way into the system though.

 

There would be no console commands by the users other than the admin.

 

Everyone will have there opinion but questing would be a shared experience. If one man gets the quest everyone will get it in there books. Everyone would hear what the npc said, text would show what the player said. Once again the programming for this would be out of my scope since i imagine there will be people who want to talk to the npc at the same time there partner is. Rewards would also have to be managed somehow. For the RP element of it though i imagine people would love to have a chance to snatch the loot and download there characters off of the world.

 

Leveling will most likely need to stay the same as well as gear drops.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2011 by borgmaster

[Stormcrown]

Impossible. You're entire post is based off of some assumption or dream that Bethesda will give us the tools to do it.

 

It's be said TIME and TIME again. There will be NO MULTIPLAYER for The Elder Scrolls.

 

You can't sync that much data via internet, and its literally not possible. Conversations of multiplayer mods for skyrim/TES are getting old fast.

Edited October 5, 2011 by Stormcrown

[El`derina]

Borgmaster.... do alittle research on game networking. After you understand how every script would have to be re-written, source code would have to include functions to support, and many other things which I can not even begin to explain- then get back to us on this idea... as said above, as many times as this is brought up, it is too much of a headache, too much of an impossibility that it just isn't gonna happen.

Bethesda 'can't' give us support for this, because the game would have to be designed for multiplayer from the very begining. >.>

Modders who attempt this, simply 'fake' it... which results in some really bad gaming.

 

as to how cool multiplayer would be, if it ever happen.. well, I really would enjoy a two-player session every once in a while...

I think they would do good designing a spin-off of the TES games for co-op or multi play,... in an open ended world that designed for this and embraced change and random happenings without screwing every other player over whenever one person decided to do something stupid.

It is simply NOT for the main line of TES tho...

Edited October 5, 2011 by El`derina

[GuNSl1nG3R7065]

I believe co-op could be integrated into the game fairly easy, but making a mmo style game would be out of the question. Modders could make a stand alone game using the engine, textures, and models that could be a PvP arena game or a FPS DotA style game and advertise it as a Skyrim mmo or online game.

 

As for ideas on the co-op, the only primary concern should be the limitations of the person's internet/cable (lan) connections. FO3's co-op mod could have possibly been successful (practical playability) if they had attempted some odd routes. If I'm not mistaken, it should be possible to transfer just enough data to the second pc and let it process graphics and so forth itself (maybe for people with 2mb/s connection), and for those with slow internet dual monitors should be able to do it if the graphics card can handle the increase in graphical needs.

 

This could be accomplished by doubling the field of view and giving half of it to the second player. The first player's interface would have to be shifted over to one of the two monitors. Meanwhile the other screen would have an "interface" opened up covering the entire screen. It could work like an in-game computer terminal which has a "live feed" from a camera (can't think of games I've seen them in, but they're in some FPS where you can control vehicles/turrets). Giving the second player their own keyboard and mouse would probably require some third party technology (locking mouse 1 to screen 1, mouse 2 to screen 2) and tricking Skyrim into accepting clicks and movement from both mice, but player 2 could have their own keyboard just by adding in new key bindings (they might even be able to use a gamepad with no problems if the dual mice fail).

 

Co-op "companions" would be compatible with the scripts and so forth so long as they're companion compatible, as they should be since there's vanilla companions. Player 2's only limitations would be being bound to the same zone and certain distance from the main player, they wouldn't have dominate control over main menus, (if no mouse or gamepad) they won't be able to aim well since they have to use keys, and their interface (if poorly made) could be a mess to navigate. Long as its properly coded modders should be able to let player 2 do everything the main player can do (its no different than telling your NPC companions to loot, change equipment, or follow the player in zoning). Since the player controls the "NPC" they shouldn't encounter any kind of AI bugs with looting and so forth. Only scripts that the player can activate would be inaccessible to player 2, such as cutscenes and so forth.

[Direspawn]

And it's pretty clear that not everyone wants it. Go post this on the Beth forums, put on your asbestos suit, then sit back and watch how vehemently people respond.

[MoonlightWyvern]

I've read about a multiplayer being possible in Oblivion, and checked out the site it was on, but it was a very restricted affair. Like some, I have wondered what it would be like to be with another person in the world, but this is as far as I've thought. For me playing with another person would be an occasional treat, but I think the novelty would ware off.

 

More generally, you'd need to know what type of gameplay differences there are in Skyrim. Having an NPC companion, or even a pet, can most of the time make the game more enjoyable, or being on your own will be best. What I mean is; we need to know how the game plays before we even consider such things as multiplayer. I believe it could be done, but with many restrictions. As has been said, not everybody wants it. It's a significant point Bathesda makes of the game not being multiplayer.

[Omeletter]

To quote Oblivion's persuasion NPC dialogue - "Not now, not later, not ever."

 

Multiplayer will kill Bethesda's Elder Scrolls. The day multiplayer comes is the day I'm not getting an Elder Scrolls game.

[headbomb]

Multiplayer would utterly ruin the game. As someone else said: Not now. Not later. Not ever.

 

You think, "well co-op is just like having a hireling, only smarter!". Except that it isn't, because your hireling won't suddenly decide to kill every NPC, or decide that they'd rather go chicken hunting in Winterhold, despite you wanting to travel to Karthwasten. Hirelings follow you, and won't screw your game. The exact opposite of a player-controlled ally.

[Tweetybird]

I've never been one to use companions in Oblivion (though we'll see about Skyrim) on the sheer basis that they can't ever keep up with me and get in my way when I'm trying to kill something. Why on earth would I want to be running around Tamriel with somebody else that will most likely do the same thing but on top of that have an opinion about it?

[ub3rman123]

Multiplayer would utterly ruin the game. As someone else said: Not now. Not later. Not ever.

 

You think, "well co-op is just like having a hireling, only smarter!". Except that it isn't, because your hireling won't suddenly decide to kill every NPC, or decide that they'd rather go chicken hunting in Winterhold, despite you wanting to travel to Karthwasten. Hirelings follow you, and won't screw your game. The exact opposite of a player-controlled ally.

 

At least with real people you can usually reach over and slap them. NPCs you can only knock unconscious, and get a 40 gold bounty to boot.