Improved Multiplayer
 

Sometimes I get really anxious for the next turn in a multiplayer game and it is hard to wait until everyone else finally gets around to submitting their turns.

Maybe with the next patch it would be possible to play a multiplayer game as much and whenever you want without having to wait on the other player to submit there turn.

Of course I don't want to play against any AI. I still crave the clever tactics and diplomacy that only a real human opponent can provide. The game would need to know exactly what each player would have done if they submitted their turn on time.

Since I manage programmers for a living I know this actually wouldn't be very hard. In fact I even started the process for Illwinter.

Pseudo code:

function turnGeneration() {
...
if(opponentTurnExist) {
//use submitted turn
} else {
generateExactOpponentsTurn();
}

//TODO write generateExactOpponentsTurn()
...


Hopefully this will get added. Because it would really make the game a lot better!

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Im not sure what you are wanting.
You want stale turns to be treated as though they were AI, then back to everyone being a human player?

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Right! Say you and me are playing a game together.

We start off just fine. But then some stupid RL issue pulls you away from the game. Then computer would step in for you so I am not forced to find a more productive use for my time.

The computer would play and do exactly what you would do. So when you come back your plans are not interupted. Later I might need to do something else and then the computer would step in for me.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

He's joking, you silly wizard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Oh.. and not exactly a stale turn. More like. I got my turn in, I want a new turn to play NOW, so the computer would take yours for you. As long as the computer did exactly what you would have done anyway its not like you missed much.

I SUPPOSE I could wait like 5 or 10 minutes after I submitted my turn before I would demand a new one. That would give you some time to do your turn manually if you were available.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

And how exactly would the AI do exactly what you would have done anyway?

Or is this just a joke like Strages Sanctus is implying http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

As a programming manager it is not my job to figure out how to actually do things, only to assign the job. As you can see from my first post I already mapped out 95% of the task. All that needs to happen is the creation of the generateExactOpponentsTurn() function.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Maybe you can play infinite MP games if the AI does it for you. But I suspect you will lose most of the time.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Gandalf, perhaps my post is a bit of a joke. I have a few minutes to kill while eating lunch and I DO NOT have any MP games available where I can submit a turn. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

So I thought I might put on my pointy hair hat and kill a few moments.

Your idea is interesting... and I know it has been talked about before with having an AI fill in temporarly for a stalled player. So to possibly bring "value" back to the thread maybe that is an area of discussion.

Even if you were only able to que up troops, or tell the AI somehow hire mage commanders and set them research while you are away it would be useful. You would still be hurting badly by missing early turns, but later in the game if you are not actively at war you might do just fine missing a few turns this way.

What would be really GREAT is if you could set yourself to this mode manually (toggle it on or off). If you know you won't be able to take turns due to a vacation or other commitment you can turn yourself to autopilot. Then you don't need to find a temp player or make everyone else in the game wait for the timer to run out before a new turn is generated.

Perhaps that is a more reasonable request then my initial one. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif OF course if Illwinter does want to implement my orginal idea I would not complain.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Hey, being able to que commanders seems to be a simple and wise addition. The bare minimum you should be allowed to do if you know your host will need to "force" a turn or two while you're gone...

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

As a moderator on forums, and customer service, Ive learned that its better to seem abit naive than to take something as a joke when it wasnt meant that way.

I was letting the conversation progress abit before bringing up that the needs of doing stale turns as AI have been discussed. And the idea of allowing a player to be turned AI while they are away doing something then coming back to play. But apparently both have problems. Switching a player to AI sets many variables for the nation that apparently cannot be set back again as far as the way the code is presently written.

However, as far as the "tired of waiting" thing..
I have suggested creating a game of "musical chairs" with 10 players where the game automatically hosts whenever it gets 9 files turned in. The last person to do their turn always gets left out. For some reason I get a picture in my head of the chess games where they slap the timer after each move.

You would do only the minumum actions then rush your turn in and curse over every second that passes waiting for it to host thinking that you could have done one thing more. But then next time you try to squeeze in another action and the game cuts you off.
MUHAHAhahahahahahh A very evil blitz game.

Gandalf Parker

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

I really like that idea Gandalf. Actually what would most likely happen is you do your most critical turn elements and submit it. Then go back and do more things and hope to have time to resubmit your turn.

Another idea would be to make the last player pay some kind of fine. Like 20-50 gold to each player depending on how many people are playing.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Well the musical chairs thing can be done now on a linux server. The fine couldnt.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

I like your the mind-reading game server idea better Maltrease.

In fact, once implemented, you could extend the idea so that after submitting my turn, the hosting logic could change it so that it does what I SHOULD have done that turn instead of whatever idiotic thing I actually did.

I think there's some real potential there )

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Wow, that's a really cool idea Gandalf. Though I know there's no way I could survive in such a game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

i don't understand the changing of a person to ai if they take too long, wouldn't this eventually devolve into an sp game for everyone? so say someone doesn't get done before you, are they booted out of the game, or forced to take the actions the ai decides for them? and in the case they are forced out of the game, what happens on thier end? 'woops, you took to long, you've been booted.'

on the other hand i do like the musical chairs idea, though maybe set the threshold at a fifth of the players in the game, so for a 15 player game, the last 3 get cut off. i think it would keep any one person from getting thoroughly trounced if they are especially slow, even out the battlefield a bit, so to speak.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Why don't you play a blitz in the IRC channel? That's fast! You can play the game all afternoon... no waiting... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

I have a solution for you, join more MP games, just like I do. I am currently in 8 (was 10 at one point), you always have a turn to do!

A couple of problems however, sometimes you can get overwhealmed having loads of turns to do, which can result in substandard play. Getting your head around playing so many different nations can result in headaches, as your brain overheats... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

Seriously thou, I would like to be able to hand control to the AI for a time and then switch it back to human control. This would be a fantastic feature, great for when you take your hols, there is NO WAY that any 'mere' computer or machine could play like me or any other human. They just have not got the creativity or original thought.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

I think what Maltrease is suggesting, paradoxharbinger, is that the game should have the ability to split into 20 or so independent SCs-more as the game's AI begins cloning itself.

When the number of worlds reaches 38, new players will be invited by the AI into the "game-matrix" and the AI will directly interface with those players' minds, spawning more and more worlds at an ever-increasing rate. When the number of independend game "worlds" grows to reach 1481, portals will begin to appear throughout the many alternate worlds, which units and nations can pass through.

At this point, the "AI-Overmind" will achieve full sentience. As each of the 1481 spawned worlds is conquered, it will collapse in upon itself, creating a "black-hole" anti-world, from which undead hordes will begin to crawl, sweeping through and consuming all life.

One of these portals will lead to our world, allowing the members of this forum ourselves to enter in our real bodies into the "game-matrix" and communicate with the "AI-Overmind" directly. The "Ai-Overmind" will grant us magical power and supernatural abilities directly related to our own personalities and icons.

We will be viewed by the populations of these positive and negative worlds as Pretenders, and will do battle against each other, using whatever abilities and technologies we can discover or invent.

When only one of us is left alive, that one-known for reasons of simplicity as "The One" will gain immortality and ascend to Dev-hood, alongside Kristoffer and Johan K in Sweden.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Just another step in the plan for eventually playing Dominions as plugin to the Matrix. I want to BE my pretender!

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Mr. Badger that is exactly what I was trying to explain! However I my plan only required 1479 spawned worlds... so obviously would be vastly easier to implement.

Re: Improved Multiplayer
 

Meglo,

I did exactly that with Dom2. The early portion of a game takes little time so you joint many. Then when you need to spend an hour on your turn (to do it properly) having 8 games all at 24 hour host (or where everyone elses turn is in) become a lot to manage. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I'm in 3 games now (although... I'm about finished in Graemes EA). Its just when I want to play I WANT to play. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif