True LAN Coop - Proposition

[sergioreynel]

I have been reading all the posts and looking at the vid and all I can say is that this mod will be epic and good luck   I will tell my friends about this mod aswell

[emerphish]

will this ever be updated to RoG? I know not in the beta, only maxwell, but I am curious to play with friends on RoG.

[Crynux]

I have been reading all the posts and looking at the vid and all I can say is that this mod will be epic and good luck   I will tell my friends about this mod aswell

 

Thanks!

 

 

will this ever be updated to RoG? I know not in the beta, only maxwell, but I am curious to play with friends on RoG.

 

RoG doesn't seem to have LuaSockets. If LuaSockets isn't added to RoG by the time the final version is out(of RoG), then it will not be possible to make the mod compatible with it.

 

-Crynux

[bjartskular900]

Thanks!

 

 

 

RoG doesn't seem to have LuaSockets. If LuaSockets isn't added to RoG by the time the final version is out(of RoG), then it will not be possible to make the mod compatible with it.

 

-Crynux

I believe RoG will come out for standalone.So it probably will be good for developing on or what cause Iunno.

[necrofilus]

It seems like your mod is going to be like a MMO game. I don't like that idea because it was supposed to be LAN coop and it seems like you have changed a lot of features of the game.

 

It would be easier if you just pick up minecraft's idea: Everything stays on the PC where the map is saved (inventory, mobs, players, etc) and not that sync thing you're doing because i think it is going to be very difficult to play with your friends (hope i'm wrong). 

 

That's my opinion, don't take offensive, but i just want to play with my friends (real friends) on LAN (maybe via Hamachi for "online") and not with random people who is going to screw this wonderful work you are doing.

 

Like people did with many other titles and the most famous: DayZ (It was supposed to be a coop survive zombies simulator, but now it is a massive multiplayer deathmatch game).

 

I just want to, let's say: "Warn" you, because this could happen to the game.

 

My point is: I'm concerned of how difficult is gonna be to play your mod online and how many principal game's features you have changed that makes the game very unique.

 

I don't blame your work, i really like all the things you're going to do for us and hope that helps you with your career or whatever you do with your time. 

[Crynux]

It seems like your mod is going to be like a MMO game. I don't like that idea because it was supposed to be LAN coop and it seems like you have changed a lot of features of the game.

 

It would be easier if you just pick up minecraft's idea: Everything stays on the PC where the map is saved (inventory, mobs, players, etc) and not that sync thing you're doing because i think it is going to be very difficult to play with your friends (hope i'm wrong). 

 

That's my opinion, don't take offensive, but i just want to play with my friends (real friends) on LAN (maybe via Hamachi for "online") and not with random people who is going to screw this wonderful work you are doing.

 

Like people did with many other titles and the most famous: DayZ (It was supposed to be a coop survive zombies simulator, but now it is a massive multiplayer deathmatch game).

 

I just want to, let's say: "Warn" you, because this could happen to the game.

 

My point is: I'm concerned of how difficult is gonna be to play your mod online and how many principal game's features you have changed that makes the game very unique.

 

I don't blame your work, i really like all the things you're going to do for us and hope that helps you with your career or whatever you do with your time. 

 

Hello,

 

I believe you have a great misunderstanding of how the mod will work when it's finished.

 

The mod is not intended in any way to create an MMO. In the world of Don't Starve, it simply doesn't make sense. The mod initially was branded as LAN coop. But this is because I don't want to say the mod can do things (WAN game-play) that it can't do exceptionally well at the moment.

 

Nonetheless, it WILL be a online multiplayer mod, and you will be able to play with your friends (via some sort of private/locked server) OR join a server with random people.

 

Considering Minecraft, it is not possible to take a Minecraft style approach to the mod. Minecraft was created with multiplayer in mind, and as the Devs here have said many times, they intend for Don't Starve to be a singleplayer game only.

 

We will, however, for the time being, require that the map players play on will be kept locally. Other data such as inventory, mobs, etc will be kept on the server to help prevent cheating.

 

DayZ is irrelevant.

 

Regarding feature changes, we're only changing things to help balance the game in a multiplayer perspective. There will be certain things unavailable initially, because we're not including Caves or Ruins in the first few versions. Due to this, we're adding alternative ways to get items available in these areas.

 

Nonetheless, we're trying to keep as close as possible to normal Don't Starve game-play. The goal is to create Don't Starve Multiplayer, not something else.

 

I hope what I've written clears things up for you. MMO is not the idea. For Beta, yes, there will be no limit on players per server. This is for testing though, and in the final version, there will be restrictions.

 

---

 

In addition to what's written above, I want to just write about some of the things happening with the mod, and some of the decisions that have/are being made.

 

So as you all probably know, the first release of the mod will be a beta version. In this version, we hope to have mob sync, and of course all other base gameplay features such as cooking, harvesting, growing things, day/night cycles, fires, etc.

 

At the moment, we still have a few of these things to touch on. As it turns out, perishables and such will take much more time than anticipated, as with the system we're implementing, all of the data regarding perishables has to be stored on the server. This ultimately, isn't optimal, and I would like to lessen the client-server traffic, but for now it's what we have to work with.

 

Aside from perishables, we have an initial setup for sleeping in the game. For those of you who have played Minecraft, sleeping in the mod will work quite like how it does in Minecraft. That is, in order for time to go ahead, everyone on the server has to sleep.

 

With respect to craftables, build-able structures, and drops; craftables more or less work. Build-able structures half work... there are still a few left to be synced. For some reason walls and such don't seem to be created in the same way as the Science Machines. I haven't looked into a fix for this, but I'm sure it's something simple.

 

Regarding drops. We've spend quite a bit of time on drops. At the moment, the drops are quite similar to those of normal Don't Starve game-play. The difference is that we've added some drops to certain things, for example the graves, so that you can get otherwise unobtainable items. These items are things found in caves and alike. It just helps to balance game-play a bit more, until Caves are added.

 

Fire (campfire/fire-pit) is server controlled, along with tree stage. However, there is still another bug with tree stages. Very few of the trees seem to not sync. I assume that they're growing, and therefore not showing the same state across clients. I have a fix in mind for this, but just haven't implemented it yet.

 

The Day/Night cycle is also server controlled. The length of the day is also determined by the server. We still have yet to synchronize winter and rain, it will be one of the next steps in development, as at the moment we're focused on synchronizing the world.

 

Regarding death... we've come up with somewhat of a decent solution. When a player dies, you see them dead on the ground for 7 seconds. After the 7 second period, they are teleported to spawn, and resurrected. Note, that when this happens the player will drop ALL items. I figured this would be a better alternative to disconnecting the player on death, and in addition, it still makes it difficult for the player to get their stuff back. We have other ideas and features regarding death that I will not yet disclose.

 

Now, regarding the server itself. The server is written on/for Linux, in C. There is no current plan to port it to Windows or Mac. I may create a version in which Windows can use, but it won't be until the Linux version is finished.

 

The server code will be closed source. For beta, it is not yet decided how hosting will work. I have a few considerations in mind.

 

The first option for beta would be for me to simply run the server on my computer. This is the cheapest, and with this option I can monitor the server, checking to see if anything is acting strangely. With this option, I would likely setup some sort of Closed Beta, where people would be invited to play the beta, as I don't believe my home network can support very many connections at once.

 

The other option would be to pay for hosting. This would be the BEST option, but unfortunately, hosting costs money. I wouldn't mind paying for the first month or two of hosting, but I cannot pay for hosting forever (I'm a student). I was thinking that maybe people could donate a few dollars that would be entirely put towards paying for the server, that way everyone could play, and no one person is paying for everything. But I'm not sure if people would be willing to donate for a mod... I HAVE seen it done and work before, for other communities, but I'm not sure if it would work for this one.

 

Anyways, if you have any questions or comments regarding what I've written, don't hesitate to state them. Also, my question to you is, would you donate to help host a server to play on?

 

Thanks to all,

 

Crynux

 

 

[Zeklo]

Considering Minecraft, it is not possible to take a Minecraft style approach to the mod. Minecraft was created with multiplayer in mind, and as the Devs here have said many times, they intend for Don't Starve to be a singleplayer game only.

Actually minecraft had to be re-written to support multiplayer (almost certain, though I've been wrong before). However the situation is still far more complicated than how it was in minecraft and I understand that.

 

Anyway besides that, glad to hear things are going along well.

[Crynux]

Actually minecraft had to be re-written to support multiplayer (almost certain, though I've been wrong before). However the situation is still far more complicated than how it was in minecraft and I understand that.

 

Anyway besides that, glad to hear things are going along well.

 

That rewrite must have been ages ago. I first found out about Minecraft when it was only a Java Applet on their website. The only thing you could do was place and destroy blocks, but that's besides the point.

 

You're correct in saying that our situation can be in many ways more complicated than Minecraft. If Minecraft was rewritten by the developers, they would have much more control and freedom than we do. Additionally, mobs and other aspects of Don't Starve are, or at least seem to be, much more complex than in Minecraft, which complicate the implementation of a multiplayer mod.

 

(I'm glad Don't Starve wasn't written in Java... +1 for the Devs)

 

Thanks for the comment!

 

-Crynux

[necrofilus]

Hello,

 

I believe you have a great misunderstanding of how the mod will work when it's finished.

 

The mod is not intended in any way to create an MMO. In the world of Don't Starve, it simply doesn't make sense. The mod initially was branded as LAN coop. But this is because I don't want to say the mod can do things (WAN game-play) that it can't do exceptionally well at the moment.

 

Nonetheless, it WILL be a online multiplayer mod, and you will be able to play with your friends (via some sort of private/locked server) OR join a server with random people.

 

Considering Minecraft, it is not possible to take a Minecraft style approach to the mod. Minecraft was created with multiplayer in mind, and as the Devs here have said many times, they intend for Don't Starve to be a singleplayer game only.

 

We will, however, for the time being, require that the map players play on will be kept locally. Other data such as inventory, mobs, etc will be kept on the server to help prevent cheating.

 

DayZ is irrelevant.

 

Regarding feature changes, we're only changing things to help balance the game in a multiplayer perspective. There will be certain things unavailable initially, because we're not including Caves or Ruins in the first few versions. Due to this, we're adding alternative ways to get items available in these areas.

 

Nonetheless, we're trying to keep as close as possible to normal Don't Starve game-play. The goal is to create Don't Starve Multiplayer, not something else.

 

I hope what I've written clears things up for you. MMO is not the idea. For Beta, yes, there will be no limit on players per server. This is for testing though, and in the final version, there will be restrictions.

 

---

 

In addition to what's written above, I want to just write about some of the things happening with the mod, and some of the decisions that have/are being made.

 

So as you all probably know, the first release of the mod will be a beta version. In this version, we hope to have mob sync, and of course all other base gameplay features such as cooking, harvesting, growing things, day/night cycles, fires, etc.

 

At the moment, we still have a few of these things to touch on. As it turns out, perishables and such will take much more time than anticipated, as with the system we're implementing, all of the data regarding perishables has to be stored on the server. This ultimately, isn't optimal, and I would like to lessen the client-server traffic, but for now it's what we have to work with.

 

Aside from perishables, we have an initial setup for sleeping in the game. For those of you who have played Minecraft, sleeping in the mod will work quite like how it does in Minecraft. That is, in order for time to go ahead, everyone on the server has to sleep.

 

With respect to craftables, build-able structures, and drops; craftables more or less work. Build-able structures half work... there are still a few left to be synced. For some reason walls and such don't seem to be created in the same way as the Science Machines. I haven't looked into a fix for this, but I'm sure it's something simple.

 

Regarding drops. We've spend quite a bit of time on drops. At the moment, the drops are quite similar to those of normal Don't Starve game-play. The difference is that we've added some drops to certain things, for example the graves, so that you can get otherwise unobtainable items. These items are things found in caves and alike. It just helps to balance game-play a bit more, until Caves are added.

 

Fire (campfire/fire-pit) is server controlled, along with tree stage. However, there is still another bug with tree stages. Very few of the trees seem to not sync. I assume that they're growing, and therefore not showing the same state across clients. I have a fix in mind for this, but just haven't implemented it yet.

 

The Day/Night cycle is also server controlled. The length of the day is also determined by the server. We still have yet to synchronize winter and rain, it will be one of the next steps in development, as at the moment we're focused on synchronizing the world.

 

Regarding death... we've come up with somewhat of a decent solution. When a player dies, you see them dead on the ground for 7 seconds. After the 7 second period, they are teleported to spawn, and resurrected. Note, that when this happens the player will drop ALL items. I figured this would be a better alternative to disconnecting the player on death, and in addition, it still makes it difficult for the player to get their stuff back. We have other ideas and features regarding death that I will not yet disclose.

 

Now, regarding the server itself. The server is written on/for Linux, in C. There is no current plan to port it to Windows or Mac. I may create a version in which Windows can use, but it won't be until the Linux version is finished.

 

The server code will be closed source. For beta, it is not yet decided how hosting will work. I have a few considerations in mind.

 

The first option for beta would be for me to simply run the server on my computer. This is the cheapest, and with this option I can monitor the server, checking to see if anything is acting strangely. With this option, I would likely setup some sort of Closed Beta, where people would be invited to play the beta, as I don't believe my home network can support very many connections at once.

 

The other option would be to pay for hosting. This would be the BEST option, but unfortunately, hosting costs money. I wouldn't mind paying for the first month or two of hosting, but I cannot pay for hosting forever (I'm a student). I was thinking that maybe people could donate a few dollars that would be entirely put towards paying for the server, that way everyone could play, and no one person is paying for everything. But I'm not sure if people would be willing to donate for a mod... I HAVE seen it done and work before, for other communities, but I'm not sure if it would work for this one.

 

Anyways, if you have any questions or comments regarding what I've written, don't hesitate to state them. Also, my question to you is, would you donate to help host a server to play on?

 

Thanks to all,

 

Crynux

 

Thank you for your time answering my... questions. I really hope that your mod has complete success.

 

Greetins from México. Weather is hot this days... and the girls even more.

[emerphish]

Thank you for your time answering my... questions. I really hope that your mod has complete success.

 

Greetins from México. Weather is hot this days... and the girls even more.

defaq? hot mexian girls...very random.

[sergioreynel]

 

The server code will be closed source. For beta, it is not yet decided how hosting will work. I have a few considerations in mind.

 

The first option for beta would be for me to simply run the server on my computer. This is the cheapest, and with this option I can monitor the server, checking to see if anything is acting strangely. With this option, I would likely setup some sort of Closed Beta, where people would be invited to play the beta, as I don't believe my home network can support very many connections at once.

 

The other option would be to pay for hosting. This would be the BEST option, but unfortunately, hosting costs money. I wouldn't mind paying for the first month or two of hosting, but I cannot pay for hosting forever (I'm a student). I was thinking that maybe people could donate a few dollars that would be entirely put towards paying for the server, that way everyone could play, and no one person is paying for everything. But I'm not sure if people would be willing to donate for a mod... I HAVE seen it done and work before, for other communities, but I'm not sure if it would work for this one.

 

Anyways, if you have any questions or comments regarding what I've written, don't hesitate to state them. Also, my question to you is, would you donate to help host a server to play on?

 

Thanks to all,

 

Crynux

I may have misunderstood but are saying that for the beta it will be 1 server with a bunch of random people playing ? 

[Crynux]

I may have misunderstood but are saying that for the beta it will be 1 server with a bunch of random people playing ? 

 

Yes, more or less. I want to stress test the server, if it can handle more players than will ever be on it, then I don't have to worry about it not handling the few players that will in the final version.

 

I should mention, that we will likely implement virtual servers (at least that's what I call them). With this setup, players would play with 5 or so other players, on a server which hosts multiple games.

 

On a side note... I tested the server yesterday on my 300Mhz laptop with 32MB ram. Runs fine. The laptop looks like the one in the image below. It even has a Floppy Drive (for those of you who actually know what a Floppy Disk/Drive is ).

 

 

-Crynux

[sergioreynel]

so (if I understand) there will be no lan or is that what the virtual servers are?

[Crynux]

so (if I understand) there will be no lan or is that what the virtual servers are?

 

For beta a binary version of the server will not be available for download. I'm going to either host the server myself, or pay for hosting. People can then connect to the server and play.

 

In future releases, I may create a binary in which people can use for playing on their local network. But since the beta is only to stress test the server, and help me find bugs in the mod, there will be no server release.

 

-Crynux

[Silentdarkness1]

Wait....the initial version is Linux-only?....

 

ugh.....marvelous. Looks like my wait is now 3 eternities instead of 1. I hope you can manage a Windows port at the end of all this.

[Crynux]

Wait....the initial version is Linux-only?....

 

ugh.....marvelous. Looks like my wait is now 3 eternities instead of 1. I hope you can manage a Windows port at the end of all this.

 

You can still play the beta with windows.... only the server will be Linux only, the client (mod) will work for windows and Linux.

 

-Crynux

[Silentdarkness1]

Oh. I see.

[emerphish]

You can still play the beta with windows.... only the server will be Linux only, the client (mod) will work for windows and Linux.

 

-Crynux

What do you mean that the server will be Linux only? As in you can't connect with windows or what...I am very bad at computers, forgive me.

[sergioreynel]

What do you mean that the server will be Linux only? As in you can't connect with windows or what...I am very bad at computers, forgive me.

you can play with windows its just the server only runs on linux 

[necrofilus]

defaq? hot mexian girls...very random.

 

What? It is true, a reality... And i like it. Maybe the girls are the only truth we have in this country lol.

End of discussion.

 

Sincerely,

A mexican guy or like we say here: "Un güey".

[Rakoon217]

First of all, Hi Crynux!!

 

I hope you're making some progress with the multiplayer, but i have a question I really want you to ask me if you could.

 

¿Will this mod have a cooperative mode? I mean, for two or three players as most, not for 1 to +5, which could be hosted by one of the users and the others join him by joining to an IP Address or something, ¿will be?

 

In second, i truely want to give you my thanks for working on this mod. I had started to play this game a few days ago, but since the first day I have played this game, i felt i would like to play it with another friend at least.

 

Unfortunately, KLEI hadn't made the coop mode...

So, surfing the web i had found this post.

 

For now, I'm excited and impatient to see how much have you advanced from 25th of March, synchronizing most of the game parts.

And of course, impatient to test the beta when you release it ^^

Finally, I hope you will pass all your exams.

 

Regards.  (P.D.: Sorry about my bad english)

[Crynux]

First of all, Hi Crynux!!

 

I hope you're making some progress with the multiplayer, but i have a question I really want you to ask me if you could.

 

¿Will this mod have a cooperative mode? I mean, for two or three players as most, not for 1 to +5, which could be hosted by one of the users and the others join him by joining to an IP Address or something, ¿will be?

 

In second, i truely want to give you my thanks for working on this mod. I had started to play this game a few days ago, but since the first day I have played this game, i felt i would like to play it with another friend at least.

 

Unfortunately, KLEI hadn't made the coop mode...

So, surfing the web i had found this post.

 

For now, I'm excited and impatient to see how much have you advanced from 25th of March, synchronizing most of the game parts.

And of course, impatient to test the beta when you release it ^^

Finally, I hope you will pass all your exams.

 

Regards.  (P.D.: Sorry about my bad english)

 

Hello, and thank you for the complements!

 

Regarding cooperative mode, the general idea with the mod is that there will be clients and a server. It will not be possible for one client to connect directly to another client. However, it's likely that you will be able to join servers via an ip address... and I'm thinking about allowing people to limit the number of players on the server... a minimum of 2.

 

Recently I've made a prototype for a 'lobby', where players can see a list of servers, and connect to them through a menu. I will likely add a Direct Connect option in the future, where you can specify an IP address, but as for the moment, the lobby screen is fine.

 

There are a few reasons for not allowing clients to connect directly to one another. Firstly, the game is already pretty heavy on slower machines (at least from my experiences), adding the additional computations that would come with the implementation of a multiplayer mod would slow down the host quite a bit. Secondly, what would happen if the host of the game disconnected? The host position would have to fall to another player, in turn, requiring a huge change in who sends data, and who receives data.

 

For those reasons, and others, I've decided that a client-server setup is the best option.

 

I hope I've answered all of your questions clearly. Your English is fine! Thank you once again for the support and the best wishes for exams... It's been really difficult to study this term, but hopefully I'll pull through fine!

 

Thanks again

-Crynux

 

[Jacobfernandes]

3 Questions to ask...so I guess I should make this fast!

 

Okay, Firstly, I want to personally thank you for taking time out of your busy schelduel to work on this! You don't know how much it means to us!

 

Secondly, I want to ask is there a estimated release day for this mod or is the download already out there? I'm blind.

 

Thirdly, Can I donate? If money is going to inspire you and get this released the highest quality and fastest it can then why not?

 

Thank 4 your time once again! 

- JacobFernandes

 

 

 

 

[Crynux]

3 Questions to ask...so I guess I should make this fast!

 

Okay, Firstly, I want to personally thank you for taking time out of your busy schelduel to work on this! You don't know how much it means to us!

 

Secondly, I want to ask is there a estimated release day for this mod or is the download already out there? I'm blind.

 

Thirdly, Can I donate? If money is going to inspire you and get this released the highest quality and fastest it can then why not?

 

Thank 4 your time once again! 

- JacobFernandes

 

Firstly, Welcome to the Forums! Thank you for the support in creating this mod. Development has stopped for the past week or so, as exam time has come around. I have 2 more exams, and should be able to get back to development in the beginning of May.

 

As for your second question, a concrete date for the Beta release isn't set yet. There is still a lot of testing to do, and quite a bit of synchronization left.

 

Your third question made me think...

 

Donations would be more than welcome for paying for hosting, as I would eventually like the mod to turn into some type of community supported service. People could optionally donate, and such donations would be put entirely towards hosting the server. Server hosting would continue as along as there are donations to support it. In the future, I might make a standalone server that people can use, but at the moment the Linux version is my focus.

 

Anyways, if you're really interested in donating, I have a deal for you. I'm considering having pre-beta donation based access. That is, if you support the mod before the beta is released, by donating, you get access to the mod, and can help test before the Beta release.

 

Donations during this period will be held onto, and once there is enough to pay for server hosting, the donations will be put towards a hosted server.

 

How this would work is, if you want to donate, you can send me a private message saying so. I'd reply with a link to where you can donate. Once I see your donation has been made, and you verify such yourself, I will send you a copy of the current client side portion of the mod. Additionally, you would get a pre-beta access code, which you would have to enter when playing the game, in order to connect to the server, and verify that you're a donor.

 

I should mention that if there is support for such a setup (ie people like it), I would be glad to make it happen. However, I will not send donation links until I am able to work on the mod again; donations are for the mod only, and if I'm unable to work on the mod momentarily, then I shouldn't allow donations until I can. I still have 2 exams left, and want to focus on them for the time being. As said above, in early May, I should be able to get back to work on the mod, and this is when donation-based access COULD start if people want it!

 

Anyways, I thank you for the comments and support. To anyone reading; if you support the general idea above, post here and let me know!

 

Thanks in advance,

Crynux

 

PS: Sorry if this post is worded strangely... my brain is partially fried from study in the past weeks, which is another reason why I'm avoiding development among exams!

 

 

[AllenWalker]

 I really love the idea for DS multiplayer so I have a suggestion for donations

can we use patreon payment system ?

official website http://www.patreon.com/