First of all: Great game
I nearly read all the posts on multiplayer ... and it seems that there are people out there who miss the multiplayer part. I do so too, in my case i would like to have some mp games (mostly cooperative) with friends. So my intend is to show ways how multiplayer could easily be implemented with little changes.
The more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that it should be a rather easy task. OK the word easy is the wrong word in the development sector, but let us see what i mean.
First some basics:
Simultaneous MP: This will never be an option I think as the core system of the game is not simultaneous
Balancing: I think there are no real balancing problems in mp, OK maybe some races are not the best for mp (against aggressive players), but hey, choose another or create your own race
Now to the 2 only needed multiplayer options which are needed to do the rest:
Hot seat: This is the first step. If you can make it possible, that you can start a game with more than one player (and maybe choose a race file for every player - if wanted) half the way is done.
PBEM: Lets think hot seat is solved and in PBEM after player 1 ends his turn the game stops makes a savegame and you can send it by mail - then player 2 loads this file and after his turn it goes same way back. The only thing i dont know ... what about the diplomatic options with other players? Maybe this is saved in file and popups after loading ...
So if I am right its nothing other than a file transfer (of a save game or a similar file). Now lets say there is an external tool:
- Every player opens this tool at desktop.
- One creates a game, the other connect to him (TCP/IP)
- Afterwards player 1 (server) opens the game by button with "mp" option
- The tool tells the game how many players have joined (by file per example)
- Now player 1 set the params for the universe and assign a race (maybe also per file) to every player
- Player 1 starts game
- After he finishs his turn the game creates a file in an outgooing directory
- The external tool checks this (after a second or so) and delivers the savegame to player2
- The external tool at player2 checks this and save the file in an incoming directory
- The game checks this (periodically) and load this savegame
- Player 2 finishs his turn -> savegame is delivered to player 3
....
....
....
And of course there could be more options in the external tool -> PBEM, HTTP, FTP, Direct File Access (for LAN), etc ...
And if you would not make such a tool I'm sure the community would and if the community would not ... I would. As a note: The good old but outdated Stars! used a simmilar tool in the background for multiplayer, thats why i come over this possibility.
What do you think about this ... am I right? Is it a "simple" file transfer? Or am I totally wrong?