OK, so I thought of a gimped way to do this, but honestly it's a terrible implementation and hopefully Data wouldn't spend the time. But, in the interest of further knowledge, you could probably have a generated hash that defined all the "random" for different (but small and easily sent) timestamps. You'd still lag (terribly), and there would still be actions in doubt, but as long as both clients were using the same .rtes, I can't imagine multiplayer to be fully impossible.

Don't get you hopes up.

Alright, that sounds good on the slo-mo thing. I hope we have some control over forcing the slomo/time system so it can be done.

As for mods, the one who hosts, could talk with the opposing player(s) and make an agreement on what to use and the host will either provide a link or upload/host the file and let the other players download that mod manually and extract it in their directory. This would apply to large mods that go over 3-5mb in size.

As for small mods, probably an inside system like they have in soldat that makes the client download all the needed stuff automatically and redownload anything that might be corrupted/different.

So it is possible huh?
tell me when you're done then i'll try it out.
lol.

Everyone is forgetting one crucial piece of information: There will be no online multiplayer.

ITT: Pseudo-professionals pretending they know things about a game they didn't make. =]

HAHAHAHA.

Oh dear, really. Now that Lua is here, we can use things like LuaSocket as Tim has evidenced. Yes, there will be no official multiplayer. But as shown, there is a way to do it, even if it is a crappity strategy non-synched version. That'll all be refined later.

You're going to be dealing with massive desyncs.

If bullet arcs are randomized, all sorts of nasty and uncontrollable things can happen. Imagine a player shooting at a dropship. On Player1's computer, the final shot misses and the ship flies away. On Player2's computer, the shot deals the last bit of damage, knocking off an engine and sending the ship crashing down.

P2's scene suddenly has an exploding deathmobile crashing to the ground, potentially killing several units, failing to deploy its own units, and creating a large lump of scrap metal on the ground - none of which is in P1's game.

That's a big problem, and it's likely to happen a number of times in a given battle. The number of troops and the very shape of the terrain will be desynced.

^That might be able to fix by sending npc actor data along with the input so even if the shot hit on the one who hosted the match and missed on the one who was the client, the npc actor data would take care of this and cause that wound on him anyways.

Another method would be forcing the randomizer values for both players making it so that everything that is random, is randomly the same for each player.
So basically its like using a single randomization factor for both players.

Everything can be refined, Lua is our pixie dust of doom that can achieve magical things. Just believe in a multiplayer in CC and you'll have it.
LordTim pulled off an Irc scene. I never knew that was possible.

In any case, I do assume that you people actually WANT an online multiplayer chance in CC, no? Then dont go pessimistic on this and support it.

Well we all wish it would work, it's just that it probably won't.
Even if you fix randomized variables with a common value, and the lag issue is dealt with, and mods are dealt with, and all those other unforeseen errors are dealt with, it will lag a ton. CC already lags considerably on single player. Just firing a concrete gun forces my game into slow-mo. And don't forget that all the work required to make the lobby for the people to meet in. There are too many problems to make multiplayer.
When Data makes his next game, he might have multiplayer, but for CC, it's not gonna happen, even with Lua- at least on a practical scale.

Sorry

You could also have one player's computer be the "master" game, and have it send actor positions and actions over to the "slave" game, which would be more like a terminal to the "master" game.

Aspect: Honestly, that says more about your computer now.
Duh: That is how all user-user multiplayer matches need to be handled. You can have two or more clients all telling each-other what to do. :/

What I said before I meant in the sense that Data would have to hardcode things in mind for this; which he wont (at least not for ages). And if he were to "endorse" such a system, I suspect it'd be more problems for him than profit.

This is what I was thinking, though I couldn't express it with words.
Thank you!

Biggest problems:

1. Desynchronization removes the possibility of simulating on both computers to avoid sending physics data.
2. Updates on the entire simulation would require far too much bandwidth to be feasible.
3. We don't yet have the means to transfer things like terrain data. (AFAIK)

If you ignore the second, and Data helps with the third, we might be able to pull it off. Of course, due to the third, this will probably be LAN only.

Hey guys, a scene where you can view a text based IRC and people can do random little pre-scripted things to your game != online multiplayer.

Really.

Postulate, postulate, postulate all you want, gentlemen.

We will, It's best to be optimistic on this type of topic.