Players limits
PostPosted: 05 Jan 2014, 14:56
I know this has been discussed before but I'd like to start a new topic about it. As you all know the player limit in the KaM Remake is 8. I would like to separate this into the multiplayer player limit and the global player limit. Why? Well currently you can't have a co-operative map with 8 human players because you need some slots for AI players. So the global player limit should be larger than the multiplayer player limit. It is also useful when making AIs to separate them into many different "players" all with the same colour (so they appear as one enemy to the human), as this allows you to control their behaviour better (especially with attacks that occur at the start of the game, or with dynamic scripts). In very large and complex singleplayer missions it might be useful to have more than 7 AIs (I think The Dark Lord requested this once?).
Increasing the multiplayer player limit is tempting because it would add more variation and possibilities to the game (3v3v3, 5v5, etc.) and it is very simple from an implementation perspective, basically just change one number.
First lets talk about the limitations with increasing player limits:
Map size
The map size limit is probably not going to go above 256x256 for a few reasons:
- Performance: Some older computers already struggle to run maps of that size, and pathfinding from one side of the map to the other can cause lag with large groups.
- Minimap becomes too small/unreadable.
- Walking from one side of the map to the other takes ages, you end up having to feed your troops before you even get a message about them being hungry for the food to arrive in time, and then the serfs starve on the way home
Map size will restrict the multiplayer player limit because you need a certain amount of space for your village. If you look at existing 256x256 maps, there's probably room for another 2-4 players at the most. So I don't think the multiplayer player limit will go above 12.
Performance
If you add an extra 4 players to your average multiplayer game, that's 50% extra units and houses, and so a significant increase in CPU load. I think a 256x256 map with 12 players at x3 speed could cause lag, but it would need to be tested. Certainly older computers would struggle with it as they already struggle with 256x256 8P x3. More players also means more chance of dropouts, ping spikes, waiting for everyone to click ready, etc.
Overall I think we could consider an increase of the multiplayer player limit to 10 or maybe 12 to add some more variation to the game. And I think we could consider increasing the global player limit to 16 to allow for really big co-operative missions and better control of the AI (could be especially useful with dynamic scripts). It would be another nice feature for the next release.
What do you think?
P.S. I'm not making any promises here, this is all still theoretical for now
Increasing the multiplayer player limit is tempting because it would add more variation and possibilities to the game (3v3v3, 5v5, etc.) and it is very simple from an implementation perspective, basically just change one number.
First lets talk about the limitations with increasing player limits:
Map size
The map size limit is probably not going to go above 256x256 for a few reasons:
- Performance: Some older computers already struggle to run maps of that size, and pathfinding from one side of the map to the other can cause lag with large groups.
- Minimap becomes too small/unreadable.
- Walking from one side of the map to the other takes ages, you end up having to feed your troops before you even get a message about them being hungry for the food to arrive in time, and then the serfs starve on the way home
Map size will restrict the multiplayer player limit because you need a certain amount of space for your village. If you look at existing 256x256 maps, there's probably room for another 2-4 players at the most. So I don't think the multiplayer player limit will go above 12.
Performance
If you add an extra 4 players to your average multiplayer game, that's 50% extra units and houses, and so a significant increase in CPU load. I think a 256x256 map with 12 players at x3 speed could cause lag, but it would need to be tested. Certainly older computers would struggle with it as they already struggle with 256x256 8P x3. More players also means more chance of dropouts, ping spikes, waiting for everyone to click ready, etc.
Overall I think we could consider an increase of the multiplayer player limit to 10 or maybe 12 to add some more variation to the game. And I think we could consider increasing the global player limit to 16 to allow for really big co-operative missions and better control of the AI (could be especially useful with dynamic scripts). It would be another nice feature for the next release.
What do you think?
P.S. I'm not making any promises here, this is all still theoretical for now