Multi-Player Daggerfall

Discuss Daggerfall Unity and Daggerfall Tools for Unity.
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Ommamar
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Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Ommamar »

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Last edited by Ommamar on Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Deepfighter
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Deepfighter »

Well, no new thoughts here. Topic comes up now and then.

See also Daggerfall Deatmatch
Head of the German Daggerfall translation - www.daggerfalldeutsch.de
and German translator for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Lore-Expert for The Elder Scrolls: Online

Ommamar
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Ommamar »

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Last edited by Ommamar on Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Jay_H
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Jay_H »

We're not going to start a fight about this. I agree that reviving an old thread would have saved some effort, but it's not worth getting upset. If things get out of hand I'm locking this.

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MasonFace
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by MasonFace »

I know better than to get involved, but regardless, here I go! I think Deepfighter misunderstood the crux of your topic, but I think Ommamar overreacted. It happens to the best of us. We're only human.

Now, to reply on the topic: I think if Daggerfall was released with multiplayer, even as a post-release patch, I think it would have been limited to LAN, at least at first, and it would have been epic! At the very least, I could see arena deathmatch being incorporated as a throwback to what Elder Scrolls: Arena was originally conceptualized to be (I think I remember hearing that in an interview?). I think it would have shaped the future of Elder Scrolls in an irreversible way such that no later installment would be released without including some form of multiplayer.

I think they could have made a lot of money if they had continued to refine Daggerfall after release and incorporated multiplayer while fixing bugs and finishing some unimplemented ideas and then release a special edition before publishing Morrowind. But I know that game development was very different back then and most publishers didn't see the value of continuing expenses on an already "finished" product.

But that's just my take.

Ommamar
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

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Last edited by Ommamar on Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

l3lessed
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by l3lessed »

God, Ultimate Online was another game that truly defined my childhood gaming experience and expectations. Before UO, I had only played "The Realm", which was one of the truly first graphical MMORPGs. But its scope and playstyle felt like most other limited side scrollers.

I'm just imagining how much my mind would of been blown if the original Daggerfall had a MMO setup for it. Such huge possibilities.

I still think, to this day, UO was one of the best designed MMORPGS. It had such complexity, was so easy to understand and play, and truly forced players to struggle with the world and other players around them, instead of the Care Bare grind sessions that every MMO copies now thanks to the overrated blizzard Warcraft MMO; I ground my player to level 30, saw the never ending grind for items and levels coming, and said F' this).
My Daggerfall Mod Github: l3lessed DFU Mod Github

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Daggerfall Unity mods: Combat Overhaul Mod

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Jay_H
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Jay_H »

If we speak only of co-op, I can imagine a relatively seamless implementation of it. A Diablo 2-style increase in monster difficulty could be implemented for each character who enters either the same game or the same dungeon, if they group together; a character exploring alone would face enemies with normal stats, but two characters in the same dungeon will find that the same enemies have elevated stats, and so on increasing for every character present. Attacking other characters would likely be permanently disabled.

Characters could use differing time systems until they decide to form a party, at which time all time-reliant decisions (travel, rest) would require the consent of every party member ("Solidarity Scheme"); for streamlining, an option could be implemented to allow the party leader to make each decision and apply it to all members of the party ("Leadership Scheme"). When forming a party, time would automatically sync to either the party leader's time or the most future time among all party members. Messages could appear at the top of the screen to show the whereabouts of other party members: "Gaenor has entered Direnni Tower." "Martin has completed quest: Escaped Atronach." "Umbra has entered the Mages Guild." A "call" function could be implemented across cities and dungeons; when the call button is pressed, all other party members would be pinged towards the location ("Ulfric calls to you from the southwest." "Farengar calls to you from the north."). Characters who die in a dungeon would probably respawn at the exit of the dungeon, and on the outskirts of the city if in civilization. Respawned characters would leave a corpse with all carried items, necessitating a corpse run, though the wagon and horse would always remain on the live character.

Any character would be able to sleep in a team member's house, but not in a team member's inn room. Until the character shows it to you, there would be no way to know which house belongs to any character, team member or not; this would prevent unfair looting from character houses (one alternative is to make the loot in character houses invisible and inaccessible to everyone except the character who dropped it.) If the decision is made to rest but other party members are not in adequate locations, they would only loiter for the equivalent period, passing time at the same speed but not gaining stats back. Any interruption to rest would interrupt all characters' rest, and no character would be able to rest if any party member is near an enemy (the one attempting to rest would get a message at the top of the screen: "Caius can't rest right now." or perhaps "Jauffre is near an enemy.").

All characters would be able to see a quest objective item, but only the character holding the quest that spawned it would be able to pick it up (a message could appear at the top of the screen: "This doesn't belong to you...").

Now just imagine this with Tedious Travel, everyone moving together.

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Deepfighter
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Deepfighter »

Ommamar wrote: Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:34 pm So you link 2 threads from 2015 and one too a mod being developed to try and belittle someone trying to start a conversation that you could just chose not to involve yourself in?
Woah, calm down a bit. :o If I would have struggled with this thread, I would have merged it with one of the others, it seems you missed my point. I just wanted to give you and the following contributors, an overview of threads which happened to discuss this already in some way to (1) show you that this topic has been discussed before (which doesn't imply that it can't be discussed here as well) and (2) and foremost to build up on those ideas. There was really nothing belittling or unfriendly, just the stated fact, that your entry post - frankly speaking - did not give another discussion point (or build up on previous topics) for someone to add to this specific topic, which hasn't been stated elsewhere. The answer to your questions - It would have been of course - without question - legendary! :D ). As you felt yourself to explain a bit more on your thoughts, it seems that I wasn't completely wrong and see for yourself - it started to get rolling. ;) In any way, if I offended you, I am sorry about that, as it was honestly never an intention of mine. :)

-----

Regarding the topic I am completely on MasonFace side. Only LAN would have been possible at that time for Daggerfall (IMHO). Can't imagine that the (internet) technology in the households at this time would have been capable of transferring/synchronizing this game in a stable way. Ultima Online 1 1/2 years later was graphically not that demanding (and had already during the starting phase serious server lag problems). Daggerfall was ahead of his time and an online feature would have been to early.
Head of the German Daggerfall translation - www.daggerfalldeutsch.de
and German translator for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Lore-Expert for The Elder Scrolls: Online

Ommamar
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Re: Multi-Player Daggerfall

Post by Ommamar »

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