BlazeHunter2500

Join Date 04/2013

Multiple Players Control One Empire

So I had a "new" idea for Sins of a Solar Empire.

I've been playing Sins since it came out and for the longest time now I've wondered why you can't have multiple players control one empire. I've seen some cool mods and seen the game changed COMPLETELY. So why cant you have multiple players control one empire? I mean honestly how much more fun would you have if you and your friends could all play as one empire and only have to worry about what you were assigned to do with your friends? And then you could even set up a tier system where one person was say "The Admiral" and he had basic economic control and logistics and planet authority, and he was in charge of production and research and fleet coordination. "The Commander" would be in charge of large fleets and would recieve his ships from "The Admiral" and could in turn pass on ships to "The Captain" who would not have access to any of "The Commander's" or "The Admiral's" ships, only what he was given.

And to combat the problem of people leaving, or conflicting agendas, The game could incorporate a voting system in which everyone on the team could choose who the "Admiral(s)" "Commander(s)" and "Captain(s)" were on the fly so that your team could adapt as needed.

My idea comes from Starcraft Brood War, one of the game types was called "Team Melee." It allowed multiple players to control a single base and allowed for a far greater ammount of teamwork at the expense of production capabilities (i.e. 200 unit limit compared to 800 unit limit.)

I may just be blowing my mind at the idea but I think if this mod could be possible that everyone would want to play it, and possibly stardock would want to impliment it into future games. I have no experience whatsoever with modding games and so I would just ask that if someone reads this post and likes the idea and creates a mod like this that they share it with me.

I have several friends who are also interested in this idea but have no time on their hands and no experience modding. We would love it if someone could come up with this. I love sins of a solar empire and think that this would increase the games potential exponentially.

Also Sins Developers I would be happy to share ideas with you. I have many, and have friends who have many as well. Best of wishes on Rebellion, I do not own it, and from some forums I understand there are balance issues, However In my mind that makes you only human, and as such you have my best wishes on creating the best games you can.

Sincerely,

Blaze

modding

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lordlubu21

Two players cannot control a single empire in Sins, sadly. This is a really neat idea however.

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See but I don't understand why you can't mod it so you can? Why not? Its like just making two people the same color and having them control the same units. Would it be that hard?

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There is no way to put that in, most likely to do it you would need to change the hard coding of the game. I love the idea as well.

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Seleuceia

Join Date 01/2008

+240

I'm seeing a good idea for a game in the future...hell, you might even use it as a way to get strategy games on the console (if that's even worth pursuing)...

But the game would have to be designed to require multiple people....if all the micromanagement can already be done by one person, what's the point?

Maybe the next SimCity will be like this.......or next Sims.......

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I would see the point as being able to develop more strategy. I mean there is a limit as to how fast you can think and react to new things, even in a game. Having more people be able to control the empire at once means that you don't have to over tax yourself and feel like your exhausted and the computer (Or human) is still kicking your trash. Plus it opens up a whole new level to the game in that you have multiple people reacting to how the game plays out, Plus I love playing multi player with friends and when we play we want something like this, but can't get it this intricate so we always come away a little dissapointed.

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There was a cool mod for Homeworld 2 that divided up roles, one person contros all the fighters, one controls all the frigates/gunships and one person controls the capitals.

Was a very cool idea and played pretty well, the capital controler was basicaly the admiral/commander able to build the ships for the other players.

But homeworld 2 had access to a scripting engine that Sins does not. If sins had lua script or something there would be alot more people could do with the game.

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Ahh Alright. I wish they would do that for this game. It would open up a lot of new possibilities for it.

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This is a awesome idea.... Please sins developers heed this mans idea!

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Thank you for the compliment I don't know how I would go about getting the developers attention, but if I could I certainly would. They could take this idea far. And people would love the game because it adds a whole new level to co-op multiplayer

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To build on the OP, I would suggest that the Admiral, instead of building ships, would allocate resources to the Commander who would build ships himself; he has a better understanding of what's up and needed for the war.

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Thats a good idea, and depending on how they made the game they could do different things. My belief would be that the tiered system would follow somewhat what would happen in that the Admiral(s) would get requests by the commanders/captains for ships and resources, and would in turn, balancing what was needed for the empire's developement at the time would decide who would get what ships, and where to place people's fleets.

OH I just had an idea from Enders Game. I don't know if anyone has read it but at the end of the book, Ender was given a fleet each "scenario" and would choose who his commanders were, and assign them their ships and then make a strategy from there.

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Why is it when somebody comes up with a radical gameplay idea, they assume it'd be able to go in?

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Why do people come up with Radical gameplay ideas? Because they hope it can.

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We didn't have an actual chain of command but rather when we needed resources we simply said out loud "I need X amount of Y resource" and the other player would stop spending and let him have it.

Beats me why it's not in SC2, but still this was doable with RTS games over ten years ago.

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Quoting BlazeHunter2500,

reply 13

Why do people come up with Radical gameplay ideas? Because they hope it can.

Not when you assume such a thing can work, and don't understand why it won't. In most cases, you'd need the game's source code for such things.

You shouldn't hold such high and lofty ideas for an old and indy deved game engine. You're only going to disappoint yourself.

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Quoting Pat_22_,

reply 14

To anyone who wasn't aware and thinks this is actually some brand new, never-done idea, this was actually an available option for Starcraft and Starcraft Broodwar back in the 90's.

I stated that in the first post. I do have reasoning behind my madness lol.

Obviously such a thing can work because it has been done before, however yes I do understand that you need the source code to change this. Right now I am hoping that another game will come out with this, whether it be Sins related or not.

And quite honestly how did sins come around in the first place? HIGH AND LOFTY IDEAS.

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Quoting BlazeHunter2500,

reply 16

Quoting Pat_22_, reply 14
To anyone who wasn't aware and thinks this is actually some brand new, never-done idea, this was actually an available option for Starcraft and Starcraft Broodwar back in the 90's.

I stated that in the first post. I do have reasoning behind my madness lol.

Obviously such a thing can work because it has been done before, however yes I do understand that you need the source code to change this. Right now I am hoping that another game will come out with this, whether it be Sins related or not.

And quite honestly how did sins come around in the first place? HIGH AND LOFTY IDEAS.

I didn't mention it to discredit your idea. I would actually like to see this as an optional game mode. I simply wanted to point out it wasn't something that had never been done before and thus could be done again.

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Quoting BlazeHunter2500,

reply 16

And quite honestly how did sins come around in the first place? HIGH AND LOFTY IDEAS.

I like to think of it more as a cash grab. A lot of the inconsistencies and feature creep stuff makes more sense that way.

Also, I think the game would need to have every last one of its sync issues solved before attempting something like this or it would be a nightmare. That won't happen, so it's even more of a lofty dream than just asking for the source code and mashing buttons.

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I understand what both of you are saying, that it wouldn't be possible without a major rehaul of the game. I love sins and i think this would make it better. Unfortunately most of the ideas that I have for any game cant happen because of all the changes that would need to take place at the core of the game itself.

The High and lofty ideas part was directed at Xathos. Its a little annoying when you create a forum to find information out and to spread an idea and some guy comes on and tries to shoot you in the face and say your stupid.

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Quoting BlazeHunter2500,

reply 19

I never once called you, or your idea, stupid. If I'm calling you anything, it's naive.

Anybody that ever played game to any good degree, or has any understanding with how the game works, will tell you that they don't see how your idea could be implemented within the current product. I'm just trying to keep your expectations founded on what's possible, and feasible, within the limitations of the game engine. This isn't the Unreal Engine we're talking about. It's something made by a small independent studio dating back to the mid 2000's. You can't expect for dramatic departures of core gameplay, or modes, from something with no pedigree.

Mod development is a mix of aspirations and hopes, but can be quickly killed by technicalities. Take whatever fire you have towards wanting to try something dramatic, and repurpose it to what is possible in the present. You can revisit that idea later down the road once you have fine tuned the craft enough to know what is achievable and what isn't.

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Thank You Xathos for explaining what I didn't understand. I had hoped that it would be possible to impliment, and now that everyone has explained the different limits to the engine itself I understand that this isn't possible to be done at this time.

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Quoting Pat_22_,

reply 14

To anyone who wasn't aware and thinks this is actually some brand new, never-done idea, this was actually an available option for Starcraft and Starcraft Broodwar back in the 90's. I played it a few times with friends against comps and it was a lot of fun. One of us took care of the army and the front line while the other took care of expanding and developing the bases.

We didn't have an actual chain of command but rather when we needed resources we simply said out loud "I need X amount of Y resource" and the other player would stop spending and let him have it.

Beats me why it's not in SC2, but still this was doable with RTS games over ten years ago.

I was going to point out the same thing. Though I feel the need to mention that team melee was one of my favorite things in the early days.

"1 v 4 no rush 30 minutes 1111!!!!"

It was cheesy, but when I slammed them with 96 Battlecruisers they always called me hacker.

Tards.

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Idea isn't new or innovative really. Its been out there and public opinion has been that its not worth the time. We all want our own armies and stuff. Its neat but sadly not demanded.

If people really like this idea, there are other games that support it. SC has been mentioned, Rise of Nations is another. I'm not sure how flexible the sins engine is, but while modding it in is impossible, I really doubt that altering the game code to support this is extensive or exhaustive seeing as network play has already been implemented. Only question is how much more money does this actually bring in? I doubt people who held off on sins will jump right in seeing that 2 people can play as one empire. It doesn't make sense to develop a feature that will have such a low impact.

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Quoting SoulxReaper,

reply 23

Idea isn't new or innovative really. Its been out there and public opinion has been that its not worth the time. We all want our own armies and stuff. Its neat but sadly not demanded.

If people really like this idea, there are other games that support it. SC has been mentioned, Rise of Nations is another. I'm not sure how flexible the sins engine is, but while modding it in is impossible, I really doubt that altering the game code to support this is extensive or exhaustive seeing as network play has already been implemented. Only question is how much more money does this actually bring in? I doubt people who held off on sins will jump right in seeing that 2 people can play as one empire. It doesn't make sense to develop a feature that will have such a low impact.

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