Singleplayer mixed with Multiplayer, kind of

While working on my latest project, a open world role playing game, I thought about implementing some kind of a multiplayer part but without turning the game into a MMORPG of any kind. The game will have its singleplayer structure intact, but I want to fill the singleplayer experience with a multiplayer feeling.

I am thinking to make a online database that will store all characters the players play with (players will have a choice inside the game options to allow this or not). Every character information is sent to the database, while the game gathers informations of a randomly chosen characters from the database. Those informations are then used to create unique NPC characters inside the game that will have the name, looks and power of other players characters.

So, what do you guys think about this? Any suggestions?

 

Sounds like a fun mechanic to me. It will be tricky to maintain balance, though. PCs tend to be super overpowered compared to NPCs. You might have to nerf them a bit.

One way to do this would be, instead of having them be normal NPCs at their full strength, turn them into ghosts. That gives you a good excuse for nerfing them substantially. Of course it doesn't really accomplish your original goal, does it?

It reminds me of Shadow Mode in Killer Instinct. If you do this, it'd be awesome if you could do the same thing, i.e., also imitate the fighting style of the original PC. (I may be able to help with that if you need it.)

 

So... like Dark Souls?

 

Currently, as I am looking at it, I can make that system spawns only characters of the same level(+-), which means they will wear gear and have skills in scope with the player. The other way I see it is a leveled system, like Oblivion. Whatever is the characters level, he will always scope with player.

No. You can not actually play with other people, because a game is a Singleplayer experience, but you can encounter other player characters on you adventures.

I like the Killer Instinct idea about Shadows. Like shadows, other player characters can be either hostile, ally or neutral, depending on their play style, they can be part of factions (like player is in his own game) and so on.

 

So it's just phantoms without any actual netcode involved. Sounds like it would just be more of a pain in the ass to play against. Seems like you would have to put a ton of work into the AI, and you still probably won't get the AI to play the character right.

 

I feel the question that has to be asked is "What does your product gain from this?" The most important part of this puzzle is showing your user what their "online" persona is doing and in this description, that is obfuscated. Now, if you get a daily report of what your "shadow self" is up to (and possibly some kind of reward for it?) - or even the ability to watch your shadow self - now we're talking. As it is, the reality is you could fake what you're doing and the end user would never know.

 

Players would get stats about what their "shadow" characters did in other worlds, and some rewards and penalties must be placed inside the system. Those "shadows" does not necessarely need to be hostile toward the player. "Shadow" would interact with player just like NPC. If player is criminal and "shadow" is not, he will just ignore him, or if in other hand "shadow" is part of Guard Faction he would chase and punish player just like guards do.
As for the reward/penalty system, I think that players whose "shadow" is killed the most gets some kind of penalty on his side of the game, where player whose "shadow" is successfully surviving inside someones world gets some kind of reward.

 

Careful about penalizing people for things they have virtually no control over. Again, the reality seems to be you could fake it all and there'd never be a way to know. Not saying you should, but saying it seems very unclear what is going on or why to your character (or to whom, or how you could interact with your friends more often than stranger).

 

You guys are right, this "shadows" thing would be nothing but just more unnecessary work on the project. On the other hand, cooperative multiplayer could be the thing. You play your game and suddenly you have a problem/obstacle/desire? to connect to the server and play with someone. So, with a click of a button you connect to someone who is also looking for a fellow adventurer, then both of you continue playing the game together. Now, this looks tricky, as I see it. In what way you guys think this can be implemented, jumping to multiplayer from singleplayer without leaving the game world?

 

Another branch is what Elite Dangerous does. Players can play Single Player mode but the universe they play in is a persistent version of everyone's collective actions. In other words, blowing up smaller factions reduces their influence and a different one grows instead, leading to the solar system being under different political control and it may turn into some Piracy wonderland or some Democratic super-security system. Now your game world changed shape. Trading supply/demand is also cumulative from what people are actually trading.

The netcode wouldn't have to be super persistent here and you could still get some unique gameplay out of it if you use the mechanic properly, just pull updates every time you start the game up.

 

It's non-trivial. And, it's also something that works well, particularly in games with high retention. For instance, in HeroesCharge, the enemies you face are often just the arrangement of some player's team, at some point in time. It's subtle, yet impactful. Though it's not a trivial thing to implement, the fact that it's not real-time interaction makes it infinitely easier.

Gigi

 

reminds me of a bit about spore.

My personal opinion on this is that it seems like a lot of work with not a major game impact. It sounds like an awesome idea, don't get me wrong, but whats the difference than having randomly generated big bosses.