Open Source MP Campaign Mod Project

[chAOS!]

I'm thinking about starting a project to create an multiplayer campaign mod, mostly because when Armagen was asked about it he basically tossed out a description of BattleTime mod and I felt physically ill,
now I am a passable coder to the point where I know HOW a MP Campaign mod COULD be done that would actually please most people but it would take a lot of research, trial and error and work on my skills to get it done and the timeline for a solo project leaves a lot to be desired
What I can do quite effectively is share my idea with people and break down the steps to achieve it in a manageable way where it doesn't seem like such a daunting task and ask for volunteers, almost everyone wants a decent MP campaign but most people are in my opinion aiming pretty low.

Basically the idea is this, first we need to create a module that removes pausing from the campaign so that no matter what the player does the game keeps moving along, perhaps at half regular speed, when you enter a town or get involved in a battle or go into dialogue the campaign keeps running in the background, for some instances this would be quite easy, others will require some extra work like making it so you can still "Attack" a party after the battle has already started
Secondly we need to separate the campaign from the game client and put it on a server box so an agent run by the server-box will exist somewhere that cannot be interacted with and basically just "wait for time to pass"
And then we need to allow the player to connect to this server and sync data on the client campaign with the server campaign
Then we need to create Scene instancing where we use private servers to load "Walk around the town" "Battles" etc, i think the battles will be easier then the towns so we can start with that,
Obviously private servers aren't yet released, but hopefully by the time we iron out all the bugs with removing pause function and running the campaign map on a server box they will be and then we can get into creating a lobby system for multiple players to join the campaign server and fixing all the bugs related to treating the player as a NPC Lord
I have seen some posts about creating a server that holds party locations and uploads them so I know people are working on these problems I just want to bring them together and create an open source MP Campaign Project where we pool our resources to achieve this goal quicker
If there is already groups of people working on a MP Campaign mod that comes at it from this or a similar angle I would definitely be interesting in helping them as much as i possibly can.

 

[chAOS!]

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[Ra'Jiska]

While I'd like something like that, you are talking about creating a community-driven mod that aims to implement the full Bannerlord SP game logic (which TaleWorlds took 8 years to make) in a network based environment. Achieving this with a community team is almost impossible if involved volunteers are not experienced developers that have a good knowledge of the game and its API.

The easiest way I can think of is running a special instance of Bannerlord SP on a server where the main character would be a fixed character placed somewhere out of the map, which would report positions and every actions of what's happening on the map to other connected players. While this is a considerable amount of work, you also need to think about what happens when one player gets in a battle ? A battle that lasts 5 minutes would have an impact of several days on the campaign map. Even more complex, how do you deal with multiple players walking around in the same town ? You will have to create your very own network layer which synchronizes your players in this originally singleplayer environment.

I worked on this project for a while on Warband and had to stop this because those questions could not be answered by work that would be achieved in a reasonable amount of time. You may want to find an answer to those questions before actually starting to get your hands down the code: if TaleWorlds developers did not achieve this, by far, most request Warband and Bannerlord feature, that's because there is a reason.

Don't take me wrong though, I am all for it, it's just that it would need a lot of thinking and support prior to starting such a mod.

 

[Gnostic_Monk]

Well... I like the idea but as Ra'Jiska said it's a technically challenging feat to be sure. I've always kind of viewed the MMO style mods like Persistent World or whatever as the closest that is achievable to a multiplayer campagin. On those mods it kind of relies on your ability to RP or be compelling enough to get enough people on the server join along with you. Not a Leadership or persuasion skill. Even then that has it's limitations. If I'm not mistaken on those Persistent World mods I think a map has to be created and scripted and then you have to get people on the server by advertising it on endless forums. The server population maximum is also fairly low compared to MMO standards.