Ideas 2012:Multiplayer
Unknown Horizons offers a basic multiplayer mode. Currently, there are no real goals to achieve besides playing together on the same map.
It is also less stable than singleplayer and the code needs to be polished to be more enjoyable for users.
A major issue is that right now, when one player leaves the game, the session ends for all other players.
We'd like the game to continue instead.
Play-test the multiplayer mode a lot and extend it to contain different types of goals, possibly endless game, assassination, modular winning conditions (like in the SP scenarios) and anything that would be fun for you to play!
The lobby should also be tested and polished to be easy to use.
You should also consider creating a test framework for multiplayer tests and integrating them into our automated continuous integration tests to ensure the ongoing quality of the multiplayer code. It would also be nice to extend our current server to collect some basic statistics that we can use and present on our homepage.
We'd also like a nice solution to the problem of ending a session when one player leaves the game.
A basic idea is to remove the player from the game (delete all his buildings or just leave him rot).
Another and more advanced option:
Replace the player by an AI player, which requires AI players to work in multiplayer first.
Currently, multiplayer AI is not implemented, but working on this might be part of the AI task.
- (Very) Good Python skills (must)
- Knowledge of networking (must), even better using libenet (bonus)
- Estimated difficulty: Medium
You work together with the entire team, this entails:
- Weekly reports of your progress at our weekly dev meeting on IRC
- Availability on IRC when you are working on Unknown Horizons
- Active participation in the discussions on IRC/Mailing List/Forums
- Daily status reports to your mentor (by mail)
You can shift around release goals and target dates in the planning stage as you like. Once your mentor and you agreed on a rough timetable, only light modifications should occur if there happens nothing unforeseeable.
- No milestones from our side. Propose some to your mentors!
In general: If your mentor agrees, you can change almost everything in our descriptions. They are just meant to provide guidance if you are not sure where to start or which way to choose.
You are especially free to alter the following parts:
- [Make it possible for players to leave a multiplayer-game without ending it: #622 (http://trac.unknown-horizons.org/t/ticket/622)
- [Add a mechanism to kick players: #1555] (http://trac.unknown-horizons.org/t/ticket/1555)
- [More privacy for multiplayer-lobby/games: #1553] (http://trac.unknown-horizons.org/t/ticket/1553)
- More features!
Your mentors for this task will probably be one of:
- nihathrael
- totycro
These devs might also help out if your mentors are not around right now: gscai
