Potential ways to be able to incorporate multiplayer play

[furyfire]

I agree with your last statement. That overhaul will be required, but this is just whimsical thinking trying to make the current engine fit into multiplayer, which is yes, difficult. But remember, the less change being asked, the more likely developers or modders will give it a try.

Like I said, a sector that is about 2 sector sizes in campaign seems to be reasonable enough for a game that lasts 1 hour. Think of it more as a mini coop campaign.

Hmmm, you have a point with the node/system rush and farming problems. But I think it can be circumvented by timed events... To stop farming, nodes will usually just have 1-3 chain of events then after about 20 minutes, a node that's empty or depleted can be restarted.

I do not think clustering of nodes is fully required, nor large sector sizes. On the middle of the map, points of contestion will occur at Stores, which will become valuable mini bases because traveling all the way back to the base can take too long and be perilous. Now that you've mentioned it, maybe it's best to remove Sector Skirmish as a game mode, because Conquest and Escort have objectives that would most likely push the players to move out instead of farm.

As for team size... maybe the sector size will be 1.5x a normal sector if it's a 2vs2 game. And reach as big as 2x or 2.5x if a full 6vs6 match.

The game however will limit the player from fully upgrading the ship as compared those of the campaign... Probably you'd go as far as 2-3 added weapons and about a dozen system upgrades. Be hinted that this multiplayer's span is 1 hour while the usual FTL campaign lasts 2-2.5 hours. What you'd get instead is combat with what the player's can scrounge up for the next 30-45 mins before enemy players finally appear at their sensors. If you really want a powerful ship, you'd need your team to pool up their scrap and offer them all to one player.

As for the combat I've suggested, it really is not perfect. And you'd expect the outnumbered player to make a jump for it or at least destroy one and then jump; or hold long enough for reinforcements to arrive (we do have those occasional situations wherein ship combat becomes a stalemate). But my objective here in my original suggestions is to present a multiplayer game which maintains the roguelike feel instead of just prefabricated ship encounters.

It's not truly designed to be competitive, rather it's more of a new and different experience, with the campaign's development not only reliant on one player but on other players as well.

[samules]

Another idea would be a co-op mode. I don't think VS would work well with FTL but co-op would be better I think. Essentially similar to the campaign but perhaps longer with bigger sectors. Each player would have a small ship (20 hull 1 less weapon/drone slot, 2 less shield weapon and drone power) essentially 2/3 the power of the current ships) and could jump independently but when in the same sector could trade items freely. Perhaps some special things to encourage cooperation, like repair arms being able to repair the other players ship. Turns would be jump cycles and combat when ships were alone would be normal, but if you had nothing to do while your ally was fighting you could watch and give advice. (maybe some way to go and help your teammate?) Naturally a lot of tweaks would need to be made to make this work properly. So the players would be able to scour sectors twice as fast but would be less capable of dealing with enemies on their own and could trade with each other to improve their respective loadouts.

IDK I don't really have a very good idea of how it would work but it could be fun.

[Astre]

How is this supposed to be hard?

1) Versus
The game runs as usual. Both players start and explore the same sectors as in singleplayer. Player 1 must reach the base on the last sector as usual. Player 2 must catch and destroy player 1 by following an imprecise signal. The game changes very little from singleplayer.

Both players can then have multiple skirmishes long before reaching the last sector while trying to get an edge. Difficulty can be tweaked. Engine improvements become more crucial. Sector number can be chosen beforehand, regulating game length and speed of progression.

2) Coop
The game runs as usual. Pause key is disabled. One player is the "captain". The captain assigns which crew members and systems the other player gets to control.

Combat speed or difficulty can be enhanced to make teamwork challenging. Each of the two players can only select and operate the crew/systems they are assigned to, but energy is pooled, so good communication would be key.

Finally, both modes could work as-is, with small gameplay enhancements and options to make the experience more customizable. New additions to the game would also easily improve the variety of such modes.

[furyfire]

2) Coop
The game runs as usual. Pause key is disabled. One player is the "captain". The captain assigns which crew members and systems the other player gets to control.

Combat speed or difficulty can be enhanced to make teamwork challenging. Each of the two players can only select and operate the crew/systems they are assigned to, but energy is pooled, so good communication would be key.

Finally, both modes could work as-is, with small gameplay enhancements and options to make the experience more customizable. New additions to the game would also easily improve the variety of such modes.

I like

It actually reminded me of a suggestion of another dude in the forums. Forgot his name but he talked (actually dreamed) about a FPS multiplayer version of FTL, with one player controlling 1 crew.

If you're going to make it coop why not make it for more crew like 3-6 players. They will be on a big ship. With these following rooms (may be upgraded)
>The four weapon ports each having their own room and an additional central conduit room wherein energy from the reactors are channeled to the weapons. The weapon rooms can be manned by one player, and only that crew can control where the weapon fires and when.
>Pilot room - manned by one crew that flies the ship. Pilot can see the entire ship
>Shield room
>Sensor room - anyone inside gains visibility of all the rooms of the ship (and if upgraded can see the rooms of the enemy ship). Players not inside the sensor room or pilot room can't see past the room they are in (unless they are slugman)
>Engine - affects dodge chance when crewed.
>Medibay
>Drone Control - drones can only be toggled on and off in this room. Direct control of a drone can also be done here if a crew wishes to man it.
>Teleporter
>Life Support System

Others:
>weapons can be aimed and will shoot automatically when fired. Crew can leave the room when he inputs the target. Take note however, that the reload speed increase provided by crewing the room will be gone if uncrewed.
>Every room has access to door controls, so that the crew can open or close breach doors on any part of the ship, provided that the master door room is still operational.
>With the pilot room and sensor room the only place to be able to see the ship rooms, coordination is important among the other crewmen doing other things. This is especially important during boarding combat or fighting fires.
>maybe make it so that the pilot also has control of a minor weapon (1-2 reactor power required weapon) and the other 3 weapons have their own weapon rooms.
>damaging the main weapon room conduit takes away energy from the other weapon rooms.
>teleporting crew members back to their own ship can be done from the sensor room or the pilot room (in technically terms, whoever is in the sensor room or pilot room can control the teleporter)


Maybe to make it more interesting to the whole crew: add minigames to the pilot, shield, engine rooms and medbay to make it seem like the other crew members that decide to man these have something to do. Ever heard of "Puzzle Pirates" though hopefully not as cheesy as that, but something similar. Make it so that when the crewmate succeeds in the minigame he will provided the benefit (faster shield recharge, increase dodge chance both from piloting and engine room, faster repair speed)