1 possible way to add "Multiplayer"

[MarrowStone]

While actual multiplayer is somewhat of an impossibility for The Long Dark due to the need to advance time quickly in menus, there is one way to allow players to interact/learn from other players while in-game:

Player journals could be dropped on death and show up in other's worlds. 

Or maybe dark-souls style messages can be left for others to upvote etc.

 

Or, just maybe, footprints, gunshot sounds, and other things like campfires can very rarely slip into other's games. This would make the discovery of them feel very eerie, like you're not alone.

Then again, I dont know if an online framework like that can even be tacked onto The Long Dark due to it being built around singleplayer. Maybe in the next game we'll see something like this. I just know traditional online co-op is a no-go for this game.

[gnomegnine]

Player journals dropped on death would be horrible unless you could move them. TWM mountaineer's hut would be covered in them from people freezing, Camp office and trapper's homestead, don't even get me started on ice fishing huts lol. I suggest cairns with a poem written. Like mine could say " avoid the pond at sundown" or something ominous like that.

[MarrowStone]

6 hours ago, gnomegnine said:

Player journals dropped on death would be horrible unless you could move them.

Haha, theyd be just like notes where you could pick them up and rate them etc, and not everyone's would show up in everyones world. Things like this would be rare and able to be turned off to preserve the feeling of loneliness in the game.

Maybe even just seeing their statistics on death would be cool without journals that people could write bad things in.

[Dawnshift]

16 hours ago, MarrowStone said:

(...) Then again, I dont know if an online framework like that can even be tacked onto The Long Dark due to it being built around singleplayer. Maybe in the next game we'll see something like this. I just know traditional online co-op is a no-go for this game.

A possible counterpoint to consider:

Although requiring far less implementation in some aspects obviously, the amount of work would not be little. You would still need server infrastructure, networking code and all that.. and then the 'message' code. And then there are a whole lot of more little things you would need to address - like data security for example. Seeing as it is out on multible platforms.. servers could get pricey real quick - but then again i have no idea of acutal prices in the industry.

Then there is also the point that the variation in deaths seems a bit limited to me (seeing as once you are settled in there are for the most part only a few ways to die). I mean it is not like there is another mechanic around death. I mean it is not like you can (randomly or fixed) catch deseases or walk into traps.

Btw: You could also do messages via the post office - would give the milton mailbag a new spin (although certainly not as immersive). But maybe that is more suited for easteregg.

[Silverhour]

Yeah, it would be next to impossible to implement multiplayer in the game as is. You can't simply disable the pass time feature, because how could you sleep, or harvest anything? While player 1 is out scouting in the night player 2 decides to take a nap... so now p2 has to sit at the computer for 9 in game hours to pass while p1 trots around stalking a moose. It would be near impossible to coordinate a time when everyone simultaneously sleeps, eats, cooks, etc. The entire framework would have to be reworked to eliminate the pass time features and make everything in game time. So you would always have to wait out the cook time, skin/harvest time, sleep time, etc. This would become way too tedious.

Interacting with the remains of another players game, like journals or notes left, would be more emersion and story building than a multiplayer experience. It would show that yes, other people have managed to survive this, so you can too. This feature doesn't even have to be multiplayer, really. There could be an option to 'drop journal' upon death, so that your next game has a little easter egg waiting for you when you get back to where your last attempt ended.

[hozz1235]

I think the idea behind TLD is a sense of isolation (except Wintermute).  If you begin to insert any type of MP aspect, I feel like it would lose something.  I enjoy talking about our TLD experiences here, but I enjoy the game just as it is.

[Hotzn]

On 9.10.2018 at 4:59 AM, MarrowStone said:

While actual multiplayer is somewhat of an impossibility for The Long Dark due to the need to advance time quickly in menus, there is one way to allow players to interact/learn from other players while in-game:

Player journals could be dropped on death and show up in other's worlds. 

Or maybe dark-souls style messages can be left for others to upvote etc.

 

Or, just maybe, footprints, gunshot sounds, and other things like campfires can very rarely slip into other's games. This would make the discovery of them feel very eerie, like you're not alone.

Then again, I dont know if an online framework like that can even be tacked onto The Long Dark due to it being built around singleplayer. Maybe in the next game we'll see something like this. I just know traditional online co-op is a no-go for this game.

Although I like the idea, this is a no-go from a copyright point of view : Texts players write into their journals may be protected by copyright in various jurisdictions around the world - the owner of the copyright could be the player (if he/she wrote the text) or even a third person (for example, if a player just copied a text passage from an existing and copyright-protected book). If the player held the copyright, Hinterland would need that player's consent to use the text from his/her journal. Granted, this hurdle might potentially be overcome by some kind of in-game agreement (for example, the player ticking a box in the journal saying 'I agree [... etc.]'), although ensuring the validity of such agreement would not be an easy task (given that the player may be seated in a jurisdiction which might handle copyright differently than the jurisdictions we know etc. etc.). However, third-person copyright (stemming from material the player copies from someone else) leaking into the game through player journals (or any other way, for that matter) would pose a problem which would be very hard to solve on the legal level. It is generally problematic for game developers to integrate content into their games which could be 'infected' with third-party copyrights.

The aforesaid just outlines some principles for the interest of players on these forums and does not constitute legal advice. If you have a legal problem to solve in practice, consult a lawyer. 

[MarrowStone]

@Hotzn, I mainly made the subject because I wanted to show there were different ways to incorperate online services than co-op like others have been wanting. Personally, Id still prefer singleplayer.

 The extent of what can be in journals can be decided by the devs, the least risky would just be a "journal"saying how many days and the stats of the player like in the death menu.

Also, footprints gunshots etc would be super rare and the stuff that affects the world would despawn. 

i also like to think being able to opt out of online and what you see from it would be left optional for those without internet etc.

[MarrowStone]

@Hotzn, I mainly made the subject because I wanted to show there were different ways to incorperate online services than co-op like others have been wanting. Personally, Id still prefer singleplayer.

 The extent of what can be in journals can be decided by the devs, the least risky would just be a "journal"saying how many days and the stats of the player like in the death menu.

Also, footprints gunshots etc would be super rare and the stuff that affects the world would despawn. 

i also like to think being able to opt out of online and what you see from it would be left optional for those without internet etc.

[gnomegnine]

15 hours ago, Hotzn said:

gunshot sounds, and other things like campfires can very rarely slip into other's games. This would make the discovery of them feel very eerie, like you're not alone.

I think gunshots would be scary rather than just creepy. that would make it seem like there was actual people, rather than just a presence