WAN/LAN multiplayer

[dshewmaker]

Hello,

It looks like the WAN multiplayer mode is getting implemented. I couldn't find an estimate on when that would be completed. Is it open ended or is there a date for it to be released?

I would like to help to speed up the process if possible with programming or $ to a current developer.

I would like to be able to setup our own private server and network locally.

Please contact me

Dennis

[hiker]

It looks like the WAN multiplayer mode is getting implemented. I couldn't find an estimate on when that would be completed. Is it open ended or is there a date for it to be released?

In a project driven by volunteers in their spare time we certainly won't dare to give a reasonable time estimation .. though my tea leaves look like they are trying to say 'not before beginning of next year' ... or does it mean decade?

Seriously, we can't commit to a time yet, but we are making some good progress thanks to the students working on GSoC projects. Combining this all together into a seamless user experience will take some time. Even if we had a working online racing, for a full online experience a lot more work needs to be done (for example, are we allowing highscores / worl-wide ranking? How to handle cheating? How much server space and CPU cycles do we need - can we still use a free server, or need a (or more) dedicated ones??, ...).

I would like to help to speed up the process if possible with programming or $ to a current developer.

You can certainly make a donation anytime (link should be on our web page). When we officially release network game, we might actually be using donations (and perhaps even looking for more) in order to afford some dedicated server space, but this is all going to be decided in the next months.

I would like to be able to setup our own private server and network locally.

We would actually be interested in your use case: are you trying to play with friends/family? One model we are considering is that there will be one online server to find games, but you can define your own friends to play with, and a server will actually be started on your machine. So while this would still need external network access to find your friends, the actual game play would be between your local machines only. So,some details about what you want to do is appreciated.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Uni]

If you decide to donate, register on stkaddons first and attach your username to your donation (and perhaps your email). (It's quite possible that donaters get early access to the test phase or some other cool stuff)

[Arthur]

Also we do welcome more programmers too if you want to help out that way - please contact us through our mailing list or IRC channel and we can certainly help you find something to work on.

[dshewmaker]

Thanks for responding!

You can certainly make a donation anytime (link should be on our web page). When we officially release network game, we might actually be using donations (and perhaps even looking for more) in order to afford some dedicated server space, but this is all going to be decided in the next months.

I could perhaps provide server space. I can also provide some donations.

We would actually be interested in your use case: are you trying to play with friends/family? One model we are considering is that there will be one online server to find games, but you can define your own friends to play with, and a server will actually be started on your machine. So while this would still need external network access to find your friends, the actual game play would be between your local machines only. So,some details about what you want to do is appreciated.

The use case would be used at events and the winner would win a prize. The goal is to have a fun game that anyone can just jump right into and have fun racing each other. So a fun "casual" racing game would be perfect.

We would want each person on their own machine to separate them instead of everyone on one screen.

[dshewmaker]

If you decide to donate, register on stkaddons first and attach your username to your donation (and perhaps your email). (It's quite possible that donaters get early access to the test phase or some other cool stuff)

Thanks for the info.

please contact us through our mailing list or IRC channel and we can certainly help you find something to work on.

I have signed up to the mailing list.

[hiker]

...

I could perhaps provide server space. I can also provide some donations.

We will certainly come back to this once we have the networking code running, and trying to figure out how to roll it out for all players. We have already started to look at a few options.

The use case would be used at events and the winner would win a prize. The goal is to have a fun game that anyone can just jump right into and have fun racing each other. So a fun "casual" racing game would be perfect.

So that would actually work fine with our current mode: the local race server would connect to our lobby server, declare the user id of the users used on the other machines as friends and open a room for friends only. Then all the people on the other clients can join. And you would have local-only games.

Though we will try to consider people running their own lobby server, which might simplify things (esp. no WAN connection would be required, only LAN). E.g. that might give you 'local' highscores, which would be ideal for an event. Main issue which will take time is handling of cheating (since it's so easy to modify the sources and config files) - though if you control all clients that's actually a non-issue then

We would want each person on their own machine to separate them instead of everyone on one screen.

Sure, that will certainly work

Thanks for your feedback!

Cheers,
Joerg

[dshewmaker]

So that would actually work fine with our current mode: the local race server would connect to our lobby server, declare the user id of the users used on the other machines as friends and open a room for friends only. Then all the people on the other clients can join. And you would have local-only games.

Cool, I am excited that this would work. Is this something that is already in a development build?

[Uni]

So that would actually work fine with our current mode: the local race server would connect to our lobby server, declare the user id of the users used on the other machines as friends and open a room for friends only. Then all the people on the other clients can join. And you would have local-only games.

Cool, I am excited that this would work. Is this something that is already in a development build?

Jip is what 2 of the 3 gsoc projects are about.

[hiker]

So that would actually work fine with our current mode: the local race server would connect to our lobby server, declare the user id of the users used on the other machines as friends and open a room for friends only. Then all the people on the other clients can join. And you would have local-only games.

Cool, I am excited that this would work. Is this something that is already in a development build?

Jip is what 2 of the 3 gsoc projects are about.

Even once the two GSoC projects were finished, there are many things still to do: judging the server specs we need for the lobby (I am not entirely sure if we can stay with our current free server), thinking about highscores/races and cheating, and testing testing testing. So realistically it will be a few months after GSoC before this will be available for the public - you have to see it's driven by a few volunteers. I'll try to find some more spare time for STK ... but no promises On the other hand: at one stage we will certainly welcome play testers, so a first glimpse might be available earlier Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Joerg

PS: re the email list: it's rather quiet on that list, so don't expect too many updates. We mostly discuss things on IRC, hardly on the email list, since we are a rather small team and happen to be online at the same time.