Future proofing the engine

[Bidouleroux]

I was just reading a thread about adding a replay functionality to the game and it made me think about future proofing. The devs have said that multiplayer will not be included in Project: Eternity, but we all know that the Unity engine already includes all the necessary code for it. Modding support is also up in the air. So why not future proof the game by designing every feature/change with future network functionality and modding in mind? Since the devs will be learning the Unity engine from scratch anyway, why not do it right the first time?

 

So that's the first thought. Next, I remembered that Valve recently modified their replay file format for Dota 2. Instead of whatever method they used previously in the Source engine for making demos, they now encode all RPC, etc. in a protobuf file. The good thing about Protocol Buffers, as Google themselves say, is that it's as extensible as it is efficient. Now, I'm no specialist, but I would think that this would make version proofing saved games (and replays, if implemented) much easier. And version proofing is a big part of future proofing. It's also a big part of modding support.

 

So what do you think?

 

edit: link to the replay thread.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Bidouleroux

[Burn Everything & Sing]

As far as I knew modding wasn't up in the air unless you're just referring to 'modding for multiplayer'. The way I found out about this whole kickstarter thing was through the nexus website, and they're supposed to be the premier modding support community.

[anubite]

There is a nexus and they implied they will support modding in any way they can; they're going to try and make it as mod-friendly as possible. This doesn't actually mean modding is going to be easy or even possible. We'll have to wait and see.

 

So long as you can compile and get a script to run using the Unity engine inside the game, you can mod the game. It would be nice if we got more direct "mod support" such as a window to select the "mod" that you're running (similar to FO/TES), but I suspect the way modding will work for this game will be less direct. It'll probably be more like modding for BG (which is far less user-friendly).

[ion.sh]

I agree with anubite.

 

And to be honest I think the devs have a ton of work to do to get a quality original IP game up from scratch, even with Unity and IE. I'd rather them focus on the game itself with modding concerns being somewhat secondary (though I have my fingers crossed the mod support will be more built-in to the game design itself)

 

Even if the devs have time and resources to focus on mods I don't think there will be multiplayer support for it though.

[deathwing]

The devs have said that multiplayer will not be included in Project: Eternity, but we all know that the Unity engine already includes all the necessary code for it.

 

 

Excuse me... "Unity engine includes all necessary code??" O_O This sentence only come from anyone who isn't a dev. I think you never coded something on Unity, at least a multiplayer system and you don't know how bugged is what you called "the included code for multiplayer".

 

Do you really know how complex it's to develop and implement a multiplayer system? I don't think so. There is not magic button to make all things work from single player to multiplayer...

[Bidouleroux]

Guys, none of you actually get what I'm saying. I'm not saying "add mod support" and "add multiplayer". I'm saying "design the game so that multiplayer and modding support is easier to implement later down the road".

 

And as far as I know, no one on the dev team said they were going to officially support modding, for example by releasing their tools. Any game can be modded if you make your own tools or in this case by using the Unity tools (as long as they don't modifiy the engine too much). But being able to mod a game doesn't mean the game supports modding. The old Infinity engine is a case in point.

 

As for the complexity of adding a functioning multiplayer to the Unity engine, the game will use Unity 4 - which isn't released yet - so unless you've had access to it before everyone else I don't think anyone can tell how hard it would be to make the multiplayer side of thing work.

[PIPBoy3000]

I'm sure they're thinking about it, especially when it comes to mod support. The challenge is that a year and a half development time is crazy aggressive.

[deathwing]

Guys, none of you actually get what I'm saying. I'm not saying "add mod support" and "add multiplayer". I'm saying "design the game so that multiplayer and modding support is easier to implement later down the road".

 

And as far as I know, no one on the dev team said they were going to officially support modding, for example by releasing their tools. Any game can be modded if you make your own tools or in this case by using the Unity tools (as long as they don't modifiy the engine too much). But being able to mod a game doesn't mean the game supports modding. The old Infinity engine is a case in point.

 

As for the complexity of adding a functioning multiplayer to the Unity engine, the game will use Unity 4 - which isn't released yet - so unless you've had access to it before everyone else I don't think anyone can tell how hard it would be to make the multiplayer side of thing work.

 

Dude, I'm already using Unity 4, there is a beta available for pre-orders. I can tell you there is no differences on multiplayer side.

[Bidouleroux]

Dude, I'm already using Unity 4, there is a beta available for pre-orders. I can tell you there is no differences on multiplayer side.

 

And we all know beta software is exactly the same as release software.

 

In any case, it doesn't change the need for future proofing. If you're right, in fact, it would make future proofing even more important.

[deathwing]

Dude, I'm already using Unity 4, there is a beta available for pre-orders. I can tell you there is no differences on multiplayer side.

 

And we all know beta software is exactly the same as release software.

 

OMG...! Now I see it's stupid discuss this with someone that doesn't know nothing about this topic. If you think from beta to rc Unity are going to change ALL THE ENTIRE API (which really use .NET sockets for multiplayer, so I really don't understand what you refer when you tell: "Unity have the code for this") it's because you've no ****ing idea about software development in general. lol