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"How many players can we expect via the modem? I would assume 4, but would
it be feasible to have even more?"
--We are sticking with 4. In theory, there could be more, but 4 strikes a
good balance between performance and fun.
"Why you don't make a game with 200 players who play online?"
--A2 is 4 player on-line. What makes A2 unique is that any game world is a
subset of the larger whole of the game. Teams of four can cause certain
game worlds to flourish, and open up special challenges on the server (for
their clans or for everybody). A2 is built on a matchmaking server, which
makes it impractical to have 200 players. However, you will find that in
A2 you will spend much more time working together with your friends than
in a normal on-line game. Also, you will own a small unique game world
that people will want to visit in order to get special tech that only you
have. You will still chat with the whole on-line community, compete with
other clans, and be ranked among a much larger group, but A2 is different
from the other 200 person on-line games. The focus is on building a small
team and a strong world.
"In the multiplayer game over the internet, in A2, will all of the players
have to be in the same screen or will they, all four of the players in the
clan world, be able to move about the universe without the other players?"
--The 4 players will not be confined to one screen when playing on-line.
They can go to the far corners of the mini-map (which is a pretty far
distance). But we basically want the teams to work together. Complete
freedom results in the players never seeing each other, and it causes some
problems for the game design.
"How will I be able to communicate with other players while in the game? I
don't own a keyboard, and i'm not sure how they work, but will you be able
to plug your controller into one slot to play, and type on the keyboard
that is plugged into another slot?"
--You can use the keyboard, and we will allow you to use a virtual
keyboard (using the controller), and we let you store some common
statements (like "follow me") that you can activate with the controller.
"You said you would build your game world up. With economics and such. How
do you do this?"
--Everything you do helps build up the world. You will have to make many
choices about how you shape the world. Even simply destroying a single
Armada entity can be approached from different directions with varying
results (this is something I'll talk about more in May).
"Will the records of your clan world be stored when there is nobody
online and active in your current world?"
--Yes. The server only stores the top five clans in each category. When
people jump out of a game, or enough time passes, the server updates the
best clans in the clan list.
"Will your clan records etc. exist on a server, or will someone always
have to have a DC on?"
--The top clans get written to the server.
"Is your clan 'world' ranked on the activities that happen within your
world, or is it ranked based on the members involved (their rank), or
both?"
--It only looks at your world. The clans are only judged by the worlds
they build up. There is a separate list for individual players (like
highest level, etc.).
"I do not understand exactly what you mean by leaving your DC on in server
mode."
--This is for when you want to go to sleep, but your clan members live in
a different time zone and want to pump up the game world while you sleep.
"If we leave our Dreamcast on server mode (over 56k modem), what would
happen if our ISP's disconnected us, as they tend to do if we leave dialup
on for extended periods of time?"
--That would be bad. If the host disconnects, the game is over, but no
data (up until that point) would be lost. You would have still built up
the world.
"Was this an option for those with a cable modem instead (assuming that
the cable modem connection comes out for DC in a timely manner?) ? I have
a cable modem, and I just don't see the server thing being possible
without a full time connection (not to mention that it might violate ISP
user agreements)."
--Hmn... My understanding of dialup is that they will disconnect you like
4 times a month, and mostly if the link is inactive. Server mode is pretty
active when people are playing, since your host machine has all the game
data. We'll have to test this.
"If the creator/owner of the world got disconnected from the internet,
what would happen to the people/gamers on that world?"
--Everybody gets dropped. The ownership of a world can never change. Your
world cannot be taken from you--it resides on your VMU.
"Also, are our worlds ultimately stored on your server, or are they stored
in our VMU's?"
--VMU.
"If they are a shared world, do we each have our own copies of that
world?"
--No. Only the world's creator/owner has a copy of that world.
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