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From an email received today from Gabe:-
Q) Do you ever invisage FPS technology that will allow us to engage in co-operative /multi-player play across differing maps at the same time without recourse to a principal server like a mmporpg? So for example on one map my avatar might flick a switch, which causes a door to open on another map that my friend tobes is playing on? (I'm not aware of any game that presently allows this, so forgive my ignorance if this is already possible). One of the first things that struck me about Source was the quality of the characters and it really got me thinking that there exists so much more potential for character driven games (especially co-op) however the one map scenario really restricts things in the sense that, the map exists as an objective to be overcome rather than a virtual space to be revisited. It's a complex question with a lot of what if's about it, but if you have the time to answer I'd appreciate it
A) Yes. This is an idea that goes back to Quake 1. The issue is more game design and having a robust enough system for managing the economy. I don't know of any FPS company that hasn't thought about doing this, so I guess I'd agree it's a good idea that needs a lot of hard work to pull off.
Q2) Are you looking with Steam 3 to add dynamic updates, so we don't need to restart to know whether there have been changes?
A2) Yes. It's one of many reasons to move away from the connectionless approach we had for Steam 1 and 2.
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