Okay, I know I’ve been annoying about this, but I think there could be a way to integrate stronger online play using a Peer-To-Peer system!
So for those who don’t know (Those who know: ) a peer to peer system is an online connection system where instead of several clients connecting to a server to send then display information-- server connections, it’s a lot.
However, a peer to peer is cheaper and easier(?) by not needing a middle man and just going straight for the money (other peers/clients). Flowlab creates new instances of a game depending on how many people are in a game. If there are more than the limit, then an new instance is created (see Multiplayer Handbook).
So, it creates a structure-- like this.
(sorry its see-through, I didn’t make the image. You can see it here.)
Not entirely sure however if it’s exclusively encrypted using ones and zeros, however if it isn’t just binary, the encryption key could be the player’s flowlab ID!
(Not sure if this would actually work, but it could be a pretty good system!)
Flowlab already uses peer to peer for its multiplayer.
My personal opinion is that servers would be better overall for a number of reasons:
Syncing issues - a master client would make sure all objects are sync between games. We are already seeing syncing issues between games (like one game has a destroyed object and the other do not).
Reduces Lag - any one person with a bad connection slows the game for everyone in a peer to peer connection. With a master client, the lag stays with the person with a bad connection.
Server Integration - allow the servers to be hosted outside of Flowlab (Steam/PS/Xbox/Private/etc.).
Reduce Latency - having dedicated servers in specific regions reduce latency between players.
Now a lot of these issues can be fixed/resolved in some way with the peer to peer method, but I overall think a server solution has more benefits.
The request is being able to choose the peer, because flowlab’s structure (to my knowledge) of P2P is “structured” meaning there’s an encryption key, if the player could somehow choose which encryption (i’m not sure if flowlab can do that?) that’d be really cool or if the encryption could be a player ID, there could be an in-game “friend system”.
Just realizing I forgot to put that into the actual message
This would be really really cool-- except servers are expensive, however being able to choose multiplayer communication would be the best of both worlds (the cost of peer to peer or the high-quality server)
_peer-to-peer_network_diagram.png){kind=link}