In our previous blogpost we did a brave thing: make a prediction about the multiplayer release. We made it!
Milestone 0.6.0 adds an early version of the long awaited multiplayer component to Liftoff.
Changelist
- Added multiplayer Race mode: - Multiplayer room system: creating and joining - Lobby and scoreboard - Spectator mode - Chat system - Steam profile integration
- Fixed the annoying bounce bug introduced in 0.5.2
- Minor bugfixes
Alright, so, Liftoff multiplayer.
In the current state of multiplayer, you are able to host races in the familiar built-in tracks.
You can host public or private rooms. A public room is one that will appear in the room list in the lobby. Everyone can join in the fun. A private room is for those who want to organize an event that isn’t available for just everyone. A private room will require the host to enter a name for the room and pass it along to to those he wishes to join.
If you don’t want to host, you can simply pick a room from the list and join a game. Obviously, a multiplayer session cannot be paused, so the pause menu will not be available for you during a race. Instead, if you crash before the end of the race or choose to reset, you will go into Spectator mode. In Spectator mode, you can look through other pilots' FPV cameras and observe their flying. You can cycle through the various (active) pilots with the left and right mouse buttons.
Testing!
As with every aspect of our Early Access release, the multiplayer is to be considered work in progress and does not represent the final product.
To further improve the feature, we would like you to give us complete, honest and constructive feedback. Feedback is not only about reporting bugs, but also about the experience as a whole. We want to hear about your experience, we want to see videos, and we want to know what your user experience was like (both positive and negative).
With your help, we can make Liftoff multiplayer the ultimate online drone racing experience. Have fun racing, and let us know what you find!
Future goals for multiplayer
We have many plans to expand the multiplayer in future updates, as the 0.6.0 version is just the first iteration of the feature. Multiplayer free flight is still under construction, and will be a big focus for future updates. We are also looking to expand the choice of races and tracks to those available through the Steam Workshop. For now, we limited our scope to tracks and races we know everyone has, but in the future all tracks should be playable in Multiplayer. We also want players to easily recognise each other while flying in multiplayer, so we are hoping to add options to pick your trail color and other visual customisation options.
Player progression is another game aspect that interests us. We want to reward players for competing in multiplayer and want to show your experience as a pilot to others. A levelling system and leaderboards are some of the things we want to explore to provide a progression system to our community.