I have been working on a version of Knights that allows more than two players in the dungeon at the same time. This has been requested by a quite a few people now. The new version is going quite well, it just needs a bit more testing/debugging, and will probably be ready in 1 – 2 weeks.
Before doing an “official” release of this, I’d like to do a beta test, both to iron out any bugs, and also to find out how well the game actually plays with many knights involved. My brother has agreed to join the testing but obviously we are going to need to recruit a few more players…
So… if you’d like to join in the first ever online multiplayer game of Knights, then please sign up below. We also need to organize a time so if you have preferred dates or times then please indicate this in your comment.
By the way – currently I am just using the normal quests from the standard two player game. So, for example, in a gnome book quest, there will be one gnome book, but a large number of knights all trying to take it back to their home 🙂 However, I imagine a lot of new quests will become possible in a multi player setting. If anyone has ideas for good multi-player quests then please feel free to post them below…
As I said way back in a email I will be glad too!
Awesomeness, I’d be glad to help test too. Anytime after 3PM EST for me.
Hey, I’d love to beta test it. How are you going to test it, will it be just connect to server like normal, or download a new game version?
There will be a new game version to download.
Wow! Yes, count me in, this sounds Amazing. Thank you for the notification, would love to be involved all the way. I think timing is going to be the hardest part of getting all the people together. I’m available on weekends, typically all day/night, as well as weekday evenings after 7pm EST (US). I will talk to my brother about this too (very likely to join), and his schedule is about like mine. So, please email me when ready, that’s very cool. As for new quests, I’ll be dreaming up some fun concepts for later posts. Very excited to see this release!
I agree that timing is going to be the hard part, especially as people are in different time zones. This is going to rule out weekdays, as 7pm EST would be 2am UK time which is going to be too late for me!
So I guess the first question is what time zone is everyone in? So far we have EST, and UK time, are there any others?
Also, we have to be a bit careful about the daylight savings transition… which happens next weekend here in the UK but, I believe, in 2 weeks time in the US. This complicates the calculations somewhat 🙂
Yes, this will be an interesting challenge, but well worth the effort. Since we’ll probably have advance notice, I can swing a game during mid-day EST, lunch break for example (1.5 hours sometime between 12-3pm). Guessing it’s enough time to have one long quest or a few small ones. I can’t wait to see this in action, hard to believe a room full of knights trying to bash each other – attacked from all angles, must be impossible to carry a book anywhere for long. Every knight for himself, but ganging up when it’s convenient. There are going to be so many new dynamics to the game now – can’t wait to play! Just give me a time window good for the majority and I’ll figure out a way to be there day or night (if possible).
I’ve uploaded the new version. Windows users please download here:
http://www.knightsgame.org.uk/knights_multiplayer.zip
To run, unzip and double click on Knights.exe.
Linux users can build from source:
http://www.knightsgame.org.uk/knights_multiplayer_src.tar.gz
There is a new server instance named “Multiplayer Server (Beta)”. This is incompatible with the old server so make sure you connect to the correct server (you’ll get an error message if you choose the wrong one).
Now, as far as timing goes, I think I’ll start things off by suggesting a time, then people can make alternative proposals if necessary. So: I suggest we go for this Saturday, 24th October, at 4pm UK time (11am EST).
If that’s inconvenient, then please suggest an alternative, otherwise, hope to see everybody then…
That sounds about okay to me. If it’s not I’ll let you know. 🙂
That is perfect for me, adding it to my digital reminder now. Meanwhile I’ll try to get online each night this week sometime between 7pm-1am EST, if there’s a chance anyone else can jump in (to warm things up a bit). If there are any issues maybe this will help you work them out sooner, to make sure Saturday goes smooth with more people. Hope you don’t mind – I’m very excited to start playing this new release (I’ve been waiting for it since 1994-95), I don’t want to wait another day.. 🙂
I just ran around the dungeon and thought of something, how hard is it to get the color key to show up somewhere during gameplay so we can know who’s getting bashed at the time? Will be tough to remember 7 people, although it’s not absolutely necessary, will be a cool feature to add if all goes well and you end up putting in special quests. Thank you.
David – I already thought of that – the game displays the name of the enemy knight(s) on-screen when you are in the same room as them. At the moment the name is displayed on-screen, directly on top of the knight, rather than as a color key – we’ll have to see how this works out.
And yes, by all means please do test out the game before Saturday…
11am on Saturday works for me :).
Sorry, I didn’t mention that I was running on two computers and the first thing I did was find the other knight to see if you added that type of feature. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing anything show up on either player session. Maybe there has to be more than two active in the dungeon for that feature? I figured you might have already had that in mind, but was surprised when I didn’t see any names there.
1) I have been in touch with Mr. Kalle Marjola (the original creator of Knights) and he has agreed to join us on Saturday!
2) David: there has to be at least 3 players in the game for the names to appear.
I realize you see my name a lot, blogging on my favorite subject, but with your last message – I’m just about speechless…
Thank you Kalle! Looking forward to it, Stephen.
I will try to join the game today.
I have just realized that pressing TAB in-game to see the quest details does not work in this version. Never mind, people will just have to try to remember what the quest is!
Hope to see everyone in a couple of hours…
Forget that last comment. The key to bring up quest details is ESC, not TAB. My mistake…
Hehe. 🙂
Was nice to play with like 5 or 6 knights in one game. Lots of fun!
NOOO I am a hour late D:
Ditto to dukey’s comment.
I will truly Rest In Peace now…..
Thank you Stephen for making a decade+ dream come true. Thank you Kalle Marjola for joining in the fun and allowing your fans to share a great, momentous online occasion with you.
I enjoyed meeting and challenging new Knights ‘friends’ around the world!