Add multiplayer/emergency autosave feature for online desyncs

[mvdhout1992]

Multiplayer/Emergency autosave: game creates a savegame when an online game desyncs and this savegame can then be used to rehost or resume the game the moment the desync happens.

Emergency save would be a killer feature to make desyncs not much of an issue anyore.

you could also make the game load the savegame while the players are still waiting for the disconnect screen (so don't need to rehost
so game mismatches -> emergency savegame is made -> in the disconnect screen the savegame is shared with the other players -> savegame is automatically loaded by all players without having to restart the game

[amki]

Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to just fix the desyncs?

[Generalcamo]

That is a tall order. And there are reasons for desyncs to occur that we cannot possibly control as well. This is good for both before we manage to fix them, and as stated above, an emergency option.

[mvdhout1992]

Even if all desync bugs are fixed (which will take ages probbaly) you will still get desyncs.

[NGMZero]

is it possible to just pause the game when desync is detected, wait for clients to re-sync with the host, update the game states then continue ? I am assuming EA didn't do that so the host doesn't cheat.

[xezon]

And there are reasons for desyncs to occur that we cannot possibly control as well.

My expectation is that it is possible to make it 100% deterministic. We will see.

[ExiLe-ZH]

Original developer Mark Lorenzen on fixing desyncs:

https://youtu.be/I9ZOnML7kNA?feature=shared&t=6277

[scomnoob]

That feature sounds like rocket science - i think its veeery hard to implement

I cant remember any RTS have it

[NGMZero]

while it is not an RTS, the game Facorio have it, and that game have way more moving entities and player count (500+) than generals.
I believe some other RTS allow hosting multiplayer game from a save file, or allow "taking over" the match from a replay. not that I remember ever using them.

I agree on it not worth it if it require re writing the entire engine. Bigger more modern games with crazy money like Dota 2 and LoL in their E-Sports just accept the crashes and start over.

[scomnoob]

Well Factorio not even rts, it's programming miracle :))) there are no such another

And even so games can't be compared... They are...15 years difference ?

It's like 100 years in dev world

[mvdhout1992]

Both RA1 and Tiberian Sun (with a simple patch) have this.

[GoodGh0st]

Something like PEREMETER have this, but sometimes generated saves are missing some data. Does Gen save algorithm robust enough?

[xezon]

The better reason for a feature like this is to allow players to pause a long match and reconnect later when the players can gather again.

[itshallrun]

I think DOTA has something similar. If someone is disconnected, or the network or PC/game crashes, the game is paused for everyone. The one with the lost connection has a few minutes to restart the game and rejoin the session, while the others can vote to kick him.

[ExiLe-ZH]

Or fixing desyncs in it's entirety, like suggested by the original dev Mark Lorenzen:

https://youtu.be/I9ZOnML7kNA?feature=shared&t=6277