Decentralised multiplayer

[GrimPixel]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Currently, the game's multiplayer relies on Duck DNS, which is a centralised.

Describe the solution you'd like Add federated and P2P options for multiplayer.

[drwhut]

At this stage, I'm not so sure if this is necessary. I'll try to break down my thoughts on this:

• It is already possible on the master branch thanks to #108 to change the master server the client connects to, although, this feature is more intended for developers.
• I personally think having multiple master servers at this stage of development is kind of overkill, one is more than enough given the amount of people playing multiplayer currently (which is not a lot).
• With a federated system, there has to be a level of trust with the host of which you are connecting to - if people have downloaded the game, then it's safe to assume they can trust the developer's master server, but the same cannot be said for third-party servers.
• Once you have connected to a multiplayer instance, the game becomes P2P. The only reason clients keep their connection to the master server is to detect disconnects.

[GrimPixel]

There is a possibility that Duck DNS goes down. In the ideal situation, a player can simply send an invitation code that expires shortly to others, and everything including connections and calculations of physics is done on the host's computer. Is it possible to be like this: the host can also detect disconnections, instead of relying on a master server?

[drwhut]

There is a possibility that Duck DNS goes down.

This is true, and the master server can also go down too - but this is a risk I'm currently willing to take since a. I'm hosting this master server for free, and b. the likelihood of either service going down at any given time is slim.

In the ideal situation, a player can simply send an invitation code that expires shortly to others, and everything including connections and calculations of physics is done on the host's computer. Is it possible to be like this: the host can also detect disconnections, instead of relying on a master server?

The host performs all of the physics simulation, and simply sends the results to the other clients.

In terms of the connections, unfortunately we cannot rely solely on the host to detect disconnects - the reason I keep the connection alive with the master server is because under specific circumstances, Godot by itself is not able to detect if a client has broken their connection (this usually happened under two circumstances: if too much data was sent over the wire at once, or if the client's internet connection was suddenly broken).