Board 8 > Monthly Multiplayer Asynchronous Randomizers

(+) Yeah! (+)

I let the topic purge again, whoops. That's the trouble with something that only happens once a month! We mostly chat on the discord these days but we do get the occasional new person joining in, so I think the topic is important.

Website: archipelago.gg
NOTE TO MODS: While some Archipelago games require emulation, they don't provide any of the hardware or information on how to get it. They're very careful not to break any laws so please don't delete this topic just for linking to them.

-What is a randomizer?: Most games have linear progression. Item A unlocks Area B, and Area B gives you Item C to unlock Area D, and so on. In a randomizer, these items are shuffled, so you might find Item C in the first area and progress to Area D right away. How they work obviously varies from game to game, but most randomizers offer a unique progression path every time you play. Often this turns them into a kind of puzzle to complete. Randomizers use careful logic to ensure you can always beat the game, but it won't always be easy!

-How can a randomizer be multiplayer?: With Archipelago, instead of a game's items being shuffled within itself, those items are shuffled between several different games. Someone playing A Link to the Past can find and send a Super Metroid player's super missiles, and then the Super Metroid player can find the LTTP player's hookshot, and so on. This splits the randomizer experience between several games, and everyone needs to cooperate to complete it. Archipelago also allows for asynchronous play (or async), meaning your progress is saved and can be resumed later. Any items you send, other players receive when they start playing, and any items they send you will come when you resume.

LIST OF GAMES (there are too many to list here)
https://archipelago.gg/games

*There are also countless additional games that aren't officially supported, including ones like Mega Man X, Paper Mario, Star Fox 64, and so on. For a full list, you can join the Archipelago discord server and check the apworld-index channel.

How to Participate

If you're interested, that's great! Here's a quick breakdown of the steps you need to take, but feel free to ask any questions.

1: Choose your game. Remember, whatever you choose will be randomized, so you won't be playing it the usual way. Minecraft, for example, locks various crafting recipes behind checks other players may need to send you. You won't even be able to craft a stone pickaxe until you get Progressive Tools. In Starcraft II, you can't build marines until the unit is sent. With that said, no one should be wary of joining. Archipelago allows forfeits if you're having trouble or not having any fun, so feel free to try it out!

2: Make sure you can get your game to work. https://archipelago.gg/tutorial/ has setup guides for the various games, and most of them require the Archipelago client too. I've played a few games and others here have played many others, so hopefully we can help if you're having trouble. If you run into big technical issues, though, you might need to go to the Archipelago discord server and ask there. There are lots of knowledgeable people there who will be happy to help with any questions!

3: Decide on your game's settings and either let me know or send me a yaml file. A yaml is the name for the file that contains your game's settings. Each game on Archipelago allows various setting changes (found here: https://archipelago.gg/games under the options link available for each game). You can either export the settings on the website and send me the file (preferably through discord) or simply let me know of your changes and, as long as there aren't a whole bunch of them, I can happily create a yaml for you. If this is your first time participating, I'd recommend just going with defaults, but some games have some real quality-of-life stuff available so make sure to take a look!

4: Once I get all the yamls and generate the multiworld, the async begins! At that point all you need to do is join in and start playing. We're pretty laid-back here, so while each async will start on a Saturday where hopefully people can play, it's fine if you can't start right away or if you can't play all the time. Most asyncs we've done have taken between a few days to two weeks, so there's no rush. This is meant to be fun and low-stress for everyone! All that we ask is that you communicate any major delays.

Lastly, we have a discord server that we use during these. It's helpful to talk in real-time sometimes, and it makes uploading yaml files super easy. People read what's posted here too, though, so joining it isn't mandatory. The link is below and it should never expire, but if you try to join and can't just let me know and I'll generate a new one.

https://discord.gg/s5aZFEKTHz

Anyway, sorry again for letting the topic purge. I imagine lots of people hide this topic so it doesn't keep popping up, I apologize for making you have to do that again.

Reg has been generating the async these days due to it being too complex for me, but the next async should happen next Saturday on August 16th. That gives people about a week to send yamls if they want to join in!

Bumping on Monday, next async is this Saturday if anyone wants to join!

Robazoid - TCG Card Shop Simulator
Mewtwo - Final Fantasy 6
Reg - Majora's Mask

You've still got until until Saturday morning/super early afternoon to get your yamls in as usual.

Bit less than a day for others to join in

I won't be able to join this month, so enjoy your temporary reprieve from finding my Progressive Raccoons be and Baby Traps

Robazoid - TCG Card Shop Simulator
Mewtwo - Final Fantasy 6, Star Fox 64
Reg - Majora's Mask
MSG - Pokemon Emerald
Wickle - Tunic, A Short Hike

Last-ish call. Probably around 7 hours, maybe a bit less.

https://archipelago.gg/room/a65YeVgsSSyE385vsO2_sQ is the room for August. Enjoy.

Spoiler for August is https://archipelago.gg/dl_spoiler/_fQnM5mgQMKnYCG-fL4pHA

This month's was on the smaller side and we finished up relatively quickly, but it was still fun (IMO at least)

Looking at either the 13th or 20th for September, not completely sure yet.

I should be more available by either of those days

Safety bump

I should be able to join the next one, just gotta check all the Ori 2 changes etc

Bumping topic to keep it alive

Settled on the 20th for next month, so a bit over two weeks

I'll post again asking for yamls in about a week, as usual.

Bumping the topic. Next async is most likely next Saturday, so a little less than a week if anyone wants to join!

Yup yup.

I'm going to run the same Majora's Mask yaml I ran last month. But go ahead and send me your yamls either by discord, here, or however works for you. You've got until early Saturday Afternoon, as usual

(I usually roll the game between 1pm and 2pm US Eastern time, and generally will take yamls pretty much right up until I say (usually in discord) that I'm about to get it rolling)