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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   8257 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026

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Create a multiplayer game that uses lock step delay/rollback based netcode.

Background:

Lockstep netcode has been the gold standard for netcode in several genres, especially RTS and fighting games, since multiplayer gaming has existed, and the technique is documented quite well. Unfortunately, many popular game engines lack first class support for the technique, and many games that implement the technique use their own bespoke implementation. A major example is the recent game Broken Arrow, which has been plagued by cheaters since the steam early access.

Unlike lockstep games, where each player's game runs a deterministic simulation with the exact same inputs, Broken Arrow uses a more naive form of netcode, where the positions of the player, the player's attack cooldowns, etc. are sent by the player's game and trusted by others. Other games such as Minecraft similarly use this technique.

This article explains the technique, though many other articles also explain it: https://words.infil.net/w02-netcode.html

The challenge:

Create an RTS or alternatively fighting game which implements the delay/rollback netcode.

Requirements:

  • The game must be playable on actual computers. The game doesn't need to be fun but needs to have enough functionality to demonstrate that it's actually working.
  • The game should include the function of "random" chance using deterministic prng
  • Hacks that manipulate the simulation of the game itself (such as attacking faster than allowed) should be impossible or result in an immediate desync or disconnect.
  • If using a language with type hints, such as Python or Typescript, the code must be fully type safe, only using "any" types or casts when absolutely necessary and can be justified to an experienced human developer.
  • It must gracefully handle a network lag spike, pausing the simulation and resuming when the connection is restored.
  • The AI must not be directly given the source code of some other game that implements this technique, though it can use the internet independently to find it.
  • The game must support more than 2 players playing simultaneously.
  • You can guide the AI as much as possible as long as it writes all the code.

Verification:

  • The game must be playable, obviously
  • Verification that the game state after playing, for multiple players, is exactly identical in a test case
  • Verification that attempted cheats that violate the simulation are immediately detected
  • Verify that the player's own commands are displayed on the screen faster than the network delay

Prediction:

My prediction is that the AI crashes and burns, getting stuck in a loop somewhere with broken code. It is something that an experienced solo dev can implement with appropriate time and energy, so I think AI's failure will be a good demonstration of the gap between AI and human.

Broken Arrow

Huh, I haven't played in a while, but I like to think I'll bump into you if/when I pick it up again.

Unless you're a Russian cruise missile main, of course... ;)

(Also, great idea for a test.)

I never played it because of the total debacle that was the launch of the game. The devs are clearly incompetent and won't be able to fix the game.

It's sad because the content and design of broken arrow is much better than warno. But the game itself is so poorly executed that it's pretty much all wasted. The game also runs like dogshit on my pc while warno gives me a smooth 60fps unless it's a 10v10 full income.

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