in extremely extremely loose terms the path to Patho Multiplayer might look something like this
first off: finding a viable RCE pathway for p1. a way to load user-defined code (presumably compiled C++, like the existing scripts) into the game and run it. I'm not very experienced with this but the game should have at least a few vulnerabilities! float input behavior in the console is dubious, at least
step 1b: automate RCE with a utility (make it easy to put said code in the game). overall, this is what would crack the world of p1 modding wide open...
step 2a: documentation of the game's camera system
step 2: third-person camera functionality. mostly because we'd need a way of tying player motion to a 3d model - in the current first-person p1, the player only has hands, and they only exist when your fists are raised, and if we fix this Why Not add 3rdP camera
step 2 refinement: make the player model reflect what they currently have in their hand / attack animations. for QoL only
step 3: network functionality. Put Multiple Players In The Game. requires a new internal or external interface to join games (this will also require a lot of security research, by virtue of Online Connections). adding a chat feature onto this would be relatively easy
step 4: simultaneous gameplay, requiring 4 main features: - load multiple maps at the same time, i.e., support two players in indoor vs outdoor locations. possibly already there - run quests for all three healers simultaneously (not logically hard, but would require a ton of scripting. NPCs/objects are spawned with the assumption that only one of the healers will interact with them, so in the bachelor route every instance of peter is a danko_peter object, so Every spawned instance needs a prerouting check of who's talking to them) - centralize the flow of time in SOME way so that it passes uniformly for all players. maybe do this like sleeping in minecraft? - handle player deaths without rebooting from the last save (also manage whether you can PvP. should be toggle-able, and work in the circle of suok)
and once those four features work it would just be functionality improvements and patching out conflicts/softlock states. and figuring out how to decide the ending for multiplayer which I think would be really fun in any case!
