I'm not sure I quite understand you, Glenny-boy. If a player dies on his own machine, he's done playing. On other machines, if for some reason there's an error and they don't see him die, instead of the player being killed by nothing, he becomes a computer player that either (a) plays on normally, or (b) actually tries to die. The idea is that although there wouldn't always be one "clear winner," the game would be perfectly smooth on each player's machine.
Xlsior, I'm really not worried about cheating at this stage, but thanks for the heads-up. I had forgotten all about that, but if my design is correct, the games would be so casual that cheating is pretty much useless. I also realize that this method would have tons of drawbacks. For instance, as you say, things would get "out of sync" rather quickly (if, that is, there's a lot of lag. No lag = none of this stuff), and the social aspect would undoubtedly be diminished. But one of the good things is that, even if things get out-of-sync, as long as someone's hitting the keyboard somewhere, even if their player's in a completely different scenario on my computer, they're still moving about in ways a computer opponent's unlikely to be able to simulate.
It has tons of drawbacks, and I may never use it, but it's just something to ponder.
Xlsior, I'm really not worried about cheating at this stage, but thanks for the heads-up. I had forgotten all about that, but if my design is correct, the games would be so casual that cheating is pretty much useless. I also realize that this method would have tons of drawbacks. For instance, as you say, things would get "out of sync" rather quickly (if, that is, there's a lot of lag. No lag = none of this stuff), and the social aspect would undoubtedly be diminished. But one of the good things is that, even if things get out-of-sync, as long as someone's hitting the keyboard somewhere, even if their player's in a completely different scenario on my computer, they're still moving about in ways a computer opponent's unlikely to be able to simulate.
It has tons of drawbacks, and I may never use it, but it's just something to ponder.