Recap of multi and single player architecture - Unity 2019.4 (1/4)

This dev log is an attempt at a recap of the overall design decisions and lessons learned from a technical standpoint in building a single and multi player game using Unity, the Facepunch.Steamworks Steam API wrapper, and lots of online learning.

This game was inspired by the original Starsiege Tribes circa 1999 and attempts to reproduce all of the fun that game entailed.

Players are on one of two teams, with indoor and outdoor environments, with a goal of capturing the enemy's flag.  Additional goals include destroying the enemy generator and base, along with protecting yours through turrets available from inventory stations.  

The architecture decided upon is summarized in the below diagram, a central authoritative server handles connections from one or more clients.  Messages are sent from each client to the server with inputs and from the server back to each client with game updates.

This game also incorporates bots and the built in AI components in Unity like Nav Mesh Agents and some custom built pieces like behavior trees.

The goal is to provide regular updates from historical diagrams like this and screenshot snippets to illuminate the issues faced, solutions designed, and relative successes in the continuing development of this game.

FYI this is a one person effort currently going on about 6 years.