Diehard fans of the NieR franchise have created a multiplayer mod for arguably the most-loved entry in the series, NieR: Automata.

The mod’s first ever PvP tournament was streamed on Twitch on the percyz01 channel, and I was lucky enough to take part. I also had the chance to interview the mod’s lead developer Jasper3108. Without further ado, here’s our interview:

Niche Gamer: Tell me about the mod. This mod is really special to me as a NieR fan, and well, all the work you’ve done is impressive. With this mod, you play PvP with other people in a single-player game. What can you tell me about it?

Jasper: When I started working on it, the only thing that existed was… I don’t know if you’ve heard about this. Have you heard of Nier MP or… wait, was it Automata MP? Have you heard of it?

Niche Gamer: Is it a mod?

Jasper: Yes.

Niche Gamer: No, I haven’t heard anything about it. I only use mods for my game to, uh, you know, undress the characters （づ￣3￣）づ (❤️2B)

Jasper: So there’s even a video from 2017 where multiplayer was already made to work. So it’s mainly a project by someone called Praydog.

Niche Gamer: Is this the first, um… is it the same mod, or is it, uh, the first attempt? Did you try to make another multiplayer for NieR right?

Jasper: Exactly, yes, but it works completely differently from what we use.

Niche Gamer: Mhm. So, is this the first attempt you made?

Jasper: Oh, that wasn’t mine. It was from the other guy.

Jasper: But we used a lot of knowledge from that project. So the first thing I did was, since AutomataMP is open-source, modify it and make a version where you couldn’t interact with other players. So you could use it for a speedrun.

You would see the other speedrunners as ghosts, I wonder if I have a video of that somewhere. Um, it never really got finished. It worked, but it was never used because speedruns don’t really allow it. It interferes with the game.

Niche Gamer: Yeah, speedrunners only care about the speedrun rules, not cheating and stuff like that.

Jasper: Yes, so from the start, it was impossible. It wasn’t a good idea.

Niche Gamer: Yeah, so you started another project with the same idea of making multiplayer for Nier, right? With your friends? I understand.

Jasper: Yes. That was for speedrunning, and it was a modified version of Automata MP, that worked. The other one I worked on…

Niche Gamer: Yes, yes, I know, it’s very fun. It’s unfinished, but it’s very fun.

Niche Gamer: How long did it take you… uh, with the initial project, how long did it take you to make this mod or your version?

Jasper: The speedrun version? Well…

Niche Gamer: Tell me about the speedrun version and your version with your friends.

Jasper: The speedrun version took like half a year, I would estimate. And then, in 2022, I started a completely new project. I think there’s… I started a completely new project, which was based on… it was a completely new project, and the main difference was that it used Rust instead of C++ for programming, we made the functions, global variables and data structures available in the programming language rust, our next step was to implement input based netcode in rust.

We achieved the players doing the same thing on both computers by letting them execute the same buttons on both computers this is very precise since the slightest difference, we speak 0.00001 can cause the fight to look different on both pcs because of the butterfly effect additionally the game was only designed with a single camera and a single controller in mind.

Here is example code that would make the player 10x bigger:

I mean, there are many differences, actually.

Niche Gamer: This opened the possibility of doing tournaments with friends, or not just for your friends, but for other people. It’s amazing. I’ve never seen this in another game, really, and it’s very interesting. So, how many people are on the project? You and your friends, how many?

Jasper: Uh, well, you could make the launcher Izardy, helped extensively. And Moses helped a bit with the coding.

Mainly we’re three people. Like 80% of the work is done by me, Izardy, and Ken.

I also wanna especially credit Izardy, Ken Masters and RutsuKun for their help.

I’d also like to talk about the netcode we use because it’s very… it’s not… it’s not normal, to explain the netcode thing again we basically use fighting game netcode.

Niche Gamer: Well, tell me, tell me about the code.

Jasper: We rebuild the source code with ghidra, this for example is how the function that turns off a flashlight looks like:

There’s no server. It’s peer-to-peer, for lower latency.

Niche Gamer: Peer-to-peer, oh yes.

Jasper: Yes, we don’t send the players’ positions. We don’t send health. We only send the buttons.

Niche Gamer: Mhm. I noticed when I was playing, I couldn’t, uh, you know, target the other guy. You just hit.

Jasper: Yes, that lock-on doesn’t work, we could… we might add auto lock-on, but maybe as an option.

Niche Gamer: Will you continue working on improving the mod?

Jasper: Yes. I mean, it’s still not very playable because it desynchronizes or crashes often.

Niche Gamer: Yeah, I noticed that, but man, i have to say it’s an amazing mod. It’s the best Nier mod I’ve seen in my life, seriously man.

Jasper: Oh, thank you so much, I’m so glad someone appreciates it.

Niche Gamer: I’m excited to see what you’ll do in the future. Uh, do you have any other projects in mind?

Jasper: I’m really considering working more on modding, maybe creating an RPG mod or something like that.

Niche Gamer: That would be great. What else would you like to share about the mod?

Jasper: I just hope people enjoy it and find it useful. Maybe it will inspire other developers to do similar things.

Niche Gamer: This is an impressive mod, really! The quality of work and detail you’ve put into it is truly amazing.

Jasper: Thank you. Yes. Just, um, well… It’s not finished yet, so there’s still a lot of work to do. Alright. Thank you so much.

Niche Gamer: Thank you, Jasper, it was a pleasure talking to you, take care.

Jasper: You too, take care, bye.

Here you can visit the YouTube channel of the NieR Automata: Online project, as well as the NieR Automata Online PVP Reddit thread and its Discord server.

On the Discord server, you can download and install the mod, which is already available to the public who want to try it. For more details on the installation process, you can check the #progress-update channel, where it is explained clearly.

NieR: Automata is available on Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch In case you missed it, you can find our review here. We highly recommend it! In fact it was our Game of the Year 2017, and our Community Game of the Year 2017.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is available on Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In case you missed it, you can find our review here.