Multiplayer vs Delaying the game?

[Astrus 10]

I'm sure that would be reasonably easy to accommodate?

Well that's really the question, isn't it? It's also something not touched upon in the poll. Just how long of a delay/wait would there be for multiplayer? If implementing a 1v1 multiplayer mode meant only a few weeks of delay, i'd be willing to do that. On the other hand, would those who voted for delay be willing to accept a multiplayer patch coming out a few weeks after release? On the extreme opposite, would you be willing to live with, say, a six month delay? I wouldn't. I'd rather they get the singleplayer out first. I really want to play it!

We just don't have enough (any, really) information about their development process or the programming to understand just how long it would take to implement mulitplayer.

[AlFitz 0]

This is madness I tell you! The game should in no way be delayed in order to facilitate multiplayer and those who say otherwise are just plain silly. There, I said it.

[TaktiX 1]

Well that's really the question, isn't it? It's also something not touched upon in the poll. Just how long of a delay/wait would there be for multiplayer?

...now let's just get one thing straight cobber, I'm not advocating ANY kind of delay in the release of this game whatsoever lol. I think I heard about it in 2009 (can that be right?), and it's just constantly been delayed for one reason or another. Get it out, get it out (as the Actress said to the Vicar), I'll even volunteer for the beta hehe.

If the game has progressed this far down the track without MP, then there's no choice, but my point is that it really would be super swell if you BI guys could bring it out hot on the heels of this release. I would have thought that "turning off" the AI for the enemy carrier and allowing 1v1 that way would be reasonably easy...but then what do I know about programming (outside of 1980's BASIC...10 PRINT "hello", 20 GOTO 10 lol).

Personally Astrus, really, I wouldn't want anything to delay it's release now (I'm pretty sure our rants on here are not going to change the course of that anyway :) ), but if this is really a BI forum, something like a suggestions box, then yes BI guys, it'd be a really good thing for this game to have MP released at some point soon after the games release.

This is madness I tell you! The game should in no way be delayed in order to facilitate multiplayer and those who say otherwise are just plain silly. There, I said it.

This might be madness to you Alfitz, but for us, this is just another day at the office...

Edited March 21, 2012 by TaktiX
cos I can

[SpyderPB6 10]

It just seems like BIS is so good at making an awesome multiplayer experience, and then supporting it with mod tools. And having been following this game for some time now, it looks like it would be AWESOME with multiplayer.

[bfcrusader 10]

It just seems like BIS is so good at making an awesome multiplayer experience, and then supporting it with mod tools. And having been following this game for some time now, it looks like it would be AWESOME with multiplayer.

With that in mind, it wouldn't surprise me none if they would implement MP into this game sooner or later, and in a great way too.

[metalcraze 290]

They should do player-per-vehicle multiplayer.

It will mean 8v8 which will be cool, there will be some teamplay involved as well. Naturally the commander will be able to take over vehicles, not taken by players yet (which will also mean there always will be 1 vehicle for the commander)

Just hope AI will be properly good.

[bfcrusader 10]

They should do player-per-vehicle multiplayer.

It will mean 8v8 which will be cool, there will be some teamplay involved as well. Naturally the commander will be able to take over vehicles, not taken by players yet (which will also mean there always will be 1 vehicle for the commander)

Just hope AI will be properly good.

Check out this thread and more specifically my lengthy post which details my thoughts regarding this;

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?107698-One-carrier-multiple-players

[Dead3yez 0]

No multiplayer at launch = lower review scores = less sales.

[JdB 151]

No multiplayer at launch = lower review scores = less sales.

Bugged to death game at launch = far lower review scores = far less sales

Better to do at least one thing right on release than to mess everything up. And I'm not expecting too many really high review scores anyway, BIS isn't paying for their review scores to be in the +90% area unlike some others. There are very few gaming sites that I would call independent in their reviewing scores.

[metalcraze 290]

Only stupid people care about review scores

Bugged to death game at launch will mean lower sales either way.

[Intezar 10]

Delay the game and include multiplayer.

This game needs to come out with as much "Ooomph" and momentum as possible!

[boneboys 0]

A single player game that works, just to be safe...

A MP addition, just to confirm.

I want a BIS game that works outadabox.

Nothing less.

[DeathAndPain 1]

I always play the single player first and the MP later anyway, so I voted to add MP later in a patch. :)

Well, I frenetically played Age of Mythology and its expansion online for like 10 years, but failed to complete the singleplayer campaign for reasons of lack of interest. Multiplayer is what counts, especially nowadays.

The historical CC was good as it was, but with a multiplayer option it would even have been 100x better.

TaktiX is right about one thing though - there is a surprising lack of hype around this game.

I see a possible reason in the way this project was conducted in the past. They announced the game, then let the game website rot literally for years without anything happening, so I already had the impression that the game was swimming in the water like a fish with belly facing upwards. Now that they have eventually restarted to make progress, where should a sudden hype come from? Especially now that they have spectacularly missed their planned release date and postponed it for another half year?

I still wonder whether this will end like the Carrier 2-project from Martig G Bell, who swore that he would eventually complete it, no matter how many years it would take, even though he had been advised to get himself some help so that he could finish it in a timely manner. Then BI bought the rights on the game name "Carrier Command", which made Martin post "Vulcan is now an enemy island!" and abandon his game, which was already in a state where you could drive around with your carrier, operate Mantas and Walruses, and behold beautiful islands.

I can virtually guarantee they won't delay the release

LOL... now they have... :D

In fact, my understanding is that MP isn't actually confirmed at all yet.

The wording always seems to be "we would like to add it later". As of now, at least from what I have seen or heard, no BI employee has actually said "yes, we are definitely adding MP post-release", or something of the sort. This usually means it's not yet decided whether or not it will be implemented. Most likely it depends on how well the game sells.

That is what I fear as well. It will also not meet the nature of its great predecessor in other respects. The story will be linear; you will hardly have the option to strategically shape your island empire as you could in the strategy campaign of the original Carrier Command. You will mostly be forced to play mission after mission, following a set plot. I fear it will be a feeling as if you were following a "walkthrough" to a game.You will be doing what you need to do next; you have little choice. Essentially it will be like watching a movie, only that you have to complete a task in order to be allowed into the next scene. This obviously does not allow for multiplayer, because multiplayer relies on flexibility and strategic choices.

I remember a similar thing from Jagged Alliance 2. It was a great game with a lot of flexibility, but then they released the "Unfinished Business" extension, which removed the freedom and forced you to replay a preset storyline.

[JdB 151]

LOL... now they have... :D

Your point is moot as they didn't delay the release to include what this topic is about, Multiplayer :P

The release appears to be for a more polished game, not additional content. If it had been, I am fairly sure they would have mentioned such positive news. I'm somehow fearing that this means another delay for ArmA3 as well ... :(

[Gazzareth 1]

Your point is moot as they didn't delay the release to include what this topic is about, Multiplayer :P

The release appears to be for a more polished game, not additional content. If it had been, I am fairly sure they would have mentioned such positive news. I'm somehow fearing that this means another delay for ArmA3 as well ... :(

I haven't seen them say what the delay is about, it would not surprise me if they were going to try and add some level of MP into it - otherwise it seems a lengthy delay when the game is ready for an "open" BETA .. ..

G

[ProfTournesol 956]

Multiplayer is what counts, especially nowadays.

Mmm... nope. That's your thinking, not mine. MP is only one aspect of games.

I still wonder whether this will end like the Carrier 2-project from Martig G Bell, who swore that he would eventually complete it, no matter how many years it would take, even though he had been advised to get himself some help so that he could finish it in a timely manner.

You don't know anything about BI, then. Wait and learn.

[JdB 151]

I haven't seen them say what the delay is about, it would not surprise me if they were going to try and add some level of MP into it - otherwise it seems a lengthy delay when the game is ready for an "open" BETA .. ..

It would be great, but I'm not counting on anything more than better polishing :(

One reason I can think of for the extended "open" beta is that collection feedback from people who might very well never have done any sort of coordinated testing might take longer, No period for testing was mentioned though, so it remains to be seen how "extended" this testing phase really is. The game is planned for release in September, and there's usually a period of several weeks between a game going "Gold" (ready for production) and retail dates. I'm not sure how BIS is going to distribute this, all media at once, download versions out on the date itself and physical versions later, no physical versions at all ... :-/

[Dead3yez 0]

Bugged to death game at launch = far lower review scores = far less sales

Better to do at least one thing right on release than to mess everything up.

You're missing an important part of this argument out: vs delaying the game (postponing the intended release date).

----

Obviously BIS has made their choice already and have their deadlines. But, I wouldn't have minded waiting a little longer.

[Nicholas 5]

What has piracy got to do with anything ??

I have to say I agree with TaktiX, the signup procedure is OTT - although you only have to do it once .. .. .

G

When I first signed up, the registration was not automatic. I believe it took like 3 days to finally get registered because at that time they were manually checking registrations.

Anyways, I believe they should do whatever they think is best. I'm sure they know what they are doing.

[Mr. Charles 22]

After playing around a bit, CC feels like the Cold War, sitting around for hours, waiting for the enemy carrier to show on one of your islands, hit and run tactics to cut the enemy's fuel supply. It'd guess a normal game takes a few hours, esp. in the retail version with 30+ islands.

A proper MP mode would mean that you have to streamline the whole experience and make it faster, or include a MP save option.

[q-sens 10]

I'm on the MP side. I'm not playing any SP games for years now. I don't want to challenge myself against algorithms but against brains. I want interaction with people. Carrier Command looks great but without MP i'll pass too. Just my personal opinion.

[coilwinder 1]

I'm on the MP side. I'm not playing any SP games for years now. I don't want to challenge myself against algorithms but against brains. I want interaction with people. Carrier Command looks great but without MP i'll pass too. Just my personal opinion.

Some brains made those algorithms :p But yeah I see what you mean. Me I'm a more casual single-player player, and I look forward to this classic reinvented!

Btw, even with multiplayer, there are still AI's to fight (Manta's and Walrus'es under AI control). Also, I would think that even with MP, there would take quite some time before any "direct" confrontation takes place in the full game of 30+ islands (depending on map size, of course), so it would perhaps feel a lot like singleplayer much of the time anyway? Just a thought I got just now, I haven't played the beta yet so I don't really know how it is yet.

[gunso 10]

I think it's not that hard to implement long hours MP games, just use similar concept like sword of the stars. That game will took days to finish. Just let different player take over the AI whenever they joined. So 1 faction can be controlled by multiple people in the period of a few days if necessary. No need to tamper with the original pace of the games at all.

[Appogee 1]

BI have already said (in another thread, two weeks ago) that there will be no multiplayer on release.

They also said multiplayer is difficult and they will only add it ''if the game is successful''... which I think is the polite way of saying ''unless the game sells lots more than we expect it to, we won't be bothering to add multiplayer''.

So, I am not holding out any hope, much as I wish they would add it.

Single player should still be fun though.

[tortuosit 486]

They also said multiplayer is difficult and they will only add it ''if the game is successful''... which I think is the polite way of saying ''unless the game sells lots more than we expect it to, we won't be bothering to add multiplayer''.

So, I am not holding out any hope, much as I wish they would add it.

Single player should still be fun though.

Exactly my thinking in all points.