OFP+MP = Syntax Error

[CanisDEK 1]

OFP isn't designed for multiplayer games. 4vs4 on these huge maps, with vehicles. Vehicles are gone for ever when the are wrecked, you can join a game in progress, the game hasn't got a useful netcode to play online games. For this game to be fun there should AT LEAST be 32 players on a server, without any lag problems. The SP part is great, but MP is my game. There a houndreds of small MP bugs that prove that it just isn't meant for MP.... or that the MP version is far from finished.

1. When you respawn you don't respawn with basic equipment.

2. AI soldiers start teamkilling if shot once or twice by accident FOR THE REST OF THE GAME... LOL.

3. Problems with capturing the flag, getting into vehicles etc. perhaps it has something to do with the fact is you kill a friendly you are enemy and can't board vehicles with team mates and return the enemy flag!

4. There are WAY too few players in a game... 4vs4 would be ok for a very small CS game, but not OFP.

5. The netcode is causing so much random trouble that it hurts your eyes.

6. no way to get new vehicles... to keep the game flowing.

7. The tactical aspect is almost non-present because of the few players.

8. The use of GameSpy tells me that MP wasn't meant to be ... no company with any selfrespect would use that program as a way to find MP games.

9. The statement about the US version featuring a solid MP game makes me believe that it is just that... a PR statement... because online gaming is THE thing in the US... but hey why didn't they include a proper MP game then?

10. there are no great difference between the MP and SP game... and the way the gameplay is handled... and BOY do we all know that there is a GREAT difference between a human and an AI.

11. When the SP game Doom featured MP for the first time, there wasn't any difference between MP and SP... there was no need to, they could just modify the game and allow MP Deathmatch. It looks like BIS did the same thing... but hey OFP isn't doom and if you want to make a game like OFP capable of MP you almost have to make two different games... they didn't do that.

Now I want to compare OFP with Tribes2. Two VERY different games. Tribes2 was designed for MP, but there was implemented a SP game. This SP game isn't much fun, but Dynamix was honest when they said THIS GAME IS FOR MP GAMING. Tribes2 can handle over 100 players on a server without any problems. Players can join as they like. The game is actually very tactical minded and teamwork is very important. Tribes2 has vehicles too. You get these vehicles from a vehicle bay that allows each team to have a certain number of each vehicle active at a time. There are inventory stations where you can change equipment. There is not any lag problems in Tribes2. There was when the game was released, but they have fixed that. Tribes2 is truly a MP game, it flows nicely, great gameplay and not any annoying problems. It was designed for MP.

All you hope that BIS will make OFP a cool and good MP game. I don't see that happening, because that would mean making an entirely new game. 32 players is minimum before we can call OFP a true MP game, and 64+ players is what OFP SHOULD have supported. So stop dreaming about OFP developing into a MP game... it never was and it never will be.

And BIS please be honest now... do you have any plans to turn OFP into a TRUE MP game.... and remember -good netcode and MP games do not FADE!

[Angry Radish 0]

excellent post!

[Mister Frag 0]

I would agree that the MP aspect of OFP could be improved, but if you think that Tribes 2 was playable out-of-the-box when it came out, you are kidding yourself.

[CanisDEK 1]

WOW mister frag read the T2 part I wrote... I said that tribes2 had problems when it came out, but they are no longer. If only the same was true with OFP... anyway, seems like you complete missed the point of my post...

[Mister Frag 0]

Yup, I missed it. It was buried, though. Cheers!

[CanisDEK 1]

I just played a game (MP).

- CTF

- Russians vs USA as usual

- Russians had some US vehicles

- I destroyed these vehicles whick resulted in me beeing seen as a teamkiller by the AI and therefore shot on sight. Also I couldn't board any vehicles with my team mates. And the worst part I couldn't capture the flag.

- This is nothing but stupid. The game is almost unplayable in MP... a little mistake by one of the humans OR AI and the game is RUINED!

[Mister Frag 0]

Someone else might argue that if you can destroy you own side's vehicles without any repercussions, the AI is flawed.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

[CanisDEK 1]

LOL Mister Frag you continue to amaze me? The point is that the AI should do nothing at all, all it does is ruining games by teamkilling over and over and over again, in fact they NEVER stop... wow what a fun game. EVEN if I by accident destroy a friendly vehicle... EVEN IF I CRASH A VEHICLE WITH A PASSENGER AND THEREBY KILL HIM! OMFG Mister Frag WAKE UP. Besides I as a mission creator placed some US vehicles near the Russian base for them to use.... vehicles don't have feeling if I destroy them. What if The russians had stolen some US vehicles and left the near their base... shouldn't I be able to destroy them? NEVERMIND.... I guess you'll just find another way to defend this game or whatever you're trying to do here. I'm not trashing it... I just point out all the flaws the game has, because the press has focused on the positive sides of this game! AND because I HOPE that BIS will try to correct them... so lets not discuss this matter more you and me when we obviously don't speak the same language (metaphorically speaking of course).

-----------

I just played another game. 4 players on a 2Mb/512Kb connection. Lots of random bugs appeared. I don't think they are real bugs, but rather caused by the really bad netcode.

- I couldn't get out of my tank.

- When my driver got back in after a while I suddenly got 17 HEAT and 6 Sabot for free?

- My driver couldnt capture the enemy flag when we returned to our own flag (and yes the flag was there!

- At one point my driver seemed to just drive round and round in circles... suddenly I warped to a town... wow STAR WARS ABRAMS.

- We kept playing for an hour just to laugh at all the insane incidents... but the feeling won't last for long.

[Mister Frag 0]

If you don't like the game, that's your opinion, and I respect that.

I just want you to understand why the AI turns on you when you shoot members of your own team. They won't do it the first time it happens, but they will eventually decide that you have hostile intent, and try to stop you.

One problem with OFP is that this knowledge is retained when your character dies -- if the mission includes a respawn feature, the newly spawned character is still considered an enemy, and if the spawning location is your base, you won't live very long...

This is of course a bug, and I hope it gets fixed. But it mostly affect people who carelessly or intentionally open fire on their own team.

[morbid 0]

I love OFP as a single player game, in fact its one of the best single player games I've played in a long time but I get the impression that they added multiplayer as an after-thought. Maybe it wasn't ever designed for multiplayer in the first place and this was added at a late stage in developement.

However the multiplayer aspect eventually turns out I still think the game could last if they release an SDK for the modders.

[CanisDEK 1]

You have to understand that I love this game.... FANTASTIC single player part. The reason I'm so disappointed with MP is in fact because I like the game so much. I have never in my entire life played a game that has such a great potential and a game that is so close to what I would call the perfect game. It's like getting a brand new Porche and realising it can only drive 10Mph. Imagine online battles on these big islands with ... lets just say 64 players... WOW the worlds greatest online war game IMO. And 64 players is not impossible... there are TRIBES2 servers out there with room 150 players. Another thing is the fact that BIS said: "there is actually no limit to the number of players that can join, it's a matter of hardware". Yeah that makes us think of BIG battles BUT if the hardware needed won't be developed until 2050 A.D, what good is it. THAT'S another reason I'm so disappointed. Also I can't believe that BIS actually messed up their chance to make the greatest MP game EVER.... WHY? Yeah I think I know why... time is money and so on.... developers will never change etc. Anyway it sucks bigtime!

[Rick Nieuwenhuis 0]

i wish BIS peeps would reply to this thread so we can find out how THEY feel about the game,MP,future for OFP and the critisism they get about the (lack off) MP

[CanisDEK 1]

Yeah me too! Also I would be happy if they would just start working on MP now and release the TRUE MP game as an addon... I would GLADLY pay the extra money for this CD... So BIS forget about new vehicles, faces, weapons etc.... Give us a good and solid MP experience with the next patch... make at least 64 player games possible. Had it been any other game I would have told you to quit your job and find another, but I like you for trying to make the perfect game... hope you succed with the next few patches, the addon CD or OFP2. If you do make OFP2... make it a MP game! "REMEMBER: MP games do NOT FADE!"

Please answer us. Will you improve OFP MP or is the US version the best we get?

[Rax 0]

Posting on a forum is not giving THEM critism.

MAIL them if you want to whine about MP.

SP part is very good...but I can tplay SP for long... I want MP.

AND NOBODY EVER WON A WAR with 1 player....you need hundreds of man...

I will keep continue to play OFP in SP and with 1 or 2 friends on LAN and I hope when there money is gone and they are going to release OFP 2 to get some money again...I hope they should now that maybe 20% of the buyers now will buy it if its lack GOOD MP..

IF OFP 2 is better and good MP...then BIS can retire in after the release of OFP 2.

I dont think good MP is going to happen for OFP guys...

Play OFP a bit, hop from time to time to halflife and ghost recon and tribes...and lets wait till some company REALLY knows whats out there and make a game like OFP WITH support for 100+ players. THEN WE REALLY CAN FIGHT WARS..

To bad you dont listen to us BIS

Rax out

[Rick Nieuwenhuis 0]

just what happend with Spec ops. great idea but Novalogic made it (the tactical out-doors shooting game) great with Delta force. (admit it,DF was sort of an revolution but Spec OPs from Zombie entertainment was older.

same aplies to wolfenstein3D and doom. wolf3d "invented" the 3d FPS genre but doom made it great.

just my 200$ feel free to disagree or agree if your crazy

[Thundercok 0]

I am hoping the next patch fixes the code. I have quite a few co-op maps complete but am waiting on releasing them because when I test with just 3 people, a glitch occurs about every time.

[CanisDEK 1]

I don't think that they can improve the netcode to support at least 64 players or even 32. Too bad they messed MP up so badly.... But hey BIS feel free to comment and tell me that I'm wrong... I would appreciate it... expecially if I'm wrong

[RaP7oR 0]

MP as an extra Addon for extra Money No fookin way !

[Horse 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from RaP7oR on 1:53 am on Sep. 2, 2001

MP as an extra Addon for extra Money No fookin way !<span id='postcolor'>

Here in New Zealand, games typically sell for NZ$100, which is about US$50, and addons sell for NZ$50 or NZ$60.

I would _definitely_ pay NZ$50 or $60 for an upgrade to OFP Multiplayer that offered the following features:

- Integrated Server browser

- In-game join

- 32 players usable on a dedicated server running on current high-end hardware (eg Athlon1400) on a LAN

- Respawnable vehicles and/or dynamic object creation

- A proper client/server model where the scripts & triggers execute on the server.

It's that simple. I'd pay money for it. So would lots of people. And BIS/Codemasters would have the Halflife-style success story they want. I reckon BIS has about 6 months to do it and then their window of opportunity is lost. Or Codemasters has that long to find another dev team to do it for them.

[RaP7oR 0]

Oh great, now plant this $$$ idea into BIS minds, and they will really make an addon for MP that costs extra money. Thx ppl you are so cool... duh

[Pete 1]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from Mister Frag on 6:30 am on Sep. 1, 2001

If you don't like the game, that's your opinion, and I respect that.

I just want you to understand why the AI turns on you when you shoot members of your own team. They won't do it the first time it happens, but they will eventually decide that you have hostile intent, and try to stop you.

<span id='postcolor'>

the problem is this:

1: we disable AI in the player selection team, and we dont have the team killing AI problem

2: someone gets disconnected and is replaced by the AI

3: the enemy steals our bmp/m113, i have to blow it up...and instead of being the hero of the day..im now a traitor in the eyes of the AI.

4: i steal the flag, try to return it..cant, cos in the eyes (?) fo the flag..im a enemy.

5: a friend drives by, i try to get a ride, cant...cos the car (?) thinks im a enemy

6: i get killed by something sooner or later and respawn...to the guarding AI who hates me for trying to save the day and blowing up valuable equipment....so he shoots me

7: i respawn and i hope the AI is satisfied....#### no, he shoots me again.

8: i respawn and this time i shoot the AI first, hoping he has learned a lesson now i start going towards the enemy base...i get shot in the back by the now respawned AI

9: i get angry, the host cant punt the AI..as he could do with any other team-killing brat...my options?, stay and keep dying cos of the AI, or leave the server.

i LOVE the game, but im not blind for the probems and bugs in it.

the team killing AI and the flag and vehicles who become enemies is a bad bug.

[Pete 1]

BIS does listen to us...how can you still keep whining about that they dont listen?

dont you even look at the forums?, several BIS employes has answered to questions and alike.

they have added numerous things that WE wanted to the game.

they do listen, but you must understand that the game has its limitations.

100+ players...no way in #### that ANY game can have as many, atleast not with the complexity as in OFP.

im happy with 16-20 players, if we get the 16-20 players very playable, not a impossible task for BIS.

some major bugs to improve would be the team killing AI and teleporting vehicles (get in truck and end up in enemy chopper...)

good features they could add would be a ability to join-games-in-progress.

but 100+ players?...forget it, aint gonna happen. not even in a possible OFP2.