Multiplayer

[Da_Sleek_Ranga]

COLOR=Red]I was wonderin if CotN will hav multiplayer and if it does will u be able to contorl ur men when they invade or will u hav stay wid ur city and wait for the results.

P.S. Im soz for any spellin problems this was rushed[/COLOR]

[Pecunia]

Quote from the Gamestar interview:

Do you plan to incorporate a multiplayer mode?

We are instead exploring ways to support and nurture an on-line community for CotN, to find a permanent home for them, so to speak, and give them new ways to interact, because we feel this is far more appropriate for what this game is all about.

[Keith]

Quote from the Gamestar interview:All I can say is that after years of people asking for MP in a citybuilder, the MP lobbies of Emperor are decidedly empty and it's not that Emperor is a bad game (no matter what detractors might say.) It functions well in MP, but there doesn't seem to be enough people interested in playing Emperor MP style. IF there were thoose lobbies would be full. There are people begging for players to show up.

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
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[Lannes]

I think an interesting implementation of multiplayer in city building would be if a single city were to be run by several players. Add rival cities and you'd have players balancing the common interests of their city versus their private ambitions. Perhaps with an increased focus on individual behaviour that's one step closer now. At least it guarantees more interaction between players than when each is running their own city.

Lannes

[Hanarky]

I think, the real problem with Emp multiplayer was, that you infact played singleplayer in a mp-environment. You traded and interacted with other players, but you never saw them except in game messages or using spy maps.
Playing Civ a lot now, I see other cities in the game, see their workers, their scouts, ships, troops and their improvements. This feels like being with people in the same game. When CotN could incorporate different players in one map and you got a feeling not to be alone but in community, I think it could be a great success :)

Hanarky

[Keith]

I think, the real problem with Emp multiplayer was, that you infact played singleplayer in a mp-environment. You traded and interacted with other players, but you never saw them except in game messages or using spy maps.
Playing Civ a lot now, I see other cities in the game, see their workers, their scouts, ships, troops and their improvements. This feels like being with people in the same game. When CotN could incorporate different players in one map and you got a feeling not to be alone but in community, I think it could be a great success :)

Hanarky
That's all well and good for CIV which is essentially a strategy wargame and not a pure citybuilder. As a citybuilder you have to be more concerned about what is going on with your own city so you need to spend your time in that view. Except for a raid or an attempt to conquer some other city there would be little need to actually see the other person's city....although it might be nice to see them it's not critical.

I was never all that enthusiastic about MP for citybuilders. I would have rather had more SP features.
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[Afterburner]

I was never all that enthusiastic about MP for citybuilders. I would have rather had more SP features.

Put me down for that as well.

[Elvenwarrior2001]

Yeah, I'm not much of a MP guy. Except for Lords of Magic...I only wish it was more stable on MP. :( PLEEEESE make a LoM 2 and make a great MP as well!

Elven

[Hanarky]

No, multiplayer is not crucial in CB games. All I wanted to say is, that when a mp-mode is implemented in the game it should feel like multiplaying.
I personally do not need a mp-mode in this game.

But if so, I find it exciting, when two different players maybe can build together a big monument, each on contributing ressources and staff and you see them working together. Alas I have no idea if this was technically makeable.

Hanarky :)

[mouse]

Personally I didn't like MP for Emperor and don't think I would like it for CotN but it was more from a technical view point :D It was a pain to have to reconfigure my router if I wanted to play MP and since I'm such a chicken I wouldn't leave a port open so had to configure the router again :rolleyes:

[EmperorJay]

One of the TM guys has said that they are exploring something different than MP. This *could* mean that there will be a virtual Egypt where people can upload their favourite city or something similar, those cities could then be visited by other players. Just speculation of course. :)

[Eddy]

I like the idea of being able to have a virtual Egypt where you could visit people, but MP city building turns me off. I'd rather have more features for SP. If I wanted multi-player, I'd get an RTS or Everquest. I just can't see where MP would really help in this kind of game.

[Josh]

Multiplayer could work if it were expanded upon and became more of a focus

Multiplayer as it stands, like a conventional multiplayer game, just doesnt cut it, since cities take so long to make and nobody wants to all build their city durring the same 3 hours. I think something along the lines of what Freelancer did could work, on each server you create your profile and the server stays online all the time, you then start from scratch there and play, when you log off for the night, other people can still be playing.

Imagine an ongoing online environment (all of egypt) where in the beggining you would pick the location for your city (of course some sites being better than others) you would then try and build your city, make aliances, and keep your army strong from invaders and pillagers

when you logged off for the night your city is still left online, and other people can be playing as well, so basicly your jockeying for the best city in the real-realtime almost like a MMOG or whatever that acronym is

I think it would be a lot of fun to eventualy see the few players with the best cities become self proclaimed pharaohs, with a small army of following cities in their cause, all fighting for the best spots on the map, fighting to destroy cities, working together to make their allies citys as good as they can be.

I dunno I think it could be a lot of fun

[Keith]

Well, none of the ideas mentioned so far really excite me. To have your city remain "online" would probably prove a problem. There would have to be some way of preventing it from being attacked and ruined while you were gone. If it is just left there for people to "visit" it might be possible. You could pick up ideas from other player cities.

I'm still more of a mind for a super strong SP game and to forget about MP entirely.
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[Elvenwarrior2001]

Of like mind. There has to be some pretty constand intereaction of some sort between the players, and some sort of competion. And 'Who can build a city with 5000 people in it the fastest' just doesn't pull it. I find that boring.

Elven

[Keith]

Of like mind. There has to be some pretty constand intereaction of some sort between the players, and some sort of competion. And 'Who can build a city with 5000 people in it the fastest' just doesn't pull it. I find that boring.

Elven
Not really. Caesar III, Pharaoh, and Zeus didn't have any MP at all and they were very popular games. As it is, Emperor, even with MP, is more popular in the SP mode.

Fortunately there is usually more to citybuilding than just getting to 5000 people the fastest.
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[Jacquou Le]

... I would have rather had more SP features.


I strongly support this point, Keith.

[Elvenwarrior2001]

Not really. Caesar III, Pharaoh, and Zeus didn't have any MP at all and they were very popular games. As it is, Emperor, even with MP, is more popular in the SP mode.

Fortunately there is usually more to citybuilding than just getting to 5000 people the fastest.
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I didn't say those games were bad. I was commenting on how it's hard to get the MP to be interesting. ;)

Elven

[JuliaSet]

Hello Everyone,

I felt there were quite a few MP players ready and waiting for Emperor, but the bugs did not get fixed in time to keep the interest up. Vivendi shot themselves in the foot by making everyone wait nearly a year for the patch that was ready and waiting.

I feel that city building can be interesting in MP. There will always be more SP players than MP players, as seen in other games, but it makes for a real sense of community to find others who love the game, willing to share the building experience with them. I'd support and test any MP module that can be invented for this game.

Sincerely,
JuliaSet

[Nero Would]

I was never really interested in multiplayer, and I play so slowly that noone would be interested in playing multiplayer with me. In any case, the citybuilder games don't seem to me to be well-suited to multiplayer. Still, it has been a much-requested feature for as long as I have been playing, and I have heard many people say they enjoy the multiplayer version of Emperor. Perhaps, as Julia says, it was the delayed patch that discouraged people, perhaps the number of people interested was not enough to sustain a community, I don't know.

Tilted Mill seem to be saying that Children of the Nile will not have multiplayer, but will have some kind of enhanced online community. Presumably, that means something beyond competitions (which I greatly enjoy) and sharing custom missions and saved games, but I can't think what they might have in mind.

[Elvenwarrior2001]

Part of the problem is what I have...dial-up syndrome . ;)

Elven

[Celebithil Dae]

*sigh* ditto

[Kempo Joe]

I've got Dial up syndrom too (but I hope to switch to cable)


On one side MP would be kinda coo, on the other Citybuilders don't go too well with MP.

[Celebithil Dae]

Honestly, in my humble and not so professional opinion, MP seems kinda dumb with citybuilders... I can see no real point in it. Couse, im no big online player period, but still i cant divine any reason why i would want an MP with a citybuilder anyways. Just give me an excellant SP game and i'll be thrilled beyond all description.

[G-Force]

I agree, multiplayer is not needed for a city-builder.

The virtual community is a good idea. Perhaps when you are logged off and your city is attacked, it would be like attacking a city in Pharaoh, the defences would be done for you. There would be some damage when you log back on with the message that you were attacked and won/lost. If lost you could have to pay tribute. Offcourse I'm not sure how to implement it so that your build defences will be put to good use.

G-Force

[Keith]

I agree, multiplayer is not needed for a city-builder.

The virtual community is a good idea. Perhaps when you are logged off and your city is attacked, it would be like attacking a city in Pharaoh, the defences would be done for you. There would be some damage when you log back on with the message that you were attacked and won/lost. If lost you could have to pay tribute. Offcourse I'm not sure how to implement it so that your build defences will be put to good use.

G-ForceI cannot forsee a MP game where your online city would persist online after you logoff unless they made it vanish from the map or a "non-player" or inactive city on the maps of everyone else online. Personally I think that's more bother than it's worth.

The second problem is that the genre is a niche genre and not that huge compared to your FPS RTS type games. So the numbers of available online players is going to be small at any given time, as someone mentioned above. Given the number of players that still play Emperor and that online bugs have pretty much been ironed out, the lobby still remains vacant most times of the day. I have played it online over a modem and had no problems myself. It plays very much like a SP game and interaction between you and other players is minimal.
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[Elvenwarrior2001]

It may be a niche, but it's a good one. I like games that require some thought, other then, "LOOK!!! Something's moving! "Let's kill it!" ;)

Elven

[Keith]

It may be a niche, but it's a good one. I like games that require some thought, other then, "LOOK!!! Something's moving! "Let's kill it!" ;)

ElvenFans of citybuilders are a loyal bunch, but the genre just doesn't hold the same popularity as the FPS RTS games. So any audience for citybuilders is going to be smaller and MP lobbies are going to be emptier.
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[Elvenwarrior2001]

I got that. And I wasn't saying anything against TBS or RTS, or RPG. I was talking about those shoot evrything that moves games...

Elven

[Celebithil Dae]

Theyre ok, but yeah, i like things other than bang yer dead. I like to think, sure i like to rip through the middle of europe in WWII leaving whoever opposes me in peices when i am ina bad mood, but i like to be able to sit back, size up situations, and make calculated moves in an unhurried manner, adn be forces to THINK not DO all the time.

That made no sense... to me atleast.

[Elvenwarrior2001]

I know what you mean...but that's more because I know you so well, and not because of your last post...anywho...

Elven