Interview with multilplayer designer Mark O'Connell

[NinjaX]

http://shogun2.net/shogun-2-total-war-multiplayer-interview-with-designer-mark-oconnel/

Some interesting tidbits, especially the 'shogun league' for advanced players.

Time to try and regain/buy a new steam account (old one was hacked :/) and try and get a good enough pc (old one was stolen lol) to play this game on.

[pevergreen]

Hmm.

Matchmaking.

I want details. How is it doing it.

[Swoosh So]

No limits on clans in a competition based on wins is totally fail.

[pevergreen]

No limits on clans in a competition based on wins is totally fail.

How so?

As I see it, we know the following:

At least, possibly only 2 leagues, normal and upper.

Clans have unlimited sizes, possibly that anyone can join at any point, regardless if members want them to. This will need to be changed if true.

If clan does well enough, goes up. Later stated that relegation also possible, so we could be seeing 4-5 leagues.

Thats the ladder. ELO ranking system most likely, probably taking after the Trueskill from DoW2.

The map based clan thing has a limit of what was it, 20 MP clans per 'map'?

So tl;dr, what do you mean?

[Swoosh So]

because if a clan has 200 players and 25% of them win thats 50 wins they have in the game, wheres if a clan has 20 players and wins 100% of their games thats 20 wins and they would lose the campaign. this was mentioned as an issue in the very first previews and seems it has not been addressed.

[pevergreen]

because if a clan has 200 players and 25% of them win thats 50 wins they have in the game, wheres if a clan has 20 players and wins 100% of their games thats 20 wins and they would lose the campaign. this was mentioned as an issue in the very first previews and seems it has not been addressed.

Then the system can clearly not work off a purely "games won" basis.

I'm hoping that the group of people responsible for the MP in S2TW have realised this. Off the top of my head, I would go with a combined ELO clan ranking, based off individuals contributing when they win in specific environments, along with a WLR, with a drop off in points attributed to clan ranking as number of games increase for a single player.

So each victory or loss has an impact on the clans standing, but those who play a lot receive less.

Every system has a downside, most have an upside. This would prevent legitimate small clans from being as good as open clans (lets say, for pure example, 2 clans, one made out of moderators, the other of .org members) The moderator clan has less people, but if they play the same number of games, they would be of a lower ranking. However, it prevents the forming of elite player clans, where each member is at the very top of the game.

Of course, thats the product of about 3 minutes thinking by one person.

[Kocmoc]

Lets see, what we get in the end.
I still want to see some real info about the engine and what they did improve from NTW.
We listet tons of bugs and problems, while a league is good too have and was highly needed.... we still have no useful info about the current gameplay.

All those interesting things are pointless, if the gameplay is bad.
The way a league is working can be adjusted, but swoosh is right here, actual its in favor of huge clans. If im going play this game, i once again will play with some of my old friends here
and surely not in a big clan with tons of player. Obvious problem, solve it.


Koc

[Kronos]

Lets see, what we get in the end.
I still want to see some real info about the engine and what they did improve from NTW.
We listet tons of bugs and problems, while a league is good too have and was highly needed.... we still have no useful info about the current gameplay.

All those interesting things are pointless, if the gameplay is bad.
The way a league is working can be adjusted, but swoosh is right here, actual its in favor of huge clans. If im going play this game, i once again will play with some of my old friends here
and surely not in a big clan with tons of player. Obvious problem, solve it.


Koc

This.

Also I really don't see how all the unlockable traits, bonus' and retainers can work in a competetive system such as this unless it's deactivated for the leagues or it's possible to max everything out so once you've won a hundred or so games everyone will have all the same possibilities, otherwise if there's a few people that play 12 hours a day every day they will always have an advantage over other people that may be better players, but are under time constraints.

[pevergreen]

The key, as always is balance.

Sure if you play more you may have an advantage, but just like in any well designed system, someone that has no upgrades can still beat someone who has them all if they are a better player.

Like Call of Duty for example, sure I may be level 1, you may be level 70, but if I'm better than you, it not gunna help that much.

Like it or not, it will promote longevity in the MP scene. A lot of people can't deal with just playing it with no goal in sight. Most RTS games you just play multiplayer, sure there may be a leaderboard, but if you arent that great, why should you keep playing. If you keep unlocking stuff and you can customise, you're more likely to play again.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

But if you suck, would it really matter about the unlockables?

[pevergreen]

Yes, as its easy to presume that even if you don't win the match you gain 'xp' and move closer to unlocking something.

It provides easy goals and a feeling of accomplishment.

[Cecil XIX]

But if you suck, would it really matter about the unlockables?

I believe it would, as it would give you a tangible goal to shoot for.