What would you like to see in shogun2 Totalwar Multiplayer?

[Jochi Khan]

To me as a clan leader, the most important part is a functional chat lobby. Without one, the clan's and the clan-based community struggle. It makes recruiting hard, organising friendly games with other clans almost impossible and it completely removes the feeling of a community. What has been the unique thing about Total War MP has previously been the small and tightly-knit community. Now all that is lost and the social aspects of Total War are almost non-existant. So please, implement a functional chat lobby.

I totally agree, implement a functional chat lobby.

[Togakure]

If some of us are sounding like squeaky wheels, it's because we feel strongly that a chat lobby is a crucial element of a TW multiplayer experience. We want the grease. The original STW is my favorite computer game of all time. STW MP was also my first MP experience, and no MP experience since has matched it. I continued to play MTW/VI despite the unit imbalances, because I loved the community and interaction so much that it was worth putting up with the game's MP limitations. Though it provided the platform, the game itself was not the key draw at that point.

In the long term, it was the human challenge, interaction, and community that brought me back day after day, night after night. Lacking the promise of interaction and community--rivalry and camaraderie--the better part of what made multiplayer so special would be lost. The chat lobby was a crucial piece of infrastructure; it enabled real-time communication between players and groups. STW even allowed the creation of sub-lobbies, which alleviated some of the problems inherent in the main lobby. Unless CA has some remarkable alternative approach (which the recent games have not delivered, based on what I've read here and there), they would do well to re-institute the chat lobby model.

If the specific benefits (and weaknesses) provided by a chat lobby were defined, they could be compared to any alternative interfaces/infrastructures. For example, the chat lobby could be compared--feature for feature, weakness for weakness--against the current infrastructure which few here seem to like. Pros and cons of each could be identified, and a list of "must-haves" (requirements) could be produced against which any alternative could be tested. I have no experience with the recent games, but some here do. Those with IT experience know what I'm talking about--what are the functional requirements that must be met by the multiplayer interface and communication infrastructure? What did the chat lobby have that the new interface doesn't, and vice versa? What functionality must be met in order to satisfy us no matter what interface/infrastructure is implemented?

[Tomisama]

There is an old saying: Your current problem is caused by your current way of thinking.

Thus I would argue against something being good just because it has been used for 7 years, get my point?

Just to be clear, I can see now that we are talking apples and oranges.

You are talking about pop in games and ladders, where mirror maps would definitely be the thing to use, and I certainly think that they "should" and "will" be made available.

What I am talking about is 4v4 and now 3v3 Clan “team” competitions. These teams practice for weeks ahead of time for a single match, and can be involved in contests that take over six months to complete.

Our competition is all about teamwork tested under different terrain conditions, and against the teamwork skills of other Clan teams from around the world.

There are many singles and doubles competitions offered for your enjoyment, and I would certainly encourage and indorse those style of contests. But that is not what we offer, not what I was talking about.

[Shibumi]

Tomisama, fair enough :)

I guess we reached some sort of concensus then...

If the game holds up, I would also be interested in games such as the ones you describe. Let us hope CA choose to make the MP-scene as diverse as possible!




PS: PHEW, thanks for the correction about the 40 units being different unit types, not meaning you can control up to 40 units on the battle field. As mentioned, my brain ached at the very thought ;)

[Sp00n]

Id agree us oldies have to stick together thats why in shogun2 you should be called Wolf_Amp :D

Why does every username sound good with that tag behind it!

Most unsubtle recruitment attempt award Swoosh So
Most unsubtle attempt at being recruited award AntiWarmanCake88

Its always been more fun having Wolfies as foe's tbh, hopefully most of your old players will return, and also hopefully so will many of the old Fearful Ways clan Amp included .

[Swoosh So]

mmmmmmmm nice to be wolves foes i guess but also in clan we had some really amazing games on the training for cwb/cwc matches, i remember countless games of me and kocmoc vs poalai ale training for the tournies that were really nice. And times have changed that whole old community will now be a minority, wont be room for as many of the old clans as there was. UNITE the clans i say or was that mel gibson?

Yeah the offers on for amp to join as a wolf cub ;) but ofc he will have to hunt spoon in best of 3 :D Tbh im more interested in playing with old pals in a good game than anything else but if i will probably get compeditive if the games any good.

Btw about the mirror maps, i dont see where your coming from as 1 side has to attack and 1 defend so it doesent matter 1 bit if a maps mirror or not and does not effect the balance at all, what you have to do in order to make a balanced map is make a map where the attackers movement can upset in someway the defenders position ala nagashima where the defender could sit on the hill but if you took the woods to their left you gained the better firing position.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Most unsubtle recruitment attempt award Swoosh So
Most unsubtle attempt at being recruited award AntiWarmanCake88

Its always been more fun having Wolfies as foe's tbh, hopefully most of your old players will return, and also hopefully so will many of the old Fearful Ways clan Amp included .

Cashews And Milk for you!!

And times have changed that whole old community will now be a minority, wont be room for as many of the old clans as there was. UNITE the clans i say or was that mel gibson?

Have to. Besides, everyone I started with back on VI in March of 2004 is gone but 1 other person. I was 11 when I started, 8 days before my 12th birthday. 18 now, jesus, I'm old.

[Swoosh So]

We also need more distinction between armies, currently if your france and your ally is france your units and army look exactly the same! thers not a single difference between their units and yours.

[Gregoshi]

We also need more distinction between armies, currently if your france and your ally is france your units and army look exactly the same! thers not a single difference between their units and yours.

But Swoosh, that would make the units ahistorical.

A thought occurred to me - is the request for a chat foyer realistic? 1) Are there current MP games that have chat foyers? Or is it an outdated concept in 2010? 2) Is it even possible under Steam?

[Swoosh So]

Just about every rts type game has a chat foyer its almost impossible to keep a community going without one as ducky has stated.

[Orda Khan]

The lobby could almost be a thing in itself, the interaction could be all things from hysterical to helpful. It's where you met people and a huge part of the experience IMO.
I know nothing of Steam or other online games. What I hear about Steam just sounds too much like hard work. Like Kocmoc said, all you want is to load the disc and a few clicks later you're in a lobby. Simple.

[Kocmoc]

i want balance and gameplay over all. Thats the most important points, if this is fine, rest can be sorted out with a patch or two.

I did read about 40 units, which is huge and we just can hope that many units are similar.


About maps, i dont think, that there is such a high need for fair maps. Defender should be defender and have some advantage. It shouldnt be too much. Totomi or many other maps have advances for the defender and still it was some good, hard work to get on the hills and take out the enemy.

Maps like we see in NTW now are fine, thats one real good thing with this TW game, i really love it.


STW was very good, there is not much what could be improved, this said, if stw2 is about the same gameplay and balance im just happy.


Koc

[AMP]

I'm not really worried about the 40 units because I'm sure most will be similar and each faction will probably have a few unique units which will fall into one of the R P S categories.
If you need to put a cap on a unit you should be able to limit the unit without saying "rules". Like in NTW some units you can only pick a limited amount of in which case we should be able to do the same with some options without having to say over and over again rules to a game. It should say the limits in a box somewhere when choosing to pick a game and when you join.

Nothing more funny than joining a custom ranked match (yes I know I should host my own, but I don't care about rank I like to test peoples honor) and says no arty. The map turns out to be a bridge map (I haven't looked at all the maps yet) and not only that he has 10 arty (how cute). My army didn't even really get to make contact with his and was just incinerated by his howitzers. I don't mind the losing at all, but it just seemed like a waste of time all for some experience points which in the end means very little plus you just make a bad name for yourself (I want lots of stars they look so cool).

Custom ranked games = fail, but lots of people worship it for some reason and will do whatever means necessary to win. It just reminded me back in STW days where someone would host a bridge match with a timer on it or all the huge hill map edge corner campers in ranked. Dedicated servers with standard settings is the best way for ranked matches if you're gonna have them at all... not custom games.

What next... the spacebar showing unit end points and travel paths dose indeed show dots of the unit where it ends up, but just didn't in the demo for me. Something that's annoying is when you drag out a line with selected units... sometimes when you press the spacebar it's not the same as what you drew out (very annoying) please get that fixed.

Units need to be able to break up formation and reform back together when going around buildings and obstacles and not take these odd paths way out in the middle of no where.. sigh.

Running Running Running.. still a problem in NTW 10yrs later? Just add a toggle for units to run and march as well as keeping the double click and hitting R cause they don't always work. I would like to be able to have the Run toggled on and select a unit and give it an order and it runs to where ever I ordered it to go and not have to worry about a double click not working or hitting R and not having that work either and sometimes not realizing it until it's to late. Just one click when I have it on will do just fine thank you very much.

Also you gotta love Steam... I had the game for a week and already half the days Steam has went down, so I couldn't play or I've been dropped in the middle of a game? Something is wrong with that picture no? Steam isn't the best option and I'm sure we'll have the same problems with it when STW2 comes out... sigh again.