Total war in multiplayer: Does it take (too)long??

[Gleem]

Hello people..

I am new to total war and after playing a couple of single player games of Medieval, I think I am 'ready' to start playing a multiplayer-game. I am just worried that it might take a bit too long to play in multiplayer, when I think about how long I take over my turns myself sometimes, reorganizing armies, making sure everything, and offcourse, Last-but-not-least, the 30-50 minute battles.

So my question is:

Does it take too long to play this game in multiplayer, and if so, is it hard to find people to play it MP?

[KukriKhan]

Hello Gleem, and welcome to the .Org.

In my experience, multiplayer moves much faster than SP. Although army selection is important, how you weild them on the battlefield is much more important when playing humans in MP.

You'll be amazed how an all-peasant army, in the hands of a skilled multiplayer, can lay waste to your corps of elite troops. I have personally been handed my ass in less than 10 minutes, by an opponent I would have smashed in SP.

[Puzz3D]

Multiplayer is only tactical battles. There is no strategic campaign. The host sets some parameteres like map, florins, climate and number of players: 2 to 8. You choose a faction and color, purchase your army, buy upgrades and then deploy that army on the battlefield within a circle for each player preset by the color you chose. The players participate as two teams, and the game type is last man standing, although that means last team standing if there are more than 2 players. A battle can take anywhere from 10 min to over 60 min, but averages about 30 minutes. In general, you can figure getting about 1 game per hour.

[afrit]

@Gleem


Quote[/b] ]when I think about how long I take over my turns myself sometimes, reorganizing armies, making sure everything



From your post it sounds like you are asking about multi-player for the MTW campaign. Unfortunately, multi-player only exists for the tactical battles, not the campaign http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

But you brought up an important issue regarding any future implementation of multi-player in future versions. I read a thread about it in Colosseum (Rome total war forum) (sorry, haven't figured out how to link to threads yet. Still new myself). I take several minutes per turn myself and so a full campaign can go over a whole weekend or even an entire week for me. Synchronizing a game of this length is a challenge. I suspect this is why it has not been done by CA yet.

As for the tactical battles in multiplayer, go to the Guides forum. There is a nice, full-loaded stickied post about them. (Hmm, gotta figure out how to link threads...) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-book2.gif

[Gleem]

Well, I wouldn't mind a full campaign game taking really long. I have played Civ2 MP online and that was a lot of fun eventhough it did take a couple of sundays to play it. With everybody on the ICQ doing secret negotiations it added a whole new dimension to the game. Still it's hard to get players to play a game like that at set times a week.

I will play a MP game then. Prepare to meet my blade yee

Note: PM me if you want to play with me, sometime..

[NightRider]

Hehe Welcome to MP have fun out there ... its a whole new experience out there http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[TonkaToys]

Welcome to the ORG Gleem http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif
... and a belated welcome afrit http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

There is no MP campaign, but there are plenty of manually run play by emails... check out Nigel's Bandits and Mercenaries (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=18;t=17790) game, or the Palamedes of Sarras' new Warrior Isles (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=18654) game.

I am working on an online automated MP Campaign, you can see the discussion on this thread. (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=5;t=16648)

[Bezalel]

Welcome to the org Gleem. IMO, multiplayer is much more fun and challanging. As Kukri mentioned, there are some very skilled people in multiplayer. It is always to learn from them, and improvise a little for yourself. I've never been much of multiplayer guy, but MTW:VI is a blast.

[Pyrit]

Welcome Gleem, the multiplayer is much more fun than SP imo. I've been playing mp since shogun, and haven't gotten bored of it yet. And speaking of battle length, some are extremely short, and some are extremely long, with all the inbetweens. Sometimes it relies on the number of players, for instance 1v1's are usually quick, as are 2v2's. But 3v3's and 4v4's can take longer, but I've had many experiences with an hour long 2v2 and a very short 4v4. It's worth it though http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-party2.gif