How is Multiplayer?

[Hosakawa Tito]

I haven't seen one post about actual MP gameplay yet. Has anyone been able to tear themselves away from MP yet to post initial impressions?

[t1master]

i'm interested too, and relying on good reports about the mp experience...

this is what i've found so far, can anyone confirm it?

I'm disappointed by the maps available for MP and also the number of players allowed - there are 12 "field" maps - 10 of which are limited to 1v1 and the other 2 are limited to 2v2. There are 12 siege maps but all of them are limited to 1v1. There are 12 sea battles which cater for up to 4v4.

edit: i've read other reports of compatibility issues between those with a hard copy, and those who dl from steam...

other things, no lobby chat, only three florin levels: high medium low,

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

I be getting it later today T1, I be on MP this afternoon, so I'll report in and see if this is true or not plus I'll add my own personal thoughts then.

[pevergreen]

edit: i've read other reports of compatibility issues between those with a hard copy, and those who dl from steam...

Yeah, check Parliament for one or two of those.

I've checked in, but no one has been played, and no one will play with me. At least there are cool stat trackers!

[Masek]

Hi,

i have tried multiple MP games with Steam. Allways either the opponent or i was dropped from
Steam. May this be firewall problem? Does anyone know which ports to open?

Sincerely yours, Martin

[Lemur]

Could be a case of server overload, too. I'm unsurprised Steam is having problems supporting 250,000 15 gig downloads. Wouldn't have been a problem if they had allowed us to pre-load, rabble rabble rabble.

[RTKBarrett]

MP is a big dissapointment, needs lots of patching

[t1master]

how is the lobby set up? i've read that there is no general lobby, like previous, listing all who are online in etw.

[Paolai]

there is no chat in lobby

[t1master]

from the ccs forums...

Also a steam problem which is why baz couldn't join other peoples games I discovered is infact due to location. Americans can't play with europeans for instance. It's all to do with where you set your locatrion to in steam so everyone will need to change to the same continent if they want to play together.

so coupled with no apparent general lobby, it makes it hard for the old community to get together and play as in the past.

is this so for those who are playing online?

[miniwally]

no-one was on :( anywhere to arrange times at when people will be on in this forum?

[RTKBarrett]

from the ccs forums...



so coupled with no apparent general lobby, it makes it hard for the old community to get together and play as in the past.

is this so for those who are playing online?

Yep it was a nightmare for me... heres a basic look at the problems with the game atm *Excuse the lack of numbering points, i copy and pasted*

Units get tired too easily. Charges go into thin air. Cavalry lose formation too easy. Infantry can run away from cavalry in formation. Square formations are made of rubber infantrymen. Commands get ignored. Groups bug out. You hear random clicking sounds as if from the UI activity of other players. You can't see shot range on snow, because it's grey on grey. Impeding objects fail so bad that they carefully avoided putting any on MP maps. Single player is a collection of bugs and AI quirks & cheats.

[Kanamori]

Yep it was a nightmare for me... heres a basic look at the problems with the game atm *Excuse the lack of numbering points, i copy and pasted*

Units get tired too easily. Charges go into thin air. Cavalry lose formation too easy. Infantry can run away from cavalry in formation. Square formations are made of rubber infantrymen. Commands get ignored. Groups bug out. You hear random clicking sounds as if from the UI activity of other players. You can't see shot range on snow, because it's grey on grey. Impeding objects fail so bad that they carefully avoided putting any on MP maps. Single player is a collection of bugs and AI quirks & cheats.

Have you played MTW VI? Because if they scaled the running around down to the old fatigue system... i'd love it, and also threw the kill rates down (I have no idea if this was balanced in MP with valor/armor or not). And I disliked the chargefest that the powerful charges rome-m2tw made... but I haven't played Empires yet...

Are the formation problems worse than they were in Rome and M2 (first ranks only charging and cavalry fanning out to never group back in and actually attack the unit they're supposed to be attacking)?

[Sp00n]

there is no chat in lobby

No chat

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

there is no chat in lobby

Yup. No way to tell who is on, etc.....


I'm somewhat disapponted by this. The gameplay is kick- butt, it's good, so it lived up to my expectations, but the ranking system isn't what I thought it would have been plus no chat, so I think it's a good game.... Just could be better!

[Swoosh So]

Sounds like total fail from ca to me, still it was halfway expected just dident think they would slack off as much as to not include an online lobby for chat, considering i find lobbys for community communication as of the utmost importance for games as i stated in the past and campaigned for with ca i will not be buying this game.

No online chat? im sure multiplayer will be getting alot of attention then....

[Swoosh So]

So what happens when you log multiplayer theres a list of games and doesent show whos online you just enter or host game and cant chat till in game?

[Kenchi_Sulla]

There are some bugs to be found.... I have played about 12 online battles now (some 1 v 1 and some 2v2) and the overal pace of the game is nice. I like what I see so far. Battles are about good teamwork and superior manoeuvring...

It needs some work, but it leaves a much better impression than RTW or MTW2 did initially

[Relic]

I've played two Quick games. One land, one sea. Won Both! :D

Great fun!

[Paolai]

About the MP balance so far I have noticed (and not only me ofcourse)

Mortars: too much powerful
Granateers: same, too much powerful.

[Kenchi_Sulla]

Noticed the same, especially mortars are a problem. I am banning them from my games untill they are fixed. Other problem is with infantry facing, im sure somebody mentioned it in bug post. Sometimes they show the rear to the enemy, even noticed it in a battle line of several line infantry once. One unit was reversed

Also noticed a problem once you loose a cart in a three cannon battery. I have trouble limbering them up when that happens (the two remaining cannon/cart combo)....

Well, these are minor issues which can be adressed I am sure of that.

[Swoosh So]

How is the actual feeling of the game? Does it have a similar feel to any of the other titles or a new feel altogether?

Some questions i have..

1) How is the grouping system?
2) How does the morale of units feel?
3) Can you enforce rules in a comp game? Im guessing if u host a game called no mortars and its a comp game somone can just join and use them regardless while the match is compeditve and recorded result.
4) How do the units respond? do the units break formation alot like in rtw and mtw with say the front ranks seperating from the back sometimes?
5) How good is cavalry in the online battles?
6) How are you guys currently arranging games vs friends?
7) Does the game have long shootouts?
8) How does terrain effect the game? like woods buildings etc
9) How would you rate this games mp compared with other titles? is it mtw1 quality mtw2 quality etc

That will do for now at least :p