Who thinks this could work and would be a good idea?

[Yun Dog]

what would the other players be doing, while one of the players has a battle? against the AI

waiting....

how long can battles take.... 1/2 an hour or so with set up


I would get bored waiting that long.... what if one player had several battles in a row and the other player none



I think this is the fatal flau of the MP campaign

what the solution :all battles would have to be autoresolved

its the only one I can think of

[Just A Girl]

Battles could be delayed untill the end of the year.
the begining of the new year the battle would start.
Allowing people who are not in battle to try and micromanage there lands There would be NO AI help whatsoever.
given the 4-6 mins year time,
the aditional time provided when others are in battle could prove invaluable to a well maintained country/province(S)

On the other hand.
this time could also be used to march men in to battles that have already begun.

and messages of diplomacy could be issued Only if there is a battle in progress.
Thus eliviating the boredom, by making the people who arent in battle, need to think about what to do next.

Time limits could also be imposed on the attackers in any given battle.
thus allowing people to know precicley how long they could be waiting for at the most.

combining all this should eliviate if not remove the boredome,
And allow people to actualy do Every thing they need to even in a situation where the years roll on regardless of what you have managed to acomplish.

its also a bit realistic that you have more time to concentrate on your own problems When 2 of your enemys are fighting.

[Yun Dog]

+ you could have the option of watching the battle - lets say if you were allies with the other Human player

ya i thought about the battles resolved at end of turn - so lets say its the end of my turn and I have 6 battles with the AI?

and you have none and its early game so ... how much micro can you do with 2 provinces

and next turn i have another 6

not trying to be mr negative just trying to be devils advocate because Id like to see a mp campaign one day too

edit: this comes from playing HOI2 which has a quite challenging AI by the way,

anyway playing a multiplayer campaign one of my allies was having war after war so he kept stopping time to give orders - fair enough - but I was building up waiting for 1939 which was 2 years away - that 2 years took 2 days of him playing and me staring at the screen - waiting... that really sucked

[Just A Girl]

I agree watching battles would also help eliviate boredome.

But i was thinking more along the lines of...

20 regions, and 20 provinces on each region.

When you 1st start.
You are crowned the king of your Region's clan.
and you take any province you chose from that region.
the other 19 provinces in the region that your clan owns, would be controlled by the AI. untill more people join.

"each other clan would need 1 member 1st before your clan would gain its second member."

as each new person joins they replace an ai general. and become second in line to the throne.

Any battles the AI has vs the AI would be auto calculated. So no waiting on there part.

You would only be able to controll your general/King's army
So any men you create that arent in your stack would become Under your command But AI controlled.
so any battles they would fight vs ai would be auto calculated.

Given the above conditions. It would be impossible for there to be more than 1 delay per year.
as all the battles could be played at the same time,

And it would also be improbable for any human players to attempt more than 1 battle a year That would not be autocalculated.

Remember
AI vs AI = auto calc,
Human vs human= Battle,
human vs Ai = battle.

it would be unwize for human players to send in there valuable AI controlled units to fight vs a human opponent.
as we all know on avarage in the TW games the AI sux.

so the delay for each year Under this format would be Minimal.

Sonds good yet?

[Yun Dog]

Yep the key fact in that is the controlling one army rule

How would people feel about only controlling one army and how hard would it be to code for partial human control over one regions armies

I put these questions out there to the masses

personally i like the idea - you have your one personal kings army - its full of units you build up and gain experience, perhaps even rename

you use that army to fight the main conlicts and use the others for garrisons etc

perhaps once you gained more provinces/or won more battles you could earn a prince and have 2 armies

but the key is keeping control over the amount of time taken for battles at the end of the turn is guarenteed to be no longer than x minutes

maybe the rule should be each player AI included can have a maximum of 1 battle per year/round?

but then you could still be attacked by a number of AI opponents meaning you would in fact have several battles

[Just A Girl]

Gaining more provinces would be The main aim of the game,

This is where Your AI units would come in usefull.
As you could use them to defend your provinces, And use your army to attack other player's AI controlled armys.
Or even better, A human players stack!

This would still mean that the delay at the begining of a year would only be the length of the longest battle that happend.

You would be able to Moove Your AI controlled units where ever you liked. But you would not controll them in battle.

also you could take units out of the AI controlled stacks and replenish your men with them.
Once in your stack the AI would no longer controll that unit.
and once out of your stack You no longer controll a unit...

So the AI units you make will just stay where they are unless you moove them after making them.
But You wont be able to command them personaly in battle.

Each human player will be able to build these AI stacks.
For defence of a province. for replenishing his own stack, or even for attacks on other Ai controlled provinces.

So its not like you wouldnt be able to comand them to attack a province,
As i said they will be yours to command, but contorlled by the AI.

This i beleve would be The best solution for A MP campaign.

And with modernday technolagy I beleve it is possible.

And with this format there could be 400 players online at any given time.
This may sound like a huge strain on a server,
but in all honesty.
It should not be.


I do hoppe some 1 at CA makes notes of this.
And prehaps even decide to utilize my ideas.
Along with any Good ideas that Have been/ May be added to the psot.

[Yun Dog]

the more i think about it - the more i like it

it would be just like MP is now - currently you only field one army against a human opponent in either 1v1 - 4v4

this would be the same but played out over a huge campaign map

I LIKE IT