Online Multiplayer mode

[ObsidianFan123]

Hello,

 

Will Project Eternity feature any online multiplayer capabilities such as Baldur's Gate and other Infinity- and Aurora Engine games did?

 

Cheers,

Ghamarro

[Althernai]

Not in the first game. Maybe in a sequel.

[Archmage Silver]

Hello,

 

Will Project Eternity feature any online multiplayer capabilities such as Baldur's Gate and other Infinity- and Aurora Engine games did?

 

Cheers,

Ghamarro

 

See here:

Will Project Eternity be solely single player? Or do you hope for multiplayer gameplay as well?

 

Josh Sawyer: Solely single player. Though most of the Infinity Engine games supported multiplayer, the real strength of those titles was in the single player experience. Since this will be a relatively small project, we believe multiplayer would be too large of a distraction for us.

[Ieo]

Look for the existing co-op threads.

 

Also, many official dev answers in my sig.

[Hassat Hunter]

And yay for that.

 

No one needs another ME3 MP ruining SP-experiences and taking up too much developer time...

[TomTom]

And yay for that.

 

No one needs another ME3 MP ruining SP-experiences and taking up too much developer time...

 

lol indeed, whats next ppl asking for? Gamepad support which affects kb/m ui?

 

I pledged for a story driven SP expirience

Edited October 11, 2012 by TomTom

[jivex5k]

I think a lot of people ask due to most IE games supporting it.

I only used it once in BG2, it was ok, didn't have any friends into the RPGs like I was.

[Saerain]

I pledged for a story driven SP expirience

So did I, but you know what's even rarer? Having that experience in multiplayer. Good experiences are better shared, wouldn't you agree?

 

I understand the problem from a budget and prioritization standpoint and agree that it's good they're focusing on the single-player experience, but if it were possible to share the same experience with friends, I couldn't call that a step down.

 

Multiplayer RPGs have been virtually extinct since MMOs took off, so I certainly understand why this question has been coming up about every RPG for the last several years. I do hope multiplayer returns to the genre some day.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Saerain

[neroas]

I pledged for a story driven SP expirience

So did I, but you know what's even rarer? Having that experience in multiplayer. Good experiences are better shared, wouldn't you agree?

 

I understand the problem from a budget and prioritization standpoint and agree that it's good they're focusing on the single-player experience, but if it were possible to share the same experience with friends, I couldn't call that a step down.

 

Multiplayer RPGs have been virtually extinct since MMOs took off, so I certainly understand why this question has been coming up about every RPG for the last several years. I do hope multiplayer returns to the genre some day.

 

I agree, I would love to be able to play such a game with my pen and paper friends I'm now thousands of miles away from.

 

I didn't know when I backed it that it was going to be single player. However, I want to support a game that's for players. Not the watered down junk we get from todays publishers. It's still a game I want to play and hope one day there will be a kickstart for an MP option. I don't want servers or launchpad, anything of that sort. I want to play TCP/IP with my old table top friends at some point. However, I do want this project to succeed and take off and maybe we can get more games and options backed by players in the future.

[Oerwinde]

I think there needs to be a locked sticky in each forum titled "No there will not be Multiplayer or full voice acting."

[neroas]

I think there needs to be a locked sticky in each forum titled "No there will not be Multiplayer or full voice acting."

It doesn't matter... People will still ask for features they want to see. I agree with staying away from MP right now, but maybe as the game matures a possibility in the future would be nice. I think it would be a bit naive with a project like this to use resources like that at this point in time. However as was posted...

 

 

"Hi guys,

 

One of the most exciting things about working on this game is that we can do so with you guys throughout the entire process. No need to "go dark" or severely limit the kinds of topics we discuss. The funding to create this game is coming from you. You are our boss on this one, and throughout the process of this game, we want to make sure we're doing our best for you.

 

To be blunt, we obviously want to continue to raise funding for this game as much as we can. Doing that helps us do more with the game and just make it more polished and as awesome as we can for as many of the fans of this type of game as we can reach. For fans of PS:T, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind, we want to bring you that feel of game again. We can't explain how excited we are to do that."

Edited October 13, 2012 by neroas

[macros]

I really hope they will look into implementing it. With the huge amount of money already raised and no need to spend it on advertisements I dont think it will harm the quality of the game.

A simple multiplayer like in Baldurs Gate doesn't require a huge amount of development time.

No need to target the game at multiple players. Just the possibility for multiple players to experience the single player campaign together by synchronizing their game states over network.

 

Edit: There is no sense in adding multiplayer as DLC. I has to be done right away. As a developer myself I know it drives you crazy to implement it later on.

Edited October 14, 2012 by macros

[Ieo]

I really hope they will look into implementing it. With the huge amount of money already raised and no need to spend it on advertisements I dont think it will harm the quality of the game.

A simple multiplayer like in Baldurs Gate doesn't require a huge amount of development time.

No need to target the game at multiple players. Just the possibility for multiple players to experience the single player campaign together by synchronizing their game states over network.

 

Edit: There is no sense in adding multiplayer as DLC. I has to be done right away. As a developer myself I know it drives you crazy to implement it later on.

 

FFS, which is exactly why MP cannot be added to PE. The devs have said this. The main references are in my sig, which summed up all say: Adding decent MP requires concessions in SP content, is complex to debug and costs more money for an extremely small audience. Those are from interviews and dev posts.

[Hassat Hunter]

A simple multiplayer like in Baldurs Gate doesn't require a huge amount of development time.

You'd be surprised...

 

Hence, the conclusion became "no"...

[neroas]

It's too bad, I would have tripled my backing for it.

[macros]

It's too bad, I would have tripled my backing for it.

 

Same for me.

 

It would like to comment on "You'd be surprised..." as I have good programming experience and did design (very little) multiplayer games and wrote the networking for some robots playing a game of "mensch ärgere dich nicht" on a special build game field. So I think I can somehow estimate the amount of work which will be needed to do this. Of course in a company like obisdian I have to add management costs and other factors into it, but the numbers still stay resonable.

Anyway, I have to get sleep, so I wont bother for now as the decision has been made.

 

Here is an comment Darren gave on Kickstarter

RE: Multiplayer - I know this is definitely something lots of folks want, and it's certainly hard for us to describe in enough detail the difficulties and complexities it adds (certainly when you start thinking about cross-platform support and the amount of testing that involves.) There are also limitations it puts on story development too. Some people really didn't like the 'protagonist' idea from BG (but others, like me, were fine with it.)

 

But of course, with time and money, can't all things be solved?

 

That's not to say though that a future Eternity project couldn't (or won't) have multiplayer. If we had enough funding, it would allow us to add the resources to properly do MP, but at this funding level, we just couldn't tell you guys, "we can do it" and be honest with you or ourselves. Please know though that we don't take that lightly though!

 

-Darren

[Hassat Hunter]

It would like to comment on "You'd be surprised..." as I have good programming experience and did design (very little) multiplayer games and wrote the networking for some robots playing a game of "mensch ärgere dich nicht" on a special build game field. So I think I can somehow estimate the amount of work which will be needed to do this. Of course in a company like obisdian I have to add management costs and other factors into it, but the numbers still stay resonable.

Making "Mens erger je niet" online or a RPG is kinda different.

First, we need 6 players sending data and that should not be lost, instead of barely any data. Second, the data packages would be more complex than that game.

 

Also, robots don't have inventories to share, conversations to have at the same time. How to handle people at different locations (DS3 way? Must you be on the same map)? AI aside from the players (which is far more than 2), which has to respond to the input of all the players.

Especially the conversations will be a pain to do MP. Since, well, knowing OE, they will be long and plenty. And will 5 people will be unable to do anything at the time? You can hardly allow anyone to murder the conversation owner during talking (specific code and exceptions added just for mp).

 

And I probbaly just scratching the surface here...

[Tiliqua]

Multiplayer obviously polarizes this community. More people on these forums dislike it rather than want it. I loved playing BG, IWD etc on multiplayer, for many years every Friday evening was spent with a friend playing all the IE games and their expansions and sequels. I have very fond memories of those times.

 

I was saddened when Josh stated it was not going to happen for PE and that has not stopped my from looking forward to a successful completion of this project. However I'm hoping that the devs have noticed there is real interest from a sizeable number of players for multiplayer and that we get it eventually.

[Ieo]

However I'm hoping that the devs have noticed there is real interest from a sizeable number of players for multiplayer and that we get it eventually.

 

Just how sizeable is the key. I'll quote my proposal for the perfect solution:

 

The best solution is to have a separate Kickstarter for each of those various minority things that people ask for in terms of high technical costs--console port, co-op mode. Let Obsidian calculate the amount of time and money would be necessary for each (e.g. expansion built ground-up for co-op) and see where the KS goes. Then if the target audiences manage to fund either, the mechanisms are already paid for and Obsidian doesn't have to worry about losses or stripping too much content. Those are all side projects, though.

 

All parties would win with that model. SP would remain untouched, MP/consoles get their own quality ports/attachments, Obsidian doesn't risk substantial amounts of money, and the players all get what they want.

[Frisk]

Quite apart from the technical issues with implementing MP, there is the annoying problem that MP and RP don't really work well together. Consider for example NPC interactions, with complex conversation trees and multiple possible outcomes. You can let one (lead) player take charge of the conversation, but that is not much fun for the other players - unless they like just to be dragged along to provide muscle during combat encounters. If you allow multiple players to participate in a conversation, you end up with a really messy situation.

 

No, MP worls fine in games where there is no real RP, and no multiple outcome interactions - games like WoW, and such.

 

But in a real, story-heavy RPG? No, forget it.

 

I am really happy that Obsidian is not going to compromise a great (I hope) SP game by adding MP support.

[macros]

There is a big difference between MMOs and RPG multiplayer.

I had much fun playing Baldurs Gate with a friend. We played mostly in one room, everybody could control the NPCs he liked (and decide in dialogues with them).

Conversation choices and combat tactics where discussed and all together it was an awesome experience.

 

It works well, you just need better teamwork.

 

I like the idea of an additional Kickstarter for multiplayer, but I guess its to late now. Implementing it later on is nearly impossible, the amount of work is more than double that of adding it right away.

Edited October 15, 2012 by macros

[VixRaine]

I am, personally, in the camp of not wanting anything that is going to take away from the SinglePlayer Experience of the AGES

[Aleron]

I am, personally, in the camp of not wanting anything that is going to take away from the SinglePlayer Experience of the AGES™

 

Seconded.

 

That said, I'd love a Neverwinter Nights online sort of option, but considering the time it would take to implement such a thing I believe it to be entirely not feasible.

[Freshock]

I'm glad they mainly focus on singleplayer for now, but I wouldn't mind a multiplayer expansion in the future.

[rodkinnison]

I am personally dying for the right kind of multiplayer. What do I mean by the "right kind"?

 

I mean an open framework like NWN or NWN2 that allows for user-created shared worlds.

 

It absolutely does NOT mean being able to play the primary storyline multiplayer. That, to me, is very different from an open world approach and getting it to work well with a primary storyline is a huge creative effort that is not too useful.

 

But you have the engine, the rule set, the game mechanics all there. You have a community of persistent world builders and players who have been keeping NWN and NWN2 alive with scotch tape and bailing wire because they love to play with their friends.

 

Putting the hooks in for that DURING game development is credible. Doing it all after, not so much.

 

There is NO need for an "MMO" style of game. But the Persistent World niche has been left totally unfilled since NWN2 and I know that I backed the project just hoping Obsidian would do again what they pioneered so well. Put the hooks together, the community, if it is a hit game, can pick up that ball and run with it.