Online Multiplayer mode

[Luckmann]

By the way, multiplayer can be modded in. It's just that not a lot of people played IE games in multiplayer, it's a single player game, so I'm not sure somebody would be willing to go through all the trouble.

 

You probably know best, but the way I've understood it, Multiplayer would require a lot of work. I realize that you probably realize that too, since you say "go through all the trouble", but saying "[it] can be modded in" makes it sound so easy.

 

Otherwise, I'd be all for a co-op mode.

[Noer]

Proper multiplayer requires quite a bit more money mainly because we would need to bring on network programmers and have a dedicated online QA staff. Also, the total programming dev time would probably increase by around 33% which is quite a bit.

 

I just wish the multiplayer topic remains open for futher development,,, along with game editor like in Neverwinter Nights series.

 

It's a 4 milion dollars game after all. It's sentenced to success.

[Quadrone]

 

Proper multiplayer requires quite a bit more money mainly because we would need to bring on network programmers and have a dedicated online QA staff. Also, the total programming dev time would probably increase by around 33% which is quite a bit.

 

I just wish the multiplayer topic remains open for futher development,,, along with game editor like in Neverwinter Nights series.

 

 

Seriously? Not even mentioning the amount of work that would require, suffice to say that is not possible with 2D backgrounds.

 

 

It's a 4 milion dollars game after all. It's sentenced to success.

 

How so? Are you saying 4 million is a lot of money?

[Noer]

Unity is 3D, I guess (but I don't know) most models are made in 3D and projected 2D or 2,5D so to say.
 

For me 4 million dollars is a lot of money but I am just a student.
Just looked up the bugdet for GTA V which was estimated to be like 265 milions US dollars and ended in "Grand Theft Auto V broke industry sales records and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning US $800 million in its first day and US $1 billion in its first three days." (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_V)

 

So it seems like 4 mil is not a lot of money in game development industry.

 

Still two years development is 167000 $ for each month to share for salaries and static costs and other things. I don't know the number of people involved in the project.

 

I hope they will invest in some advertisment now on Twitch, Facebook or somewhere ; p

[middydj]

I for one am glad they focused on SP only.  Could care less about MP.

[Luckmann]

I for one am glad they focused on SP only.  Could care less about MP.

[Prasse]

Relly wierd to see how much ppl hate Co-Op =/. For me BG and ICW have always been about the shared experience. I never played em through on my own. Guess a lot of you guys don't have friends who are really into these kind of games. I play a lot of tabletop rpg and with the same guys play a lot of co-op rpg. Saddened that there's no love for adding it, because my guess is that it won't be present in the second one with all the negativity towards it.

[Hassat Hunter]

Co-op is rather simple... pick a chair, put your friend on it, and play on!

[No purchases required. Fun probably happening. No money-returns if heavy argumentation about game-path ensures. Note: Playing with actual people in the room can be more hazardous than over the internet, where they can't punch you...]

[Sanquiz]

It's nice to see that the game don't have multplayer, some games have to be modified to make it work in a multiplayer enviroment and those modifications not always are good for singleplayer gamers like myself.

[Vlaid]

All I have ever wanted from games like this is a true successor to Neverwinter Nights. Not for some hokey online experience through the Single Player campaign but for a true shared, roleplay persistent world.

 

To this day I still play a Persistent World Story server from NWN. I and many of us who still play in these last vestiges of true RP communities would kill for a truly moddable NWN successor that gets back to a persistent world you can mold to your liking as DMs and Admins.

 

Not all Multiplayer has to be garbage ME3/DA:I distractions that "water down" the single player. Such thinking is very narrow and closed minded and frankly shows a lack of experience of the amazing stories you can have in the PW story servers

[CaptainMace]

What about you take a look at some games that actually feature, or can feature, persistent world servers then ? Because, I frankly feel that PoE, given it has multiplayer which it hasn't, is like miles away from anything playable on a pw server.

[Suhiir]

The problem is a "good" multi-player or persistent world experience in an RPG (and to a lesser extent a shooter) is as dependent, or probably far more, dependent on the quality of the DM and/or other players as it is on the game's ability to support it.

Now if your only goal for muli-player is team battle see the above ... much easier to support then the RPG aspects.

But to take what's intended, and designed, as an RPG first and foremost and add a "reasonable" multi-player capability to it is not even remotely easy.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Suhiir

[ravenz67]

I am burnt out on all the MMO's that can't deliver an engrossing story line.  I want a GREAT single-player, story driven game and I believe that is what we are getting with Pillars.

[AdmiralWily]

The kind of coop I would love to see in a game like this would be like Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo

[omgFIREBALLS]

A high level party, especially one with a self-hasting wizard, requires extreme amounts of pausing to fully optimize. I have explored the various auto-pause settings, but that doesn't bring flow back to the battles and I eventually find myself thinking "just fire at whatever". I think that between slow mode, hotkeys and multiplayer (each player = one character) there could be some very satisfying battles even on a hypothetical difficulty above PotD. I would enjoy controlling one toon there, with no need to be the Watcher.

 

Actually a cautious dream of mine is to have a game like PoE or an IE game where you can view a replay of your battles. But not with the pausing, not with the clicking, just a hidden HUD (okay perhaps party frames could be visible) and watching everyone duke it out in real-time.

 

All the pausing to optimize your toons brings my mind to chess. Certainly a game of skill, but not one of speed. With multiplayer, it could be both. As inefficient as it might be to spend resources on MP, I'm just voicing my thoughts

[TiQ79]

RP does completely match coop MP.

Since ever RP (p&p, tabletop, etc.) is always played in a party.

 

Ppl who do not acknowledge that fact simply don't understand the meaning of RP.

[Flayeriv]

Hey hey.

So I'm going to differ from most people here, I honestly don't mind the inclusion or non-inclusion of multiplayer as a deciding factor. That said, I hadn't realised there was no multiplayer and have since decided I want to share the experience of playing this game co-op with a friend. I for one thoroughly enjoyed this game single player, but would like to do co-op also.

Someone suggested the potential of modding in a multiplayer component eventually, and prior to that the suggestion that maybe in the expansions multiplayer might be added. I'd just like to ask, are there any mods that currently exist, or intentions to create a co-op option for this game in future?

[Clerith]

There are no working multiplayer mods, and there are zero intentions to add a co-op option in the future. The game's done, they said 3.0.3 was the last patch. Now, they might do a bugfix patch or something, but there's basically zero chance that they're developing something major for the game.

[Kazuma]

Besides, mp doesn't really work story wise. One player gets to be the MC and the others his lackeys? Not to mention the combat would be awkward with two people trying to pause. Come to think of it did the BG's have the same issue? Honestly I mainly used MP to load in my own custom characters since you didn't actually have to have a second player to play the came in MP mode. At any rate turn based or full action-rpg would be easier to implement MP for. Even playing solo I sometimes fight with the auto-pause. In MP you'd have to probably decide on a single auto-pause setting (or disable it). And then voicechat would probably be necessary (outside client is fine) so you could let the other person know you're pausing without having to use text chat. Doable but not exactly working out of the box.

 

Speaking of future games... I think it would be interesting if a MP party RPG had backgrounds that weren't just flavor text. If during character creation each background could be chosen only once then each of those characters could serve a different role within the context of the story. Custom characters + MP + Reactivity. One character can be a noble which spends part of the game going to social events with a chance to get directly involved in politics. Well you get the idea. There doesn't need to be a "chosen one". There could be the "chosen few" with backgrounds that integrate into the story in a substantial way. Turn the combat into an SRPG or First person Action RPG affair. I kinda like the idea of the former. Defending a stronghold with mechanics that take terrain, height, structures, etc into account would be nice.

 

There we go an SRPG+MP+GoT+Co-op or Vs game in which the goal is to unite (by force if necessary) the lands against the ultimate evil elephant that everyone is ignoring. It's all been done before but with good writing and interesting characters I'd play it.