NTW - Improved Multiplayer?

It seem, especially with the new option for drop in battles, the soon to be released alpha of the online campaign, and also all the recent previews that are set up for human vs. human games, that NTW would be an improvement in the Multiplayer areana.

With so much focus on online play... how will NTW improve what we have experienced with ETW's multiplayer? I played online several times when ETW first came out and soon quit because of the lack of some of the basics when it comes to a multiplayer game: chat rooms, better stats, automatch, quick set games where the units are set and balanced, etc.

I have decided, just this past week, to revist the online multiplayer of ETW... altough the graphics are surely dumbed down for lagg issues, what got me was that there was still a ton of lagg and not a lot of ppl.


So how has CA addressed these issues... if we decided to have dropin battles, will we be subjected to a lagg fest... would we be able toget ppl if you have a simple mod... will those drop'n in have to have vinilla to drop in... will there be ppl to play.

thoughts?

The display of games based on your Steam download region has to go (preferrably be optional; select the regions you want to see).
I sure hope they at least rewrite the game browser completely...
Start ETW with Fraps and enter the browser: FPS goes from 200 to 9
Plus, it's filter functionality is near useless, the era (early/late) isn't displayed, the sort-by-game-status only works inconsistently and
WHY ON EARTH DO THEY NEED TO SHOW THE GAMES I CAN'T JOIN?

Seriously CA, was this written by an intern who never played an online game before, in half an hour, using VBA, after a bottle of Vodka?

We have seen screens with a chat lobby. So that has improved. At one of the viewing events someone asked Keiran if it would be regional servers again and the answer was yes. I hope that is not correct. Regional servers would ruin the drop in battles idea. Especially for countries in time zones when few people are online.

yes... updated and actually useful FILTER is a must!

chat lobby... that's nice.

but my biggest gripe is the lack of an AutoMatch System... for a quick and resonable game. ideally, you would choose your faction and go!!! a set of standard, balanced units would be given and you would test you skills against another, balanced foe.

who knows

Originally Posted by daniu

The display of games based on your Steam download region has to go (preferrably be optional; select the regions you want to see).
I sure hope they at least rewrite the game browser completely...
Start ETW with Fraps and enter the browser: FPS goes from 200 to 9
Plus, it's filter functionality is near useless, the era (early/late) isn't displayed, the sort-by-game-status only works inconsistently and
WHY ON EARTH DO THEY NEED TO SHOW THE GAMES I CAN'T JOIN?

Seriously CA, was this written by an intern who never played an online game before, in half an hour, using VBA, after a bottle of Vodka?

Join as many ntw groups as you can if you are in the same group as somebody you always see their games. you alway see friend games too.

Also anyone know if they have penalized plug pulling and if there will be stats this time around?

the other problem is there are still no objectives or control points etc in regular battle mode. so ultimately there is no incentive to attack, or to make any strategy really. it will be a camp fest, and unless they have made the maps bigger or have some way to share community made maps more easily then there won't be any way to really flank your opponent(s) and the question of if and when to divide your forces never really comes up (ETW's maps are chronically too small). Additionally, even if the game ships with say 20 maps, those will all eventually get stale unless there is a way to easily share more maps...

and theyve completely ruined it by increasing the size of light infantry units

Originally Posted by dmcheatw

the other problem is there are still no objectives or control points etc in regular battle mode. so ultimately there is no incentive to attack, or to make any strategy really. it will be a camp fest, and unless they have made the maps bigger or have some way to share community made maps more easily then there won't be any way to really flank your opponent(s) and the question of if and when to divide your forces never really comes up (ETW's maps are chronically too small). Additionally, even if the game ships with say 20 maps, those will all eventually get stale unless there is a way to easily share more maps...

Exactly, i wanted objectives or maybe even capture the control points over the map in regular MP games to stop people from corner camping.

another serious problem to regular MP is DLC. when I play ETW now, as i have started to do again recently, EVERY faction has DLC, but me not wanting to be milked like livestock didn't buy SF, warpath, or any DLC. So basically i'm playing against all sorts of units i've never heard before... line that shoots at 90 meters, all sorts of mounted gunpowder units, specific infantry regiments, etc.`

right now with regard to mp the formula is i pay = i win. that isn't balanced.

Originally Posted by dmcheatw

another serious problem to regular MP is DLC. when I play ETW now, as i have started to do again recently, EVERY faction has DLC, but me not wanting to be milked like livestock didn't buy SF, warpath, or any DLC. So basically i'm playing against all sorts of units i've never heard before... line that shoots at 90 meters, all sorts of mounted gunpowder units, specific infantry regiments, etc.`

right now with regard to mp the formula is i pay = i win. that isn't balanced.

Just like mmos.

Originally Posted by dmcheatw

another serious problem to regular MP is DLC. when I play ETW now, as i have started to do again recently, EVERY faction has DLC, but me not wanting to be milked like livestock didn't buy SF, warpath, or any DLC. So basically i'm playing against all sorts of units i've never heard before... line that shoots at 90 meters, all sorts of mounted gunpowder units, specific infantry regiments, etc.`

right now with regard to mp the formula is i pay = i win. that isn't balanced.

You still get fergs,winbschue jeagars, grenzars, light dragoons when they were OP before patch and the DLCs only gives variety, not extra strength.
Most DLC units are overly expensive or just miscellaneous in real gameplay.
It's is your choice to purchase.

Yeah dlc doesnt mean much i can win with just superior line inf life guards, gaurd du corps and frei korps.

us marines, 1st maryland, buckleys regiment, 2nd hussars... those don't unbalance MP?