No regular Multiplayer in Rome II?

[Ragox]

• Still no info at all regarding regular Multiplayer.

• Regular Multiplayer not mentioned in any store page, only Multiplayer campaign.

• CA developing this strange MP-focused ARENA game.

• A forward deployed release date.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Maybe CA have dropped the normal Multiplayer this time around?

SP-Campaign-only-players are kindly asked to not participate in this thread.

[daniu]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Ragox]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That is all you have to add?

I remember your MP commentaries on YT, are you not worried?

[G-Spike]

That is all you have to add?

I remember your MP commentaries on YT, are you not worried?

honestly thats all there is to say. ******** speculation

[Kinjo]

Most likely he MP details will be released around E3.

[Prof]

Why should anyone be worried?
We didn't have any previews for the MP part of any Total War game so far...

[Lancy]

Maybe CA have dropped the normal Multiplayer this time around?

Why would you say such a horrible thing?

Doubt they've dropped the MP though. It's been in every TW game, and all it really requires is custom battles and a repeat of the standard MP setup from ETW onwards. Comparatively little work would need to be done compared to other features.

[* Matolo Swazulu *]

• Still no info at all regarding regular Multiplayer.

• Regular Multiplayer not mentioned in any store page, only Multiplayer campaign.

• CA developing this strange MP-focused ARENA game.

• A forward deployed release date.

Maybe CA have dropped the normal Multiplayer this time around?

1) Getting multiplayer information quite late is now reasonably normal for a lot of games nowadays
2) Correct, but look back at 1
3) ARENA has nothing to do with the development of Rome 2 and has not hindered R2's development either.
4) Again number 1, most games release multiplayer information post realease date announcement.

Dropping multiplayer? : Why on earth would they do that!

[Ragox]

1) Getting multiplayer information quite late is now reasonably normal for a lot of games nowadays

That is definitely a possibility. I really do hope that's the case.

ARENA has nothing to do with the development of Rome 2 and has not hindered R2's development either.

How do you know that?
They probably transfered a part of their experienced Multiplayer development team towards that game.
It's very unlikely for them to hire completely new guys for such an important areas as network coding etc.

Dropping multiplayer? : Why on earth would they do that!

To save enormous amounts of work, making the early release in September possible.
Also this would avoid to create internal competition with their new online multiplayer focused game.

And we do know from the Steam achievements of Shogun II, that only a small percentage is actually actively playing MP!

[* Matolo Swazulu *]

• Still no info at all regarding regular Multiplayer.

• Regular Multiplayer not mentioned in any store page, only Multiplayer campaign.

• CA developing this strange MP-focused ARENA game.

• A forward deployed release date.

Maybe CA have dropped the normal Multiplayer this time around?

1) Getting multiplayer information quite late is now reasonably normal for a lot of games nowadays
2) Correct, but look back at 1
3) ARENA has nothing to do with the development of Rome 2 and has not hindered R2's development either.
4) Again number 1, most games release multiplayer information post realease date announcement.

Dropping multiplayer? : Why on earth would they do that!

[rohirrimelf]

Lancy

"Why would you say such a horrible thing?

Doubt they've dropped the MP though. It's been in every TW game, and all it really requires is custom battles and a repeat of the standard MP setup from ETW onwards. Comparatively little work would need to be done compared to other features."


Balancing for multiplayer is quite another thing then the campaign. I would accept romans to have a small edge on singleplayer but would not accept it on multiplayer. + the ai wont have the same skill as human players when it comes to handling curtain units like skirmichers or horse archers. And i dont expect the ai to be as competent as a decent human player. A lot of balancing will be required on stats and the cost for each unit. There will be 700+ units. I think a lot of manpower will be required to make a decent mp. + it is a big part of the game as many players just play for multiplayer mostly. I know i did on shogun 2.

[Lancy]

Balancing for multiplayer is quite another thing then the campaign. I would accept romans to have a small edge on singleplayer but would not accept it on multiplayer. + the ai wont have the same skill as human players when it comes to handling curtain units like skirmichers or horse archers. And i dont expect the ai to be as competent as a decent human player. A lot of balancing will be required on stats and the cost for each unit. There will be 700+ units. I think a lot of manpower will be required to make a decent mp. + it is a big part of the game as many players just play for multiplayer mostly. I know i did on shogun 2.

Including a bare bones MP wouldn't require so much at this stage, particularly as they already have the foundation in custom battles, and don't need to write entirely new code since it's on the warscape engine. So I can't see them dropping it altogether.

But yeh, to make a truly balanced MP they'd need a lot of manpower and effort, what with stat and cost balancing like you say. I doubt they'll be focusing much on this, so hopefully the extra effort they are already putting into the playable factions will mean they can actually stand up to each other than they did in the original RTW.

RTW had poor balancing and so eventually people resorted to making standard rulesets to attempt to mitigate the problem (i.e. limiting HA spam) but it was still a very entertaining game in MP, and the diversity made for great team games. Imo anyway. I think the balancing will be better in R2 as is anyway.

Also this would avoid to create internal competition with their new online multiplayer focused game.

If they drop MP from R2TW so they can focus on Arena they'll severely annoy the entire TW MP fan base. There goes the goodwill they'd need to help create a core player base for Arena.

[JGL]

With the way games are now, where almost every game has multiplayer, I find it unlikely that they would remove it. Hell, even a game like Lara Croft has multiplayer. Rubbish multi-player but multi-player nonetheless

I'm more worried about the campaign :p , WHERE DA INFO ON THAT CA :'(

Leaves to start a pointless thread about campaign info

[SonOfCrusader76]

With the way games are now, where almost every game has multiplayer, I find it unlikely that they would remove it. Hell, even a game like Lara Croft has multiplayer. Rubbish multi-player but multi-player nonetheless

I'm more worried about the campaign :p , WHERE DA INFO ON THAT CA :'(

Leaves to start a pointless thread about campaign info

Yeah, MP be damned! What about the campaign? As I said before, in order for one turn/year to work we need to see revolutionary changes to the way the campaign works.

[rohirrimelf]

Lancy,

"Including a bare bones MP wouldn't require so much at this stage, particularly as they already have the foundation in custom battles,"

True, but i dont think just copy paste will do. When u look at shogun`s sp and mp the units are way different on their stats. Players are really competitive and when one of the factions is OP a lot of players will probably just not play it anymore (mp) or use only that faction. Same as with units who are to cost effective. Remember Yari Cav for shogun 2 mp. Anti cav cav were better then anti melee cav due to their cost and strenght.

"But yeh, to make a truly balanced MP they'd need a lot of manpower and effort, what with stat and cost balancing like you say. I doubt they'll be focusing much on this,"

Well if i would make a decent mp about rome 2 i think this will take up like 90% of my time. Just the balancing part. I would say it is very important.

I dont think players will play according to the rules we come up with if we dont restrict them to go for an OP matchup. Yes they can do this but not on a ladder system unless there are restrictions set by Sega.

[Lancy]

True, but i dont think just copy paste will do. When u look at shogun`s sp and mp the units are way different on their stats. Players are really competitive and when one of the factions is OP a lot of players will probably just not play it anymore (mp) or use only that faction. Same as with units who are to cost effective. Remember Yari Cav for shogun 2 mp. Anti cav cav were better then anti melee cav due to their cost and strength.

Trend does seem to being go that way of separating the stats. Probably CA will attempt to balance as well as they can, but I'd guess most of the balancing will come from player feedback.

I dont think players will play according to the rules we come up with if we dont restrict them to go for an OP matchup. Yes they can do this but not on a ladder system unless there are restrictions set by Sega.

Yeh true. Most of my experience is from RTW and because there's a global lobby there the community is more compact, even quite a few years a go when there were many more players, so generally getting people to play by the established rules is pretty easy, especially among the clan/competitive community. Way S2 lobby and the match made system isn't quite so easy for this.

[Lord Dakier]

Of course MP will be in just cause it's not been mentioned.

[GrudgeNL]

This is not much, but I thought it may be worth posting: http://store.steampowered.com/app/21...snr=1_7_15__13

This is directly from the Greek states DLC - Steam page description:

About the Game

The Greek States Culture Pack adds a new playable Culture including three new playable Factions to Total War: ROME II; for use in Single or Multiplayer Campaign modes and Custom and Multiplayer Battles.

[eXistenZ]

case closed. can we please drop the endless speculation...

[Ravefothepeople]

• Still no info at all regarding regular Multiplayer.

• Regular Multiplayer not mentioned in any store page, only Multiplayer campaign.

• CA developing this strange MP-focused ARENA game.

• A forward deployed release date.


Maybe CA have dropped the normal Multiplayer this time around?

SP-Campaign-only-players are kindly asked to not participate in this thread.

Considering they haven't shown the campaign or any campaign gameplay, is that safe to say there will no single-player component?


Someone mentioned e3 and they were right, we should see some campaign gameplay at e3 and a short clip or trailer for multiplayer.

Sigh** I just want to be relieved that the game will be great.