Discussion: Multiplayer in Total War

[DarrenTotalWar]

Hey there, I had been doing research for a video about multiplayer in Total War and specifically why it has been stripped to its bare components in Rome II and what could be done to make it better for the next total war game.
The basic questions i have is:
Would you like to see Drop-in battles feature again in TW games? Would you play them? What would you need to get you to play them? A reward etc?
Did you play Shogun 2 multiplayer? Should there be another avatar conquest style multiplayer? Is multiplayer something you would be even interested in for TW games?

I discuss how I think this could work in TW! Check it out

[KaHzModAn]

Nice vid as always, thanks for the thoughts.

BTW you did have a reward for playing drop in battles in S2 when playing the opponent, it counted like a victory on the avatar map, unlocking new units and stuff

Although like a large majority of S2 players (I think) i loved the option of drop in battles but didnt play much of them (like 5 battles in my 400+ hours of game)
important battles because i feared players would use exploits and mess up my campaign ... and easy battles because i didnt want it to be boring

Thats the clear benefit of multiplayer campaign, you play against a friend who you can trust not to exploit anything.

But I am highly for the return of better multi in a future TW, especially the avatar, it was great fun with army customization and all,
even if i'm against the idea of a campaign reward, maybe it should give you other bonuses, like new multiplayer levels for your avatar or unlocks or XP for your avatars army...

Maybe they didnt put anything in R2 because they hopped it would draw people to future TW Arena so they kept their ideas ?

[Airkiller52]

I agree that they should have kept drop in battles from shogun 2 even though I'm pretty sure I never even used them. One thing I don't think they were wrong in was taking avatar multiplayer out. First of all I don't even see how it would have worked with Rome 2. Would you have to have separate leaders for every nation? What about specialty units like chariots and elephants? Wouldn't those be very unbalanced if you couldn't unlock elephants early on? Also in general I feel that Shogun 2's avatar conquest was inherently imbalanced for lack of choice on the part of the person who had played less. For example if I played against someone who had all units unlocked and I didn't and I wanted to have an army using matchlock units as skirmishers I couldn't until I leveled up and as most people who played shogun 2 online know matchlocks were far more effective than archers.

[JackDionne]

There was no bigger fan than I for the Avatar Campaign, I logged over 2000 hrs. I also defended the concept at every chance when people were bad mouthing it.


See signature block.


I only buy/bought TW games for the multiplayer. I have only 38 hrs logged on to Rome II with no DLC bought. Shogun II I bought all the dlc and lots of hours played as stated above.


My biggest issue whit RII is the multiplayer aspect it took a drastic step back that's why I don't play it. Hence I will spend my money elsewhere. I learnt my lesson when it comes to buying games. Never pre-purchase and do not believe any reviews till you have seen it yourself.

[iWarsaw]

Good topic.

I don't want to mix Avatar Conquest with customization. Avatar Conquest could of been taken out, leveling up the units, unlocking units, that stuff, but the customization should of been left in then port the customization to the single player for customizing your armies. Imagine being able to change each legions color, having the symbol editor work in the same way changing the units symbol their shields. Then you could recreate legions!!! They should of expanded on the customization not strip it out.

Multiplayer needs solid customization for long term replay ability. Every triple A title has great MP customization (If it does have MP) That also translates into people playing the game longer and buying more dlc. The customization would also help the single players lack of narrative. Right now I don't feel a connection to my armies and being able to change the way they look would go a long way.

JackDionne it hurts
our avatars stripped of life
where are my pink men

Avatar Conquest, well the ability to customize my army and general made Shogun 2 for me. Shogun 2 was my first serious total war, I have hard copies I played years ago in my closet, when I played shogun 2 I loved it so much I bought the rest of the series on steam. Have thousands hours logged because the customization just sucked me in and then I got sucked into Total war.

It didn't help either people constantly bad mouthed Avatar Conquest saying they never wanted it but Inever saw anyone say they never wanted to customize their army. Perhaps they could of found a way to fit it in. You could always just change generals and have preloaded color presets. It not an impossible idea. The unlocks could of been purely cosmetics. Doesn't help either pre-release none of this was discussed.

Never did drop in battles. Always thought it was a cool idea though. Well I did a few times but from what I remember it was random on how long it took to find a match so I didn't use it.

[totalwar_legend]

Multiplayer campaigns are all I really care about and Rome II delivers them ok. Except when people quit out of the game rather than concede defeat right when you're taking their last settlement and thereby denying you the achievement. lol. There are some bugs *tax bug* but they are slowly getting ironed out. It would be great to have more than 2 people play in a campaign like in medieval 2 but that would require hot seating and thats a pain to deal with.

I think the most important thing with Multiplayer campaigns, and Darren can attest to this with me from our game, is deciding the rules you want to play with. Like when to manual resolve and when to auto. ect.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

One thing I really enjoy in my game-playing is creating a storyline that I can imagine as I play.
With the lack of a proper political system in Rome II, I'd have loved to be able to play multiple factions as a co-op/versus campaign.
As an example - when playing games in the Football Manager series, I've always played multiple teams, sometimes as many as thirteen teams, across different leagues, all at the same time, trying with each team to gain as much success as possible.

My internet's too patchy to play online, and a campaign across the internet is basically out of the question - I still like to play old-fashioned.
But I'd like to have had the option of a single-player multi-faction campaign. Wouldn't it be great to be able to play as Rome AND Egypt, dividing the world between your two empires (perhaps even with an option to choose sides if one declares war on the other in late-game?) To be able to move your Roman and Egyptian armies around, in concert, playing out your storylines of the cooperation of two allies?

I think it'd be boss.
I'm sure there was some sort of similar thing in Medieval 2, although it's so long since I've played it, I can't remember if that's my memory or my imagination...

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Only 7 posts? Really?