Evil Muppet

Join Date 03/2006

Single Player Only Please

I think its a good time for Stardock to be working on multiplayer. There are very few bugs left, and we're about to get an awesome expansion pack. The devs have given the game enough love to create one of the best single player games for a long time.

I think we're going to be kept busy by Dark Avatar long enough for the devs to devote some time to multiplayer, and thats fine, BUT...

When the next expansion is released, its going to be an SP/MP combo.

There have been two multiplayer related polls (at the time of posting, one is still active). Both polls show that about two thirds of the community are not interested in multiplayer.

I think in that case, its a mistake to force those players to pay for multiplayer that they don't want. I know I'm not happy about paying for it, thats for sure.

When I heard about Dark Avatar, I was 100% convinced I was going to buy it. With the announcement of the next expansion, I am only 50% convinced I'll buy it, if that. I'm going to have to examine it carefully, take the MP out of the equation, and see if its worth the money. If its not, then sorry Stardock, but I won't buy it.

Please Stardock, can you release two versions of the next expansion? One with multiplayer, and one without?

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come on! they said it loud and clear: NO MULTIPLAYER ON THE EXPANSION AND NOT IN GALCIV 4!

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They did?

You mean like this:

Stardock does, however, plan to create an expansion pack sometime mid next year to GalCiv II that includes multiplayer depending on how well Dark Avatar sells (pricing would be about the same as Dark Avatar and it would have lots of other features as well to make sure it appeals to a wide spectrum).

Quote from Frogboy in News

It helps to read the WHOLE post you are replying to. That and thinking before replying.

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When I heard about Dark Avatar, I was 100% convinced I was going to buy it. With the announcement of the next expansion, I am only 50% convinced I'll buy it, if that. I'm going to have to examine it carefully, take the MP out of the equation, and see if its worth the money. If its not, then sorry Stardock, but I won't buy it.

I agree with this 100%. It is exactly how I think.

I have no problem at all with stardock bringing out a multiplayer expansion for GC2. Indeed I would like stardock to make the very best multiplayer ever made in gaming history for GC2. But make it entirely multiplayer, no single player features at all. Then sell it to all those players who love and rave about multiplayer. This should make everyone happy. The multiplayer community gets what they want and all single player users can bypass this expansion.

This will however not happen.

Why? Economics. Simply put the multiplayer community need all us single players to subsidise there multiplayer gaming. We after be mugs and stump up the $$$ otherwise the developers would make a loss if only the multiplayer community bought the expansion.

One final note to be fair, Brad/Stardock have been clever in that to cut cost/development time for multiplayer in this expansion, they r going to use multiplayer code from the society game they r developing. This will mean they can squeeze in more single player features to appeal to a wider audience. They r really trying to please as many people as possible. It's also not there fault, that the gaming industry as a whole, gaming magazines being the biggest offender has pandered to a small part of the gaming community who want multiplayer at the direct expense of good AI.

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

I don't mind spending money on a game I know I like.

Money spent on games that I hoped would be good but turn out to be a POS is what really bothers me.

I do buy the rational for no multiplayer (at least initially). With multiplayer the AI can easily be rationalized as just fodder for the human players. Also, not having anyone to play with locally, all the issues of trying to hook up for a game, get one started only to have your opponent give up the instant it's likely he's going to lose, is also annoying. So is the converse of feeling obligated to play out a certain loss. One of the best things an AI does is lose gracefully.

But with all that said, I think a multiplayer capability is necessary to in some sense validate the game. It's fine to come up with interesting strategies that may be fun to play and may result in a top metaverse score, but is the top metaverse player really the best player? With a multiplayer capability we could find out. Otherwise all we're really doing here is playing solitare.

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They did?

You mean like this:
Stardock does, however, plan to create an expansion pack sometime mid next year to GalCiv II that includes multiplayer depending on how well Dark Avatar sells (pricing would be about the same as Dark Avatar and it would have lots of other features as well to make sure it appeals to a wide spectrum).

Quote from Frogboy in News

It helps to read the WHOLE post you are replying to. That and thinking before replying.

And thats how it should be. They are half way through implementing multiplayer. Why do you think they keep asking in the polls: Do you want multiplayer? Do you want multiplayer? Do you want multiplayer? And you fanboys keep dissapointing them with the poll answers.

I've got new for you no multiplayer and I'm Not buying the expansion pack.

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I would like MP myself

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2410

Dark Avatar has no multiplayer in it.

Next year, Stardock's Society and one of our other games in development are expected to switch to a universal multiplayer library set. It is our plan to simply inject those libraries into an expansion.

People in my opinion should make purchasing decisions based on whether the features THEY WANT justify the cost involved. If some expansion pack tha tincludes multiplayer fails to have enough features to justify the money, don't buy it.

The polls and multiplayer discussion had to do with whether the GalCiv budget should be used to include multiplayer. My argument has always been, and continues to be that there simply aren't enough people who make purchasing decisions based on whether it has multiplayer or not to justify using up GalCiv's budget on multiplayer. The same is true of Dark Avatar. For Dark Avatar we wanted to focus on expanding the game play and not spend money on multiplayer that wouldn't be heavily used.

But late next year, we should have a universal multiplayer library that we can start plugging in and that library isn't developed on GalCiv's budget but rather on Society's budget which (as an MMO) has to have such a library. While there is some modest cost in integrating those libraries in with our pre-existing plumbing, it's a LOT more modest than if the GalCiv team had to spend months developing and testing a multiplayer systme from the ground up.

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I'll be stealing a credit card to pay for the online purchase of Dark Avatar. And if that works out, I might as well use it to see what all this mp hubbub is about.

Haven't played a single game online yet, not ever. Stardock can count on making money on this initiation as far as I'm concerned.

Can't wait for the society game really. I'm being influenced, and can't help it.

Did I just admit I'm a fanboy? Well, it's a good company to support.

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I've never played a MP game of any TBS game.

However, I have trouble understanding why it is/would be that expensive to implement MP into GC2. Of course, I have no experience coding MP so.......

And the GC2 community is vibrant enough to prob be able to find someone to play GC2 with in MP. And I always hold out hope that I'll find a friend/relative that has my interest in 4X TBS games.

only to have your opponent give up the instant it's likely he's going to lose

Is this all bad? The cleanup phase of the game is often boring. Having a human opponent determine when it is time give up might be a big improvement over having the AI decide when you've won.

The devs could have an option for you to continue the game with the AI taking over after a human player bugs out.

An MP league with games that start with only human players would prob be fun.
Have AI take over for human players as they bug out.
Human Players get more points for the longer they stay in.
Last Human standing wins -- he can continue the game against the AI if he wants.
I'm sure much better refinement of game rules could be made up.

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Don't you think that by now the polls are rigged? I'm not saying in a politically evil way but in the sense that most of those that enjoy the multiplayer experience have left this game and gone on to greener pastures (ie. games with multiplayer). So of course the polls always show no one wants multiplayer. But as I understand it the point of adding this feature would be to bring in those customers who are missing out on this great game by giving them what they want in the game. A larger fan base means more people working on mods, more people asking for patches, more people keeping this game alive long after the devs have gone on to galciv3 and other games.

By adding in this feature the company stands to increase their customer base and increase revenue. This in turn makes the game more succsesful and means they can afford to support the game in more ways (ie. expansion packs, patches). It also gives the team a better financial start to work on other games (galciv3,society) So saying that adding multiplayer will take away from the work being done on the single player experience may be true but not to the extent some believe. By not buying an expansion because it offers a feature you don't like you aren't making a statement you are just missing out on all the other features included in the X-pack.

I for one love that multiplayer will finally become a part of this great game. I have always enjoyed playing with friends on these types of games. I enjoy this game but having multiplay in the mix will certainly increase its longevity.

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I'll be stealing a credit card to pay for the online purchase of Dark Avatar. And if that works out, I might as well use it to see what all this mp hubbub is about.

LOL, before you do that, you see if you can buy a bank gift card. You get the convenience of a debit/credit card but it only has whatever amount you put on it, so less worries about security.

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I'm not saying in a politically evil way but in the sense that most of those that enjoy the multiplayer experience have left this game and gone on to greener pastures (ie. games with multiplayer). So of course the polls always show no one wants multiplayer.

100 % true

sure polls will show no multiplayer needed but i want it and ill pay for it

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