BTS and MP

[Ming]

They would really need a different group of testers/advisors.

I think it would be great if for JUST ONCE, they really thought about the needs of the MP audience.

I would love a version of the game that was set up for MP and NOT SP.

Probably not going to happen... not enough money in it.

[rah]

Yeah but for XPs the goal is to squeeze as much money as you can out of the orginal. After BTS I doubt they could do much more to squeeze the SP players, but tweaking it for the MP players (and throw in another 6 civs with a few more units) and they could probably squeeze a few more bucks out of it, while they work on ciV

[CanuckSoldier]

I would certianly put my full weight behind a real MP oriented XP. I'm sure that there is enough content for this, when you take into consideration that a real Client-Server matchmaking system, with all the stats tracking that would go into that alone is quit the undertaking. As well there are any number of improvements we could do for the core mp game, not to mention pitboss and pbem improvements.

The real issue is whether tak2 can be convinced that Civ4 can be the first TBS game to be a huge success, that has only been the realm of FPS, RPG and RTS games to date. And that an XP can return there investment.

CS

[snoopy369]

Civ4 was a huge step in the right direction MP-wise... the first civ designed as a MP game originally and SP game later, the first civ to have built-in mp from launch date.

I think either an expansion, or Civ5, will more than likely continue that trend ... just because the SP game is honestly pretty darned good as it is, and there's so much more room to grow in MP.

[bantams]

Since Most of the Beta Testers play MP once in a blue Moon its hardly supprising BTS as so many MP bugs

[Dulaak]

This actually could have been a really good game. As I said before, Civ4 resembles something still in development. They didn\'t test the ideas out fully, and they didn\'t take them far enough. I see a basic game with a lot of potential, but I think the fact that it is so basic and there\'s nothing really unique in it reflects the incompetence and lack of talent in their current developers at Firaxis. Things I\'ve heard from beta testers, people who defended Civ4 against me over the years, have confirmed this and is very telling of what is to come in Civ5. Hence I don\'t really have much hope for Civ5 being a good game. I\'d offer my advice and ideas for free if I thought they\'d listen, but I know they won\'t so I\'m just waiting for a better game to come along. I really feel nothing but disappointment as I was really looking forward to Civ4 when it first came out.

[MasterDave]

I think that the new stuff in BTS will be an improvement for multiplayer. There are more viable choices for civs, the tech tree reshuffling should break up the monotonous beeline through muskets-grens-cannon that seems to be the current order of the day for the saturday games. I think the espionage will be kind of fun as well.

The only problem I foresee is that the really cool new stuff like corporations and the new modern units will very rarely come into play in our Saturday games (and most other multiplayer games for that matter). I think in almost two years of playing Civ4 online I have been in two games that made it to flight before the game ended.

I was looking forward to trying it out last Saturday, but alas, not everyone in our group is as keen on buying or trying new stuff as I am and we reverted to Warlords. Hopefully we will play the new hotness this Saturday...

[Dulaak]

Congratulations Firaxis, you managed to make the Saturday night gamers who play once a week happy. Even though everyone has pretty much figured out espionage is screwed up and anyone who is even remotely intelligent and has some skill can see there\'s been very little changes in BTS, the casual MP players won\'t figure it out for months. I think Firaxis is in need of a well deserved pat on the back. Just because all your MP beta testers quit Civ4, and just because you turned off all the Civ3 MP players, and just because Civ4Mp is dying a quick death doesn\'t mean that Civ4 isn\'t an absolute success in MP. The problem isn\'t the game play, it\'s that players just don\'t realize the genius that is Civ4. As long as guys like MasterDave still play, CIv4MP will be a vibrant community filled with as many as 5 games running simultaneously on Saturdays.