What about MP

[Robert]

MP is required for the longevity of the game.
If it has a good direct IP and a good pitboss format then I'm a happy guy.
There's some mentioning about integration with the community, I hope there will be possibilities to access community resources from within the game! We'll certainly explore the options there!

Civ is a game that needs MP b/c the part of diplomacy can never really be covered in depth by any AI. Like in our diplo games, a civ game begs for human players you can try to deceive There's no fun in deceiving an AI

[Robert]

And Firaxis must obviously ensure that all those civ4 connection problems are not an issue for civ V.

[Ming]

MP is required for the longevity of the game.
If it has a good direct IP and a good pitboss format then I'm a happy guy.

I agree... a direct IP connection will make me happy since I usually play with only people I know.
But that's because I'm not a big fan of many of the jerks at gamespy that drop out after a few turns if they don't like their start. If they set up a better way of doing it, that would be great, but yeah, direct IP and pitboss are a good start.

Like in our diplo games, a civ game begs for human players you can try to deceive There's no fun in deceiving an AI

Yeah, it's really not fun or satisfying to deceive an AI... it's just too easy

[CanuckSoldier]

Yes well there are no coding solutions to idiots unfortunately, the quiting problem in random open games is a primary reason we first created an MP league in the first month of Civ3 PTW.

But I do hope that if we are going to continue to use Gamespy, that 2K pay GS to moderate the lobby, that alone could radically change the atmosphere in the lobby and make that critical first impression of new players more positive. Or if they don't want to spend the money atleast convince GS to give the civplayers admins full GSA powers for the Civ5 lobby and let us bring some order to the chaos.

I really don't think that the devs in the past realize the huge impact that an unmoderated lobby has on the reputation that Civ gets from the experience of new players in the lobby. They can point fingers back and forth with GS, but in the end it is 2K/Firaxis's game.

And of course if we are going to stick to a p2p GS powered lobby lets make sure that it's the best coded system we can make. We can't code out internet lag, but we can for sure do better than the Civ4 matchmaking system.

We need to give game hosts more control of the game, like being able to kick players that are joining uninvited, and hosts need to have the ultimate say in in game votes, and be able to have a master pause/unpause function. And if a host drops there needs to be a clear indication of who the new host is. Civ4 was a great improvement over Civ3, Civ3 didn't even have a secure login, but we can certainly continue to build on the good things in Civ4 and make Civ5 even better.

These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head.

CS

[rah]

And if a host drops there needs to be a clear indication of who the new host is.

AMEN brother.

[wodan11]

Agree 100% with all that. Especially the mods. But, also it's a bigger issue as indicated by the problems with drops. You get the same thing with a ton of MP games, even so far as Internet Hearts that comes with Windows all the way up to Starcraft. People see their opening hand and drop, or at the first sign of trouble they drop.

The real way to do this is to have a player rating that stays with your account, and make it halfway involved to create an account and/or a delay for approval before a new account is activated. Then, drops and players who misbehave in the lobby can be given a rating penalty.

[CanuckSoldier]

Yes that is a problem and I'm not sure how other company ranking systems handle that, but I'm not going to hold my breath that Firaxis will design a league that tracks game accounts in any way that can't be circomvented. It's relatively easy to delete cookies, and there are easy ways to use internet proxies to mask your IP. Even with a good staff of humans like I have at Civplayers with software tools to help us identify duplicate accounts, it is still a struggle to catch everyone.

And most game companies don't want to employ humans to manage a ranking system. For instance GS "support" is nextto useless and about the only thing they ever crack down on is players pretending to be GS staff....

CS

[kittenOFchaos]

I'd like if the game shipped and gave you a persistant online record - who you've played, win/loss etc.

I liked that about ladder, pity they went a reset the stats, it helped kill my interest in ladder.


Another thing is having Civ5 release at the same time in UK/Europe as the States. Too much of an advantage for the Americans to have an extra 2 weeks at the start.

[wodan11]

That's why I said to make it a halfway pain in the ass (or have an approval time measured in days) to create an account.

See... it's all about convenience. The main reason people drop is because they can immediately go into a new game. If we can somehow make that harder to do, that will help (if not solve) the problem.

[CanuckSoldier]

I'd like if the game shipped and gave you a persistant online record - who you've played, win/loss etc.

I liked that about ladder, pity they went a reset the stats, it helped kill my interest in ladder.


Another thing is having Civ5 release at the same time in UK/Europe as the States. Too much of an advantage for the Americans to have an extra 2 weeks at the start.

Well we didn't set out to reset peoples stats, we moved to a much better league system and away from the near meaningless Cases Ladder system. That was just the cost of doing business.

I do hope you come back to the league when Civ5 comes out.

CS