Don't think Multiplayer. Think Online Worlds.

[sekong]

Originally posted by DanS
Hmmm... Online worlds sounds expensive. Like $10/month, the same as Ultima Online.

AS the case of Artifact, you can play free as nominad, or $25 one time for basic member.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Wittlich


Yes Dainbramaged, MarkG has posted that there will be a chat session tomorrow at 4:00 PM EST. In Markos' own words: Be there.

But getting back to the subject, I think it has to do with Apolyton receiving an advanced copy of Civ3.

But I like your beliefs too Bisonbison and Sekong - That would be really cool to find out more info concerning the future of MP in Civ3!

This sounds great!

[TheBirdMan]

I have just tried Artifact as Sekong writes about.

Sekong is right about depth of the game - someting like Age Of Empires but with the gamelenght of a CIV-game. I don't expect to become an addict of that game - but the hours passed rather quickly yesteday, when I "ruined" my first civilization. Total failure.

This morning I just "joined" a second game, that had started about 30 hours earlier - no problem. I think I was the 60'th player in that game. As you can guess, not all players are online at the same time.

And as Sekong writes. You can play for free - but only in 2 games at a time and only a few hours a day per game. Or you can pay and have access to many more games a many more hours.

When you have used your time for that day, you are still able to watch your game, but you cannot command it - an AI is taking over - or you can have allies to watch your civ, when you are away for other duties/work/school etc.

Most important is, that the concept works!

It could be fun if this could be carried over to either a CIV or a CTP clon (CIV IV or CTP III - or whatever the next title/version will be).

[LoD]

ajbera: I have explored that possibility (AI) in my previous post. And I have played quite a lot of MP games, so I know how much it requires commitment.

sekong: Could you please explain to me how they did it, as I can't find a FAQ anywhere? BTW, isn't Artifact RTS?

LoD

[Jason Beaudoin]

Regarding the big announcement tomorrow: I'm guessing it'll not only touch on multi-player, but perhaps offer a radically expanded multiplayer version of the game.

This is an angle I never thought about. Well done!

If Firaxis does create something totally revolutionary for MP in TBS games, it would make a lot of sense not to include it in this upcoming release, and I think I'd be able to forgive them (maybe ) for not telling us about it sooner.

If it was something revolutionary and new, it would make sense that they didn't tell us anything about it early. They wouldn't want any potential competitors to jump on it.

[sekong]

How do they make it.

1st, my thanks to Thebirdman for trying out and confirming what I said. You are right, it could be addictive as well.

For LoD: here is a link of helps:

http://www.samugames.com/artifact/help/

a basic summary:

http://www.samugames.com/artifact/

Yes, it's RTS. But later I found there are turns as wells. But turns here does not mean players take turns to make their order, units take turns to attack, etc, which I think is downside for a on-line game. Instead, turns here means some important production, improvements get updated for every 5/10 minutes a turn.

How do they make it? It's a more difficult question to answer, but easier to experience.
Short answer:
1) massive orders
2) Good pathfinding algorithm
3) simplified science discovery/ tech improvement
4) fairplaying
5) alliance/clan system.

Long answers:
Although sid said he get the inspiration of civ from simcity. But actually, artifact is closer to simcity than civ does. Like in simcity (or similar games like Caeser III), you lay out the city constructures(?), give massive orders to outline the cities, and units. Then city will begin to grow and improve. The units will walk the distance to explore the world, find the enemy or important targets. When they doing these, you don't have to be online all the time. Important events will be registered on a log report. You just come back in time to check the results and make new orders. Or at some point, directly command the critical battles.

When we look at civ playing, we spend a lot of time to finger ordering units. Which should not very nessary if there is a good pathfinding algorithm

Another big part of civ is anxiously waiting for the shields/food to fill the que. In artifact, you can just give out the order and then come back when it's done. I think in civ3, with the city production order list, we can do similar things. (massive orders)

The 3 rd big part of civ-playing is climbing the science-tree. Artifact simply omit it. That's the part as a civer I don't like about. And need to be improved. And there are solutions obviously, if you know about SMAC.

A lot of civver, espacially deity players have the habit of micromanagement. If civ implement as an on-line-world game, I don't think you can do that, and you don't have to. Because every one are all the same: fairplaying.

In Artifact, If you have alliance with other players, they can watch out for you when you are not on-line. Actually, their most important role is to make sure when someone attacking you, there is a human player helping you with defending the civ. This is how they make it in artifact. I don't know if an on-line-world civ should do that. But obviously a good thing to consider...

Sorry for my English, I hope it could be understood.

[sekong]

Here is a review:

http://www.csonline.cc/readPosting.asp?PostingId=538977

It ends with :
"If you are a big fan of the Civilization and RTS games then you should really like this game. You have empire building, city management, and conquering in one game and it can be extremely challenging sometimes because other human players surround you. The replay ability is great and there are always things to try and do. "

Yes, I did like it

[Akillias]

Online World??

lol i cant imagine 879 players waiting in line to play

[sekong]

Re: Online World??

Yes, because it's not what happened.

Originally posted by Akillias
lol i cant imagine 879 players waiting in line to play

[Sarxis]

Hmm, the speculations and discussion here is all very interesting. Since I want to keep an open mind, and also since Firaxis has yet to tell us anything about CivIII MP, I will just watch and wait.

Another completely free online world type game is Planetarion. Well, at least it was free when I played it. www.planetarion.com

[dainbramaged13]

i did not like the game, and it would definetly not work with civ. THe system is that all the units and buildings follow your last orders until they are done, or until u get back. This would not work in civ3, sincs u usually give orders per turn, or, once every two turns. It woudln't work.