Is SP or MP more important for a TBS game?

[leiavoia]

Greetings Apolytonians:

[if i picked the wrong forum for this post, please relocate]

I'm in the very beginning stages of putting together a turn-based space strategy like Master of Orion, et al. Lately, the few TBS games that have come out have tried to push multiplayer as a selling feature. However, designing this kind of game with multiplayer support is going to be a LOT of extra work, possibly not worth the trouble for my project. My questions for you are:

Is it more important for a TBS game to have enjoyable multiplayer support or a good solid AI for single player? If you had to make the game only single player or only multiplayer, which would you rather have?

In my small design circle, we are all leaning towards "concentrate on single player, flesh out multiplayer afterwards." So my current idea is to leave multiplayer "hooks" in the code but not actually program all the networking (right away). Of course, it would be faster to simply program the game strictly as a single player experience. Personally i would almost never play multiplayer.

I'm looking for input from as many people as i can reach. What do you think i should do?

[SlowwHand]

For me, there is no question. I much prefer MP.
Civ 3 blew chunks and pissed me off to no end.

[Winston]

For me it's single player. That's where you can get the great, epic game experience.

[:) Smiley]

For an independent release, I'd say if you have a big community of followers, go for MP, if not, SP.

[Proteus_MST]

For me it´s SP, definitely.
MP is a nice addition which I´d use now and then, but most of the time it would be SP

[Sir Og]

SP.
It is very difficult for most people to find people who are available to play MP with.

[snoopy369]

SP is more important ... but I'm not sure MP should be ignored pre-release either. And, for an indy publisher, MP might be better simply due to how much easier it is to code MP than to code an amazing AI.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

If it's only one or the other, then definitely single player. That being said, good multiplayer support is not an excuse for weak AI. One of the major problems with most TBS games is that they have weak automation AI, which forces players to micromanage, often more than they'd like...even with the focus on multiplayer, you still need automation AI. And once you have that, it's not a whole lot more to just make an AI opponent anyways.

[Ted Striker]

I find that games with strong single player experience have a weak multiplayer experience.

On the other hand games with a strong multi-player experience often have a weak single-player experience.

In the First Person Shooter world, I liked Half Life 2, and the Medal of Honor series, but not in multiplayer. In single player, these are some of the best games ever.

For Multiplayer shooter, I think the Battlefield series is easily the best ever.

[Urban Ranger]

SP - AI is very, very hard to do for something as open as Civ or MoO. Even after all these years the computer players still suck without cheating.

[Dis]

SP

multiplayer games suck. I either get in a game with a jackass who knows nothing about strategy and I roll right over him. Or I schedule games with some of you guys at Apolyton who read every single strategy thread and kick my ass .

I'm an average player, and I can't find average opponents.

[Jethro83]

I prefer single player in TBS games. In multiplayer games of this genre (RTS and RPG too), there's just too much powergaming. When opponents are simply looking for the shortest path to victory, rather than looking for an immersive experience, its just not much fun at all.

In TBS games, particularly Civ, I look for immersion, to role play, to enter the mindset of a certain type of person... in this case, the benevolent, omnipresent dictator of a fictional incarnation of a civ. To interact with this randomly generated world in a way such that a rich plot can form.

Multiplayer games just don't stimulate my imagination in the way single player games can.

[Ted Striker]

I agree with Jethro, the immersion is a big factor.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
I agree with Jethro, the immersion is a big factor.

that's what she said.

[Ted Striker]

That's a pretty good one.