Mutilplayer seems to work now. Time to make it slick

Although multiplayer works now its still a bare-bones interface that needs improving. This is what it needs:

 

Custom Games:

1) "Game list" still freezes (albeit for a shorter time) whenever requests are made to the server. Requests need to be done in the background.

2) The time taken to connect to other players needs to be shortened.

3) The "game list" needs to show ping and performance of every game. Because its P2P it should show the slowest ping in that particular game and the worst performance.

4) Need some kind of display of player rank in custom game. In Pantheon we build up experience - well we need a visual indication of this and it needs to be transposed to custom, in order that we can find matches against players of similar skill.

 

Pantheon:

1) Get rid of AI totally.

2) Have the option of 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4, 5 vs 5.

3) Have an Arranged-Team option.

18,218 views 36 replies
Reply #1 Top

Yes, and this arranged-team option can only play with other arranged teams. Perhaps even have two multiplayer partitions; "Clan Pantheon" and a "Standard Pantheon".

Reply #2 Top

thats the good thing about internetz, with so many brains thinking often someone comes out with an idea noone else in the world would ever think

Reply #5 Top

4) Need some kind of display of player rank in custom game [...] in order that we can find matches against players of similar skill.
End of quote

I agree with your principle (2nd half of the quote). At the moment, I win too easily against newbies, and I get "gang-raped" by teams of quasi-pro guys who know each other and coordinate efficiently against teams of average players (who do not know each other). I don't mind losing and learning (and I never quit), but an unfairly imbalanced team setup spoils the match almost from the start.

I disagree with your suggestion of displaying the ranks, because the system is broken. I have played about 12 custom games to the very end, in April, and the official ranking hierarchy indicates that I have only played 1 game (0 win / 1 loss) ... while it rather should be about 8W / 4 L . (Check it out by searching for the player Sorceresss.)

If you're going to indicate a player's rank, you'd better be sure that the official ranking system is always correct (after the daily update).

 

 

Reply #6 Top


Although multiplayer works now its still a bare-bones interface that needs improving. This is what it needs:

Custom Games:

1) "Game list" still freezes (albeit for a shorter time) whenever requests are made to the server. Requests need to be done in the background.

2) The time taken to connect to other players needs to be shortened.

3) The "game list" needs to show ping and performance of every game. Because its P2P it should show the slowest ping in that particular game and the worst performance.

4) Need some kind of display of player rank in custom game. In Pantheon we build up experience - well we need a visual indication of this and it needs to be transposed to custom, in order that we can find matches against players of similar skill.

Pantheon:

1) Get rid of AI totally.

2) Have the option of 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4, 5 vs 5.

3) Have an Arranged-Team option.

End of quote

Quoting Sorceresss, reply 5

I agree with your principle (2nd half of the quote). At the moment, I win too easily against newbies, and I get "gang-raped" by teams of quasi-pro guys who know each other and coordinate efficiently against teams of average players (who do not know each other). I don't mind losing and learning (and I never quit), but an unfairly imbalanced team setup spoils the match almost from the start.

I disagree with your suggestion of displaying the ranks, because the system is broken. I have played about 12 custom games to the very end, in April, and the official ranking hierarchy indicates that I have only played 1 game (0 win / 1 loss) ... while it rather should be about 8W / 4 L .

If you're going to indicate a player's rank, you'd better be sure that the official ranking system is always correct (after the daily update).

(I play under my dad's nick, because there's a bug which causes that our new Impulse Account nick is not recognized after log-in!)
End of Sorceresss's quote

1. I believe GPG already has a solution for this, but have not yet made it public.

2. The time taken is the amount of time we need in order to connect all of the players.  It is directly attributable to each player's connection speed, so if a slow player is chosen, it will take longer for all of the other players to connect to that player.  However, there may be some minor things we can do to decrease the wait time.  I'll see what T-Man thinks.

Pantheon:

1. We're working on decreasing the amount of AI, but I don't think we'll be getting rid of all AI.

3. When clan support is implemented, this may come with it.  I'll try to push for it :)

Sorceress, the stats are inaccurate for the moment, but we are trying to fix that. Soon enough the ranks will be a good representation of a player's a skill.  Actually, I think showing the "Experience" number would be far more helpful.  Seeing someone with 400 experience versus someone with 1200 experience should tell you right away how good that player is.

And, if you haven't already, I'd recommend contacting support at [email protected] about your Impulse account issue.  They'll be able to help you with it.

Bara

Reply #7 Top

Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 6



2. The time taken is the amount of time we need in order to connect all of the players.  It is directly attributable to each player's connection speed, so if a slow player is chosen, it will take longer for all of the other players to connect to that player.  However, there may be some minor things we can do to decrease the wait time.  I'll see what T-Man thinks.

End of GunslingerBara's quote

 

I'm sorry, but honestly ? That's crap. I mean, not the improvements you guys are looking for, it's kind of nice to see devs working so hard on their games...but what is crappy is the system you used in the first place.

That must be the only game I know of that needs a perfect network configuration in order just to join a damn game. I'd understand that one couldn't host due do some network misconfiguration, but joining ? come on...

Very disappointed by this side of the game.

Reply #8 Top

I'm sorry but I did not develop the networking system.  The people who did, however, are hard at work in resolving all of the connection problems.  We have come a long way since launch.

Bara

Reply #9 Top

Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 6


Sorceress, the stats are inaccurate for the moment, but we are trying to fix that. Soon enough the ranks will be a good representation of a player's a skill.  Actually, I think showing the "Experience" number would be far more helpful.  Seeing someone with 400 experience versus someone with 1200 experience should tell you right away how good that player is.

Bara
End of GunslingerBara's quote

OK, then : thanxxx. 

At the moment, I am only credited with having played 1 game, although I am certain of having finished at the very least 10 custom games, since the April release. I wonder why the System did not register those, but I'm content that you are trying to fix that.

Oh, well : having a 0W/1L stat displayed in public is not humiliating. ;) 

Reply #10 Top

I think its a mistake that you guys are going to keep some AI.  It would be nice if you could explain to the community what your reasons for doing so are, because I don't think anyone here thinks its a good idea.

Are we ever going to see an indication of ping or rank in the custom games list?

Reply #11 Top

Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 8
I'm sorry but I did not develop the networking system.  The people who did, however, are hard at work in resolving all of the connection problems.  We have come a long way since launch.

Bara
End of GunslingerBara's quote

And I seriously hope that the same people will be able to sort everything out, and quickly enough before it kills the online reputation of this game.

Reply #12 Top

Quoting Sorceresss, reply 9

Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 6

Sorceress, the stats are inaccurate for the moment, but we are trying to fix that. Soon enough the ranks will be a good representation of a player's a skill.  Actually, I think showing the "Experience" number would be far more helpful.  Seeing someone with 400 experience versus someone with 1200 experience should tell you right away how good that player is.

Bara
OK, then : thanxxx. 

At the moment, I am only credited with having played 1 game, although I am certain of having finished at the very least 10 custom games, since the April release. I wonder why the System did not register those, but I'm content that you are trying to fix that.

Oh, well : having a 0W/1L stat displayed in public is not humiliating.  
End of Sorceresss's quote

Any games you've played from last Friday until a couple of days ago were lost due to a bug.  I apologize for that.  Since a few days ago though, your games should have been saved.  Is that not the case?  Have you played any games recently that have not been saved?  Try a couple today, if possible.

Quoting chris701, reply 10
I think its a mistake that you guys are going to keep some AI.  It would be nice if you could explain to the community what your reasons for doing so are, because I don't think anyone here thinks its a good idea.

Are we ever going to see an indication of ping or rank in the custom games list?
End of chris701's quote

I agree with you, AI should not be in Pantheon.  However, due to the connection issues we are having, if we did not add AI then you would never get into a game.  Especially for bigger maps like Mandala.  Once the connection issues are resolved, we'll see about removing AI from the Pantheon.

As far as ping/rank/experience in custom games, I don't think that will happen for the time being, at least not until more important issues are resolved.

Bara

Reply #13 Top

1. Get rid of the pathing/targeting bugs

2. Add teaming

3. Make it so that in a Player vs. Player match, if all of Team A leaves, then Team B should get an automatic win (loss for Team A) without even being given the option of fighting bots.  It's kind of nice that a bot will take over for a D/C or something, but an entire team leaving is a concession on their part.  It should be fully treated as such.

side stuff

a.  think about adding a party window for a game to track allied DGs (hp, mana, stats), or maybe just your own minions as a general.

AND/OR

b.  make an option for turning health bars on permanently.  unless this is already in and i don't see it.

Reply #14 Top

Also while we are on the topic of AI in pantehon matches.  Last night I played a game with 4 humans and 2 AI (this was the way the game was set up from the beginning...no humans dropped) and when I entered the game I found it was 3 humans (on the light side) versus me and 2 extremely stupid AI allies.  The only thing that AI brings to these multiplayer games is a higher rate of gold for the opposing teams.  Because of the AI on my team it felt more like the game was 4v1.  It's understandable to have the AI for the time being; however it is inexcusable to be put into a game with 4 humans and have it be 3v1.

On a side note (I believe there is another thread about this), if AI needs to be used in the interim while networking issues are being fixed, could we at least turn up the difficulty to at the very least Hard, although preferably Nightmare?

Reply #15 Top

Quoting Sorceresss, reply 9


Oh, well : having a 0W/1L stat displayed in public is not humiliating.  
End of Sorceresss's quote

 

Well my 3W/6L with a 5-game losing streak is much worse I'd say.... hehe   ;P  

Reply #16 Top

Although multiplayer works now its still a bare-bones interface that needs improving.
End of quote

Multiplayer does *not* work now. For the past few nights, I've only been able to get into a couple of games, having tried dozens. In nearly every game there is someone who can't connect to someone else, or someone who doesn't connect at all. This happens both in Pantheon and custom games. If I'm hosting and I kick someone who can't connect to someone else, the game won't start. When it works, it's great, but it rarely works.

It's better than it was at launch, but not by much.

Also, I should mention that I very rarely have trouble connecting to other hosts, getting in lobbies, or having other people connect to me. Any time a game gets over 4 or 5 players in it, connections seem to stop working.

Reply #17 Top

Quoting Eadwyn, reply 14
Also while we are on the topic of AI in pantehon matches.  Last night I played a game with 4 humans and 2 AI (this was the way the game was set up from the beginning...no humans dropped) and when I entered the game I found it was 3 humans (on the light side) versus me and 2 extremely stupid AI allies.  The only thing that AI brings to these multiplayer games is a higher rate of gold for the opposing teams.  Because of the AI on my team it felt more like the game was 4v1.  It's understandable to have the AI for the time being; however it is inexcusable to be put into a game with 4 humans and have it be 3v1.

On a side note (I believe there is another thread about this), if AI needs to be used in the interim while networking issues are being fixed, could we at least turn up the difficulty to at the very least Hard, although preferably Nightmare?
End of Eadwyn's quote

That should already be that way.  T-Man and I have defaulted it to Nightmare since yesterday.

Bara

Reply #18 Top

That should already be that way. T-Man and I have defaulted it to Nightmare since yesterday.

Bara
End of quote

 

Well that is good to know!  I was playing late last night though (11 pm PST) and by the time I was level 5 (the other humans were level 3 and 4) they had a total of 8 kills off of the 2 AI.  So either the fix wasn't in by that time or nightmare AI really aren't that special.

Reply #19 Top

As plans for making arranged team begin to surface, I would like for the possibility of a hybrid system to be considered.

 

I mean, the only other person I play demigod with is a single friend, and we are neither:

1. Particularly game-breaking when we play together

2. All that interest in only playing 2v2 arranged team

3. Interested in finding 3 more people to play with so we can be all competitive-like

 

We would really just like to play in 5v5 matches and be on the same side. I'd be totally cool with another 2 man team being on the opposite side or something, but the point is that I want to log on to demigod, hit pantheon, and play a 5v5 game together with my friend. I hope that as options are considered, we don't consider 2v2 arranged team an adequate solution to the issue.

Reply #20 Top

Quoting fidelcastrol, reply 7

Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 6


2. The time taken is the amount of time we need in order to connect all of the players.  It is directly attributable to each player's connection speed, so if a slow player is chosen, it will take longer for all of the other players to connect to that player.  However, there may be some minor things we can do to decrease the wait time.  I'll see what T-Man thinks.


 

I'm sorry, but honestly ? That's crap. I mean, not the improvements you guys are looking for, it's kind of nice to see devs working so hard on their games...but what is crappy is the system you used in the first place.

That must be the only game I know of that needs a perfect network configuration in order just to join a damn game. I'd understand that one couldn't host due do some network misconfiguration, but joining ? come on...

Very disappointed by this side of the game.
End of fidelcastrol's quote

 

Well your wrong, there are hundreds of games that have been released and failed because of this type of issue, consider it lucky that stardock gives a rats ass and is making fixes, it's quite suprising really.

Reply #21 Top

Stardock is not satisfied with the multiplayer experience yet.  

When we're satisfied with that, we can then talk about all kinds of othe roptions.

I can assure you that Stardock is working very hard with GPG to address connectivity issues as quickly as possible as well as expand the connection servers to support connections not anticipated during the testing phase.  

Anyone familiar with us knows that we take a long view on these games.  Both Stardock and GPG will be providing meaningful updates to Demigod long after release.

Reply #22 Top
Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 6

Soon enough the ranks will be a good representation of a player's a skill.  Actually, I think showing the "Experience" number would be far more helpful.  Seeing someone with 400 experience versus someone with 1200 experience should tell you right away how good that player is. 

End of GunslingerBara's quote

I agree.

You can be a good player, but get stuck with too many losses because your randomly-selected team8s were largely responsible for the defeats.

In my case, most of my losses, in 3-v-3s, were because the other team coordinated very efficiently, while each person on my team did his own thing, without sufficient tactical support & strategic coordination with the two others.

As you suggest, "Experience" would be a better indicator than losses.

Take for example, The Monk : he admits, on this thread (see above), that he has had more losses than wins ... but who would dare state that The Monk is not a « pro » ? (Not me.)

[By the way, Bara, I did read the Stephen King novel your nick & image refer to. I haven't had the time to read the following novels of the series yet.] 

Reply #23 Top

Quoting GunslingerBara, reply 12


Any games you've played from last Friday until a couple of days ago were lost due to a bug.  I apologize for that.  Since a few days ago though, your games should have been saved.  Is that not the case?  Have you played any games recently that have not been saved?  Try a couple today, if possible. 
End of GunslingerBara's quote

REPORT :

1. None ot the games I have played since "a few days ago" have been saved ;

2. I did "try a couple today" : I played 4 or 5 games yesterday (Friday the 24th), and none have been saved. I'm still told by the rankings, this morning, that I have played only one game (0W / 1L).

It does not stop me from breathing. I just wanted to report that the technical issue was still there. (Sorry for the double post.)

 

Reply #24 Top

Horrendous title for this thread as Multiplayer certainly has NOT been fixed and connecting to a multiplayer game is akin to watching paint dry.

 

I can appreciate many of the enhancement requests posted, but PLEASE just fix the freakin connection so that people can actually play people -- you know, the purpose of this game?!

 

 

Reply #25 Top

REPORT (update) :


None of the 4 or 5 games I played Saturday the 25th were saved & recorded on the Rankings. I'm still stuck at 0W / 1L.

Lucky me : those all were defeats. :D