PurplePaladin PurplePaladin

No MP Tactical Battles, tell me it aint so

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No MP Tactical Battles, tell me it aint so

from Elemental Forums

I do not have the game yet.  I've had it preordered for a long time.  But some things I've skimmed over on these forums seem to indicate that there are no tactical battles in MP.  That's not true, is it?  That can't possibly be true???  It was just some troll trying to upset everyone, correct?

I did not want to write more till I actually get the game and see for myself.

elemental
24,665 views 43 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Baleurion, reply 15

Quoting PurplePaladin, reply 8Let's see: you just have to do what games like Age of Wonders have been doing since the dawn of MP: You can watch the battle or not watch it.  Easy.  If you don't watch it, you can still fiddle around with all your own units/towns/econimics while the battle takes place.  I feel like I'm buying a used car, and the salesman is trying to convince us how we would really not have fun with passenger seats anyway. . .

 

Yeah, its a bit like the whole Total War games no multiplayer campaign idea they had for the better part of the series. They also claimed the reason was that "it would take too long, its not fun, ppl dont want to play it that long".
Its all a load of bollocks. People love long games. Look at Civilization.

I love how devs think they know what gamers want just because Call of Duty is popular. The thing is, rts and strategy games arent call of duty, there's no point in making them fast paced in any way, we dont want that. We want a slow long epic great strategy game, EVEN online..

For the record, i play both CoD and 4x games, and when i play an RTS or 4x game i do NOT want it to be fast paced, then i'd play CoD instead.
End of Baleurion's quote

here here :applause:

Total War games should have ALWAYS had multiplayer campaign WITH tactical battles. (of course, best to play in a windowed mode ;) )

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Baleurion, reply 15

Quoting PurplePaladin, reply 8Let's see: you just have to do what games like Age of Wonders have been doing since the dawn of MP: You can watch the battle or not watch it.  Easy.  If you don't watch it, you can still fiddle around with all your own units/towns/econimics while the battle takes place.  I feel like I'm buying a used car, and the salesman is trying to convince us how we would really not have fun with passenger seats anyway. . .

 

Yeah, its a bit like the whole Total War games no multiplayer campaign idea they had for the better part of the series. They also claimed the reason was that "it would take too long, its not fun, ppl dont want to play it that long".
Its all a load of bollocks. People love long games. Look at Civilization.

I love how devs think they know what gamers want just because Call of Duty is popular. The thing is, rts and strategy games arent call of duty, there's no point in making them fast paced in any way, we dont want that. We want a slow long epic great strategy game, EVEN online..

For the record, i play both CoD and 4x games, and when i play an RTS or 4x game i do NOT want it to be fast paced, then i'd play CoD instead.
End of Baleurion's quote

here here :applause:

Total War games should have ALWAYS had multiplayer campaign WITH tactical battles. (of course, best to play in a windowed mode ;) )

Siege of Centauri
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

It may be true, tactical battles may be making their way into Elemental in the future.  IMO, it should have been in from Day 0 like any other game of it's type in the past decade+.  So many screenshots and videos and nowhere does it say "not available in MP".  Does it say wanywhere on the box about it not being inlcuded?  How about a discalamer "not actual MP screenshots"?

And I'm sorry, but after the Demigod fiasco of MP, there's NO way my friends are going to say "Oh boy, lets all go through that again!".  At best it will be a beta patch to implement MP/Tactical, and we will all be doing bug reports for a year till it starts working right.  No thanks. 

I'm keeping my copy.  I'm going to try my best to enjoy the single player/sandbox.  But I've already warned all my friends (and they are wanring their friends) not to get it until a fully functional, MP (with tactical battles) is available, just like we've all seen for a year plus in screenshots; videos; ect.   When/if it does, I can promise 4 more copies (minimum) will be sold that day. . . . .

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting PurplePaladin, reply 28
It may be true, tactical battles may be making their way into Elemental in the future.  IMO, it should have been in from Day 0 like any other game of it's type in the past decade+.  So many screenshots and videos and nowhere does it say "not available in MP".  Does it say wanywhere on the box about it not being inlcuded?  How about a discalamer "not actual MP screenshots"?

And I'm sorry, but after the Demigod fiasco of MP, there's NO way my friends are going to say "Oh boy, lets all go through that again!".  At best it will be a beta patch to implement MP/Tactical, and we will all be doing bug reports for a year till it starts working right.  No thanks. 

I'm keeping my copy.  I'm going to try my best to enjoy the single player/sandbox.  But I've already warned all my friends (and they are wanring their friends) not to get it until a fully functional, MP (with tactical battles) is available, just like we've all seen for a year plus in screenshots; videos; ect.   When/if it does, I can promise 4 more copies (minimum) will be sold that day. . . . .
End of PurplePaladin's quote
As frogboy has said REPEATEDLY  prior to the game being released. If you are buying this game for multiplayer, then you probably shouldn't be buying it.  Since its a 1 player game, with a multiplayer option.

 

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

yeah except watching the battles won't be optional for anyone. I don't approve of them adding them back to MP personally cause a game that should take 4 hours now might take 16. (and no thats not an exaggeration)
End of quote

They have a threshold setting in the options that lets you specify when tactical battles happen.  Just use that if you don't want them, not sure what the problem is.  I see both points but there is something in place that should allow both to co-exist just fine.

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

From what I've seen so far though tactical battles in Elemental are hardly Total War material. A total war battle can easily go 10-20 minutes as you try to get troops into formation, move them into range for battle and have them slug it out.

 

In Elemental I havent seen a battle last longer than a few minutes. It's not too hard to move your troops forward a couple spaces and have them slug it out. From what I've seen so far (limited) there isn't a whole lot of strategy involved in tactical battles.

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting dragoaskani, reply 29

As frogboy has said REPEATEDLY  prior to the game being released. If you are buying this game for multiplayer, then you probably shouldn't be buying it.  Since its a 1 player game, with a multiplayer option.
 
End of dragoaskani's quote

And the box says multplayer on it. So you think people are in the wrong for expecting multiplayer when it's an advertised feature?

I mean it'll be enabled at some point, but anybody who bought to play MP flat out isn't getting what they were paying for right now. So if they're unhappy, that's expected and valid.

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 32



Quoting dragoaskani,
reply 29

As frogboy has said REPEATEDLY  prior to the game being released. If you are buying this game for multiplayer, then you probably shouldn't be buying it.  Since its a 1 player game, with a multiplayer option.
 


And the box says multplayer on it. So you think people are in the wrong for expecting multiplayer when it's an advertised feature?

I mean it'll be enabled at some point, but anybody who bought to play MP flat out isn't getting what they were paying for right now. So if they're unhappy, that's expected and valid.
End of Tridus's quote

And it's not as if Stardock is a well known company were all potential customers flock to the forums to read about features that are delayed or not completed. It's perfectly valid to expect multiplayer customers to show up here wasking what the hell happened and should probably be expected even.

Reply #34 from Elemental Forums Top

Maps that take too long to play is easily solvable by a mod that lets you start with most of the tech and units ready. You can make a smaller symmetric map and then the focus can be on tactical battles.

I------------------I

P1                 P2

 

P3                 P4

I------------------I

 

Crude 2vs2 map example

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top

Listen, we were really disapointed when there was no Lan support.  Ok, we got over it.  Then we find out we have to buy a copy for each and every person ($250 8C ), yikes, but sure, ok, it will be well worth it IF it provides a great MP experience.  No MP on release (when it's on the box and been sung about for months of how it's up to 16 people and with servers made specifically to do so), ok, problems happen, and if it's really only going to be a week till they get it going, again, really disapointing (and it surrrrrre smacks of what we heard on the Demigod release).  So again, I/we will try our best to be patient and wait and see.

But no tactical battles, in a game that's been showing screenshots and videos of tactical battes for months. Where you can tweak each and every unit down to it's name; colors; clothes; spells; weapons; armor; heck even it's hairstyle, have all sort of great spells with cool effects, then to finally bring two armies together for an epic battle, only see a "Risk" battle report box pop up. :annoyed:   No, that's not great, or good, or even mediocre.  That is not what anyone I know, or have ever known plays a game like this for (well, not since the 1980s anyway).

Age of Wonders and HoMM (not to mention several others) have been putting tactical battles in their games for many years, over a decade at least.  You can watch the battles, or tweak/move/build/research all you want while the battle is going on, or have it auto resoved too.  That's all Elemental needed (on release) to keep up with the minimum MP specs of games of this type.  Saying "well, we really are focusing on single player, so we will release a half-working version of MP (eventually) is not an acceptable excuse based on all the advertising I and so many others have seen and read.

No where in all the screenshots and videos (and descriptions) or on the game box does it say "*not available in muliplayer".  IF full MP comes out with tactical, nobody will be happier than I and my friends; we will celebrate for a week; We will buy 4 more copies; we will sing praises on the forums.  But until then, especially after the Demigod MP release, can anyone blame us for it sounding like "The checks in the mail" all over again. . .

    

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

PurplePaladin, are you remembering that STARDOCK was the publisher, NOT developer for Demigod. As such stardock wasn't in charge of patching it or the MP issues. While Elemental is developed and published by Stardock, which has a habit of doing alot of its games.

Reply #37 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting PurplePaladin, reply 35

No where in all the screenshots and videos (and descriptions) or on the game box does it say "*not available in muliplayer".  IF full MP comes out with tactical, nobody will be happier than I and my friends; we will celebrate for a week; We will buy 4 more copies; we will sing praises on the forums.  But until then, especially after the Demigod MP release, can anyone blame us for it sounding like "The checks in the mail" all over again. . .
End of PurplePaladin's quote

We actually convinced them already to bring back tactical battles in MP. I don't know when, but it *is* coming.

If it's a deal breaker for your friends, you should post in the suggestion or MP forum that you want to see it, and your friends should hold off on buying until its in. But in the case of that one, it's just a matter of when and not if. :)

 

Reply #38 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 37



Quoting PurplePaladin,
reply 35

No where in all the screenshots and videos (and descriptions) or on the game box does it say "*not available in muliplayer".  IF full MP comes out with tactical, nobody will be happier than I and my friends; we will celebrate for a week; We will buy 4 more copies; we will sing praises on the forums.  But until then, especially after the Demigod MP release, can anyone blame us for it sounding like "The checks in the mail" all over again. . .


We actually convinced them already to bring back tactical battles in MP. I don't know when, but it *is* coming.

If it's a deal breaker for your friends, you should post in the suggestion or MP forum that you want to see it, and your friends should hold off on buying until its in. But in the case of that one, it's just a matter of when and not if.

 
End of Tridus's quote

I hate locking or deleting threads, but maybe we can have a Mod Edit of some kind in the original OP letting everyone know Tactical Battles are back in.

Reply #39 from Elemental Forums Top

If Tactical battles are back in, for sure (and I don't mean maybe, in 6-8 months, of beta testing), then I myself agree, this thread should be locked.  I/we would be extremely happy, and would never want to spread "false rumors".  In fact, I would actually be glad to start a "Yay, Tactical battles are in" thread myself too :)

 

Reply #40 from Elemental Forums Top

... I'm pretty sure there is LAN support?

Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tasunke, reply 40
... I'm pretty sure there is LAN support?
End of Tasunke's quote

Nope.

Reply #42 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, I have developed a tendency to trust Stardock. Yeah, weird these days, isn't it, but these guys have no DRM, and they actually do support, replying very quickly indeed, and helpfully.

So: if they claim that MP is around the corner, I believe them. If they also claim that they've been convinced to add tactical MP, I also believe them.

Furthermore, I was rather surprised by Frogboys remark "that you should reconsider buying the game if it is for the multiplayer part in the first place". Impressive, not something you hear from the other companies.

 

Anyway, I guess I'll be playing this on my own a lot, and later (once MP is out) with my cow-orkers. Perhaps we can do this via LAN, too...

 

Ciao,

Klaus

Reply #43 from Elemental Forums Top

All 4 of my friends did reconsider, and did not buy the game (because of the MP), so Brads advice was heeded by them.

There is no Lan support Klaus.  I wish there was.  You must have one copy per person, and a connection to the net to play MP.  It is said Lan "may" be available in the future.  That would be extrememly nice.