InSyncOTC

Join Date 07/2015

The future of OTC multiplayer

Thanks to recent patch both ladders (1v1 and 4p FFA) are unlocked simultaneously now, and the already very small community has been split once again.

No offense to anyone, but between two different pissing contests, ELO system that strongly encourages top players to avoid each other and the number of concurrent players dropping below 100 again, I wonder if it'll ever be possible again to have a decent game with good competition outside tournaments. And frankly, the picture I am seeing is not very bright. Perhaps, I am overreacting and the ladder hype will die out soon'ish. But somehow I doubt that's what the devs have in mind. I also can't seek any comfort in our favorite go-to excuse "it'll all be better after release".

So what do you guys think? How do you see the future of OTC multiplayer?

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Soren_Johnson

Join Date 04/2008

+29

Unlocking both ladders is a bit of an experiment to see if more people will play if they know their preferred format is available. (Blues hasn't played 1v1 since before the patch, for example...) We'll see how it goes. So far, there have been MORE players in games after the patch than before, but we'll see how that goes. Not sure there is an alternate to ELO. Definitely a worst-system-except-for-all-the-other-ones situation.

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eviator

Join Date 08/2014

+62

Slightly off-topic here...

I am very suprised about the low numbers. Soren and Zultar and others have done a terrific job showing off multiplayer, both ranked and tournaments. OTC multiplayer seems really great, and I enjoy watching it.

That said I don't play multiplayer yet. I have over 70 hours in game and still have trouble beating the Manager AI. Multiplayer would be a bloodbath, I'm afraid, and my ego can't handle that. Hopefully someday I have some confidence in my skills that I can compete with the weakest in the multiplayer crowd. In the meantime I'm enjoying singleplayer.

The gameplay experience is already great, IMO, so building up multiplayer really boils down to getting exposure to the multiplayer RTS crowd. If I knew how to do that, I could quit my day job

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Also slightly of topic but @eviator you should definitely try multiplayer even if you don't always beat the AI on manager. The AI is pretty good, probably better than most humans who own the game.... so try MP and you might surprise yourself!

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Quoting Soren_Johnson,

reply 1

More players in actual games or just playing OTC in general? Because what I've noticed is people sitting in both queues but don't have enough players to launch either and no lobbies at all.

Of course I don't have a solution. I am just sharing my concerns and want to know what others think about the future of MP. Are people going to focus mainly on ladders? On 1v1? Something else?

eviator, I can agree and disagree with SpaceOddity, If your ego is really fragile, then going into multiplayer would be a big risk. All it takes is one strong player out of 4, for the rest not to have a chance. I am sure this is also one of the reasons the interest of new players declines. Practicing on your own is not enough to become good. You need to use all the materials out there (videos, guides, tournament recaps etc). And obviously practice vs human. I.e. being highly motivated and actively look for help. I can see how a new player who tried ranked games and got absolutely demolished by veterans and their 90% winning rates loses their motivation rather quickly. However, there were, are and probably will be very motivated new players who are proactive and constantly improving. Like you said, more exposure is necessary. The community is great and really willing to help, but for that people need to come to us. There's only so much we can do hunting them down (hi Stef! ).

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Soren_Johnson

Join Date 04/2008

+29

More Ranked Play games have happened since the patch. Of course, that may mean less 1v1 and 4p games than before, but the sum total is higher.

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Interesting. That's something at least.

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Quoting ,

quoting post

ELO system that strongly encourages top players to avoid each other...

This is not the fault of the ELO system IMO. It's the fault of top players (all beta testers) not having the dignity to respect the game more than their 'rank'. I'm just as competitive as the next guy, but I could never imagine placing a higher value on interwebs rankings than the honest knowledge of where I stand relative to other competitive players. It's a rather sad state of the game to know that some of the experts who win tournaments apparently do so without ever practicing (rarely logging in to Steam and playing OTC using their known account). Based on the excellent community developed during beta testing, I had much higher hopes for the future of this game... but it has degenerated into stuff I would expect with previous mindless RTS titles.

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Quoting Soren_Johnson,

reply 5

More Ranked Play games have happened since the patch. Of course, that may mean less 1v1 and 4p games than before, but the sum total is higher.

Is that weighted to account for the number of players entertained per game? If most games are played on the weekend, and suddenly everyone that played 4FFA switched to 1v1 you would expect the number of games to double (since 4 players make 2 games instead of 1), even though the number of player-hours remained constant.

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Eviator, If you want someone to play practice multiplayer matches with I'm available for that. Add me on steam (Hydroponos) and we can play some lobby multiplayer games and I can give you some tips if you like. There is only so much you can learn from videos, guides, and playing vs AI. At some point you'll need to develop your gamesense which you can only do by playing multiplayer as it comes over time with experience. The best way to get better is to have fun playing

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Play 50% of the time and study the game the other 50%. By study i mean watching your replays (of matches you lost), learning how exactly ALL the game mechanics work and see how they intertwine.

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I would definitely accept any assistance in learning the game. I joined a few weeks ago and have a few wins but it was mostly as a dark horse 33rd place position when 1 and 2 kill themselves.

I've watched all of Zultars videos and read some of the strategies put out by Blues and Gameslayer. What seems like the next step outside of learning from the losses?

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People are offering personal training sessions over on the Discord channel, that might be worth checking out. Here is an invite: https://discord.gg/QHcSZEV

You will also find all kind of discussions about the game there. The training sessions are offered in the organising-games thread by people like YerAnd (who is in the European timezone), Blues (US) and blackmagic (eastern US), you can also just ask.

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