MP Ideas for Cooperative Campaign

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Cadence.ccm

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To state first this is specifically co-op and not a PVP campaign mode. I would hope there are already works in progress for a cooperative game mode, but I do have some ideas to be shared. First thing first, How would multiple people (MAYBE max 4, at least 2) play co-op? I would say the best thing that is not overpowered would be that both players are in the same clan at the start of the game. The host is the main clan/family leader, and whoever is joining the host acts as a companion. They would also be allowed the same character customization as the host. Now later down the road the clan gets more and more renown and get's to the point of multiple parties, this would act just as single player. The player that is not hosting can create their own party at the expense of the host giving them troops, just like in single player how the NPC companion can be its own party. Now what about troubles with inventory? If the co-op player HAS NOT created their own party, they have a shared inventory with the host, now as soon as they become "independent" and create a party they have their own inventory and army control. They are also responsible for their units so that means payments, food, recruitment, etc. While they can receive help from the host and vice versa, they are almost an independent army. This would give the co-op player more freedom. Vassels could be selected as you could still have NPC companions or you could choose the other player (companion) to control that settlement/location. Giving the other player some freedom as well. Now what about time issues? So in single player as we all know when the player stops, time stops. This could be a problem due to multiple players traversing the map this could not be a plausible mechanic. I would say the best way to counteract this would be that time WOULD only stop if both the players are not moving and are not involved in battles, sieges, etc. (will get to this later). We get to this point when the players have reached that certain renown and are able to split up and control their own parties. What about if one player is in a city, castle, building, etc. while the other player is not? Well like I said prior, time would constantly be moving, and in this case, it would be insane if time kept moving at the normal pace it does while inside a location, it would be unplayable. So the only way I have thought about fixing this issue is if one player goes to a city, castle, or village in order to "explore" the said location, both players would have to be present. This way both players could load in the location to do quests inside said location and time would stop outside of the location. Now one thing is obtaining quests from NPCs. Doing so in single player requires you to load into the location. Now if both players had to be there in order to just start a quest, it would be a little bit ridiculous. So fixing this would remove an aspect of the game by loading into the location. Instead of "speaking" with the NPC and loading in, simply whichever player is at said location could just select the NPC with the quest and it would open up a dialogue text box, with the same dialogue just in the locations pop up window/UI. This way both players could start quests at whatever time they please without any hindrance. Now quests would work in the same way, they would be clan/family based. If one player started a quest, the other player would have the same quest and vice versa, regardless if host or not. Progress would be shared between quests. Now here is the main issue, battles. What and how would one player fight with or without the other player? Okay, this is where it gets a little tricky. Now let's say one player gets into a fight (keep in mind that host and non host are completely irrelevant) now with adding co-op it might seem OP having multiple players attacking a small group and getting profit. Let's say the clan is yet to have enough renown in order for the other player to create their own party, the battles would be exactly the same as single player. Both players would load in together and the host controls the army while the other player is a companion in said army. Now let's bring up the situation if one player has created their own party, this would be a problem because in single player time is not a relevant thing in battles. Time does not keep going, but how could you fix this in multiplayer? Well whoever engages in a fight could have a choice to wait for the other player to reinforce them, this runs the risk of other NPC armies coming to the aid of the NPC. Now if the other player gets arrives at the battle, the battle starts, but if an enemy NPC arrives to reinforce, the battle would start regardless if the other player has arrived or not. This would give a gamble to "wait for other player." Now let's say a player is the one being attacked, they could not wait at all. They would immediately be put into the battle. But what about the other player that is not involved? The best idea I had other than a "spectator" mode is that the other player would get put into the battle as a companion (without their party ofc) of the player attacking or getting attacked . This way it's not op where the other players whole party gets involved when they failed to arrive to reinforce or if the other player got attacked. I understand that this is unrealistic, but this makes it where the other player won't have to sit through a spectator mode and just watch and they have a little more fun.
 
There are remnants of co-op code here and there in the files, so they have most definitely experimented with it to some extent.

But whether or not they are - or will continue trying is unknown. It's very plausible they might just leave it to the modders to try and figure out. There's a lot of technical difficulties and data that need to be synchronized effectively.

There's a lot of stuff that can and will go out-of-sync and cause a whole myriad of bugs and crashes.
 
Unfortunately considering the state of their multiplayer servers for just normal basic game modes a co-op campaign is probably something we'll never see.
 
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