[Suggestion]Merging online play with world play

[Sgt. Blackthorne]

Hi all!

I think many of you out there would agree with me when I say that the highest goal for Mount & blade would be to have the multiplayer aspect of MB implemented into a full scale world.

For instance imagine that you (and your clan) could team up together and hire soldiers (AI and human), ride around Calriada claiming land, building structures, owning peasants that render income and fighting wars against other human players and so forth. Though these goals are far from what can be accomplished at the moment I hope that it will soon be time to start merging the different aspects of MB singleplayer and multiplayer.

I have a suggestion that I think will be possible in the near future, it implements the roleplaying aspect of rewards for the player. I like to call it "City tournament"

Players will roam around in a online city where they can:



    * Buy/sell equipment
    * Talk to other players(preferrably over a integrated voice system)
    * hire bots(slaves) and train them for bouts in the arena
    * And also the main activity: fight in the arena in a variety of ways


The fighting in the arena will be similar to the multiplayer fighting we have today, except players will earn permanent gold and experience to some (balanced) degree. A formula which is based on the game-characters experience and equipment cost will give him a certain difficulty value, making it easier to have even match-ups, and according betting odds.

there shall of course be many kinds of gametypes, for instance their could be a "mock up" sieges and field battles, not restricted inside the arena.


Once all this has been establishes, it serves as a great platform for the developers to expand the game world and its features. Acres of landscape could be added around the city and resources could be added to the gameworld.
  Players could hire slaves(bots) to gather resources such as stone, wood or iron ore. Or even gather it themselves. And eventually players structures could be implemented. For example:

The player duo Helmer and Godfrey are excellent fighters and have won a fair share of gold in the arena, they decide to make a joint investment that will give them a big revenue. Since demand for iron ore has skyrocketed (high manufacturing of the cities smiths) they have decided to build a simple storage structure near a iron mine about 5 minutes ride from the city.

The mine is abundant but the long way to the city makes it hard for miners to make much money. So their slaves mine the ore and then store it in the structure, and then they sell wagonloads of it, driven by a slave, to any location near the city.

Another example

The CoR clan have worked hard and have gathered 10000 units of wood, 100 units of steel and 1000 units of stone. They decide to build themselves a Clan-hall where they can store all their spoils of war, practice their skills against one another, and house farmers(bots) who will render certain income.

The city and a certain area around it can make out a "safe" zone, where player killings are only allowed under tournament and duel regulations. However the outer lands will be a lawless land where killing and stealing is unregulated. Here you will find the most valuable resources and the most dangerous adversaries.

Strong clans will fight for the claim to certain lands and war will be commonplace. Maybe even AI bandits should be implemented in the far-out regions?

These are implementations of the far future, and quite dreamy. But I still think it is about time to start the merging of the different game aspects, since the battle mechanics are reaching near perfection in the Warband beta.

If you've played the mod "Custom settlements" you will know that there is already an extensive model library with things like basic shelters, houses, carts and many other types of useful models.

 

[SanDiego]

This is no MMO.

 

[Timothy the Knight]

Sure, it would be nice to have this sort of thing, but it would require a lot of extra time to implement. And we're not very far from release if Amazon.co.uk is to be believed.

So it will most likely be up to modders to do this. The most the devs will do at this point is include code to make implementing this stuff easier, I'll wager.

 

[Urist]

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,80707.0.html

 

[Timothy the Knight]

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,80707.0.html

Well, I got the impression that he wants something along the lines of one big map (that plays like a normal warband match, with the adventure/character building bits added), not a strategic, turn-based map.

But even a much-easier-to-implement TBS mode will be stuff for modders, I'll wager. But who knows, I could be wrong here.

 

[Sgt. Blackthorne]

Yes, that is not what I had in mind at all. But anyways, i hope that this will be the next step the developers take at least after release. I think tinkering with combat mechanics has almost reached its end. Implementing my ideas(or something similar) will make the game experience alot more substantial

 

[Rujasu]

This has been discussed since the dawn of time, and the answer has always been no. It just won't happen.

 

[Sgt. Blackthorne]

That's what everyone said about Multiplayer gameplay at all. So it's just a matter of time until this will be real

 

[Imnotwhatiam]

In my opinion your idea is just a little too MMORPG...

I think it would be great to lead your personal party in battle along with other human players' parties against other players' parties.
It's something like replacing lords and other leaders that you can find on any battlefield of M&B with human players.

This would be real M&B multiplayer.

Actually it's very funny as it is but it's a little more than a FPS with swords, I still miss something...

 

[Alhanalem]

im sure someone will eventually mod a mutltiplayer version of the single player.

 

[Imnotwhatiam]

I don't think anyone can do this exept the devs because you should be able to save your own data in your pc...

 

[_Benedict_]

Yes, that have already been discussed million times but one more can't hurt..
I agree 100%.
Multiplayer + the map well..It would be perfect. The best game in the world.
World of Warcraft is a game for retards if we think about Mount&Blade fully multiplayer, with cities, rpg, gerarchy, battles and so on..Wow.

I'm afraid it cannot be reached just modding...It has to be planned and written by the devs, changing the fundamentals of the engine and the game.

I believe in it, and i think it will happen, sooner or later.

 

[Imnotwhatiam]

I think the first step should be battles.

Other things may be too much for many players who enjoy the game as it is now.

隐藏

A Benedict, fatte sentì pure nel forum Italiano però!

 

[Hamel]

I just want to see an Adventure server type, like single-player. (None of this fancy town nonsense, that's stuff for mods.) If only so people can play it in lan games with a buddy or two. Although, I imagine a few people might be crazy charitable enough to waste their money running Adventure servers over the web.

The main benefit from such a suggestion (besides increasing modding capabilities), I think, would be how much it could help the development of single-player Warbands. There is no quicker way to find severe unbalances in a game than pitting people against each other in it.

 

[DanAngleland]

A lan game of M&B might be feasible, but how could it work over the internet? Not talking about the OP's 'City Tournament' idea, but the idea of a 'full' multiplayer M&B. What happens to player armies when people go offline? Will your villages be raidable when offline? And can everyone form their own groups? The map could be littered with thousands of tiny groups. M&B multiplayer could be a great deal less enjoyable than the current singleplayer.

Most importantly of all, apart from humans replacing global map AI, which would probably make for more logical war strategy, what would the benefit be? Moving around on the global map isn't going to be much different from M&B singleplayer, and having battles will be similar to what we have now in Warband (except the vast majority of battles would take place on open spaces like the Random Plains maps). I concede it would be enjoyable to be part of an army, and have your in game fortunes shaped by victory or defeat (losing your armour etc).

 

[Hamel]

A lan game of M&B might be feasible, but how could it work over the internet? Not talking about the OP's 'City Tournament' idea, but the idea of a 'full' multiplayer M&B. What happens to player armies when people go offline? Will your villages be raidable when offline? And can everyone form their own groups? The map could be littered with thousands of tiny groups. M&B multiplayer could be a great deal less enjoyable than the current singleplayer.

I imagine the best way of dealing with people logging off, would be to leave them in a camp on the world map (if they left the game there), leaving them open to attack. While quitting in a town would make the player and his troops disappear entirely, until their next return. Their troops would naturally attempt to protect their leader in the field, but logging out in a town would still be far more desirable.

Your villages should naturally be open to attack while you are offline, however I am sure your friends, countrymen, or soldiers would be glad to protect them (albeit incompetently at times) while you are away.

I should think that everyone should be able to form a group. But, I doubt there would be thousands of groups at any one time, or any number close to that. And frequent map resets would purge the servers of any excess player data. The individual games would hardly be permanent.

Most importantly of all, apart from humans replacing global map AI, which would probably make for more logical war strategy, what would the benefit be? Moving around on the global map isn't going to be much different from M&B singleplayer, and having battles will be similar to what we have now in Warband (except the vast majority of battles would take place on open spaces like the Random Plains maps). I concede it would be enjoyable to be part of an army, and have your in game fortunes shaped by victory or defeat (losing your armour etc).

The difference is that you would not be just soldier in a short-lived battle, as it is in our current multi-player games. You could be a bandit preying on helpless travelers, or a lord ruling over a village or a town, or perhaps a fighter in the many tournaments that take place across Calradia. Or maybe, all of them at once.

 

[Imnotwhatiam]

I still think we're going too far.

First step should be create a new kind of on-line battle (so no on-line Calradia map, just some battlefields) in wich you can take part with your party of soldiers (you need to save their stats on your pc).

In a way is like instead of wandering trough Calradia's map you wander trough servers and find some battles and join them with your soldiers.

 

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Sure, it would be nice to have this sort of thing, but it would require a lot of extra time to implement. And we're not very far from release if Amazon.co.uk is to be believed.

So it will most likely be up to modders to do this. The most the devs will do at this point is include code to make implementing this stuff easier, I'll wager.

My thoughts as well.  It would be nice, but not really feasible at the present.  And I don't want to pay a monthly fee

 

[SockMonkeh]

This has been discussed since the dawn of time, and the answer has always been no. It just won't happen.

This is the same pointless, cocky, bull**** response people used to give to the possibility of Mount & Blade multi-player. They all look like a bunch of ignorant assholes now.

 

[Nick8478]

Even though it would be awesome, I'm afraid it probably isn't happening any time within at least the next few years. It would be awesome though and I know me and at least one of my friends in real life would buy it.