Convinced! Now looking for MP game...

Reverend Zombie · #1 February 5th, 2004, 08:17 PM

The game looks great, but I am hesitating on purchasing until I have a little more info.

I play almost all computer games exclusively over the internet against other human players, so one of the most important aspects of a game for me is how easy it is to get into MP games.

I am most interested in hearing about internet play, but welcome comments about PBEM too.

How often do games start?

How long do they take to finish on average?

Is the MP internet game stable--how much of a problem is crashing and dropping of players?

How welcoming is the MP community to new players?

Are there many Online games in the U.S. Eastern time zone, and when are sessions scheduled: weeknights, weekend morning, afternoon or evening?

I have been scanning the forum (which is a bit counterintuitive to navigate, btw) and haven't been able to get a handle on these questions--if a post exists about this and I have missed it, please by all means point me to it.

Thanks in advance.

[ February 13, 2004, 02:18: Message edited by: Reverend Zombie ]

Norfleet · #2 February 5th, 2004, 08:25 PM

The length of a game is really dependent on many factors: The size of the map, aggressiveness of the players, frequency of play, and how long it takes people to get their turns done.

PBEM games crawl at a horrendously slow, snailish place. Network marathon games can go about as fast a single player session, until some whiny pansy decides to call it a night. Wimps.

The MP game is about as stable as the SP game, that is, fairly stable....but as of 2.06, the server seems rather intolerant of players lagging out or dropping, and will eventually require a reset if this happens more than once or twice, as the ghosts of the dead connections seem to exact their vengeance by clogging the server.

The MP community is definitely far more welcoming of new players than other, more mass-market games: Games like Dominions 2 are favored by the more erudite, and as such, the population isn't populated by the smacktards you'd find in a game like, say, Warcraft. If anything, that's the selling point of the game right there: !Warcraft.

Oh, and I fully agree about the forums. The person who decided to make it sort in this bizarre, mutated manner, and somehow managed to simultaneously delete the user preferences option to make it sort normally should be gutted with a rusty fork.

condors · #3 February 5th, 2004, 08:33 PM

if you do get the game i would be interested in some multiplayer games on a small map(talis) that could be played in one sitting. I am on the east coast as well. I am new as well.

Bowlingballhead · #4 February 5th, 2004, 08:34 PM

Yay, rusty fork!

I can't say much about the multiplayer community. I tend to prefer to play with people I know. I'm just paranoid that way.

However, I can weigh in my two cents on multiplayer games in general. The game is pretty much completely stable. Your connection may drop, but it won't be the game's fault. Game length varies, but I find a fairly big game can be finished in a single night. A long night, mind you - so we're talking six or seven hours of playing, say. As noted, no matter how many people you have, it doesn't make too much of a difference. The game is DESIGNED for multiplayer, not single player, though it's fun both ways. So except for a few particularly micromanagement-oriented nations (like Ashen Empire) no matter how long the game drags out, individual turns don't get MUCH longer.

Gandalf Parker · #5 February 5th, 2004, 08:35 PM

How often do games start?
I could always find about 1 a month with Dom1. There were probably more but that was fine with me. Gave me a few weeks to lose, some time to decide on a new strategy to try, by then I was ready for a new game.

How long do they take to finish on average?
Well the range runs from hours to months. I would say that most games are played as 1-a-day turns and probably run 3 weeks?

Is the MP internet game stable--how much of a problem is crashing and dropping of players?
I havent seen that problem. There is a strange bug which seems to cause the combat playback to be different than what you have on the map. So far it seems to be from different machines (windows players when a linux machine hosts, that type of thing). Its irritating but not game destroying.

How welcoming is the MP community to new players?
Very. At least in my opinion. Still new territory so I dont THINK we give the impression of the "old guard" being cocky and rude. We are all still fairly equal at being able to get our tails kicked.

Are there many Online games in the U.S. Eastern time zone, and when are sessions scheduled: weeknights, weekend morning, afternoon or evening?
There are some IRC channels for immeadiate fast games. I dont ue them but they are posted here somewhere. I take it by mentioning timezone you want a blitz game where the host processes as soon as the turns are in and it goes all day.

What I say to people considering the purchase is this game (and as yet no one seems to argue) is that IF you can get past the learning curve with the free demo then I can pretty much gaurantee that this game will live on your machine many times longer than any other game of equal price. Dom1 lived on multiple machines of mine for 3 years. I have seen no reason to think Dom2 will not stay active on my box at least until someone creates a Dom3.

Argitoth · #6 February 5th, 2004, 08:52 PM

Timezones has never been a problem for me and I play with both Americans and Finnish in the same game.

And you really shouldn't be picky about different times zones in the US. That is definitely not a problem espeicially on the weekends.

The fastest way to get involved in a network game is to add me to your buddy list and message me saying "YO, GET ME IN A GAME!" and then I'll get you in a game.

I'm always happy to get newbs into a network game.

[ February 05, 2004, 20:03: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

Gandalf Parker · #7 February 5th, 2004, 09:43 PM

Nahh the fastest way to get in a game is to say "HEY Ive got the host mode up and running on my machine IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and port xxxx"

Argitoth · #8 February 5th, 2004, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Nahh the fastest way to get in a game is to say "HEY Ive got the host mode up and running on my machine IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and port xxxx"

I beg to differ! Because you need to wait for people... well I guess you have to do that regardless. But if you message me I'd be happy to do a 1v1 to show you how it's done! You know, just for fun! Don't you know how I run?

Reverend Zombie · #9 February 5th, 2004, 10:03 PM

Are hosted internet games typically finished in a session, or do folks save and resume later?

Argitoth · #10 February 5th, 2004, 10:55 PM

Games that are supposed to finish in one session are called blitz. That's when you get a group of players who are already availible to play Dominions and you go through a whole game. Usually you cannot finish a game in one session so you need to either schedual another session time to resume the game OR you leave the server on and let people take turns slowly over a period of days.