Just a place to brainstorm various ideas regarding EWoM's multiplayer. I didn't want to turn his thread about AI into a general discussion of EWoM's multiplayer, so instead I just made a new thread here. From what Frogboy said in the Elemental Dev Journals section..
Frogboy said..
It's a matter of pacing control. When you're the only one playing, you can control the pace of things. When you have another human in a turn based game, it's different.
Also, a LOT of things make things very unfair to the point we've had to take them out of multiplayer until we have time to implement more multiplayer specific stuff (for instance, quests are ridiculously unfair in MP because if you get a quest that gives you a +3 sword early, all the skill in the world won't make up for that).
What I'm inclined to do is have the multiplayer version of Elemental split off from the single player. This is what Blizzard has done with SC2 and it's a really good idea. So the MP version of Elemental would get its own tech trees and spells and modified game mechanics that play better online.
When I have a bit more time, I have an idea for doing multiplayer tactical map games (i.e. the entire game would be focused around the player building their spell book prior to the game and then coming in and making use of their spells one by one to get the resources and mana and creatures and such they need to win).
Joint-Rule Co-Op Multiplayer
One of the first things that popped into my mind regarding multiplayer, would be to have it a co-op (you and your friends) versus the AI. Balancing and pacing wouldn't be as bad because you wouldn't have people saying anything isn't fair, after all you and your friends are on the same side. Perhaps you both control the same town(s) and work together from a pool of points and resources to control your empire in a joint-rule relationship. If the AI isn't proving to be a challenge, have the option to set a larger number of AI opponents, such as you and your friend vs 5 or more AI's, that should prove to be more challenging. Or even some options to boost their starting pool and power, such as they already have a few cities established while you are just beginning yours. If there are more than two people playing, such as 3-5 people playing on your side you all contribute, you are all joint-rulers. The more people start on your side, the more the AI gets to start with to balance things out (free starting cities, better troops, better champions, etc).
Pre-Built Spellbooks (Based on Frogboy's idea)
I think this is really creative! It's like building a Magic the Gathering deck, and then playing with it. You have a number of points to pick out what you want, and you only have
- You could pre-build your armies
- Select your own spells
- Cities you create don't give you resources, but instead allow you bring cards back from your graveyard (aka your used pile). Basically, cities would build points and allow you to "re-buy" your used cards.
Vanilla Version with Late Period Start (You start with more points - a lot more)
You would start the game with a lot more points, therefore you'll be starting at more of a medium level in terms of raw power. This might take care of the issue that Frogboy mentioned, that early on if a quest gives you a +3 sword it wouldn't be as unbalancing for the other players, since you'll already be at a medium level, yet the +3 sword would still be rewarding. This would probably be the easiest to implement because all it is would be point distribution at the start of the game. Instead of starting off brand spanking new like a newborn baby opening his eye's for the first time, you'll already be a battle-hardened and seasoned veteran in terms of starting power.
With the increased pool of points you can pre-purchase..
- Much better gear and weapons
- Specific technologies
- Increased Spellpower
- Increased Stats
- Etc
