as of right now, i have no idea what is being considered for multiplayer.  there has been some debate as to the importance of multiplayer to this game.  my line of thinking isn't one of whether people are interested in it, but in how can we get people interested in it.  because if the game has an excellent multiplayer component then i think it will form its own community, and create the interest itself.  this is my idea of implementation.

Strangers playing strangers.

i find that when strangers play each other, its more about competition.  sure you can sometimes make friends, but usually its about testing yourself against the world.this category can be divided into 3 subcategories. Solo, teams, and score board.  so its in my opinion that stardock ONLY host gametypes on their dedicated servers that are for competitive play.  these would be fast(1 hour or less) gametypes designed with skill based features that include ranking(i have seen this already in the arena area).

Solo - this is about testing yourself against the best out there.  if its possible to implement ranking, and have players play those of similar rank this would be ideal.  these gametypes would mainly consist of tactical battle games with lots of prebuilt units that can be bought with points.  or tiny fast start sandbox. basically a game where each side has a level 5 city prebuilt already.

Team - this would be about going in with your team and playing against another team, afterwhich your TEAM would gain rank.  this would be similiar to solo fast start sandbox, but would be a larger map and each player would have their own level 5 prebuilt city starting out.  diplomacy would be limited to your own team, and the game would be tailored for teamwork(spells, tech etc).

Hi score - this doesn't fit into either of the 2 above categories, but it would interesting to bring a kind of arcade mentality to elemental as well.  there could be a gametype where you are put on a ranking board on how fast you can beat a map.  basically there would be a bunch of purpose made maps where you are tasked with beating 1 or more difficult AI's.  you would be ranked based on the time it takes to win by a specific condition set.

Friends playing friends

Friends that play together generally look for something that allows them to talk and be social with each other.  not that they don't want to compete, but they are able to take the time and enjoy conversation.  they want to be able to have long games, and be able to save that game and continue it later.  its for this reason that i think that stardock allow the full sandbox mode be playable and savable in custom servers only.

i know that myself and many others i am sure would like long epic games with their friends with many AI's.  prob either to play co-op against, or to have an every man and ai for himself game with full diplomacy.  also to be able to use any mods they want as well.

i think that in the end, it comes down to these 2 main types of players.  those that want to compete, and those that want to hang out.  again, i have no idea what stardock has in store for us, but i hope that whatever they do they keep this in mind. 

what do you think?  have any ideas for gametypes you would like to see in elemental?