The Big Wide Ocean

Has this thread got everyone thinking about variety and longevity on the play style of the upcoming MP game or what?

From what EAST says.. I have imagined the initial introductory version of multiplayer following a few different scenarios:

1st ) It sounds a little like KING OF THE HILL using ISLANDS - and once a faction controls the 3 ports and shore battteries on the islands.. everyone else will be gunning for that faction until knocked off the "hill"..

(everyone else will also have to be happy with spawning on the three approaches for their own faction, until organized enough to take back an island port - is there a winnable END GOAL for this scenario?)

2nd) It sounds like the three approaches will be random and no enemy ships will spawn within 4K of each other, and maybe greater distances may be advisable since the single player reports coming in show routine kills at distances of greater than 4K.. (imagine spawning in more than 4K from nearest enemy only to have a rogue torpedo just arrive to greet you, one that was fired from a nearby battle but greater than 4K away).

The three approaches descriptions lead me to believe they are never capturable, camp-able, stoppable, or able to be blockaded, so it seems the answer to the first scenario is winning the war one way or the other may not be implemented.

So we have endless enemy ships coming back at you again and again from "out to sea". Therefore as an endless war, will bragging rights consist of statistics of kills per week, amount of time each port is controlled by a certain faction etc?

3rd) Mission generator - with only a few ports per faction on the islands.. what will be the variety of missions available?

a. Escorting a transport, fuel ship, merchant from one of your ports to another.. or to random points out to sea?

b. Capturing another port?

c. Hunting and killing a certain high-value target such as Prince Edward, whether player or AI controlled?

d. Hunting and killing the "player of the week" - the player with the most tonnage?

e. Recon, intelligence gathering, shadowing enemy movements for periods of time?

f. Landing troops, vehicles, supplies on enemy held territory, and the necessary escort and protection of those units for period of time?

Im sure many of you can think of ways to use these scenarios or add to them or come up with your own... but will EAST confirm or deny these as part of the plans at this point in time or will we be left hanging in an enigma? Time will tell..

Takes Aim At Buxton From the SB

Remembers the days of IW and the spectator view from the SB's.......and many a time when Buxton cruised on by and I couldn't fire!

Gentlemen,

i have some questions and suggestions to the multiplayer

Will there be a confined map like in these other multiplayer-online-games (Battlefield, Ages of Empire, ...)?

- If yes:

-How would it be if each side has a certain amount of vessels to throw in battle, players can respawn until this amount is consumed.

-There will be reinforcments, but they need their time to drive to the theater (reinforcment will arrive in 20 min ...)

-When killed and no free ship is around, a player could be gunner (or something else) on one of the other ships until the reeinforcmenet will arrive.

-There should be an overall commander, to coordinate the movements of his side

- If the casualties are too high or the situation is hopeless, one side maybe will not send any more reinforcments, the battle commander should then decide what to do (keep on fighting, withdrawn)

- There should be a limit of total reinforcments, no navy has an endless number of ships

Very good suggestions, some we are already planning, some we will look into further.

I suppose the main problem is the more you want want it to be a reflection of a plausable aternative history the more external factors such as economics come ito play and you then end up with a far more elements then you would want. So these things I suppose will have to be controlled centrally by TAG.

i just want to know does TAG have a workable (approximate) release date?

I downloaded a copy of Enigma... installed a few fixed executeables, and loved the game so much that I went out and bought it - as multi-player never works on a hacked version of a game. I went around this whole city only to find the last known copy of Enigma on the shelves here at EB Games... I am just so pumped about the multi-player, that I am anxiously anticipating when MP will be released.. and will I just DL a patch for it then?

thanks

Magnus

its sounds like with a single constant game going on, and all these people waiting for it, the server could get full, lagged... whatever. Remember, if a faction has all three ports, no other factions can build anymore ships. So, the game would have to end, or a traitor appear somewhere, or else the ports so well defended they can't be captured... which of course would really stink and would prolly get boring after a while.

So is it going to be one constant game?

And as long as ships can't get dropped within 4k of each other, if a bunch of ships are coming in to refuel & reload, etc. you get dropped 200k from port... how about just 4k from enemies, and say 1k from allies? This would still prevent entering a battle as you have to be 4k from enemies...

OOOOHHH!!! Or maybe a certain distance from battle... therefore permitting you to group w/ allies, but still end up far from enemies and not start in the midst of crossfire.

Then you have to define "battle," and, well...

I'd hope mission wouldn't just be "get this merchant here." I'd hope they'd have a purpose, exp. if you had two ports and one was low on oil, you'd need to escort oilers to that port otherwise... it runs out of oil. Adding more realism to the game, because then you are more inclined to take a torp for the oiler because your faction might depend on the oil.... Or, if you were trading with an island, escorting merchants there, and losing money or whatever you were trading for if the merchants die... we can all expand on this idea.

More info on missions would be nice, but if it delays the expected due date typing ten pages describing them, don't bother. Thanks East & all.

Dont forget, there will be spawn points at sea away from the islands representing ships arriving from other unseen ports around the world, and although they may be lower on fuel than the faction that owns all the island ports, they should be fully armed..

The low fuel thing could be an interesting twist for any ship forced to spawn at sea, giving them limited ability to fight and retake their island, making it all that more important not to lose the island ports in the first place..

How are teams arranged? I mean, if it starts out even, but then players of one team start to stop playing, and you get 50 people guarding three ports/time, & two people trying to take over the ports, well, you have a problem.

Still'd appreciate an answer about constant game, one large game, many games, missions w/ merchants & oilers, etc... tyty

A lot of the Enigma players are refugees from the old Iron Wolves game. One of the things that prospered in that "theatre of war" was the ability to cooperate and correlate.

In your example, if the port is being attacked by 2 and guarded by 50, clearly, tactical retreat is the correct answer. However, if they inverse occurs, where 50 are attacking a port protected by 2, that becomes more "protoype" like. The port obviously has the benefit of shore based installations and 50 going up against it would be a good melee. Command decisions and tactical placement would become essential.

From the old Iron Wolves days, it's gonna take "teamwork" to conquer the shore batteries, whilst also requiring a loose copertive feel between players on both sides of the reef, and in different timezones.

Didn't see that coming did ya?

So for the last four hours you're prtoecting your port....just waiting for the "othwer side of the world" to get on line to lend a hand. That ability to maintain a 24/7 watch is gonna be intetresting.