Skip to content

We can play this multiplayer.

sandmanCCLsandmanCCL Member Posts: 1,389
Sadly it just dawned on me playing this game multiplayer is going to be significantly easier than it was in the old gamespy direct-IP connection era. (Or at least it sounds like that on paper!)

We should totes get some forum members full parties going on once the game goes live.

Who's with me? :D

I'd love to be the meatshield dwarven fighter/cleric for a group, or possibly a regular ol' thief for the backstabbin's.

Comments

  • Bynary_FissionBynary_Fission Member Posts: 202
    edited August 2012
    I'd do it, though of course scheduling is the issue, plus the fact that I'm kind of a powergamer (I go for Watcher's Keep and Durlag's Tower really early in their respective games, just sayin'). But assuming that people didn't mind that I'd be up for it.

    Fighter/Mage, multi-classed for me. I play that build way too much but I can't imagine going without either the ability to cast mage spells or get into combat. (fun fact: I have played as some combination of a mage since I first picked up Baldur's Gate in 2002, and have strayed away from that but a small handful of times).

    EDIT: Whoops, meant to say multi-classed, not dual.
  • spacejawsspacejaws Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 389
    I would love to but need to wait until my vacation. I payed 20cents a minute to play Diablo 3 online and when i looked at the bill after a month i said never again. Come the new year though I will be on it like sonic.
  • SolobearSolobear Member Posts: 55
    Oh god, gamespy.
  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    I've never played any infinity engine games on multiplayer before. How well does it work in regards to people used to pausing so frequently? Especially playing a caster!
  • AnduineAnduine Member Posts: 416
    Jaysama said:

    I've never played any infinity engine games on multiplayer before. How well does it work in regards to people used to pausing so frequently? Especially playing a caster!


    I've played them multiplayer with friends before, and the only reason that worked at all is because we all have similar ways of playing, and are accustomed to pausing *very* frequently, taking our time, deciding each action, especially when it comes to the use of arcane spells.

    Unlike healing spells which I use frivolously (Unless it's a specific fight where I know to do otherwise), I treat each cast of an arcane spell as a decisive action, with the exception of Identify.

    Shorter answer: Seek like-minded individuals to play with prior to playing non-solo multiplayer, imo.
  • MilesBeyondMilesBeyond Member Posts: 324
    The best option for pausing, if you can't co-ordinate or agree beforehand, might be to play the game "turn-based," i.e. disable it for everyone but one player, and set it to auto-pause every round. Not a perfect solution, but workable.
  • AnduineAnduine Member Posts: 416

    The best option for pausing, if you can't co-ordinate or agree beforehand, might be to play the game "turn-based," i.e. disable it for everyone but one player, and set it to auto-pause every round. Not a perfect solution, but workable.


    That's an interesting method of playing, and one that I have not done yet. Thank you for bringing this up!

  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    Hmm that sounds like it would be very difficult. Secret of Mana is one of my best childhood memory because it's the first multiplayer game I ever played...but whenever my sister paused the game to cast a spell we had to throw pillows at her!!!

    If there's six players at once, I think it sounds amazingly fun but I think it would just be frustrating. That's just me though, as I am always pausing and reading and such. Also, another great joy I have is reloading constantly after winning fights just because it was so much fun to try out differant spells or strategies.
  • AnduineAnduine Member Posts: 416
    Jaysama said:

    ...but whenever my sister paused the game to cast a spell we had to throw pillows at her!!!

    LOL
    Jaysama said:

    ...If there's six players at once, I think it sounds amazingly fun but I think it would just be frustrating. That's just me though, as I am always pausing and reading and such. Also, another great joy I have is reloading constantly after winning fights just because it was so much fun to try out differant spells or strategies.



    It can be frustrating, but you should get an idea of who you will be playing with beforehand, and just discuss the game. Bring up situations and see how everyone would like to approach it. That's helped tremendously with my friends, especially the ones that have little to no experience with the game. After a while, repeated pausing became both expected and often comically synchronized, resulting in an immediate pause/unpause, though that was quickly remedied.
  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    It would be difficult but my ideal situation is to have everyone participating be heavy roleplayers and have one person leading the group. That way the game goes by at a crawl (because we're all busy roleplaying) and gives us plenty of time to discuss what is going on.

    I'd love to join this forum group but only if everyone wants to roleplay like I mentioned.
  • AnduineAnduine Member Posts: 416
    edited August 2012
    Jaysama said:

    It would be difficult but my ideal situation is to have everyone participating be heavy roleplayers and have one person leading the group. That way the game goes by at a crawl (because we're all busy roleplaying) and gives us plenty of time to discuss what is going on.

    I'd love to join this forum group but only if everyone wants to roleplay like I mentioned.

    I'm accustomed to having "heavy rules" in multiplayer games, as I am usually the one leading and enforcing them. This is best served by having only friends involved, but rest assured, even if you do not find a desirable party on these forums, I'm sure a combination of your real life friends/relatives in addition to other Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition communities that sprout up will be able to assist.


    EDIT: I'm playing a pen and paper campaign with a couple of my friends. 30 hours in, and in terms of estimated completion, I'd put it at 0.01%. Details and ambience go a long way.
  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    Everyone I know waited in line for Call of Duty on each release and thinks "why bother play an RPG when you can just read a book"?

    Needless to say, I don't go out much.
  • AnduineAnduine Member Posts: 416
    Jaysama said:

    Everyone I know waited in line for Call of Duty on each release and thinks "why bother play an RPG when you can just read a book"?

    Needless to say, I don't go out much.

    The same is common for people that I see/know, too. Thankfully, I have a core group of friends, and we've played/talked together for many years. I just cannot assimilate into the stereotypical "modern gamer".

  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    *laughs* I added a post in the meme thread about just that!

    But seriously, who wants to geek out and start a huge roleplaying campaign? I think that would be awesome! I'm kind of new here but just about everyone I see on this forum seem like someone I'd have a beer or 7 with.
  • sandmanCCLsandmanCCL Member Posts: 1,389
    I've found that I have to pause LESS frequently in multi-player games as the way my friends and I always handled it in the past was everyone controls just their one character at a time. You don't need to make split decisions with 6 people at once, therefore pausing is significantly less meaningful.

    It also means spells like protection from fire are a lot more useful. Forget about doing it to protect against fights enemies use fire; use it to save your own behind from the sorcerer flinging fireballs left and right!
  • raywindraywind Member Posts: 289
    It would be fun to play but i got only like 2hours time a day to play so might need someone with just that to play with. around 22-24 EEST is the time i have for gaming :D
  • gfm50gfm50 Member Posts: 124
    Jaysama said:

    I've never played any infinity engine games on multiplayer before. How well does it work in regards to people used to pausing so frequently? Especially playing a caster!

    It works great as long as you are on the same page about pausing, RPing, and battle prep. I've had an ongoing game with a buddy of mine for years. We're almost done with BG2: TOB after playing through the entire rest of the series. Only taken 5 years, haha!
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    edited August 2012
    I could see a non-pausing group work if you all only control your own character and agree on your roles in advance. It might end up a bit easy with 6 player made characters though, as we tend to powergame a lot more than vanilla NPCs.

    *edit* assuming you're running a 6-person, all player group
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited August 2012
    I played in a group back in around 2000 and we didn't really need to pause. If a character died the player simply re-logged back in via the character control console, is what I'm remembering. What I can't recall anymore is how saves and XP worked in MP. IIRC, the host regularly saved when we earned XP.

    I suppose the deceased character could be raised (in most cases) as well. But we're talking a dozen years ago for about 3 months, so I don't recall details anymore.
  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    I am going to have so much fun trying to cast a spell on that hasted character running all over the place without my precious pause button!
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190

    Sadly it just dawned on me playing this game multiplayer is going to be significantly easier than it was in the old gamespy direct-IP connection era. (Or at least it sounds like that on paper!)

    We should totes get some forum members full parties going on once the game goes live.

    Who's with me? :D

    I'd love to be the meatshield dwarven fighter/cleric for a group, or possibly a regular ol' thief for the backstabbin's.

    If my friends end up being horrible charlatans and not getting on multiplayer frequently enough, my Blackguard's blade shall be yours, sandman.
  • CCarluNNCCarluNN Member Posts: 200
    For me the space bar is obligatory. Unlike Starcraft tournaments that involve players having 200+ APM (actions per minute), a BG multiplayer game is where players think and discuss the course of action, allowing time to prepare for the next encounter, to read the dialogues, etc.
  • JaysamaJaysama Member Posts: 66
    CCarluNN said:

    For me the space bar is obligatory. Unlike Starcraft tournaments that involve players having 200+ APM (actions per minute), a BG multiplayer game is where players think and discuss the course of action, allowing time to prepare for the next encounter, to read the dialogues, etc.

    Agreed! I always thought multiplayer was two people controlling 3 party members each. The idea of 6 people pausing the game or trying to coordinate sounds like a mess!

    Reminds me of the game of Civilization I played with a bunch of people, we had the email system in use and the game lasted litterally over a year...and we never even got close to modern age!
  • CheesebellyCheesebelly Member Posts: 1,727
    With six people, the best call would be only the host having pause options but when it comes to the game, you set up all possible auto-pauses. When spell cast, when monster is spotted (this is the most useful one), after end of round, after target is gone, etc...

    If the host is a nice patient guy/gal, he'll ask everyone for a sign that they're ready. It can take up to 10 minutes for certain battles, but hey, it's unique this way! :)
  • SneakyDumplingSneakyDumpling Member Posts: 6
    Whilst I love the lengthy and in depth considerations for battle strategies. I am thinking that this time when I play with my friends we implement a 'no pause clause' and simply set up the predetermined pauses that Cheesebelly mentioned in his post.

    For instance just autopausing when a monster is spotted would be ideal for this sort of approach (my friends and I can be impatient/drunk so quick progress i.e shinies keep us engaged) That way the game doesn't stagnate and you have to react in a relatively realistic time frame.

    Whilst its convenient and useful to pause and nut out each move in combat, it does tend to lessen immersion and devalue the 'in your face threat' aspect of combat.

    Not that I am saying I don't enjoy that approach also, just thinking of ways to keep the momentum going and enjoy the game with friends.
Sign In or Register to comment.