Should this game be Multiplayer online gaming?

[BlackRose]

I'm opening up the discussion to see if we can get the devs to consider upgrading to a online gaming exp for massive server map in where you could compete with other players and choose things like being a bandit, knight, basically build your kingdom but also do things like unite with other village through marriage and even create a trading post in were you sell your goods to other players. I would especially ask for proximity voice chat to be installed. What are your thoughts about this?

[Wizard of Woz]

So a completely different game...

[Ookapia]

I think that's very unrealistic. The devs have been fulfilling players' wishes for four years, and a year ago they created a new map with a new story and additional functions (customisation, co-op). I can't imagine them starting from scratch after four years to make the same game again ‘but differently’.
I think it is more likely that they will turn to a completely new project.

[eighmy_lupin]

Turning the game into a MMO would be a massive downgrade.

[BlackRose]

Originally posted by Ookapia:

I think that's very unrealistic. The devs have been fulfilling players' wishes for four years, and a year ago they created a new map with a new story and additional functions (customisation, co-op). I can't imagine them starting from scratch after four years to make the same game again ‘but differently’.
I think it is more likely that they will turn to a completely new project.

I was more of thinking it might enhance the game, where you still have the option of co-op. But people could buy their own server and cater to the community in having massive realms of their own. Not really change anything, but rather give a option in where huge gathering of people could play among each other in a RP game of Medevil times.

[BlackRose]

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

So a completely different game...

Not exactly, same thing, but the option to have a large capacity of people where you could say go to a server in which is RP strictly and be apart of other town community ect.

[*Morri*]

Originally posted by BlackRose:

Not really change anything, but rather give a option in where huge gathering of people could play among each other in a RP game of Medevil times.

Not really change anything, seriously?
I don't think you have any idea of what you are asking would entail. It would mean remaking the entire game. Not just the maps, but also the mechanics and the entire technical shebang behind savegames, map usage, performance, villager AI, connections, ...

This is a small dev team and the game is out of EA for over 4 years already.
I don't think you even realise what you are asking.

[Eekhoorn]

Usually a game is good when it knows what it is AND what it isn't.
Changing the scope of the game in this way, would not fit MD.
It would become an MMO. MD is NOT an MMO.

Luckily the development looks very focused.

[Ookapia]

Originally posted by BlackRose:

Not really change anything, but rather give a option in where huge gathering of people could play among each other in a RP game of Medevil times.

How do you envisage this? It's not enough to ‘flip a switch’ and bang, you can use servers.

You can see this clearly in a current bug. Co-op partners can now have a child together. This should now lie in the cradle instead of on the arm of an NPC. The devs have certainly thought about this - and yet it often doesn't work and the child is then invisible for 2 years.
And that's just a very reduced small task within the world. And all the individual parts of the new function are already there. Coop has been around for a while, the baby usually lies in the cradle at night anyway. And yet it's made up of so many components that the devs (who basically know their game) have overlooked something and the bug has arisen.

You also want a big world. But the maps are designed by hand. You can't just add a line of code and then the big world is there. AI would also have to be programmed to solve this.

How do you envisage the quests in this large world? In co-op you do them together. The quest results can be different and change something in the world, e.g. the location of an NPC. How can this be ‘simply’ implemented in an MMO without changing anything - as you suggest?

Many players have no idea about programming (that's totally ok), you can see it very clearly in requests like this.

[Tristin]

Be thankful we are still getting free updates and not paid DLC's

[Clawyer]

How would a game like this even give dozens of people something meaningful to do?

Right now in co-op it can be a struggle over the management tab when two or three people want to manage the buildings they are working on, I expect this to get way worse with more people in the game, to a point where griefers just block the management tab for hours.

You could make players work on all of the jobs that are done my NPCs right now, but if player keep the efficiency they have right now a town full of PCs would deforest a large area and build houses for maybe two days and then burn through the tech tree in a few seasons. The game would probably become boring quite quickly after that.

If you reduce player efficiency to a point where it takes actual dynasty levels of time to complete the content the game would probably also become very VERY boring. I don't want to only chop trees and make firewood for 20 houses for many ingame years.
Going to sleep would probably also become impossible as there will always be that one person who just went out to do X and doesn't come back until the sun is already rising...

[kimlaone]

The game doesn't have the dynamics to be an MMO. Many people come to the game just to relax (say, after work). And the pace of the game is different for everyone - someone builds 50 houses in the first 5-10 years, while others build only 5 houses in the same 10 years and live in a small community. What will 200-500 or several thousand players do on one map? Will the more nimble ones build territories with 100+ houses? Will the more impudent ones start running around other people's villages and robbing, because they want to be robbers? What will you steal there? Eggs from chicken coops? There are no multi-level castles or dungeons with monsters on the map, which you can raid, so that the players don't get bored. Running around other villages and trying to sell goods is also a dubious activity. Or will the faster players buy everything from NPCs and then sell it to others at exorbitant prices. Then half or most of the players will get bored (because the game doesn't have the action and interaction they expected) and they'll start whining for new territories, new weapons, etc... In general, I have absolutely no idea how to make another dull MMO-like thing out of such a good game. The game is great in its current state without any big online, IMHO.