How does the co-op work?

[Bilstar]

I've played the demo so I have a rough understanding of how the game works but how does the co-op work? Do both players build a rover each? Are the building parts shared? Do you have the same objective? Who controls the driving? Can you both add parts to a single rover at the same time? What gives?!??

[ian]

You can invite up to 3 of your Steam friends to join your game. Everyone will have their own vehicle, parts, blueprints and money from their own game and you're all free to take on contracts together, do them separately or whatever. Everyone gets the rewards for completed contracts and they keep them when they return to their own solo games. Hope that makes sense!

[FallRivers]

Originally posted by ian:

You can invite up to 3 of your Steam friends to join your game. Everyone will have their own vehicle, parts, blueprints and money from their own game and you're all free to take on contracts together, do them separately or whatever. Everyone gets the rewards for completed contracts and they keep them when they return to their own solo games. Hope that makes sense!

i got a small question of my own. in coop does mission progress save between players? like if i join a friend and do some contracts, will those then be completed in my game when i go back to solo play, or is progress only for the host?

[ian]

Contract progress is only saved for the host. Think of it like visiting another player's world. When you return to your world the contracts haven't been done there.

[FallRivers]

Originally posted by ian:

Contract progress is only saved for the host. Think of it like visiting another player's world. When you return to your world the contracts haven't been done there.

alright good to know. thanks for the answer btw

[Bilstar]

Thanks for your help everyone

[Mooncake]

Originally posted by ian:

Contract progress is only saved for the host. Think of it like visiting another player's world. When you return to your world the contracts haven't been done there.

This is unfortunately the only reason why i did not buy the game yet.

I think this is the most annoying way of doing co-op, i have to do everything yet again stuff i already did which does not make sense in my opinion. Not just that, i get the reward which means the contracts in solo are basically useless. and busy work. Only for me to do them again to progress after those contracts.

Why this choice and not let co-op progress too, i seriously do not get this choice.

[ian]

Players can be at very different stages of the game when they decide to play co-op. How would you handle completing a later contract in the host game when the client is only at the start of the game? For example, suppose player A has just started the game and joins player B who is about to finish the Observatory. They finish the observatory together and then player A returns to their solo game. Should the observatory be completed in their game too? If so they will miss all the earlier contracts that build the different observatory phases...

[Mooncake]

Originally posted by ian:

Players can be at very different stages of the game when they decide to play co-op. How would you handle completing a later contract in the host game when the client is only at the start of the game? For example, suppose player A has just started the game and joins player B who is about to finish the Observatory. They finish the observatory together and then player A returns to their solo game. Should the observatory be completed in their game too? If so they will miss all the earlier contracts that build the different observatory phases...

I guess in that sense i would altleast give the option to skip the contract as you already did it. So you get the choice of skipping already completed contracts

[Nails]

What about co-op only saves?

[Nails]

Or do it how astroneer does it, where progress and parts are saved to the world, not to the player. If you join a friend's world, they can boost you up and you do missions together, then when you go back to your own world, you have your own set of missions and parts. You'd still have to do everything over again, but your progress in multiplayer would pace with your friends and you wouldn't need to skip back to do them yourself again just to play with friends.

[#2C8BBA Mhugh220]

join and lets find out

[Gared]

Thank you for asking and answering, exactly the information I was looking for

[okster]

just be warned, though if you have joined a friends game, you have to save the game if you want to keep the money you earned together. if the host quits without you saving, you lose the money.

If you realise this has happened, you can get the host to resume, and re-join. then you will have your money and you can save to keep it. not sure wither this will be true if all your host has is the autosave and they over-wrote it.

[ian]

That shouldn't be the case. The game auto saves whenever either of you complete a contract, preserving your earnings. There's a chance you might miss out if you happen to disconnect as the contract completes, but that would be rare. If this is something that is happening often for you then please send me a bug report using the in-game form and I'll look into it!

[SmokieJebus]

Originally posted by ian:

Players can be at very different stages of the game when they decide to play co-op. How would you handle completing a later contract in the host game when the client is only at the start of the game? For example, suppose player A has just started the game and joins player B who is about to finish the Observatory. They finish the observatory together and then player A returns to their solo game. Should the observatory be completed in their game too? If so they will miss all the earlier contracts that build the different observatory phases...

The problem with this I'm now experiencing with my brother, and I do think it will push players away more than anything else. I got him to join my game after I unlocked boosters and a lot of moving parts, and now while he's only interested in helping me he doesn't have access to half the parts he needs to be able to help me effectively. It has created a bar of entry that is difficult to overcome, and could be fairly easily solved by giving him access to the same parts I have while he's in my game, but only having him unlock parts for his game that he helped me with. Leave the buildings that are main objectives unbuilt in his game and if he does a mission that would typically give him a part he already has from my game he gets a point bonus instead.