To players and developers: Is it possible to play Quick and Ranked modes with 2 or 3 local players and 2 or 3 online players (and more questions)?

[Kamil950PL]

1) Is it possible (or will it be possible in future) to play Quick and Ranked modes with 2 or 3 local players and 2 or 3 online players (maximum is 4 players of course). I probably can find online players faster in Ranked or Quick than Custom mode.

2) Why in Custom mode the game search only for players in my own rank for a long time (not only 20 seconds)? Is it a bug? In Quick and Ranked mode after probably 20 seconds the game search for more players also with more diffrent ranks than me and greater distance etc. but not in the Custom mode.

3) Why when second local player click A on controller in Custom game mode a timer is ticking before more players (local or online) join and the game can start with only 2 players instead of 4 players (for example 2 local and 2 online)?
The only way to stop this is to set up searching for online players in 3rd and 4th slot and wait for them until 2nd local player can join and choose a character and colour.

4) Is it possible to make this game for more than 4 players in future?

[Sorry for my English.]

[Kamil950PL]

'+search_distance far' (without quotes) launch command probably don't work in Custom mode.

[Gert-Jan Stolk]

1) Ranked: Short answer, no. Long answer: ranked is about placing one person (the person who owns the steam account) in a league based on skill. When there are multiple local players the game doesn't know who to rank, or what the rank of the other players is.
Quick and custom games are essentially the same thing. If you open a slot for online players in custom it will be filled by someone who clicked quick game. So you can have more local players in quick game by simply starting a custom game.

2) It actually shouldn't be searching for players at all (the idea is that quick game players are searching for you). I'll look into it.

3) The timer was introduced to solve the problem where players would be inactive in lobbies thereby blocking the game from starting for everybody. It's a bit annoying right now because mid-game joining is not yet enabled for custom games. But later on it's better to simply start the custom game and have online players join when you are already playing.

4) Not likely. There are a lot of reasons why not:

• Bandwidth use increases exponentially for each online player added.
  
• All levels/ the game is designed with 4 players in mind.
  
• It would require a lot of work (in terms of system and UI).

[ivy]

How cool would 8 speedrunners be if it was a local party

[Kamil950PL]

1) You can make first local player ranked and other players not-ranked in Ranked mode. It is possible (maybe) because now you can (only 1 local player) join mid-game in Ranked mode and your score doesn't count in this match because you joined mid-game.

2) Now (some time ago when I checked) I can't find online players in Custom Mode but I can find players in Quick and Ranked Mode (or maybe I wait too little time in Custom Mode but still Quick and Ranked is a lot of faster).

[Gert-Jan Stolk]

1) That would allow the local players to help the 1 ranked player in all sorts of ways. So that would be totally open to abuse.

2) If you start a quick game either you join other quick/custom games or other quick games join you. If you start a custom game only other quick game players can join you that's why it may take longer, especially if you are in a region with not many players in it.