The purpose of multiplayer?

[nick*gad]

So except for small life-quality improvements for the regular game, devs seem to hype up the multiplayer concept.
In my opinion this game has very limited multiplayer potential (at least not PVP and there's no option for coop in regular Stronghold). I am curious to see what you guys think in this matter, and if there's ANY potential, or what could be done to extend the lifetime of multiplayer.
I've played a lot of RTS games, being mainly active in Age of empires 2 pvp which was very lively for past 3 decades and here are my thoughts on why Stronghold cant' sustain:
• There's essentially 1 efficient build order, focusing on selling bread and feeding people with beer (may sometimes need adjusting due to map conditions). In living pvp gaming there usually needs to be different build orders or civilizations that play differently, I don't feel there's enough place here, in the end, all comes up to who sets up efficient economy faster, and the ceiling seems to be low especially since unit generation is far slower than in crusader. Whole thing becomes a gimmick race.
• No unit counter system. There's very few options to pick from in terms of army composition. Without rock-paper-scissors mechanics there's nothing you can do to comeback if enemy has established the economy faster.
• No coop/skirmish/PVE or even handicap options meaning every not-so-good player will be crushed online never to come back for some more fun.


My only idea to make the game a fun multiplayer interaction for more people while still sticking to the gameplay design is only adding some additional modes, such as:
• Skirmish - like in crusader
• ~Castle wars, where you start with pre-established economy and whole gameplay is based on management rather than building gimmicks. So lower-level players still can attempting fights without realizing how terrible they are at building efficiently. Maybe add various RNG factors so you need to adapt your army composition to available resources/buildings.
• Co-op missions against AI/invasions

I don't believe you can re-balance the game to sustain the multiplayer. It would require adding whole bunch of new units and implementing counter systems, which is very unlikely as it would affect the game too much.

The only thing keeping the game alive will be modding/workshop community.
What are your thoughs/ideas?

[killuallnow198019801980]

I think Co-op is missing in all those games. Only Crusader and Legends have Co-op. No game in the normal series has, I mean nor 1 nor 2 nor 3.

Please, add Co-op to your games. They are RTS genre and Co-op is vital....

[arborean]

I am hugely disappointed that Definitive Edition doesn't have multiplayer co-op.

To me, the ultimate experience with stronghold is playing co-op against AI with my friends.

I bought Definitive Edition for myself and 2 of my friends fully expecting this mode would be available (as in Crusader and Stronghold 2). This is a big let-down!

[Me Gusta༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ]

Originally posted by nick*gad:

So except for small life-quality improvements for the regular game, devs seem to hype up the multiplayer concept.
In my opinion this game has very limited multiplayer potential (at least not PVP and there's no option for coop in regular Stronghold). I am curious to see what you guys think in this matter, and if there's ANY potential, or what could be done to extend the lifetime of multiplayer.
I've played a lot of RTS games, being mainly active in Age of empires 2 pvp which was very lively for past 3 decades and here are my thoughts on why Stronghold cant' sustain:
• There's essentially 1 efficient build order, focusing on selling bread and feeding people with beer (may sometimes need adjusting due to map conditions). In living pvp gaming there usually needs to be different build orders or civilizations that play differently, I don't feel there's enough place here, in the end, all comes up to who sets up efficient economy faster, and the ceiling seems to be low especially since unit generation is far slower than in crusader. Whole thing becomes a gimmick race.
• No unit counter system. There's very few options to pick from in terms of army composition. Without rock-paper-scissors mechanics there's nothing you can do to comeback if enemy has established the economy faster.
• No coop/skirmish/PVE or even handicap options meaning every not-so-good player will be crushed online never to come back for some more fun.


My only idea to make the game a fun multiplayer interaction for more people while still sticking to the gameplay design is only adding some additional modes, such as:
• Skirmish - like in crusader
• ~Castle wars, where you start with pre-established economy and whole gameplay is based on management rather than building gimmicks. So lower-level players still can attempting fights without realizing how terrible they are at building efficiently. Maybe add various RNG factors so you need to adapt your army composition to available resources/buildings.
• Co-op missions against AI/invasions

I don't believe you can re-balance the game to sustain the multiplayer. It would require adding whole bunch of new units and implementing counter systems, which is very unlikely as it would affect the game too much.

The only thing keeping the game alive will be modding/workshop community.
What are your thoughs/ideas?

I have a really small hope they actualy interested in any good changes for online. There are to many broken mechanics. And Ive been trying to take their atention about it recently.
1)wall/tower rush on unlimited space, even on yours base
2)broken catapult shotgun
3)miners)
Modding can fix all problems. It saved many deadborn games.

[mou]

Strange that none of you mentioned the delays. Does it really not bother you guys? It's 2023, and online gameplay is more delayed than games from the 00s.