Single player/Coop campaign

[oblongo]

Hi. Just purchased the game and the cabin an controls are awesome, it feels like a real mecha pilot, nice work! :D
Anyway, didn't realize that the game is only PvP right now so, are you pondering to implement a campaign, single and/or coop, in the future? This kind of game is asking for it ! :D

[Aphex Guy]

We deliberatly shipped as multiplayer first, since we are a 3-man indie team and it would have taken us another 2-3 years to get to implementing a campaign. With the financial aid Early Access funding has helps us with, we can eventually expand the eperience with co-op, more gameplay modes, and more maps/grinders. Getting a campaign made is still a huge undertaking, so we have to asess that as we work through EA, but currently the focus is still on making this release of Vox a multiplayer game.

We also want a proper campaign, its just a that in order to do it right, it will require time and care to do it well.

[oblongo]

Thanks, please keep up the good work!

[Michelangelo]

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

We deliberatly shipped as multiplayer first, since we are a 3-man indie team and it would have taken us another 2-3 years to get to implementing a campaign. With the financial aid Early Access funding has helps us with, we can eventually expand the eperience with co-op, more gameplay modes, and more maps/grinders. Getting a campaign made is still a huge undertaking, so we have to asess that as we work through EA, but currently the focus is still on making this release of Vox a multiplayer game.

We also want a proper campaign, its just a that in order to do it right, it will require time and care to do it well.

So, how many players asking for a Single Player Campaign are you going to ignore?

are you going to wait for the game to fall of online players?

Please, pay attention to players, that is one of the MAIN IDEAS of an EARLY ACCESS GAME.

[Night]

Originally posted by Michelangelo:

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

We deliberatly shipped as multiplayer first, since we are a 3-man indie team and it would have taken us another 2-3 years to get to implementing a campaign. With the financial aid Early Access funding has helps us with, we can eventually expand the eperience with co-op, more gameplay modes, and more maps/grinders. Getting a campaign made is still a huge undertaking, so we have to asess that as we work through EA, but currently the focus is still on making this release of Vox a multiplayer game.

We also want a proper campaign, its just a that in order to do it right, it will require time and care to do it well.

So, how many players asking for a Single Player Campaign are you going to ignore?

are you going to wait for the game to fall of online players?

Please, pay attention to players, that is one of the MAIN IDEAS of an EARLY ACCESS GAME.

I think it's quite clear these devs pay attention to the players playing this game.
Judging by how close the community is I don't think you'll get far speaking in a hostile manner to the devs.

As for your question there are honestly not many people asking for a single player option in the game because, as the devs have stated, a single player campaign would take years to complete.


That's years.

By the time they would be finished with that funding would have dried up long ago.

I think not, I think the best path forward is to expand the kernal they have with more features. Those of us playing the game are playing it because we enjoy the multiplayer aspects and as cool as a single player experience would be I'd be hard pressed to keep playing through years of content draught so that they could bring a single player campaign into existance.

[frogopus]

Originally posted by Michelangelo:

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

We deliberatly shipped as multiplayer first, since we are a 3-man indie team and it would have taken us another 2-3 years to get to implementing a campaign. With the financial aid Early Access funding has helps us with, we can eventually expand the eperience with co-op, more gameplay modes, and more maps/grinders. Getting a campaign made is still a huge undertaking, so we have to asess that as we work through EA, but currently the focus is still on making this release of Vox a multiplayer game.

We also want a proper campaign, its just a that in order to do it right, it will require time and care to do it well.

So, how many players asking for a Single Player Campaign are you going to ignore?

are you going to wait for the game to fall of online players?

Please, pay attention to players, that is one of the MAIN IDEAS of an EARLY ACCESS GAME.

I'd hate to see the three guys making this game shift all their man hours to building a campaign. I'd rather have a polished online mech experience that lasts me as many hours as I want to put into, than get 5-10 hours out of a campaign. A multiplayer experience means that people are constantly play testing and giving you the data you need to create a polished, balanced, and interesting single player experience. If you launch in early access with single player only content, people will play once and likely never return until maybe when you do a full release. Dip your toe into online, its good with a good community.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by frogopus:

Originally posted by Michelangelo:

So, how many players asking for a Single Player Campaign are you going to ignore?

are you going to wait for the game to fall of online players?

Please, pay attention to players, that is one of the MAIN IDEAS of an EARLY ACCESS GAME.

I'd hate to see the three guys making this game shift all their man hours to building a campaign. I'd rather have a polished online mech experience that lasts me as many hours as I want to put into, than get 5-10 hours out of a campaign. A multiplayer experience means that people are constantly play testing and giving you the data you need to create a polished, balanced, and interesting single player experience. If you launch in early access with single player only content, people will play once and likely never return until maybe when you do a full release. Dip your toe into online, its good with a good community.

The thing is, a good single-player campaign can work wonders for a game, especially a mech game. Putting all your focus and effort into a multiplayer game is too much like putting all your eggs into one basket, and it also deprives those who don't really care about multiplayer of a potentially awesome game. Why should those who exclusively want multiplayer get all the nice things? I'm willing to wait for a good single-player campaign, as long as we get regular feedback from the devs.

[frogopus]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by frogopus:

I'd hate to see the three guys making this game shift all their man hours to building a campaign. I'd rather have a polished online mech experience that lasts me as many hours as I want to put into, than get 5-10 hours out of a campaign. A multiplayer experience means that people are constantly play testing and giving you the data you need to create a polished, balanced, and interesting single player experience. If you launch in early access with single player only content, people will play once and likely never return until maybe when you do a full release. Dip your toe into online, its good with a good community.

The thing is, a good single-player campaign can work wonders for a game, especially a mech game. Putting all your focus and effort into a multiplayer game is too much like putting all your eggs into one basket, and it also deprives those who don't really care about multiplayer of a potentially awesome game. Why should those who exclusively want multiplayer get all the nice things? I'm willing to wait for a good single-player campaign, as long as we get regular feedback from the devs.

To be clear, I'd love a campaign. Everyone wants tons of content and all the modes and everything, but it's a question of resources and man hours right?. It makes sense to build on what they currently have and focus on expanding mechs, maps, weapons, and modes, since those take less man hours while also having a big impact on multiplayer content. Plus a lot of that work that sees an immediate payoff in multiplayer would benefit a future campaign and would need to be done anyways. What good is a campaign without lots of mechs, customization, and weapons to shoot with? Adding all the multiplayer content really is building towards a campaign, plus they have a dedicated group playtesting the content every day.

So I'm not arguing against a campaign, just the idea that the developer was ignoring his player base, especially when aphex said that he'd love to do one but wants to build up the funding to do it right.

[Aphex Guy]

Thanks for your comments, @frogopus and @Night. To use the previous "put all your eggs into one basket" analogy, think of it more like having 1 egg, not multiple. We only get one shot to make something with it (given the runway that we have), and splitting means you can't make much of a meal with either. So we had to make a tough choice between the two directions, and we knew there would be dissapointment on either end. It's important to stress that both paths are equally valuable to players, and we equally want both singleplayer and multiplayer in the end. But ultimately you have to lead with what you feel gives your product the best foot forward for the long marathon ahead, and Early Access with a singleplayer-only campaign is an even tougher proposition for continued success than multiplayer is.

[Michelangelo]

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

Thanks for your comments, @frogopus and @Night. To use the previous "put all your eggs into one basket" analogy, think of it more like having 1 egg, not multiple. We only get one shot to make something with it (given the runway that we have), and splitting means you can't make much of a meal with either. So we had to make a tough choice between the two directions, and we knew there would be dissapointment on either end. It's important to stress that both paths are equally valuable to players, and we equally want both singleplayer and multiplayer in the end. But ultimately you have to lead with what you feel gives your product the best foot forward for the long marathon ahead, and Early Access with a singleplayer-only campaign is an even tougher proposition for continued success than multiplayer is.

The solution is simple. Shot first for Single Player, then you will raise a stable playerbase to reload and shot again for Multiplayer.

Otherwise, Multiplayer VR only games die quickly.

[Mookies]

Originally posted by Michelangelo:

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

We deliberatly shipped as multiplayer first, since we are a 3-man indie team and it would have taken us another 2-3 years to get to implementing a campaign. With the financial aid Early Access funding has helps us with, we can eventually expand the eperience with co-op, more gameplay modes, and more maps/grinders. Getting a campaign made is still a huge undertaking, so we have to asess that as we work through EA, but currently the focus is still on making this release of Vox a multiplayer game.

We also want a proper campaign, its just a that in order to do it right, it will require time and care to do it well.

So, how many players asking for a Single Player Campaign are you going to ignore?

are you going to wait for the game to fall of online players?

Please, pay attention to players, that is one of the MAIN IDEAS of an EARLY ACCESS GAME.

Guy, it's better to say, "People really want a quality single player mech cockpit experience." Than complain about what has already been made and act entitled. I too wish there were more mech cockpit games that were not pvp only but for some reason that's all we seem to get. At the same time I don't expect a 3 man indie team to somehow figure out a way to develop a quality campaign along side what they've already commited to.

[Eunostos]

It takes a special level of entitled obliviousness to interpret "we flat out cannot do this thing" as ignoring requests for it.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

Thanks for your comments, @frogopus and @Night. To use the previous "put all your eggs into one basket" analogy, think of it more like having 1 egg, not multiple. We only get one shot to make something with it (given the runway that we have), and splitting means you can't make much of a meal with either. So we had to make a tough choice between the two directions, and we knew there would be dissapointment on either end. It's important to stress that both paths are equally valuable to players, and we equally want both singleplayer and multiplayer in the end. But ultimately you have to lead with what you feel gives your product the best foot forward for the long marathon ahead, and Early Access with a singleplayer-only campaign is an even tougher proposition for continued success than multiplayer is.

All I really want to know is, are there plans for the game to have a single-player campaign?

[TonyDanza]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

Thanks for your comments, @frogopus and @Night. To use the previous "put all your eggs into one basket" analogy, think of it more like having 1 egg, not multiple. We only get one shot to make something with it (given the runway that we have), and splitting means you can't make much of a meal with either. So we had to make a tough choice between the two directions, and we knew there would be dissapointment on either end. It's important to stress that both paths are equally valuable to players, and we equally want both singleplayer and multiplayer in the end. But ultimately you have to lead with what you feel gives your product the best foot forward for the long marathon ahead, and Early Access with a singleplayer-only campaign is an even tougher proposition for continued success than multiplayer is.

All I really want to know is, are there plans for the game to have a single-player campaign?

It's not something we can commit to as a planned feature at this time. Anyone buying the game should not have an expectation that a campaign will be added.

[Herr Pizza]

Originally posted by TonyDanza:

Originally posted by Valden21:

All I really want to know is, are there plans for the game to have a single-player campaign?

It's not something we can commit to as a planned feature at this time. Anyone buying the game should not have an expectation that a campaign will be added.

What's your opinion on mod tools and steam workshop? just some idea that came up while reading this thread, but some really simple level editor and the ability to place AI enemies around the maps could already really be fun to mess around with

[Aphex Guy]

We are very supportive of the modding scene, and ideally would love to get the game to a point where the community can add content, scenarios/missions, and making gameplay modes of hteir own. The game is not currently at a state where this is possible, but it is one of our goals to try and enable this eventually.

Our pipeline for art content (levels/grinders/weapons) is currently very proprietary, so that will likely take much longer to change into a state where the community can contribute. So most likely whenever we get moddability, it will first be gameplay/scenario type of content, and much later art.