So can you play online or only local multiplayer?

[Pharticus Maximus]

Is it online or local only multi-player? So many indies are now coming out with only local, makes no sense, hope this is online.

[Retro]

this is the type of game that would thrive online - if it gets popular enough i hope to see it on PSN or XBOX LIVE one day as a competitive game - curious do you devs like phantom dust?

[Pharticus Maximus]

thanks for this info. I will play against bots for now then and hope the online gets put in before too long.

[deadering]

Played it local a while back and I gotta say it was some great fun. Really looking forward to online play though!

[Bussy Beefer]

Massively hyped to see a follow up to my favorite XBLIG and even more hyped to hear online multiplayer is being looked in to.

Local only was the only complaint I had about the original.

[Gigatross Games]

It's awesome to see this kind of enthusiasm from all of you at the prospect of online multiplayer, there's no question it's the feature this game needs if it's ever to reach its potential. To touch on the point raised by Pharticus in the first post, we can totally understand why a lot of devs don't necessarily want to pursue netplay for their multiplayer games -- it's a hugely complicated thing to code, and concerns over twitch gameplay being irreparably crippled by latency issues are valid. Even if its not flawless 100% of the time, though, it's hard to imagine the availability of online multiplayer being anything but warmly received.

[Mojo The Rising]

Originally posted by Gigatross Games:

It's awesome to see this kind of enthusiasm from all of you at the prospect of online multiplayer, there's no question it's the feature this game needs if it's ever to reach its potential. To touch on the point raised by Pharticus in the first post, we can totally understand why a lot of devs don't necessarily want to pursue netplay for their multiplayer games -- it's a hugely complicated thing to code, and concerns over twitch gameplay being irreparably crippled by latency issues are valid. Even if its not flawless 100% of the time, though, it's hard to imagine the availability of online multiplayer being anything but warmly received.

But this being the online community, praises can become complaints pretty damn quickly if some people don't get exactly what they think they "deserve" in a game.

I, for one, am very grateful that you have made the bots as robust as they are.

[Gigatross Games]

@MrMojoRisin, you're right, and here's hoping there's a minimum of people soured on the game by the improvements and additions we make to it. We're really glad you're enjoying the bots!

[WonderGamer]

So currently the game is Single Player or Local Co-Op only, you state you're intending on adding online multiplayer. The question is whether SP will be removed or not once online MP is added; seeing as I try to avoid MP-only games (particularly from indie developers since I got screwed over by both Steam & Brain Candy (developers of Fray) when I purchased a MP-only abandonware product which continued to be sold for 1.5 years after it became dead explaining the metacritic rating for the game & was given the proverbial finger when I requested a refund for the abandonware, this is not a game I'm going to want to buy if it's going to require server authentication to even run (Fray simple starts up, throws a messages that it can't connect to servers; then shuts back down; that has been the extend of my gameplay since I bought it). The procedural generation is what has my interest in this game, but the addition of MP will be what detours the decision to buy it if SP is removed.

[Pharticus Maximus]

Well i own the game now and will play it today to test it out. Keep on updating devs!

[Mojo The Rising]

They've evidently done a lot of work on the AI bots, so I really doubt they would ever remove them.

Originally posted by Xfire WonderGamer:

So currently the game is Single Player or Local Co-Op only, you state you're intending on adding online multiplayer. The question is whether SP will be removed or not once online MP is added; seeing as I try to avoid MP-only games (particularly from indie developers since I got screwed over by both Steam & Brain Candy (developers of Fray) when I purchased a MP-only abandonware product which continued to be sold for 1.5 years after it became dead explaining the metacritic rating for the game & was given the proverbial finger when I requested a refund for the abandonware, this is not a game I'm going to want to buy if it's going to require server authentication to even run (Fray simple starts up, throws a messages that it can't connect to servers; then shuts back down; that has been the extend of my gameplay since I bought it). The procedural generation is what has my interest in this game, but the addition of MP will be what detours the decision to buy it if SP is removed.

[TowerFlare]

We like the bots. ;) They will be available for any future game mode, as enemies or allies.

[WonderGamer]

Alright, I purchased it. We'll see where it goes from here.

[UOII]

once it becomes multiplayer i will buy it

[WonderGamer]

Originally posted by M4YB3N0T:

once it becomes multiplayer i will buy it

I think you mean online MP, it already has local MP co-op.

@TowerFlare,
Just curious since this has been brought up; is it intended that MP will have a matchmaking system? I mean there's going to be bots regardless for additional players it seems, but let me give an example of why this concern is here:

Orcs Must Die added MP to the sequel in response to a rather overwhelming demand for it (or rather volume of requests) in the first game. However this came as a somewhat double-edged sword considering the game was designed to be played MP with the addition of the feature & there was no matchmaking system, so you were pretty well up a creek if you didn't have any friends that owned the game or wanted to play it (at least they made use of Steam Community features to allow sending invitations to play the game, but that was the extent of any form of matchmaking)...

Sanctum is another game that has this problem, although somewhat different. I don't remember this game using Steam Community features for MP functions (haven't played the sequel yet, so couldn't say on that one), you had to join via direct-IP & there was no server browser.

Games like Terraria & Starbound (I believe Minecraft also) didn't have server browsers, so any MP game you wanted to join or have your friends join would have to be a known server otherwise you were stuck with SP.

One last example while perhaps not really relevant to PC gamers (since there wasn't a PC release) would be Destiny, where Bungie felt it was not important to add matchmaking to some of the main functions of the game (Raids, Heroic Strikes & Nightfall Strikes), which effectively makes those unplayable for people who have very little friends (or at least online friends) over the network for the system they are playing the game on (PSN/XBOX Live). This might have been workable if there was some kind of system where you could seek teams in the Tower (similar to how Guild Wars does it), but unfortunately Bungie has their heads stuck up their asses & stating that they listen to the users opinions to add features in IGN interviews where the truth of the matter is they're going to do things their way regardless of what anybody else says.

I'm going to leave it at this; I'm sure I could go on & on with examples, but I think I've given enough information as to why matchmaking is important. WonderGamer out!

[WonderGamer]

Well a lobby system should be fine, any form of server browser is better than direct IP play considering it lacks the potential to really even be taken advantage of. Steam Community play invites isn't far off from direct IP joining & can perhaps become more of an annoyance when people are constantly getting invites to join a game they may not want to (plus one of the big problems with that feature is that friends can send invites to people for games they don't even own; it's happened to me a few times). I won't negate the fact that direct IP joining can be a blessing if not the only means to do it, plus it gives you a chance to get involved in other communities with third-party software to allow direct joining of their friends over those platforms.