Gladius multiplayer should have been a different game mode

[TemplarGR]

Seeing some recent discussions about pvp, i wanted to say some things regarding multiplayer that i had been thinking for a while. I personally do not play multiplayer as i don't think i would enjoy playing Gladius with the settings that people use in multiplayer. And i think that Gladius is a game to be enjoyed in long sessions that reach T10, and not rushfests. I also don't think that the pvp is (or can be) balanced well enough to be worth it for many reasons (lack of handcrafted balanced maps, fast settings skewing game balance, lack of ELO based ladder, etc)

4X games in general are difficult to play in multiplayer. If they take a long time, people get bored, real life intervenes, people disconnect etc. If they are too fast, what is the point of being 4X with such slow development and so many research items?

So, what would i choose to do, if i was a game designer? I would create a separate game mode for multiplayer, drastically altered than the current game mode. Custom tailored to offer fast, well balanced, pvp. It is not something that's new, many games have different single player than multiplayer, for example Dawn of War 2 skirmish was vastly different than the campaign mode.

1) It would remove city development, research, etc, in favor of a point system like the tabletop. People would begin with enough points to field a decent army from turn 1. Each player would have a single city with each unit producer already built, and with no ability to expand the city for more buildings/tiles or make new cities. Units would all be build in 1 turn per queue as long as you had the points, and the player who lost his city would lose the game.

2) If i wanted to simulate research in this mode, i would allow one to spend some points to do research instead of buying units, and it would be a tradeoff of more units vs more quality. Obviously only military related tech would be available.

3) If i wanted to simulate the economy in this mode, i would allow "capture points" on the map to provide more points per turn as long as you owned them, like outposts do currently

4) Maps would be handcrafted and tailor made for balanced pvp. They wouldn't have to be too many, just 1 or 2 could do. A map editor could be used for more if available.

5) It would have an official ELO based ladder with leaderboards, matchmaking etc.

That way people could play fast pvp games using the same units/factions/maps we have now, but in a more balanced way, and focus on the things that are mostly fun, the battles.

It would also have the benefit for the devs to let the single player traditional 4X mode be its own thing and not destroy its balance trying to make fast pvp work (for example, Lictors costing 120 biomass, really? ). And more people would play the multiplayer mode if it was fast, balanced, and had a ladder so they could compete to see their names on the leaderboards... I would play it for sure.

[Cursed Hawkins]

So basically something that ISN'T what the game currently is... might as well wait for their next IP then Templar!

[TemplarGR]

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

So basically something that ISN'T what the game currently is... might as well wait for their next IP then Templar!

It wouldn't be too far off what the game currently is. It would cut the larger 4X "fat" to make matchups faster, but overall battles would be like they are now.

In any case, this is just theoretical. I am not expecting them to implement this, especially seeing how old this game is. It is just that i wanted to talk about how the pvp would have to be, to be taken seriously. And it would be far more easier to balance if it was more restricted like this, instead of trying to balance current Gladius over many different map/game settings and with balancing both economy and units.

[GreenBeanN1]

Originally posted by TemplarGR:

In any case, this is just theoretical. I am not expecting them to implement this, especially seeing how old this game is.

I don't think the age of the game has anything to do with it. There are far older games that did a better job here.
There have been some (bigger) changes however. Switch to Vulcan and hot seat.
After that we got what we wanted. Factions and units. I agree that it is most likely Zephon will follow this business model.

1 and 2 and 3 could be put in a mod (point 1 probably a little bit crude but would work).

Point 4 could be done too. It would only require a lot of luck or a tremendous amount of time.

Point 5: I can see some would prefer such feature I prefer direct connect and/or hot seat. Connecting to a master server is always a bad plan to rely on that.

[Phaeron Amarkun]

You don't want multi play in Gladius, you only want to play Table top in PC

[TemplarGR]

Originally posted by Phaeron Amarkun:

You don't want multi play in Gladius, you only want to play Table top in PC

I explained why.

Also, even today no one is playing multiplayer Gladius. Most play modded, and even vanilla they play with very fast settings that alter the experience a lot.

[Tsorig]

Originally posted by TemplarGR:

Originally posted by Phaeron Amarkun:

You don't want multi play in Gladius, you only want to play Table top in PC

I explained why.

Also, even today no one is playing multiplayer Gladius. Most play modded, and even vanilla they play with very fast settings that alter the experience a lot.

You said "i think that Gladius is a game to be enjoyed in long sessions that reach T10, and not rushfests."

Well my friend, currently the fast or very fast settings is only one where people can reach T10 unit. Mostly I see fast pace games in multiplayer lobby and in those games the time can easily go 3-6 hours before someone surrender or other team is beaten.

I don't know exactly what you mean games that "reach T10 and isn't rush fest", but the fast pace might be setting you looking for, because in standard settings you will never reach T10 unit unless you play like over 6h games, which I can guarantee that everyone gets bored and will eventually just leave the game or surrender.

[Grotzel]

Originally posted by TemplarGR:

Also, even today no one is playing multiplayer Gladius. Most play modded, and even vanilla they play with very fast settings that alter the experience a lot.

Also it's beside the point of this discussion - I just wanted to point out that coop against the AI also exists ... which I would still call multiplayer. :)

[Devian]

Originally posted by Grotzel:

Also it's beside the point of this discussion - I just wanted to point out that coop against the AI also exists ... which I would still call multiplayer. :)

I totally agree with you.