Multiplayer Progression

[Vinlander]

Is pretty much impossible unless you are in a very dedicated group or have friends that play the game. I can never finish a multiplayer campaign or level up my character because these campaigns take a long time and I have no way of knowing when that lobby will be back up and then I'll look for another lobby just to find all my characters stats are reset? It ends up feeling pointless.

Why can't our multiplayer characters keep their stats, inventory and money across lobbies? That way we don't have to rely on being part of some special group to progress properly through the campaign in multiple which is how this game is meant to be played.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Host your own game. When you have control of the campaign, everything is better.

[sokolov]

Originally posted by Vinlander:

Why can't our multiplayer characters keep their stats, inventory and money across lobbies?

Because then almost every player would become a cheater, duh.

[Urkikk]

yeah, just host your own game, and find someone who willing to stick with you. Doesn't need to be someone you known for very long.

[Bookslayer10]

I don't think that multiplayer was designed for progression, you are supposed to start fresh every single time and still have fun. If you find enjoyment from progression, then you need to start your own campaign or join a dedicated one.

[Chimz]

I think you know why we can't keep our stats.
A max level captain could join a Day 1 campaign, boost everyone up to lvl 5 and give all the passive benefits. Same for other classes.
It would just break the balance.

You might not enjoy doing so, but you need to find a crew through either Steam Discussions or the game's Discord so you could all play together and finish a full campaign.

I did once manage to join a public campaign, where I made friends with the host and we finished the whole campaign, but to this day I still say it was one of the luckiest things ever to find such a lobby. So don't invest any hope on it. Find a crew and ride to the eye.

[Útost Alronbem]

Originally posted by Chimz:

I think you know why we can't keep our stats.
A max level captain could join a Day 1 campaign, boost everyone up to lvl 5 and give all the passive benefits. Same for other classes.
It would just break the balance.

I think that at the very beginning crew size and sub capabilities are much more important than particular crew member's experience.
And even later, in 90% of situations crew quantity beats quality.
And for really stubborn persons medals ARE available for purchase.

I mean, what would you need high level for?
PUCS and endocrine boosters and T3 upgrades for ANY sub? You have to grind resources for these anyway.
Quality crafts? Resource grind. Also, quality doesn't make much of a difference.
Skills have hard caps now so no uber medics.
No pressure immunity + area of effect repairs for clowns anymore either.

[Bookslayer10]

Originally posted by Хихичпоккер:

Originally posted by Chimz:

I think you know why we can't keep our stats.
A max level captain could join a Day 1 campaign, boost everyone up to lvl 5 and give all the passive benefits. Same for other classes.
It would just break the balance.

I think that at the very beginning crew size and sub capabilities are much more important than particular crew member's experience.
And even later, in 90% of situations crew quantity beats quality.
And for really stubborn persons medals ARE available for purchase.

I mean, what would you need high level for?
PUCS and endocrine boosters and T3 upgrades for ANY sub? You have to grind resources for these anyway.
Quality crafts? Resource grind. Also, quality doesn't make much of a difference.
Skills have hard caps now so no uber medics.
No pressure immunity + area of effect repairs for clowns anymore either.

First, I think that you can agree that bringing items along into a server is a bad idea. If characters are to be transferred between campaigns, it should only be their skill and experience, not their masterwork items and potential inventories full of resources.

Maybe having max stats right off the gate wouldn't immediately turn the campaign into a cakewalk, but it would still hurt progression. Everyone online would just always have max stats max talent characters, which removes a significant part of the progression that is in a campaign. You would be able to craft any endgame gear signifigantly quicker, through a combination of economic talents like the mechanic's resource multiplication, and the fact that getting endgame resources is often faster than earning the talents that need them. Sure, you couldn't instantly craft endgame gear, but you could still craft it much faster than normal.

I do think this idea could work, but it would need to be a separate system and game mode, probably.

[Valchrist]

I really disagree that crew quantity is better than quality. I've gone a long way in many campaigns with 3 players, only to have 7 more people join, use up all the items in the fabricator, use up all the meds smacking each other around, then log off with all their equipment or otherwise despawn it, and basically ruin the campaign, even without griefing.

Crew discipline can easily fall apart with too many players.

I find a lot of long-term servers by making myself valuable, and arranging friend adds and invites, even without joining Discord. Discord servers for games are often in the description, though.
You have to be a little choosy about which servers you join if you're looking for long term, repeated games.

[Urkikk]

Just around 3 good crews without bots are enough to beat the entire campaign and can handle even the Berilia submarine.

A single crew all alone can solo the entire first biome and half the second biome even.
2-3 crews can handle up to 4th biome and even the end of campaign.

Those are my playthroughs.

If no one who join have high level, the host surely have high level by that point.

[Útost Alronbem]

True, you can beat the game alone, with some luck with monster placement and quest chains. Especially with custom sub which doesn't need at least five bodies to man the guns and reload on the go.
But my point is that body quantity beats high level talents.
And I don't see any attempts to topple it.
You need to do a lot of mechanisms/electricity repairs - and with AoE repair removal you NEED extra bodies.
You need to do a lot of hull repairs - and with current guaranteed pressure crush you have to do it fast, so you need more bodies, again.
And carrying capacity nerf is imminent.

[Urkikk]

you don't need luck with a few crews. there's no luck required for first biome solo at all, and I talking with all vanilla submarines.
but you do need a crew or 2 for later biome.

Also the medal giving insta-level 5 only happen when the captain with that talent using it, otherwise it just a gold medal with double the XP compare to green one.

[Útost Alronbem]

Originally posted by Urkikk:

there's no luck required for first biome solo at all,

Will gladly have a look at how you cope with surprise Latcher solo.

Originally posted by Urkikk:

Also the medal giving insta-level 5 only happen when the captain with that talent using it

Oh my, looks like I have problems with memory.
I did mentioned insta level 5 in this theme somewhere, did I?
And why are you putting it in such way so it looks like insta level 5 is the only way to use medals?

*sigh*
Another dialogue which started good and devolved to bad surprisingly quickly.

[Urkikk]

I mean, you won't met Latcher in the first place if you never fell into the abyss, and the Abyss barely exist in first biome, only around near end of cold cavern, and you rarely fell into it anyway, if you're good at steering, hell you might not even aware it exist, only 1 in a blue moon, the game will remind you about it with a big empty hole in the world terrain.

The only time when I fell into the Abyss in Cold Cavern is when I *intentionally* steer into it, because (Not Abyss) mining mission ores somehow spawn on the abyss island and it took me minutes to realize it.

As for medal part, then why do you even mention medal in the first place?