What are the limitations of two-player coop?

[Hoxtilicious!]

My friend and I are considering buying this game for some late night coop fun. From what I've seen in some of the discussions here, playing as a crew of 2 is possible, but I'd like to dive deeper into the specifics of it.

Is the AI competent enough to handle assigned tasks? Are there any difficulty spikes that push cooperation to the limit? How long can we survive in a two-player sub before we need to move on to a better, larger one? You know, things like that. Playing with random people is out of the question; we're not even considering it. So if you have any insights regarding two-player coop that you could share, I'd appreciate it. I know next to nothing about this game, but it looks intriguing.

[Zothen]

*sigh* Just check all the other, daily new threads about solo playing. Its pretty much what applies to duos too. Its just the more players you have the more options you have to recover from all the funny crisis situations. Else, every hardship from SP plays apply.

[Hoxtilicious!]

Originally posted by Zothen:

*sigh* Just check all the other, daily new threads about solo playing. Its pretty much what applies to duos too.

Well, I figured that playing with another person would be different from playing solo. Maybe there's a strategy that allows for increased efficiency, maybe there's something else that doesn't really apply to coop games the same way it does to solo games. I wouldn't know.

[Kristian37]

Completed solo a few times, wasn't too bad. 2 people is a bit of a deal as you can't control the AI manually when playing online so you have to rely entirely on their bot intelligence. 2 player coop is great IMO, go for it. Just pick the right ship - modded ones are always appealing, but they tend to have problems. Check them out in test modes first if doing mods.

[Zothen]

Originally posted by Kristian37:

2 people is a bit of a deal as you can't control the AI manually when playing online so you have to rely entirely on their bot intelligence.

Woops, stupid me - should indeed have mentioned that. Not being able to switch to control bots is indeed a difference.

Dont start to rely on overly over-engineered custom subs without any flaws. It sucks the fun out of the game, because its at its heart a crisis management game.

If you dont get breached, sunk, invaded, bitten and still somehow manage to survive through all of this its not Barotrauma..!

[kratos]

I've previously done it. With a smaller sub you don't even need bots.

Bots are really good at some tasks for example, maintaining the sub. And other tasks for example, crafting they are not good at. You 2 will have to do 100% of the crafting. And bots can bit a bit tricky at times.

A lot of the replayability is in playing with different subs. Its not so much that you need to get a better sub, but that they play differently. Except that isn't quite true anymore. As you need to upgrade your sub to handle greater and greater depths and some early subs have those upgrades behind a perk barrier. It may be easier to just buy a higher tier sub later instead.

Take note that I haven't played through the latest update. So the end of the game may be harder now. But otherwise difficulty is scaled on how far in the map you are. So it shouldn't really spike too much but it does get harder. And you can start to feel it towards the later areas.

[Greb]

Two player stuff is fun, you just need to find the right submarine.

It works perfectly because there's only really two tasks that the AI suck at and that's healing players and piloting the submarine - so two people, one playing as a Medical Officer and the other playing as the Captain can get through the game no problem. You can both handle Reactor duty, or you can assign a bot to that.

You might need to purchase more AI bots than usual to make sure the submarine stays in good shape, which can slow the early game down a bit and as mentioned you'll need a submarine that has extra diving suit lockers, ideally spread throughout the submarine so bots don't suffer a critical existence failure when water enters the sub or when they're trying to put diving suits back.

In my current game I'm going duo with a friend and we've got four Gunner bots on the guns, an Engineer focusing on fixing the Electrical stuff + Leaks, a Mechanic focusing on fixing the Mechanical stuff + Leaks and an Assistant who powers up the reactor and also patches up leaks. It's been working okay for us. I'm Captain and my buddy is the Medical Officer. We leave the submarine in the bots hands while doing diving missions and beacon repair, seems to be going okay.

Since you can pick bot Talents now and get access to all of their stuff, you can get away with playing with only a handful of people without missing out on the stuff the roles provide.

The biggest flaw really compared to players is players can respawn with all of their talents, but bots can't so a particularly nasty situation can easily lead to you losing your level 15+ Mechanic or whatever and that sucks...not sure if you can just abandon the game to the lobby and then restart the round to avoid losing a bot though, never tried.

In terms of the submarine and how long you can survive, I'd just recommend getting one that has plenty of gun coverage as fast as you can, and have more bots on the turrets or guard duty. Two people in a tin can with no bots is just asking for you to get torn to shreds by a mudraptor pack, unless you've got a swanky sub with automatic gun turrets or those ones that can swap between multiple guns anyway. One pilot + one gunner is usually a recipe for disaster, at least when we've tried doing it, lol.

But yeah anyway two players are more than enough to have fun in this game. I'd say three players is the perfect number, but two is doable no problem.

[Hoxtilicious!]

All right, thanks everyone! You have convinced me to actually buy the game and try it out. My friend is always up for all kinds of challenge, so I suppose he might even enjoy the restrictions that come with understaffed subs.

[Figas]

From what I've heard the waypoints in the subs "Camel" and "Typhon" are currently broken, the AI is not working has intended in those. Avoid them until they hotfix them.

[Welcoming Grave]

Depending on what sub you decide to use you'll likely have to put a few bots on the sub, if nothing else then quality of life (Engineer to babysit the junction boxes/reactor. Mechanic to ESP hull breaches).

The only difference is having a more competent crew member then bots with you, plus an extra set of hands so you dont have to do literally everything else yourself.

[Djentleman]

Effective communication is key. If the other person will effectively communicate with you, it shouldn't be an issue. AI is fine, don't overwhelm them, give them only 1 task per AI.

(For example, I have five mechanics, all separately tasked to handle leaks and repairs; people seem to think the AI is supposed to be some super intelligent system, it's not, it's basic but 100% functional if you work realistically within its limitations. I have a full AI crew of 15 on my single player, each with their own tasks so they don't get overwhelmed, and it's all smooth sailing)

[Zothen]

Originally posted by Hoxtilicious!:

All right, thanks everyone! You have convinced me to actually buy the game and try it out. My friend is always up for all kinds of challenge, so I suppose he might even enjoy the restrictions that come with understaffed subs.

So, hows it going for you?

[Hoxtilicious!]

Originally posted by Zothen:

Originally posted by Hoxtilicious!:

All right, thanks everyone! You have convinced me to actually buy the game and try it out. My friend is always up for all kinds of challenge, so I suppose he might even enjoy the restrictions that come with understaffed subs.

So, hows it going for you?

I've completed one solo mission so far. It won't be until this weekend that I get to play Barotrauma in coop, unfortunately.

[kingmagma111]

I play with a hybrid player/bot crew and it works well. I’ve seen some others mention this but I’ll repeat it: bots are decent at most jobs, but not medic and captain. I play captain and also manage our crew and most of our logistical things (resupplying, current supplies, storing stuff, etc.) one of my other friends plays medical, and specifically manages our medical supplies. Our third guy is a security officer and commands our security detail. He also operates our railgun because bots love to waste railgun shells trying to hit spinelings or other small creatures. Bots are good for leaks, machine repairs, and managing the reactor. They can also perform basic organization tasks like cleaning, refilling oxygen/batteries, and putting suits back. Keep in mind that bot behavior can vary wildly depending on the sub you’re on and the mods you are using. I rarely have problems with bots, they only tend to break when a hostile has entered the sub, which is currently an unavoidable issue.
I think you’ll be fine with 2 players as long as the sub isn’t too huge. With three guys and about 8 bots, my crew can comfortably maintain the Typhon 2. Since you’ll have 2 players, I suggest limiting your bot crew to 5, or 6 at most. More than that could be too tough to keep track of.

[Insano-Man]

Originally posted by Greb:

...not sure if you can just abandon the game to the lobby and then restart the round to avoid losing a bot though, never tried.

As long as you're not at an outpost, you can. If the host quits mid-match, it calls it a loss, and reloading it will put you back at the start of the round.

[Zothen]

Originally posted by Hoxtilicious!:

Originally posted by Zothen:

So, hows it going for you?

I've completed one solo mission so far. It won't be until this weekend that I get to play Barotrauma in coop, unfortunately.

Nice. Its often good advice to invest your starting cash into 1-2 cheap bots to man the turrets.