How do co-op saves and drop-in/drop-out work?

[The Cowness]

Note - I've never played Gloomhaven, but I've played a few sessions of Frosthaven, so I know the general gist of the "gameplay loop".

I'm planning on picking this game up when the console release happens and playing with some friends, but can't find a good description on how co-op actually works. Is it drop-in-drop-out friendly, like if someone has to leave early, or shows up late? Would they have to join when we're between scenarios? Do the other players take over for your guy if you disconnect?

And how do saves sync? Is everything saved to the host's machine? It sounds like you can bench characters between scenarios, so I'm guessing all the characters are saved to the host's machine and the players just choose who they want to control when they join?


My group of friends is notoriously unreliable -- there's always somebody late or who can't make it whenever we try to do a weekly D&D campaign -- so I think this game would be great for that group, if all of this works how I expect it to.

Thanks!

[Smakit]

As far as I can tell, it saves on the host's machine. Then when you join their multiplayer game, it downloads the 'new' save (from the host, since you might not have played the entire time or they played without you etc) to your computer.

Each game can have up to 4 mercenaries (minimum 2) and each person who joins the game must control at least one, but can control more. The host is the one who sets which 'slot' each player who has joined uses. Then the player themselves can swap the mercenary to any available to them.

If you leave early, the host can either let someone else control that slot, or just empty it out and have one less mercenary in the group for the time being. If you leave mid-game during a fight, then I believe it defaults to the host, though they can probably change it to another player as well. If the player disconnects and rejoins, it seems you can give them back.

I've had a bug before when I rejoined mid-fight after my internet dropped and it stopped the player who had control of my character to be unable to finish their turn. So I just left and let them finish the scenario without me and then rejoined outside of combat. Might have been a one time issue, but I never dropped out again during a fight and came back so I'm not sure. If it was early they could always just quit the map and start again once you are in.

As for the mercenaries themselves, they aren't really 'locked' to one particular player or slot, so you gotta decide with your group how you are doing that. You could decide to always have your character in the group even if you aren't there to keep them leveling up the same, or just have them drop that slot to nobody or use a different mercenary.

The game balances on level, even if someone is way lower though it is fine, as it will lower the enemy level since the average of the party drops down. So yeah, if you have people that are pretty erratic in playing, you can go on just fine and have them join/drop whenever. Just have the person who is likely to be on the most be the host so all that stuff will be in sync without messing around.

Sorry for rambling, about ready for bed so it wasn't really well thought out, but hopefully you get the idea =P

Edit: Typo, minimum mercs is 2