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A new multiplayer system

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7 years ago
Feb 12, 2018, 1:14:42 AM

~


Behold,


Thus the might of the Almighty, O'Lordy, Godly Legendary Queue up button have just arrived.

Sweeping our fears, and Purging the land... It might bring Oblivion to all annoying miserable creatures that are those bugs,

And purge annoyance once and for all from the Home world that is our Space.

May the Multiplayer system be free, of all that is not good, and threatens the existence of Purity and Boringness,

And may our lives be always free, from those nasty little annoyances that insists into taking place.


Behold,


Thus the might of the Queue up button shall cleanse and purge everything we don’t need. 


And all that will remain are the Golden Fragments 


Of peace and prosperity,


Twisted in the Thorns of the Great Wars,


Whom cracks worlds apart, leaving nothing but Dust behind


Shifting the Dust Blade which forges our path, 


Yet to be foreseen.



~


Read with an Awesome Voice


Presentation


This idea is different from everything you`ve seen in Games2Gather. 


It’s about a new multiplayer system for endless space 2.


After playing the game for a while, I discovered many problems with the current multiplayer system and after a bit more of thought, I started to think that, with a bit more of organization in this multiplayer system the game had, it would be possible to create an entirely different matchmaking system in which it would be possible to solve countless flaws this multiplayer system had and make the experience of multiplayer matches much, much better. 

I also noticed that the devs are attempting to improve the AI of the game because it is currently the main enemy you always have to defeat in game. When you play a multiplayer match and someone leaves, you have to fight the AI. When you are lacking people to play in multiplayer matches, you have to fight the AI. But the problem is, in the current system, those two problems happens a lot. And this problem with all the other multiplayer problems I will state below really helps to create a uneasy multiplayer experience that can be improved.


And all of this can be done by simply reorganizing how things work in the current multiplayer system, and without an excessive amount of work (like create a new major faction) it will be possible to improve the multiplayer system, and make multiplayer matches easier to find, to manage, and to experience. Because the idea I’m about to explain to you improves the game in quality of life improvements, rework the mechanics of matchmaking to increase the amount of people you will play with, finding matches to play at a faster pace, and allow you to play different game speeds like Endless,Long,Normal and Fast in multiplayer matches because the game will be adapted to run at those speeds without any single problem whatsoever and much more benefits for the game.


There is also a complete list of the benefits of my idea in the end of it. 


If you feel interested in knowing more on how this can be done, please continue the read. There is still much to explain. 

NOTE: There are certain points in my idea that i explain about "Creating groups to play endless space 2 can solve some of the problems listed in introduction : Flaws of the current system " but i believe i need to clarify yet, in which point those organized parties can help in organizing those matches, so less problems are presented in the current multiplayer system mechanics. 

Rule number one, in groups of players you can combine how much time the match will last and combine with other players when the next match will take place, before it starts. But achieving such phenomenon is just so difficult that most players simply desert in doing it so, therefore they just play the match and let its “continuation” be on the hands of god. Or something like it. 

Rule number two, you can actually find people to play fast in custom parties, all you need to do is to look over your friend list and invite people to play your match. But often it might be a better choice to, instead of invite your friends to play a match, simply click a button called “queue up” and play a thousand more matches without worrying if people will come or not. 

Rule number three, you can actually create a custom match and maintain control of the come-and-go of people. But often it is so hard to do so, and so nearly impossible, that oftenly after creating matches you will simply be left over to fight the AI. Its not really bad, right, but It could be better. 

Therefore, because it is very hard for organized parties to solve any problem listed in the introduction: flaws of the current system part, I believe it is essential to create a automatic system that is able to organize all the flaws listed above and below in order to improve the multiplayer experience in Endless Space 2.


Introduction: The flaws of the current system 


After playing some time in the game, i found out that the game has a series of problems with the current multiplayer system (in which I call during this thread Custom Lobby setting) And the meaning of the abbreviation SPM and MPM is Single player  matches and Multiplayer matches  . This is intended to make the text less cluttered and easier to read.


And among them they are: 

  • Matches are too long and it’s difficult to organize them, because they don't have a fixed time they should start or end. 
  • Difficulty in organizing parties of significant number of people, like 4, 6 8 or twelve people. In most cases, people constantly leave the match, and this can help in creating a "boring" atmosphere for the game, because people constantly leave the match and you start feeling that you're fighting AI in multiplayer not real people.
  • Unless you create personalized parties or groups of players in the game community, you will find it difficult to find players in the Custom Lobby, because rarely there is anyone over the Custom Lobby (in the present day, at least)  and finding people to play in Multiplayer is very, very difficult. This is done because , according to my theory, in the current system the game has people are often forced to make a choice: Or you play MP matches and wait to see if someone already created a room so you can join, or you play single player and forget multiplayer along the way. So, according to this concept, in theory, there are often more people playing single player than people playing multiplayer. because they simply desert the opportunity to play Multiplayer because they are tired of waiting for other people to play, and the constant "Come-and-go" of players in multiplayer matches.
  • In Multiplayer, there is a constant "Come-and-go" presence of people because of a great flaw that the game currently has in the current Multiplayer system: People feel forced to enter a multiplayer match and play it to its very end, with no breaks along the way. The problem is, with Custom Lobby setting, it is very difficult to organize parties of a decent number of players, and unless there is about two players in that multiplayer match, you are very unlikely to be able to continue that match if you stop playing it and try to continue it in another period of time, because everyone will keep playing the game and there is no definite time of when every match should end. Because of this, if you leave a match before it ends, you are forced to enter or create a new match then, and unless you want to play tons of new games right from the beginning over over and over, you surely won’t find multiplayer fun, at least in this aspect.
  • This "Come-and-go" of players also helps to create some sort of "boring atmosphere" for the game, because people wants to multiplayer against real people, to interact with them and forge alliances with them. I believe that playing against real people is different than playing against AI, because AI Attempt to simulate what real people can do, but it can't talk or play like human players can play. This makes human players able to create interesting fights that AI cannot, including matches in competitive scale. The lack of ability of playing with other players in multiplayer matches can help to create a boring atmosphere for the game, because people will start feeling as if "something in multiplayer is lacking". And guess what it is?
  • Another problem I found is that, I don’t know if it is a bug or something, but this really annoys me in playing multiplayer matches. There is a saving method called "auto save feature", in which it is currently a very good feature, but it has a huge problem. because of auto save feature, we sometimes forget to manually save our matches, and, if we forget to manually save a match before we play a multiplayer match, we will lose COMPLETELY the progress we had in the single player match because the single player feature will only be saving the most recent match, and as multiplayer matches and single player matches are all shared together in a single "save file" , you have to constantly remember of saving your single player match before playing a multiplayer match. And because of that it is very easy to lose your hard-earned progress in SP matches and find yourself having to start, again, a new game right from scratch. This is boring.
  • It is hard to predict when people are arriving in your multiplayer match, at the Custom Lobby setting. Whenever you create a room and wait for people to join, you can never say when people actually will join. There is no estimative of the time elapsed to find how much time it will take for someone to join your room. And because of this, people will just sit, wait and eventually desert creating rooms. It’s uninspiring to wait an undetermined amount of time. Recently there are very few people browsing those lobbies, not because there are few players in endless space 2, but, according to my theory, because the player base of endless space 2 is scattered. This is done because, as said before, people are forced to make a decision: Or they play multiplayer matches, or they play single player matches. You can't "queue up" for MPM while playing SPM, you have to quit your game, see if there is any room available that interests you, and if you see one, then you join. But because of the fact that this rarely happens, it is difficult for people to play MPM while playing SPM.  Also, another problem there is regarding to the game current system, is the fact that all these factors of having few people in game playing MPM and browsing the lobby screen discourage people of creating rooms to play multiplayer, because they know it will take forever for anyone to join their rooms so they can play a match. This discourage even more people to play MP,  making MP rooms even more rare to see and scattering the player base of Endless Space 2 even further. 
  • The fact that you have to play MP matches "All in one bite" , which means, you can’t stop the match after you started it, forces multiplayer matches to be played on faster speeds, like Fast or Normal. making speeds like Long or Endless difficult to play on multiplayer, because everyone will be stuck forever in early game and feel unable to get to late game because it will take too long to achieve late game and no one will have 16 hours and patience to sit in the computer and playing all that time in a single "bite".  Making the current MP system to be adapted to run, Only, Fast and normal speed. While long and endless speed remain basically unavailable to play in multiplayer matches, unless you create a personalized group to play with. Also, this forces MP matches to be done ONLY for a small part of our community, because some players don’t have enough time to play a game 3 hours straight, like the current system demands. Shrinking even more the player base of MP. 
  • The current time increase feature, featuring the part that increases time by tech stage/ systems discovered, increases turn timer inconstantily , making turn timers excessively high in late game or excessively small in early game.


Now here is for the idea itself 

Short Version: 



  •    Create a queue up button for multiplayer and a new multiplayer lobby, desiged to solve most flaws in game, which queues up players based on their time avaliability, explained further in my idea.
  • Create other essential concepts for my system, such as a way to kick people in case they are delaying the game progress, which will happen by vote, exactly like Pause Break 
  • OPTIONAL: Create quality of life features that may make it possible to improve game experience, like the Pausebreak Mechanic, which would allow people to do small things in their cotidian life while playing the game (like attending the desires of someone pretty quickily, taking a cup of water or taking a small break from the game) without worrying in losing your turn, which can also be triggered by vote like Manual Timer Increase, as explained below in my idea. (Note: By reading this it is not necessary to read the Pausebreak mechanic description) Note 2: There is also a ready button to unpause the game sooner, and because it is triggered by vote, if it gets abusive people can reject it. Note 3: In fast paced battles (2 min turn timer) Pausebreak could really come in handy to reduce frustation of people.


   Among other features, like a mute button, and Spectator Time or Late game Pausebreak, which is basically a feature who functions like this: When a certain turn threshold is acquired, when the turn starts once again, instead of people doing all the stuff they normaly do (go straight to the systems and building stuff, go to the technology screen , etc) they will see themselves in some sort of Spectator Time , in which they can't do anything at that time, just watch their empire and see how is the situation developing. This spectator time can be essential to know and figure out the best decisions to take in your empire without the constant pressure of having to do X thing or not in your systems or research X stuff. Because you will spend one entire minute looking at the galaxy every turn, looking at your research and seeing how things  are going, you will feel like you know what will happen when the turn starts, granting you more control of your empire. Note : When late game arrives the Spectator Time extends to 2 minutes. (Not necessary to read Spectator Time again)

(This should be an automatic feature) 


  • To finish off your conclusion about my idea read then Extra information section but avoid the description of such, just read the title in bold and the rest of the titles. Also read Vaulters Expansion section, Conclusion, and Benefits of A New Multiplayer System



TL:DR Edition


~


According to all these factors, we see that the current multiplayer system needs to change. According to my idea, a queue up mechanic would prove usefull to solve most problems, since it will be easer to find more players to play, along other benefits. Here you will find how the queue up mechanic, in its basics, works. 



First, we must create a queue up button for multiplayer, which can be accessed by the main menu , or by the in-game menu, in which a new button will appear called: Multiplayer Lobby. Once you enter that lobby, you will have to either login trough steam or enter with your games2gather information (I believe it would be a good idea to bring games2gather accounts in-game and make it a multiplayer plataform, because the name fits and its endless characters may create a nice atmosphere for the game) To do that, you must create your games2gather account, or input its information (account name, password, etc) or simply login trough steam to proceed to the next step, in which a question will be asked once you login trough steam/ enter your games2gether information: 

What time you are available to play? 


Once this question is asked, you must place the information of what times in the day you can play, based on week times(Monday, Sunday Saturday ETC) and not in monthly basis. 

A good addition to this system would be to add the ~ Algorythim, wich means that you will be sometimes free in that period of time. That can expand the players availability and allow more matches to be played sooner. 

This question will be asked to people to create the following system I’ve just imagined: 

Once you click the queue up button, you will be matched with people who have the same time availability that you has. If a group of people presents at least one similar available time trough the entire week, they can be matched together, since in that time everyone will be free to play. Therefore, players without any available time that matches a group specific available time will not be matched up together, to prevent discontinuity from matches in the future. 


Note: It would also be a good idea to change join game description to custom lobby, so the name Multiplayer Lobby fits better its description.


Once you click the queue up button in this new multiplayer lobby, you will be presented to the settings of the game: 


  • Number of players: 6 
  • Game length: Basically Global Timer renamed, but game does not ends when the time limits arrives, it simply stops to be continued in a later period of time. Game length will be 2 hours.  Therefore the time from every match cannot exceed this amount of time. As explained before, this is intended to control and keep track of how much time each match will take from your week, creating then a fixed time games should last and making it easier to organize matches in the future. 
  • Initial Turn timer: Varying from 2 minutes and 5 minutes (fixed) , every multiplayer match will have two different types of timer: One, faster and more action based, designed for those that wants to get to late game faster and experience a more action-based gameplay. The other, slower, is more casual. You can have enough time to think between your decisions whiteout pressure. While both of the times increases utilizing a different method I designed myself, called Automatic time increase and Manual time increase that will increase the match time by one minute in a constant rate (explained later) , those two different times will diverge in a more casual match while the another is more action paced. 
  • Select major faction. Select the major faction you wish to play. Unfallen? Cravers? Sophons? Your choice. 



Note: Pirate difficulty will be set to normal, while AI set to Endless.


Note 2: You can queue up for multiplayer battles while in-game, playing against the AI. You can do that by accessing the main menu in-game, entering Multiplayer Lobby and clicking the queue up button. We can then utilize the AI as a time killer for multiplayer matches, making it easier to find people to play since they will stay longer in queue. 


Note 3: Game pace will be set on Normal to reduce queue up options and make it easer to find players in the queue up mechanic. 


If considered this way, my idea can match people in Normal game pace but is unable to match people in different game paces, like fast, long and endless. There is an idea that i have that may enable my queue up button to allow different game paces in-game, and increase the options of queuing up mechanics (such as increase the number of players to start a match, or simply add more options to it) and the idea works as following: 


If 2 people queue up for one multiplayer setting, and another two people queue up for another multiplayer setting (Ex: 2 people on two minute timer and two people on 5 minute timer) the game queue then notices it, it warns one group of those players whit the following message: 


" (X) people have been spotted attempting to play whit (Y) setting(s). Would you like to change your game settings to adapt to they're settings so you can start the game now? "


Yes or no will be your answer. 


If you say Yes, you will instantly change your game settings and accept their settings. 


Now if you say no, the same question will be asked to the another (X) people of the question, but note that the (Y) description will change. 

The new multiplayer lobby screen 


In order for quick explanation, I made by myself a simple sketch of how the "new multiplayer lobby screen" would look like, and although it is not perfect, I think it may make it easier to understand my idea. 

Well, now I’m going to explain the most complicated features in this MP lobby sketch:

1-A Endless Space Agenda. In this shortcut, you will find your Endless Space Agenda, where you keep track of all the matches you currently are playing in MP setting, the times of your day it is consuming, and your planned matches for the future. It may also be a good idea to implement a settings option in endless space agenda, so people can change their available times whenever they want. 

2-A Match status. can be online or offline. if it is online, it is in progress and people are playing the match. This means you can also join the match. If online looks green, if offline it looks dark with red borders and you can't do basically anything with this match. You can click in the match to select it, and if 4A Alternative path is taken, you can also rename the match once you click the settings button and change the turn timer do your desired choice.  You can only join a match when the planned time you selected for it is activated. 

2-B Last turn played. only the last turn played is saved. This is an example of how the new multiplayer system save file would work. Also the save file from this system and the load game screen save files will be separated to avoid lose of multiplayer progress. 

3A- User picture. That’s it. 

4A- Information about the match.  <Alternative> can also be replaced with a Settings button so it’s possible to change the time of battle so that match feels more custom<Alternative>

1. Home of the Queue up button. It should look blue, shiny, glowing and Scaly to match its description. it needs to be cool. :)  

                                                           


The queue up process explained 


Everything starts once you queue up for the game. 

Once enough players with at least one similar time availability are found to start the match (wich can be 6 or 12 players depending on the setting)  

After that, the game starts, and it proceeds normally, until the match ends and players see themselves in a post-game screen where they can chat, and change the time of their next match, as explained further in my idea, at Post-game screen section. 

Once in the post game screen section, there will be a planned time for the match on the top left corner of the match, this time is based on user information of availble time, and the duration of the next match (one or two hours) will always be dependant on the time setting previously setted.


If more than one time availability is found, it is chosen by random. And players can change this time in the post-game screen section, by clicking a button in the corner left of the screen, called change planned time. It will then change the planned time for the next match based on the user data of time availability, making people able to create multiplayer matches where players play until the end, without having to fight bots on the way. 


Multiplayer quality of life improvements 


There are some in-game requests I created to improve the multiplayer quality of life experience. 


They will happen in-game, after the queue up process completes and people play multiplayer matches. 



Those features are:

  • Automatic timer increase: Every 30 turns in normal game pace the minimum timer between turns will increase in a fixed rate by one minute. This means, every 15 turns in match (fast game pace) ,  the minimum time between turns will go from 2 to 3 (depending on the game setting) and the timer will not go lower than that, no matter what happens. .From that point on, the timer can only increase.With automatic time increase the game automatically raises the amount of time per turn in a constant rate that helps players to think without worrying constantly in decreasing or increasing the time. Think of it as an automated system to help people increasing time of the turns whenever they need. 

Automatic timer increase and manual timer increase are essential for my idea because they are the only ways of increasing time in it. 

While in-game in a multiplayer match, there will be a button once you press Esc that will be called "Call for votewhen you press it 4 new choices will appear:

1- Manual timer increase

Every 20 turns people can try to elect trough vote in the beginning of the turn  if they want to increase the time of the turns by one minute before the automatic turn timer increase triggers. Automatic turn timer increase and manual turn timer increase do not stack together, which means if both timers are activated, only the lowest variant of timer is applied. Which means, if both timers collapse in the same turn, (30) instead of increasing the turn timer from 3 to 4 at that turn, it will stick to 3 , because both features simply don’t stack.  Also, if the vote is rejected (When majority of players does not agree with it) The election is then delayed, and can only attempt to occur again 10 turns after, or 20 turns in Endless game pace.  When there is a draw between the votes, it counts as no.


2- Pausebreak Feature:

Pausebreak can be triggered any time and has absolutely no delay to be triggered. If the majority of players agree to trigger it (if there is a draw in the votes, it counts as yes) the game then pauses for 5 minutes. During this break, you can eat a fruit, take a small walk, hug a cat, and simply forget the game for a while. This is intended to be used whenever real life is requesting something for you to do quickly and you don’t want to lose your turn. Need to go to the bathroom? Your cat is calling your attention? Need to do something someone is asking you? Vote for pausebreak. Also, because it has a ready button in it to un-pause it sooner, there isn’t much problem in allowing pausebreak. So, everyone should allow it! :)

3-  Late game pausebreak or Spectator Time

There is a precise point in every match, that whenever late game arrives or mid game starts to get wild, that when you take your decisions in the game (decide if you place X build or Y building… selecting the research you will take…) you start feeling as if you don’t have enough time to do them all. Increasing the amount of time in your turn may help, but sometimes you need… An alternate way to increase your time. The reason is, you eventually feel lost in taking your decisions in the Empire because there is too much stuff to do, and too many factors to consider in order to make your decisions. And then for a moment I just thought: 

And if we had a special moment in-game to simply think about the factors without worrying in doing stuff?

This extra time might be essential to know what action is best to take. For example, if we have a simple extra minute in mid game and two extra minutes at far-late game (where there are too many systems in play) a new method of increasing your time will be in play: You will have one whole extra minute as spectator in your empire. You won’t be able to select upgrades, researches, or doing anything. In this time, you will simply spectate your empire and check its current situation in order to take a conclusion on what is the next step you will take. This extra minute can come in handy for you to check :

  • The current situation on the galaxy, and how the empires are moving and developing 
  • Your quests, check their description and find how you should complete them 
  • Your fleets, and what is the movement you should take with them. 


The problem is, without this spectator time while in match, you won’t be able to focus on specific in-game factors that requires your attention.  

This little extra time spectating your empire can be essential to help you define which is the best decision to take, because you won’t feel pushed to finish your turn quickly, and because you use this time solely to think on what is the best decision to take, it is certain that you will find this decision easier, because of the lack of pressure you will have. 

Think of it as an alternate way of increasing your time that will allow you to focus on different aspects of the game you otherwise don’t have time to look at because you are too busy micromanaging your empire. 


Late game pausebreak or Spectator Time will start automatically when mid-game starts, and you can press manually a button in the same place the end turn is called "Start Turn" in wich you can click manually, or press Shift+Enter as a hotkey to trigger it faster. If you hover the Start Turn button a description will appear, explaining exactly as following "You can also press Shift + Enter to start the turn". 

Once Spectator Time starts, a message is writed on the chat: "Spectator Time Activated!" as a pronunce to the recent change.

4- In the case a player is delaying the match progress far too much , or the host of the game simply AFK for a decent period of time, there will be another button that can be pressed in the "call for vote " mechanic that will be called vote to kick players. If a player is kicked from the match, he can return any time he desires. 




The new Post game Screen


In my idea, i explain that the current method to enter a match is the following: 


Every match will start at a set period of time. When you first enter the match trough the queue up button and you create a new one, it will start automatically when a set number of players is presented, that is requested when they queued up in the same setting. After the Game Lenght completes, players will be able to enter some sort of "chat screen" with other players, where they can chat to other players and add them as friends. I believe it would be also a good idea if this chat would include games2gether accounts rather than steam, but it is a dev choice anyway. In this screen there will be also a message in the top of the screen saying something like: "Next match will start X Day at Y time" and there will be a button at the corner left of the screen in which people can click and it would be writted in it : "Change planned time for next match" . People can click this button as many times as they want, because any of the times the button will seek for is a time where everyone, without excpetion, is availble to play because they selected this information when they where "creating their games2gether accounts" You can quit this postgame screen anytime you want and add players as much as you desire, and talk to them after the match is done. Here is a short picture of how the post game screen would look like:



Notes: 1- In order for the game screen to not be clustered with the name i writed above, make "change planned time for next match" a description you get when you hover the mouse over the button, and place the following shorter description: "Change planned time" 

2- The circles next to the players names are their avatars. I'd like to see G2G avatars in game because i think it would be fun and more atmospheric for this new endless universe :) 


Thats it. 


Extra information


  • When you start the game there will be a new feature, called First turn timer. in first turn timer, the timer is set to 5 minutes, so people are able and afford to think and retrofit anything they want in the first turn, as well as make the classical moves they desire to do in their first turn.


  • A mute mechanic could come in handy, as people will be playing a lot of multiplayer matches. It would be a good idea to implement a /mute command for the game and place a tip in the loading screen explaining about a list of possible chat commands, for example.


  • When you are queuing up for multiplayer matches, the person with the lowest PING will be selected to be the host of the game. The host of the game will be responsible for in case the game desyncs, and there will be a warning right at the start of the game saying something like "X is the host of the game because he is best suited to do so. He is therefore responsible to solve the desync problem in case it happens. Good luck!"  And when the host quits the match, it stops. And the first player to join the match again will be the host. The intention of this is that, players with faster computers will be able to join first, because things load faster, making it possible we get good hosts for every match we play.


  • During the queue up process of my Idea, according to the information gathered by the system about what time you are available to play?  Players with different available times that doesn’t match will not be queued up together. (Example: If one player has only one available time at 12:00 AM in Monday and another person does only have available time at 3:00 PM of that day without any possible matches in the times of any single day in the week, both players will not be queued up together in the queue up button) 


  • There will be absolutely no penalty for leaving players if a player decides to leave a match or is unable to play a match in the time the match started. 

This is because, unlike other games, Endless Space 2 is adapted to run without players, because the AI can simply take over the spot of one player and, as one or two players missing till the end of the game won`t change much after a long period of the match, there will be nearly to no problem in allowing players to leave their matches. 


I know some people may use this at their favor, of finding good starts always for their games and “abusing” of creating new starts over and over, but i believe that every player has the right to enjoy the game at its best, and as no one else likes bad starts , and everyone loves when you start well (and feel a certain sense of progress or reward) , I believe such actions should not be treated as something wrong, but in certain point, defended, and not incentivized. 

I believe it won`t be a problem in my new MP system the fact that people will just enter a match , see if they find a good start, and quit. Because I believe only a handful of players do this. And if we don’t incentivize this by not explaining it anywhere, but giving it very few penalty for doing something like this, I believe that the incidence of people per match doing this should be about one or two per match, and there will rarely be too many people doing this at the same time. 


I know some people might disagree with this topic at first glance, but I believe punishing players for not being able to play would be a really bad idea for endless space 2. It is a game intended to feel a certain joy in controlling a super wide galactic empire and see how it develops, and punishing players would really have a negative impact in the game, I believe. No one would like that.


I also believe that, if my idea is ever considered someday, and this situation above happens (of too many people frequently leaving the matches since they start it) we might consider giving it a penalty to the leavers. Until then, we better let this topic on freeze or letting no penalty at all. 

  • Pausebreak feature would have a picture of all the major races sitting in a campfire making a lunch together. Obviously, the Cravers race will eat a meat stack. :)


Vaulters Expansion


This section is intended to cover any question regarding to the Vaulters Expansion.


               

When creating a match in the Queue up button, there are a vast amount of possibilities to implement the Vaulters Expansion in my queue up button but i prefer this method: 


Merge bonueses from DLCS in in-game mechanics for free players who don’t have it enabled, mix both queue times, but disable the most useful and  crucial feature: The Vaulters major race for freebie players.
We will create a button that enable DLC supporters to activate online or offline the DLC during the queue up, then when it is online the bonuses from DLC (Pirate marks, pirate diplomacy...) will all be present in the game for every freebie player, but no freebie player will have the ability to play as Vaulters race because the Vaulters race can only be selected by the person before the queue up 

Benefits of A New Multiplayer System 

1-Ability to instantly create quick playable matches in normal speed whit a single click of a button


2-  Less time elapsed to find people to play whit (higher concentration of people in Multiplayer)
 
 
  

3-  Ability to continue matches from the place you started, also ability to interrupt matches for everyone so it can be continued in a later period of time and the game time doesn’t extend itself further massive periods of time (4,5 hours...) .

4-  Ability to date, plan, and time your next match whit extreme ease in a system that helps you to organize your time and the next match you will play

5-  Get to late game quicker. Because of timed matches, you will be able to quickly get in the late game of multiple matches at once.

6- Play multiple multiplayer matches at once and organize the free times you are available to play, based on Endless Space Agenda. 
 
  

  7--  Lesser incidence of people quitting the matches, because you theoretically won’t have much things to do in the period of time selected because you are free to play  during that period of time, reducing incidence of people quitting the matches to be somewhat like League of Legends in ranked mode. People will avoid doing so if they can , but still leave sometimes, although in a lesser rate.
 
  

  8--  Ability to house groups of players whit great efficiency, whiteout letting "room owners" to worry about organizing the party (the game automatically adapts itself depending on the circumstances presented, which happens by the methods I will explain below in my idea)
 
  

9--  Better quality of life experience for MP. Housing tons of improvements I thought for MP game play, it can make it far easier to play MP and make it feel more... how can i say... simplified or intuitive. You won’t need to worry whit normal, common things you probably worry in the old system.


  10-- Your multiplayer matches will give you a feeling of "home", because whenever you start your multiplayer matches, you will know what you did and what happened to the galaxy until this point. And unlike the current MP system, where you are able to enter MP games you haven't even played before and you need to get familizared whit an entire new galaxy whit lots of new things to know and understand, you will feel a warm, fuzzy feeling that every match you play you know how it works, and how it develops. You won't need to learn the interactions between strange matches that oftenly makes not sense at all, making every match you play in this new MP system feeling like home, because you will feel familizared whit it since the the moment you started it. 

                                                                      

11- Seemingly works perfectly for endless space 2,Also it doesn’t destroys or make the old system useless, it just adds something to the game, making it better.


Conclusion 

game. My whole idea is simply a process I invented myself to solve most of the flaws I experienced in game, and each of those arguments and statements is method I created to improve the game, making each of them essential in their own. 

 Creating a system like this could make the game far much better. Imagine if you had the ability of playing 12 different multiplayer matches, finding matches to play in about 5 minutes and having a Endless Space Agenda to keep track of the time you utilize to play your matches?

Imagine if you had the ability to create difficult fights with other players, that requires a lot of strategy, and you would lose not because you where unlucky and the game was very difficult for you, but because you could improve the way you played?

Imagine if you had the ability of increasing your quality of life in multiplayer, and without worrying if people will or not quit, if the time is good, if you could pause the game when you need… and if you could get to late game faster and experience the best the game has to offer sooner? 

How would be the feeling of opening twelve different games, each on a planned time and date, and see the current state of the galaxy You developed?

Imagine if you were able to continue your multiplayer matches, playing against real people, not bots, from the very beginning to the end of the game. You can talk to them, you can chat to them, you can troll them if you want… I think MP battles would be much more animated than SP battles… because SP battles feels lonely, exactly like the current multiplayer system which is basically… inexistent. Unless you create a MP party, and organize EVERYTHING, of course. 


It would be great to have the ability to play multiplayer games and enjoy them on their maximum potential, without worrying with a ton of tiny flaws that can become overwhelming due to the amount of flaws that can be improved in the current multiplayer system.   


Therefore, by the amount of flaws my idea can solve in the current multiplayer system, and by also having the ability of solving most major problems the current multiplayer system has (such as difficulty in creating constant matches that can be continued in a later period of time) In which those are huge flaws that helps to create a weird game that doesn’t work well, I believe my idea has some weight to consider. 


Thank you for your attention. 


~


Edit:


[?] Massive update: Took out the difficulty levels and all stuff related to it as i realized it won't work well with my idea. 

20/07/2018: Small description in Endless Space Agenda 1A, which is essential to improve my idea. 

20/07/2018: Rewritten TL:DR text and made it much more clearer to understand, also added a new section in my idea, intended to solve most questions players has. 

23/07/2018: Removed a small part of my idea in TL:DR edition that requeired a extra bit of work from the devs, reduced the queue up options to fit in for the changes... and made my system only able to perform normal pace games instead of fast, normal, long and endless. Its still possible to enable these modes, but the devs wanted something smaller to read soo... 

25/07/2018: Changed the  Queue up options in the TL:DR edition, making less choices to make it easier to find more players, since i decided to decided to hide one core concept of my idea in which the devs may think it requires an extra amount of work to do. The changes where also based on my Primary source of feedback. :)

24/08/2018: Tweaked a small section of the Spectator Time, right in its end, and added a new idea to it, of pressing Shift+Enter to manually "Start the turn" before the spectator time ends. This way the timer can end faster, and less people will feel troubled by it. 

Updated 12 days ago.
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Out of Vision

The OUT OF VISION status is given by the dev team to ideas that are not compatible with their vision of the game or technically not feasible.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

DEV The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

status updated 5 years ago

Changing the multiplayer system of ES2 to this extent is simply beyond the vision and scope of the game.

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6 years ago
May 25, 2018, 12:52:20 PM

Look at stellaris, if they just add a mode that simulated continous turns by animating ship travel and with a setting for time for 1 turn to complete then great as the only problem with multiplayer is waiting for or returning to end your turn when you might just need to leave your civ to autopilot for 5 minutes without disrupting others.


Flexibility to step away and come back helps alot. 

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6 years ago
May 8, 2018, 10:59:02 PM

Holy fuck, made me read a lot but +∞  to this idea  

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6 years ago
May 9, 2018, 11:50:02 PM

:D real thanks suisi. i putted a lot of work in this and i can't imagine how this idea can improve the game! *-*

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6 years ago
May 9, 2018, 11:50:57 PM

MY LORD. i deleted EVERYTHING i just made. OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

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6 years ago
May 10, 2018, 4:32:42 AM

Ha. i just had a copy of the work i've done on word, and whit only a few touches here and there i managed to put back 99% of everything i've done that i did not save on the word. 


I also managed to place a new section in my idea, and also a new picture. i believe i completely forgotten to make a picture of such. :) 


Now my idea is much better!! :D

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6 years ago
May 17, 2018, 3:07:25 PM

I've attempted to read this idea several times now, but there's just no way I can justify "reading exactly one piece of text of over 8000 words" without it actively hindering other community-related tasks that are more time-sensitive.

Even your TL;DR section is a daunting 2200 words, and while this idea seems obviously both ambitious and popular, keep in mind that we're in a literal race against time to get all the stuff we need to do done in a day.


TL;DR, and I say this without the hint of a smile: please give me an elevator pitch that doesn't require me to be stuck in an elevator with you.

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6 years ago
May 17, 2018, 7:36:22 PM

Hello frogsquadron. I'm sorry that my idea is too big for you but... i guess there is too much theory in it yet, in which i use it in order to guarantee that the process i desgined will be surely good for the game. 


I've tried my best to reduce its size but... i feel like, there is always something new to add to it every time i come by. I even thought about how big my idea is, and when i saw you devs where also doing alot of work like, make a new major race or plan a very big update for the future... I imagined it would be best to wait until these updates are done and you guys finish most stuff you all have to do... Maybe after finishing the major faction and planning most updates you currently have you will find enough time to read my idea , whiteout hurting the process of doing other things? 


It is something i eventually considered for my idea... Maybe waiting a bit more of time until things are more ready, could help you in reading this whit more calm, and patience. 


Also, please note that the TL:DR edition is not really a TL:DR ... its just a objective way to explain *HALF*  my idea xD :<


But i think i will see what i can do and make a version of it *just* for you xD

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6 years ago
May 17, 2018, 7:37:27 PM

I hope that one day you will find enough time to read this idea whiteout hindering other tasks :)

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6 years ago
Apr 14, 2018, 7:30:35 PM

Hope this will be implemented ASAP.
Multiplayer is way more fun, than vs AI with cheats :P
But as idea creator mentioned, sometimes making a game takes ENDLESS amount of time :D

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6 years ago
May 25, 2018, 4:00:15 PM

I dont think the problem is so simple as you told me, Dark Wanderer. The problem is not simply that, you may need to look over the section Introduction : Flaws of the current system to know all the flaws i deal whit in my idea. 


It's not so simple as you said :)

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6 years ago
Jun 12, 2018, 8:31:20 PM

MASSIVE UPDATE: deleted all stuff related to difficulty levels and made a quick few changes here and there to help reading to be smaller. Drastically reduced amount of words by 1/5 (was so hard) and created a short edition which reduces the amount of words to read even, even further. Hope it helps! :)

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6 years ago
Aug 24, 2018, 6:08:43 AM
Velorace wrote:

I don't understand... should i delete the TL:DR edition, rewrite it, or rewrite my whole idea, whiteout exceptions, from the core? i still believe some topics like Addiontal information for difficulty levels, The new multiplayer lobby screen where already pretty good. do you think i need to rewrite them , or they are fine as they currently are? i think i will be rewriting the others meanwhile.

Putting the TL;DR at the very top would make it easily noticeable.

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6 years ago
Aug 24, 2018, 9:57:36 PM

Small, significant change. Check last entry of Edit to see what has changed :)

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Out of Vision

The OUT OF VISION status is given by the dev team to ideas that are not compatible with their vision of the game or technically not feasible.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

DEV The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

status updated 5 years ago

Changing the multiplayer system of ES2 to this extent is simply beyond the vision and scope of the game.

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7 years ago
Mar 3, 2018, 10:36:34 PM
koxsos wrote:

TL:DR edition sounds perfect. Yet again, I suggest you introduce each of your ideas as standalone individual suggestions and link between them. Lots of people would be psyched for the matchmaking, while disagreeing with the rest.

The fact that resync can happen on every turn is somewhat damaging to your idea of resync implementation.

There koxsos. I've just added a entry into my idea that explains that the host of the server will be the one whit less lag, or ping . this entry is localized before the part of Multiplayer quality of life improvements 


Did you liked my idea, or you believe there are some problems into hosting a server that way? Thank you for your feedback. :)

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