Multiplayer Fridays

[GranitePenguin]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

I'm not seeing anyone on on Friday nights.

I've been preoccupied with other hobby projects lately.

[Blue Ghost]

Well, I see a lot of players on the Steam forums, but not MP games. I mean it's not a big deal, but it's no one's on.

[TokyoDan]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

I'm not seeing anyone on on Friday nights.

And yet another online multiplayer game bites the dust.

[Blue Ghost]

I'm not sure it's bitten the dust, but for all the posts I see on the Steam forums, I really don't see anyone online playing, unless there's something screwy going on with my net.

And it is odd, because the Ogre forum is one of the most active sections here. To me that says that people prefer the in person experience.

Maybe there's a way to matchmake games through here? I don't know. I think it's a cool game, and am sorry there aren't more MP games going on.

[Mack_JB]

I haven't even opened the Steam game in months ... I've got minis to play with now, and that's far more satisfying.

[selenite]

I'll resume leaving the game open for matches when I'm done editing this novel. Say, December.

[GranitePenguin]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

I'm not sure it's bitten the dust, but for all the posts I see on the Steam forums, I really don't see anyone online playing, unless there's something screwy going on with my net.

And it is odd, because the Ogre forum is one of the most active sections here. To me that says that people prefer the in person experience.

Maybe there's a way to matchmake games through here? I don't know. I think it's a cool game, and am sorry there aren't more MP games going on.

The biggest problem is it's not very conducive to MP play. For months, it was basically the same 5 of us playing, and even when actively doing it, it was more to troubleshoot issues than it was to actually play. 1.6.8.0 is by far the most solid stability-wise, but there's still a lot of things missing that really need it to do well. Not all of it is AD's fault, either. There are issues because it's how Steam works.

The things that irritate me the most (in no particular order)

• you can't pick what scenario to play in ranked play - I get tired of playing the same thing over and over. There needs to be a way to select this
• you can't talk to the person you are playing against - You can't make friends if you can't meet new people. It's next to impossible to friend request someone after the fact because Steam SUCKS for finding people.
• you can't start a game offline - This is probably the biggest killer, especially for trying to play a game with people on the other side of the planet. You have to both be logged on, and actively looking for a ranked match for it to connect. Getting a DX sked for ham radio is easier.

There are plenty more, but these are the biggest ones. Your only real hope of getting a multiplayer game is to already have a friend you want to play with and schedule a time to play outside of steam, but you can't do that if you don't have friends in steam, and you can't _get_ friends in Steam unless you know exactly where to find them, blah blah blah...

[Tim Kauffman]

...also, I can't help but think how much it would help generate more interest and replay value of the game in general if we could play other people in published custom scenarios.

[Blue Ghost]

Originally Posted by Tim Kauffman

...also, I can't help but think how much it would help generate more interest and replay value of the game in general if we could play other people in published custom scenarios.

Well, I think you can, but you have to wait for someone to drop in to play. But there's no way to see what games are available, nor who's online. Currently the software hunts for games.

Currently Age of Kingdoms has a MP area listing all of the available games when you click the Multiplayer Game icon in the game, but even though it's a better system that might help Ogre, there are other games available via GOG, Voobly, or if you have the CD version, you can hunt around for an MP game, or use an old application like Kali to facilitate a game.

Years back with the old MS Internet Gaming Zone a window facilitated and listed all the available games.

I think part of the issue is that Ogre is a wargame, and as such it's a niche game. But again it has thirty plus years of a developed reputation … so, I'm not sure what else could be going on. As a long time Car Wars fan and player I think I can safely say that even though I played Ogre every now and then since it was first published, I'm didn't become an Ogre fan. But that was largely because I had too many games as a hobby.

I also think Ogre doesn't have the variety of units like the current crop of RTS games, so I'm not surprised there aren't a lot of newer players, but now that the bugs are ironed out, it is a decent port for the single player game.

I'm not sure what else to say.

[J. Durr]

What GP said. The game should have been built around multiplayer.