multiplayer co-op

[wtamb]

This feature request has been seen in the forum in 2015 but no ticket for it seem to exist.

What ?

Cooperative/collaborative multiplayer : several players to control a single color. As players setup a multiplayer game, they choose the same color and they collaboratively control a single color. The feature exists in AoE2 and PA (Planetary Annihilation) : http://steamcommunity.com/app/221380/discussions/0/828933456006180647/

Why ?

Does allow to empower communication/cooperation/collaboration of different duties to human players. For example one person starts building the economy/science, a second one micro manages the people in the city and builds houses/defense and a third one may start exploring or even fighting enemies with a small army right at the beginning.

Challenges

• the system needs to handle what to do if it gets orders to e.g. move the same unit to two different places, maybe at the same time : a solution would be last come, first served (LCFS) just like in AoE2. You can have a lot of fun distracting other allied players but it's also fun communicating what tasks are done by whom. Playing seriously requires a good communication and may give an advantage to a single player. A bad team may distract itself and would fail against a single player. This feature is a different addition to diversity of the gameplay into a "social interaction" direction.

Nice to have :

• As 0AD games can get a little bit longer it would also be great so a player can leave the game any time, leaving his/her tasks to the remaining players. This would also be great so someone can start cooking while the others keep playing

Warning:

• This feature is not for several players to belong to the same faction but for several human players to control the very same color.

[wtamb]

discussed a little here:

​https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17103-multiplayer-mode/#comment-263842

[wtamb]

In AoE 2: AoK/AoC playing together meant you are indeed considered one player - just you share control of that player. That doesn't mean you are weaker than 2 separate players though. The game is complex enough to be efficient enough together as one player. How the two players arrange responsibilities should be their decision in this mode.

[fatherbushido]

It's also in spring RTS iirc.

[elexis]

#2459, not unlikely others. Agree with the feature, should be fairly easy to implement except that we need more GUI space (ideally scrolling) if we want to play with more than 8 clients.

[elexis]

Still the same feature description (multiple clients controling the same player ID). Will be mostly gamesetup and session design fun. A player ID can't be used anymore identify a single player, so some places might have to be changed. The playername should be changed to a teamname.