Possible (good) idea for TCPIP MP WeGo approximation

[drtechno]

Hi Battlefront

I know you said WeGo won't be implemented in TCP/IP form, and we can't pause realtime TCIP, so what about a hybrid? Maybe this hybrid version would be easy to implement?

What if a game PAUSE is forced every 30 or 60 secs, at which point both parties have to hit the 'red end turn button' to continue to the next 30/60 phase. No replay or any of the WeGo benefits, but you do get a break in the action to look around the map, issue more orders, etc. and you dont have to code any 'pause' logic for realtime pausing such as when player A hits pause, but player B doesn't hit pause, etc.

You just have to code a forced pause every X seconds, with UNPAUSE (red button) that continues the game.. which should be much easier to do.

[gibsonm]

This has in fact been raised before.

Try a search for “pausable real time” or similar.

[Major.Pain]

Thought something along those lines myself, a kind of meet halfway.

Say every 60 seconds of game time the action would pause for 10 seconds then automatically resume allowing both sides just that little bit extra time to reorganize, adapt ect. Real time is great and all but having 10 seconds time out every minute would help the battles be a little bit less about click speed winning the day like a lot of other RTS games, and more about your general strategy and tactics.

Dont know how difficult it would be to code into the game, not too difficult i would imagine?

[noxnoctum]

Yep it's been brought up before, but I don't mind seeing more people bringing it up lol, being a strong proponent of this myself...

BFC keeps saying that only a minority of people who buy the game will play MP though... so it's not exactly a priority. They DID say though that RT w/ auto-pause as you suggested is much easier to code than tcp-ip wego w/ replay (which is apparently a massive programming hurdle, not sure why but that's what they said)

I almost wish they'd release the code for that particular part of the game or let someone in on it and have them sign NDAs or whatever. I'm nearly POSITIVE there is someone with both the capability (I don't have it unfortunately) and the desire to see this enough that they would be willing to do it for free.

Wasn't there some rich dude who said he wanted to contribute or something? Maybe he could hire a programmer or something...

I'm DYING for an alternative to PBEM... because RT battles (without pause) are just not that fun with more than a couple platoons (even that is pushing it IMO) when playing against a human opponent. You just can't keep a decent level of control and have NO time to view the action.

With pause every 30 or 60 seconds you could change orders as needed and take a breather to see the overall situation, while still retaining the ability to stop squads from mindlessly walking into death traps as would happen in wego.

No replay, which is unfortunate, because that IS a lot of fun, but I see this as the best immediate solution.

Oh and @Bin 10 seconds is WAY too little. I agree with drtechno, the game should only unpause once both players have unpaused it.

[Erik Springelkamp]

I almost wish they'd release the code for that particular part of the game or let someone in on it and have them sign NDAs or whatever. I'm nearly POSITIVE there is someone with both the capability (I don't have it unfortunately) and the desire to see this enough that they would be willing to do it for free.

I strongly suspect that in order to do this, you need to look deep into the core model of the game. And disrupt the current flow of the algorithms.

Not something you would trust an outsider to do to your code.

[Tactical Wargamer]

Lets hope BF can move up on the priorty list (which I'm sure is huge) of a variable speed/pause option before the "battle of the bulge" expansion. I do think a lot of the CM1 chaps who are coming back certainly would like to see an option besides PBEM and Hotseating. I think more and more of their customer base since CM1 are looking at MP games. The more options for this crowd certainly is a good thing!

With CMSF RT was possible with small formations but with CMBN and the hedge rows I think it is almost (IMHO) not doable unless you are looking at tiny scenarios.

Hey at least we can get it in the future sometime.....I hope.

[noxnoctum]

Till then I urge everyone to join the steam group and use the workaround of dropbox or any other file sharing program to play wego. It's not ideal cause it's basically hotseat at long distance (so you have to take turns issuing orders), but it's far better than PBEM, especially for those of us who want to sit down for 3 hours and finish a game, not do it over weeks/months.

[kulik]

Autopause realtime is a feature which would have tremendous positive impact on multiplayer. I may actually prefer it over tcp/ip wego. It takes the best of both worlds. And the ratio of work needed for its implementation and the effect it would make is making it imho a feature which brings the most bang for a buck.

[Wallybob]

Having an "Awshi+++" button to allow one or the other to get their head out of their 4th point of contact might be nice.

Movable goto locations would be nicer for me.

[Rocken]

tcp/IP WEGO:

phone: cool beer drinking guy

door bell: cool beer drinking guy

gf/wife: cool beer drinking guy

food: cool beer drinking guy

drinks: cool beer drinking guy

smoke: cool beer drinking guy

upawn: cool beer drinking guy

toilet: cool beer drinking guy

graphics: cool beer drinking guy

Tac AI: cool beer drinking guy

waypoints: cool beer drinking guy

chat: cool beer drinking guy

Tcp/IP RTS: FUN! .. erm no

[Rocken]

btw this was ironic

My real opinion is: no MP no dollers!

[Rocken]

actually its "dollar" shame on ur pseudo currency lol

[Ranger33]

Just wanted to bump this. I don't have a problem playing RT (I've got a few Starcraft 2 wins under my belt ), but I don't want there to be a big division in players between RT and PBEM, these modes being quite the polar opposites. A simple automatic pause every 60 seconds, that lasts until both players unpause or some time limit is reached (15 secs, 30 secs, maybe variable depending on battle size or player choice?) this would allow each player a moment to regroup if needed, and if not they can both hit go and get right back to it. Best of both worlds, in my opinion.

You can really only focus on one group at a time, and anything bigger than the demo scenarios would definitely leave some of your units neglected, when they should be part of the fight.

[Haggard Sketchy]

Coop is a possible solution to management overload. One platoon per player would be nice.

Just look at the demo scenarios. The one with the command post is a pain to control once the armor comes in, at least from the allied side. The two ones with bocage might as well be separate scenarios for each side of the roads.

[derbius]

Remind me what's the problem you guys have with PBEM? It can progress as fast as people play - it can take only a few seconds for an email to travel and for people to be notified...

[Gryphonne]

PBEM is - by all standards - awkward; as in, i won't be able to convince my friends to use it anyway. Frankly, in 2011 more advanced multiplayer modes should be available. We aren't talking the early 2000s anymore. Also, how many games still even feature PBEM? the option is only offered in a dying niche. Not to say BFC is part of the specifically dying aspect of this niche, but you know what I mean.

I've suggested the RT with forced pause after 60s a year ago. I really hope to see it in. It could even be so that you can give orders at all times, so during the action as well as during the pause so very little modification is needed. Then both players hit a "go" button and the game resumes again, this is a nice pause for some good overview and to keep track of the battle.

I absolutely *love* CMBN, but as far as features go, it's still lacking some from the CMx1 era. Which is odd considering that implies a downgrade on some levels. Thankfully, contrary to CMSF there's plenty of upgrades

[noxnoctum]

Ya... and I don't like sitting around waiting for emails (even if it's just 10 minutes) when playing a wargame, or any game. Plus most PBEM people will play at most 4-5 turns a day.

I want to be able to set aside 3 hours or whatever, and just play straight through and finish it. I hate having little 5-10 minute "bites" of multiplayer. Or even 10 different 5 minute bites. It just isn't fun...

And Haggard coop or "co-play" as BFC calls it is a long way away... this on the other hand could be right around the corner if they upped it on their priority list. Regardless, I want to be able to fight battalion sized battles like I did in CMBB and not have to delegate control of half or more of the units to other people (again, not that coop is anywhere on the immediate horizon). Commanding even just a company is already seriously pushing it IMO (and I play Starcraft 2 all the time, which is probably the most frantic RTS out there with games lasting usually not more than 20 minutes---so it's not like I'm some old geezer ). With autopause it would be MUCH more manageable.

[drtechno]

Yea, I think the auto-pause, both player manually unpause, would be relatively easy to code because you already have the 'pause' logic there (hell, even a basic programmer can program a script to simulate hitting the 'ESC' key every 60 secs) its just that you would need to add the code for the 'unpause' portion of the game. You wouldn't need to change anything else, since the engine is still running the 'regular' realtime MP code.