Multiplayer - online or specific opponent

[ahuyton]

Very nice game, thanks! My only issue, or request, would be the possibility to specify an opponent for the multiplayer game, or to be able to play online simultaneously. I have nothing against the challenge system, but it would be nice to reserve a game for a specific opponent. Or maybe I have missed something?

Alan

[IainMcNeil]

It is on the wish list! It will come at some point but not sure exactly when.

[neil123]

I would really like to be able to either maintain a "buddy" list of who I want to see my challenges (save preference in list off all registered users), or at least when I make a challenge be able to do so. There are many reasons for wanting to limit who you play, there are people I would prefer not to play and I am sure there are those who dont want to play me. Reasons can be as simple as not wanting to keep meeting people who just see you as easy meat.

Casual players like me who play because they enjoy being Ceaser or Pompey will eventually be driven away by those who only want to win by knowing the rules inside out and exploiting every loophole in the rules. (I am not saying there is anything wrong with either type of player, but they are eventually incompatible). If you progress to a ladder system this will become a problem for casual players like myself.


PLEASE see post furher down, I think I have been missunderstood (i.e havnt expressed myself well enough)

[pipfromslitherine]

We definitely want to allow people to play as they want to. There will never be a restrictive system forcing you to play in a way you don't want. It's simply a matter of designing and building nice systems to provide the kind of things you are talking about.

Hope that sets you mind at rest

Cheers

Pip

[CharlesRobinson]

While we wait for a system like this there is certain things we can do. When I look at challenges up on the board, I only pick someone if I am not already playing them in another game and I only grab one of the challenges if they make several. This is to keep from monopolizing on games. Also, I try to play different people if there are multiple challenges on the board, ie if there is a player that I have played before, and one that I have not I will pick the one that I have not played before. As the community grows, I don't think this will not be much of a problem since there will be all kinds of playes out there. It is only an issue right now since the player pool is sort of small. The only reason I would want to be able to restrict players on a specific scenerio is if I am trying to pick up a pre-arranged battle with a buddy of mine. Also, if you are having issues with fighting someone because of skill level this ask for advise in the chat box. I have given out advise during the game to help my opponent. Use the replay button and see what tactics your opponent is using. I am running a little under 50% on my wins right now, so I loose a little more than I win and one of the guys who have consistently kicked my but never participated on the beta test - Ha, ha! Kudo's to 'pantherboy'!. I still enjoy the challenge of playing him, and I will eventually get him one of these days - ha, ha. I have learned a lot from my beat downs as well and some of the scenerios are harder to win as one side than another. One of the games I always loose as the Romans, but still like to play them, and in another I always loose and the Carthaginians and I still like playing them as well. Again, this will become better when we are able to create our own armies and play each other online if that is the type of game you are looking for. I like a little of both myself. As the Romans - I happy if I can pull a draw in fighting Parthians! I was over joyed when I actually won once as the Romans!! That is part of playing historical battles vs non-historical battles. Sometimes the odds are stacked against you.

[neil123]

In my earlier post requesting a way to filter out possible opponants I think as I was trying to be polite and not cause offense people have misunderstood what I was trying to say (i.e thinking I was not wanting to play better opponents for fear of loosing etc). I just gave that example as a "nice" reason why people might not want to play certain other players.

So at the risk of causing offense (all to easy on most forums) I'll rephrase by request for a system where I can limit who accepts my challenges:-

I play many games, frequent (but rarely post) many forums to see what is happening with a particular game, find opponents etc. I inevitably come across people who's forum behavior makes me not want to play such people (whether it be arrogance, rudeness , always looking for arguments, always moaning about bad luck etc - their conduct forms an impression that is not favorable to the fun I want when I play). And they often keep the same names so are recognizable. Unlike (for instance hexwar where I think you have a limited audience and are unlikely to get too much of this sort of thing), you hope that FOG becomes much wider played. As more people buy and join in I think you will start to get these people creeping in. At that point exit people like myself (at least as far as issuing challenges are concerned - I will just limit myself to accepting challenges) . I hope I am wrong but I have seen at least one PBM game system go that way as more joined in.

There are many other reasons for maintaining include/exclude lists - I honestly believe its something that can only benefit a MP challenge based game in the long term (of course for "ranking games" you would not be able to use such lists, only for "fun" games.

Well I'll leave it there !

[IainMcNeil]

We will be adding these kind of features - we want to do anything we can to encourage play, however people want to do it.