Multi-player games

[Katherine]

How do you find people to play MP sessions? Also, is a 56k dial-up connection fast enough for such a session?

Thanks,

[Lemernis]

A 56K modem connection can work fine. I've played with people who have that and many had no difficulties whatever. Others did, though, and eventually gave up trying to MP because of it. Apparently ISPs vary in how stable a connection they provide for this sort of thing.

If you or anyone else would like to simply try out a session to see what MPing is like let me know and I can host one.

When I first started MPing it was a rush. I got badly hooked. Over time I kind of burnt out on it, thank god. By now I know the game so well that if I ever were ever to host or participate in a full MP campaign again, I definitely not want to 'mow the entire lawn', i.e, clear every map in the game. A game that actually gets completed and accepts that some areas either won't be visited or fully cleared I might be interested in. I work evenings but I'm off every other weekend, and two nights of the week that alternate. I can generally play from 9:00 PM Eastern until around midnight.

In every MP game I was in, we agreed that players would not have the permission to pause the game. So you were forced to live and die by your reaction time, your wits, and covering each other's backs. In some sense it is a relief not to have to think for more than one character, and in that respect it is easier--you realize that with only yourself to worry about that you don't need to pause, even though it may have become a reflex in SP games. And by the same token it is much more intense and satisfying to play in real time. The host saves frequently, so if someone gets killed and we have to reload that's fine. On very rare occasions, if we were having great difficulty winning a particularly tough battle the host would pause so that we could target enemies.

[Katherine]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lemernis:
If you or anyone else would like to simply try out a session to see what MPing is like let me know and I can host one.

A game that actually gets completed and accepts that some areas either won't be visited or fully cleared I might be interested in. I work evenings but I'm off every other weekend, and two nights of the week that alternate. I can generally play from 9:00 PM Eastern until around midnight.

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That sounds fun! I'd love to try it out. My availability is pretty open now, due to my lack of paying work (I work, but it's for 'equity in a new venture' which means I don't get paid and can make my own hours!). If you'd like, you can email me at my hotmail account: evil_bad_kitten@hotmail.com (I know, silly email name, but it's just for things like boards and lists).

As for the exploring and clearing every section of the game, I never do. I play it as if the characters are real people and have agendas that don't include making every section of every map visible. In fact, there are a few areas on the map that I've never explored as I didn't feel the characters I was playing had a reason to want to visit them.

I've never played without the pauses (this is actually my first video game. I could never do those run/jump games). I'll give it a go in a single player game so I can get used to it. It shouldn't be too tough in a MP environment where you only have one character to worry about,I'd guess.


Katherine

[Lemernis]

Okay, cool beans. Maybe we can try this tomorrow evening. I'll email you.

No-pausing in SP is incredibly tough, btw. You'd have to set NPCs on scripts of course. But even so I think you'll find it damned near impossible. Trust me, though, that it will be much, much easier in MP. As good as the game is in SP it really shines in MP playing in 'real time'.