How popular do you think EU4 Multiplayer is?

[TheMeInTeam]

And yes, the metrics we use work as long as you are online.. its in the EULA.. steam offline doesnt matter..

Can you reliably differentiate re-hosts from new games? I'd imagine you'd just look at the date stamp, but it's worth noting.

That said, balancing features around the mind of a human and then pushing the AI to keep up always made more sense to me from a design standpoint anyway, unless the game is solely SP and has no MP component. Diplo is the MP balance anyway.

 

[Obik]

I play 100% SP off without Steam. Regarding percentage of players 90%SP 10%MP. Even incomplete data could be interesting but I am less interested in total numbers of MP and SP players and more interested in changes during the time. It could show the trends. For example does number of MP players increased after previous patches?

 

[Chamboozer]

For me it's something like 80% MP 20% SP, though that has more to do with my lack of free time nowadays, the only way I can justify spending long hours playing computer games is as a way to stay connected with distant friends. For the playerbase in general, it's probably overwhelmingly singleplayer. A few years ago when I had more time I was 99% SP, 1% MP.

 

[ssuperflash1]

Having never played a second of MP in any Paradox game ever (no friends of mine play these games and my sometimes sporadic schedule for gaming doesn't really help with long games as these) I say it's somewhere in the ballpark of 60-40 in favour of SP.

I'm exactly he same, my froends play games like TF2 and Loadout, so I need to play SP or play with randoms.

 

[Korsan82]

I never played mp, only once with a friend (EU3). And I never will be playing it. I don't like to pause/unpause in a game with others and i also don't like to wait for their pause/unpause. This game is sp clearly.

 

[loveslater]

I play SP. I never tried MP.

 

[gaius valerius]

Play regular sessions with 3 friends. Is a lot more fun than SP, problem of course is timing. Real life vs amount of time to pour into a EU session hardly match up. F*** my sleeping pattern though.

 

[TheChronoMaster]

I never played mp, only once with a friend (EU3). And I never will be playing it. I don't like to pause/unpause in a game with others and i also don't like to wait for their pause/unpause. This game is sp clearly.

Play on lower speeds when playing multiplayer, the need to pause is removed.


Generally, I see something like 'speed 3-4 in peacetime, speed 1-2 if a player is involved in a war' for multi games.

 

[Red_warning]

I've played one multiplayer game with a friend, lasted probably 7-10 sessions, but I've played dozens of SP games.

 

[Korashy]

Not as popular as SP, so it shouldn't be the measuring stick for the design choices.

 

[Sir Garnet]

I like MP-games the most if there are only 2-12 humans involved. 25+ humans is just a mess, with short termed alliances to prevent serious human vs human wars before the AIs are dead and properly exploited. AE doesent mean much either etc.

With 2-12 humans, hard difficulty, AI bonus and lucky nations I have more the feel of the SP game, but with some human opponents to spice things up. That's when I think I get the best from both worlds, and the game is at its best.

I just recently started MP but am pretty sure I agree with you about not having so many human players that they are in each others laps with a kaleidoscope of serial wars swirling around. There is such a thing as too much interactivity, not to mention keeping track of which countries are humans and which human plays each country. (Could I have a toggle to always see country (even just tag) alongside human player names at the same time? Also, how about whispering through the Diplomacy window? )

Some people like to crank through games - I like to see what's going on in nearby and more generally in the alternate history playing out - speed 1-2 without pausing is fine. I'd rather play at max speed and treat it as an overly complicated arcade game than speed 3 throughout. Given suitable games and available play time, I think I'd rather play more in MP than SP.

It was the Coop feature that attracted my interest - though it seems from lack of discussion in forums that everyone wants to be sole master of his own domain.

 

[Bonafide]

I just would like to sing songs of praise and admiration of Johan's unhuman ability of delivering thoughts, ideas, answers and cryptic messages in one of the most laconic and consequently humorous ways I've ever seen from a developer in the entertainment industry. Has anyone ever seen the man go on a tirade? He's the embodiment of conciseness!

 

[Singularis]

I've played the EU series (and other paradox titles) for a long time now and I actually love multiplayer, as single-player becomes too unsurprising in general. It's still pretty fun, but I do enjoy multiplayer a lot more, when the players are actually interactive, that is; I hate quiet games.
However, I find it near impossible for a multiplayer game to reach 1550, I have yet to find players that are willing to continue on the same game all the way to 1820. Maybe one day I'll find one, but I always end up just playing single-player.
I guess what could be improved is the multiplayer system itself. It gets out of sych easily, maybe that is what discourages people from continuing a multiplayer game.

But yes, that is my take on it. I think multiplayer is popular in number of games started, but not exactly on "number of games played".

 

[Kyoumen]

Boy, Johan really seems to get a kick out of telling the fanbase how wrong and stupid they are. I'm guessing he didn't write that nice Valentine's Day letter to us.

 

[unmerged(809555)]

I like to read every new event that I encounter, so that hinders my urge to play different countries in multiplayer. I don't like to skim through things, which I'm afraid is a requirement in MP.

I'm perfectly fine with single player only.

 

[Kwami]

Play on lower speeds when playing multiplayer, the need to pause is removed.


Generally, I see something like 'speed 3-4 in peacetime, speed 1-2 if a player is involved in a war' for multi games.

Speed 3-4 without pausing sucks when your cardinal is stolen just before he gets elected to the curia. Or when you miss a request for military access because you're busy with something else. Etc.

 

[gianlucad]

Multiplayer does not suit my gameplay style, since I like runnig my games on max speed and pausing whenever I need to. The vast majority of players do not access these forums on a regular basis, and the multiplayer community if over-represented here, just check how many people are playing EU4 and how many are online on your servers and I think you will have an answer.

 

[Te. Kenzo]

I don't know but i love how multiplayer is supported, actually and finall

 

[Taciturn Scot]

Not that it's of much use to anyone but here are my Steam stats for all my Paradox games:

Crusader Kings II 22 minutes
Europa Universalis III 5 minutes
Europa Universalis IV 5 hours
HOI3 27 minutes
March of the Eagles 56 minutes

All in all, about 7 hours total. Trust me, that is in no way representative of my Paradox Interactive Games game-time. I probably spent more time than that just going through the CK II tutorials before playing my first Scottish campaign.

I've seen polls like this on other boards and, as you would expect, the majority of people posting on a game's boards turn out to be MP players because they spend a lot of time online, they socialise with their fellow gamers on the boards, etc whereas the SPs, like myself, end up in the minority. Just look at my post count and I've been here for 7 years. But usually, someone on the design team will post in said thread that the majority of players don't post on their boards, don't play MP etc. The offline SPs are the silent majority. Not so here. Reading through this thread, there do seem to be an awful lot of SPs in proportion to MPs.

 

[Morosaurus]

I usually play SP, but hop on MP every once in a while so I'm gonna say about 70% for SP and 30% for MP

I've been here for 7 years.

Also I just realised that 2007 was 7 years ago :blink: