Local multiplayer

[pablocampy]

So I'm fully on board the hype express (next stop Stellaris!) and was hoping to pass some of said hype onto some IRL friends.

They're not particularly PC gamers themselves, but with the low required specs I was thinking I could probably scrounge enough PCs together for a rollicking ol' LAN session.

However, as one could imagine, getting everyone to pony up the monies for a full price game just to try it out might be tricky. Is there any hope of me having a single copy, but legitimately having 4 or 5 more people loadign up off of and playing as a group just on a local LAN?

Bit of a long shot I feel, but don't ask don't get!

 

[Kyosfonica]

I don't think that even the LAN multiplayer will be present. PDX relies on steam infrastructure for that. I think that this game will use a P2P multiplayer aproach as it is way cheaper and do not require servers to run any game instance. It just requires a central server (steam servers) to connect clients to the host in an easy an fashion way.

The one player have the game the rest play for free on LAN, I don't think it will be available because the game requires steam so you need the game installed and available in your library.

 

[Murmeldjuret]

EUIV can run offline and you can connect via IP address, so you can play locally without internet access. I doubt it will not be included in some form in the game. Worst case scenario you can dupe the computer into thinking your local connection is internet access but that route gets technical fast. You will need separate steam accounts and games though, no HoMM3 where you only need 1 game copy for LAN.

 

[pablocampy]

Yes, I guess it depends if they've fully integrated into steam, or if they've left some more old school connection options in.

If they have then I imagine it would be possible to install on a bunch of machines via steam, have them connect to an offline LAN hub, boot the game from the offline steam account and then connect from there. Unless there's something specific in the networking code to stop this from happening of course.

This does seem to be flirting with illegitimate use though, so I was hoping someone from Paradox would be able to chime in on this front. I'm new to the forums here, do they often read/post?