AoE2 DE Brand-new Multiplayer: Q&A

[Gregstein]

Some of you may not realize to what extent the brand new multiplayer will shape the way games are played. In case you have wanderings about the new multiplayer this post should answer them: Questions & Answers For AoE2 DE Brand-new Multiplayer

Suggest more questions so we raise more awareness among the community.

 

[ACCM]

seem like aoe2 de only can restore if < 60 seconds?

 

[Gregstein]

seem like aoe2 de only can restore if < 60 seconds?

It depends if the devs set the timeout to 60 or less but in most games such as Starcraft 2 the default timeout is 60 seconds.

 

[ACCM]

so example, we playing 1 hours games, after that the game crashed or power off etc... Can i restore?

 

[thelichnamedfoo]

Probably, but that is not what that comment is in regards to. That comment seems to be for the situation where network bandwidth drops because another person got on your internet and is streaming to much Netflixs. Your network briefly drops your connection to server from the aoe de client only to restore when you restart your client after yelling at your roommate.

 

[kw1k000000]

Thanks for compilation.

Are these your own guesstimates OR these things are confirmed officially?

 

[dodageka]

I don’t get the question about the ELO. In what way can players not fake their ELO anymore different from how they can do it now?

 

[kalkkaro]

I see...So this was the REAL reason why Viper moved to Germany - to get into center of internet structure. Living in northern norway would have hindered his micro capabilities since closest server was propably going to be far away at Oslo. Viper, again, one step ahead of game. Ggwp

 

[Scogo_]

not multiplayer related question (dont see any other, general Q&A thread for AoE II DE):

regarding the feature where only military units are selected: Sometimes you are going forward with say MAA and villagers and u have to fight enemy vills/scouts/maa. in such a scenario u wouldnt want the selection to exclude ur villagers for the fight because u want ur vills to fight as well, so here this feature would be kind of counterproductive, no?

so will there be a way to toggle it on/off?

 

[Jineapple]

Thanks for compilation.

Are these your own guesstimates OR these things are confirmed officially?

Those are guesstimates, which should really be clarified. For now, all we know for sure is that it's a completely new MP system, it's "server-based" and will be tested in the upcoming beta.

 

[Gregstein]

Thanks for compilation.

Are these your own guesstimates OR these things are confirmed officially?

All these server based features I spoke about are 100% true facts not assuptions at all! Any game that operates under a server-based architechture must have these features otherwise they're not server based.

 

[Gregstein]

Those are guesstimates, which should really be clarified. For now, all we know for sure is that it's a completely new MP system, it's "server-based" and will be tested in the upcoming beta.

Certainly not guestimates nor theories! That's how client server mp games work. SC2 & LOL are a living examples.

 

[Gregstein]

not multiplayer related question (dont see any other, general Q&A thread for AoE II DE):

regarding the feature where only military units are selected: Sometimes you are going forward with say MAA and villagers and u have to fight enemy vills/scouts/maa. in such a scenario u wouldnt want the selection to exclude ur villagers for the fight because u want ur vills to fight as well, so here this feature would be kind of counterproductive, no?

so will there be a way to toggle it on/off?

These are mechanical features and have nothing to do with this topic, but probably togglable please ask cysion or wait for closed beta.

 

[Jineapple]

All these server based features I spoke about are 100% true facts not assuptions at all! Any game that operates under a server-based architechture must have these features otherwise they're not server based.

That's just false. Server-based means nothing more than that connections are established with a central server. For example, it could still be a lockstep-simulation (meaning that all player commands have to arrive before the next turn gets completed), just that the packets with commands are sent to a server instead of every other player. Cysion himself said on reddit that there are many ways to implement MP and did not want to give out specific information to avoid misinformation: https://www.reddit.com/user/CysionBE
And that's from someone who has a lot more intel than we do.

What you describe are common ways to implement a server-based architecture, but not the only possibility.

 

[dodageka]

All these server based features I spoke about are 100% true facts not assuptions at all! Any game that operates under a server-based architechture must have these features otherwise they're not server based.

Sorry, but I disagree. At the moment we know nothing besides the fact that they will use a server based MP. We don’t know how Elo will be handled, we don’t know how many servers they will have and where they will be, and theoretically you can even come up with server based MP that have roughly the same lag to all players to remove competitive advantages. We don’t know how long the timeout will be - could be 60 seconds, could also be 15 or 5 and how exactly the game will handle one player loosing connectivity. We also don’t know how games between China and South America will be handled and whether there will be any improvements at all in those situations. For what it’s worth, we don’t even know yet that they will use Xbox live (even though nothing else seems to make sense, but it is still not confirmed)

 

[dodageka]

Certainly not guestimates nor theories! That's how client server mp games work. SC2 & LOL are a living examples.

Just because SC2 and LOL work that way doesn’t mean DE will work like that - there are a lot of decisions for Microsoft to be made, and while some are more or less likely, until they are confirmed it’s all just guesstimates

 

[Anda]

If they managed to rip out lockstep from the engine that would be extremely impressive. It's so ingrained I'd expect it to be easier to start from scratch! Obviously, DE has surprised us before…

 

[Elvaenor]

If they managed to rip out lockstep from the engine that would be extremely impressive. It's so ingrained I'd expect it to be easier to start from scratch! Obviously, DE has surprised us before…

Cysion has actually confirmed that the MP has been build from the ground up, so it could very well be!

 

[Anda]

I guess my point is that moving away from lockstep might also require rebuilding everything _else_ from the ground up

 

[TriRem]

Cysion has actually confirmed that the MP has been build from the ground up, so it could very well be!

Yes but that depends on what they mean by "MP" : just P2P mechanics ? Whole simulation system ? There is a lot of gray area there.

But needless to say, I'm curious for what's next.

 

[Gregstein]

Server-based means nothing more than that connections are established with a central server.

That's the whole point. The server has authority over the game and verify if the commands or requests you've sent are valid as well as supervising handshakes and game setup; delivering current game data and so on. The server here obviously have major control on multiplayer so technically it plays the role of a policeman in the middle of the road, and that is to manage traffic.

I would agree that some of the features are entirely in the hands of the devs, but most them are a must implement otherwise what's the point of client server - might as well switch back to peer to peer.

 

[Gregstein]

we don’t know how many servers they will have and where they will be

A client server arch is an investment in infrastructure and that means building a special room for servers in different regions and paying technicians and administrator to maintain the servers - that's the least I could think of. Microsoft has all the capacity and infrastructure to run such modern multiplayer experience. MS Azure cloud computing, XBox servers all these are choices for a server based MP. If none of them is employed I personally would not call that server-based. Let's found out soon.

 

[AkeNo]

not multiplayer related question (dont see any other, general Q&A thread for AoE II DE):

regarding the feature where only military units are selected: Sometimes you are going forward with say MAA and villagers and u have to fight enemy vills/scouts/maa. in such a scenario u wouldnt want the selection to exclude ur villagers for the fight because u want ur vills to fight as well, so here this feature would be kind of counterproductive, no?

so will there be a way to toggle it on/off?

yes u can toggle it off, he said it in the 10min showcase

 

[ImRiver]

What is the expected ping for someone who lives in south america with good internet?

 

[kw1k000000]

What is the expected ping for someone who lives in south america with good internet?

Noone knows because there is no official communication regarding the details of implementation.

@Gregstein wouldn't it be appropriate if you add a disclaimer in your compilation that this is just your guess work/expectations.