How about a coop game?

[Catwalk]

At the risk of depleting your attention span with my ramblings, here is YET another idea I just have to force on someone. Has this community tried hosting coop games before, where players play the same in some way or other? My idea is the following:

1) Players take turns managing strategically 1 month at a time, each player has full autonomy over all decisions but is welcome to ask for opinions on various matters.

2) Whenever we enter a battle, the game is saved at the start of the first turn and all players (or as many who care for it and have the time) will play it out. We then pick the best result after all are done and continue from that point, decided by points. Players are not allowed to discuss battles before all players are done.

3) Players are required to post battle reports with as much detail as they care for, helping us to compare tactics and styles. A brief summary will suffice, more detail (such as screenshots) is encouraged. It would be awesome if some players upload videos, I have no idea how to do that personally.

4) There doesn't have to be a rigid order for strategic management, should mostly just be whoever has time to avoid bogging down.

5) 24h is given to complete a battle after it has been announced, participation isn't required even though you signed up.

6) Players can sign up after the game has started

7) We can compile all manners of statistics, such as tallying personal score for each player, tallying number of wins (getting best score among all players in a given battle = a win), victories (completing a mission regardless of casualties = victory), casualties and so on.

 

This is just a suggestion, subject to change if you have different ideas. Please let me know if you're interested in this or something similar, I think we could have a blast!

[Catwalk]

This hasn't exactly been a big hit But I'm still game, and I'm having a blast playing with my own mod. Mixed weapons tactics work out really well now, and it's a lot of fun ambushing aliens with my tazers to fuel my research! If anyone is still alive in here and up for some fun, give me a holler.

[Zombie]

Sounds like an interesting idea though I'm not too sure we'll get enough people to commit. Now, if I'm reading your rules correctly, everyone has input in a battle situation, correct? Maybe it would be better to just let one member run through a full month on his own with no participation from anyone. (Or even 2-week increments may work if you get more people who sign up). That way you'll get much more frequent changeovers (passing of the torch so to speak).

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

I find that co-op games may actually prove to be better suited to playing a single mission rather than an entire campaign.

 

Pick a reasonably hard mission (terror site, base, etc) and have about 3 - 4 players who take turns to move their assigned units (their mini-squads), with the 1st player (the master of ceremonies) ending the turn once the rotation comes back around. Could take half a week to get to this point.

 

Plenty of discussion can be had by the players during the various stages of that single turn. Ideas thrown about, suggestions, tactics, etc. For example, if there's a quite period in the combat and everyone decides to camp, then they can agree on the MC ending turns consecutively until something happens, etc. Or requests for assistance, equipment, etc.

 

It's slow. Very slow. But consider that people used to play chess games via snail mail, it might just work. Only problem here is that you might get someone who plays the mission just to get an idea of where all the aliens are.

 

Just a thought - it's just that most attempts at forum campaigns tend to end prematurely.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

Good points, I certainly wouldn't want the game bogging down and boring everybody to death. Main objective is just to get some kind of game going, so whatever is most practical for people would probably be best. In that regard, I think my original proposal has some merit in that people are able to play out a combat on their own without interruption. It could be further simplified by having a single, active player do all strategic management, posting reports and asking for input along the way. That way we don't risk the game bogging down while waiting for someone. Participating in battles is voluntary, so we won't be waiting for that either. Maybe raise it to 48h per battle or even 72h, so people have time to write a small report too.

 

Zombie, participants don't directly have input in battle situations. Instead, each player runs through each combat on his own. We then compare results and go with the best outcome.

 

NKF's idea is also worth looking into. If we're going to make it about a single mission, I think it might be more fun to design a combat specifically for this purpose. Would that be realistic? Otherwise, playing a few months and attacking an alien base should also work (I suck horribly at those, could really use some tips on dealing with Tentaculats). I've never tried anything like that. The thought of mini squads is exciting, but it sounds really cumbersome to me at first glance. The burden of swapping files around several times each turn of combat would be pretty high. If we have 4 players participating, that would make it 4 mini turns for each turn of combat. How about simply taking turns instead, letting each player manage a turn fully before passing on the baton. If a player doesn't pick up the game in time, the next player takes over instead. Or just let any active player take over, for faster pace.

 

Keep the ideas coming, I'm pretty excited about this and hope we can get something going. Being able to mod the game has really restored my passions, and I want more

[Malkasphia]

Perhaps what might even be a better idea is to record videos of yourself playing the game, then posting it here in a thread...kinda like the Let's Plays that are popular on viddle/youtube...ect...

 

Then we can compare a lot of things in the real time with commentary...its fast , fun, and very do-able.

 

[Catwalk]

I love that one too Malk, and would certainly be an easy way to get started as there's no commitment. Could have multiple players play the same battle first to compare tactics, I'd love to see how other players fight. How do you record videos, though? I have no clue about that.