Devs say netcode has been overhauled

[omniclast]

For anybody else out there who was waiting for news about multiplayer stability, the two lead devs just said they have made extensive changes to the netcode from Civ 5. Apparently they have had a dedicated developer, Bradley [Olson, I think] who has been working to update the multiplayer experience.

There wasn't a lot of detail... but Will said the multiplayer experience will feel "substantially different" from Civ 5.

I don't know about you guys, but I am VERY happy to hear this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OjWH2CPCk8#t=1969

They talk about it vaguely at 1:29:00.

 

[rawrkitty]

they also mentioned it prior on a firaxis twitch stream

 

[omniclast]

Did they? There've been a handful of "what about MP" discussions here and no one's mentioned it.

They talked a bit about hybrid turn setting as well, made it sound like it would actually be playable in big MP games. They seemed to imply it would be replacing simultaneous? Again kinda vague. Wish we could see a MP playthrough...

 

[rawrkitty]

Did they? There've been a handful of "what about MP" discussions here and no one's mentioned it.

They talked a bit about hybrid turn setting as well, made it sound like it would actually be playable in big MP games. They seemed to imply it would be replacing simultaneous? Again kinda vague. Wish we could see a MP playthrough...

it was either the covops stream or the one before that

 

[Lord Shadow]

It's good that you brought that up here, though, omniclast. Despite the devs mentioning improvements done to multiplayer, people around here still ask about it.

 

[Acken]

Wait n see. Developers always say a lot of things when criticized (or asked for improvement).

 

[omniclast]

I remember them showing the new game setup screen, but not much detail about the actual gameplay changes. I might have tuned in late on that though, I remember it was at the beginning of the stream.

Anyway talk about MP has been generally pretty sparse compared to discussion of single player mechanics, and they have so far seemed reluctant to talk about stability vs Civ (understandably, because that would mean admitting there were a lot of problems in the old game). This was the first time I heard anyone say they'd extensively reworked the netcode, and that they'd concentrated mainly on "bug fixes" from Civ. That gives me a lot of heart because the online MP experience was the single biggest, glaring fault in Civ.

I'm also really hoping for changes to the turn modes, which it does sound like they've been working on. Hope they talk about that more soon.

Or maybe I can just wait 17 more days...somehow...

 

[Lord Shadow]

Wait n see. Developers always say a lot of things when criticized (or asked for improvement).

Sure, but it'd be a bit too blatant of them to say they've overhauled the netcode if in truth they only tweaked it a bit.

PR statements exaggerate some, of course, but for the most part they aren't outright lies.