It seems Multiplayer is working... Anyone up for a game?

[kyledean99]

I've played for years, yet to have a decent multiplayer game. Anyone up for one? I don't really care when because I've got a few weeks off from college

 

[walletta]

Can you explain how multi-player works? I am interested in playing human players but unsure of the mechanics and the time commitment.

 

[Nathiri]

Yes multiplayer has been working for a while now. There is still a Civ3MP League group that organises games although some are more quick competitive matches in FFA, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, there is some that are more casual 1v1s. There are also a few players that may agree to a more SP style game that takes a while to complete.

Multiplayer has always been up and running really, but mainly Direct IP games were up. Only recently did the MP servers migrate to Steam.

I would consider playing with you on a more casual game, but because my usual computer is not usable atm I dont have full access to playing and can only play at certain times, but I am also already involved with one that I havent been able to get back to playing.

 

[walletta]

I think I should probably try to join a PBEM game. I have tried multi-player with my son once but found it too slow. I mean the game ran too slow on screen. I hope you find someone.

 

[Nathiri]

I think I should probably try to join a PBEM game. I have tried multi-player with my son once but found it too slow. I mean the game ran too slow on screen. I hope you find someone.

Yes that is Internet MP. The units delay a little bit on the screen and some menus do not show up to increase speed. You just have to get used to that.

 

[Lanzelot]

Many years back we tried it with a few friends. 4 or so were in the same room, so we had 100 Mbit LAN, and 2 more connected to our game via Internet, but they were also located inside Germany. So I think as long as you don't go "trans-continental" (i.e. having players from all over the world), the network speed should be ok.

The bigger problem is to get the same set of players together again for the second, third, ... session of play. What usually happens is, you have a group of players, you play for one evening and then save the game, and then you never get the chance to actually continue the game and finish it

For that reason, PBEM had been a nice way of playing other humans a couple of years ago. (Check out the PBEM forum here on civfanatics. There is quite a number of legendary battles like from the time frame ~ 2004 - 2012. But in the last 2-3 years, the PBEM community has kind of whittled down and it is hard to get even 5 "reliable" players for a game. (Meaning people who play their turns at a reasonable speed (= 1-2 days after receiving the turn) and who don't drop out after 4 weeks and need to be replaced to allow the game to continue... )

At the moment there are only 3-4 active PBEMs going on (and some of them don't really deserve the description "active"... moving along at the speed of 1 turn per month...)

 

[walletta]

When I played with Tom, he was downstairs and I was upstairs in the same house and it still seemed annoyingly slow. I think PBEM may be better, assuming you can collect the right people. It's the same with a lot of games. I used to love Diplomacy when I was at university and there's poker of course.

 

[Lanzelot]

When I played with Tom, he was downstairs and I was upstairs in the same house and it still seemed annoyingly slow.

With 100Mbit LAN and up-to-date hardware? This surprises me, because my experience (from 2007) is that in a LAN C3C plays quite smoothly, even with the hardware back then.

 

[walletta]

With 100Mbit LAN and up-to-date hardware? This surprises me, because my experience (from 2007) is that in a LAN C3C plays quite smoothly, even with the hardware back then.

We were playing on two iMacs running boot camp (i.e. on a Windows partition) but I'm not sure if the network was wi-fi or ethernet. On the whole, wi-fi, since I am pretty sure there is no ethernet cable running between them coz that would need a hole in the floor and they ain't no freakin' hole in no flo'

 

[Lanzelot]

...

 

[agonistes]

I'd join a multiplayer game, but not if I can expect to wait 1-2 days per turn. Maybe 15 minutes tops. I'd go batty.