Multiplayer in Civ 6

[Catan_Settler]

So I was wondering what all is known about the multiplayer aspect of the upcoming Civ 6. I did a couple forum searches which haven't turned up much other than some discussions about hills and balance. I sure hope they have improved the experience from Civ 5 with constant lag and disconnects... it seemed like they had a better multiplayer setup in Civ4 for some reason. Anyways, just curious as I see the new one is about to come out on steam and wanted to know what is the word on the street about MP as it's my favorite mode in Civ, cheers!

 

[Acken]

We have no idea at all. Anyone that really want multiplayer should seriously consider just waiting for reviews at release. It's a total diceroll as far as we know.

What we can say is that a lot care seems to have gone in this vanilla release. We hope it will extend to multiplayer. That's it.

 

[UnderKingDuck]

I'm hoping it is relatively stable at release. I plan on doing my first game online with my friends. I'm also hoping that this time the AI interactions with other players with diplomacy and they have their leader portraits as well. I believe civ beyond earth had that, which was nice if I remember correctly.

 

[bbbt]

In interviews, I they mentioned they'll have some shorter multiplayer options/victory conditions but we haven't seen anything yet. If previous versions are any guide, it'll be one of the buggier aspects at launch.

 

[Big J Money]

This is a great question. I recall in Civ V that they advertised how hard they were working on MP (and look how that turned out...). Since I've seen no similar comment about VI, I assume that it's going to be just as buggy on release; maybe even unplayable. But knowing Firaxis, they'll patch it to at least a playable, if not still broken state.

 

[Haggbart]

Yeah I wonder about that as well. I'm planning on playing the first game co-op with my brother. One particular aspect I'm curious about is how team MP will work with regards to science and especially eurekas. Do you trigger half the research cost if only on of you trigger the eureka? And what about religious victory if you found several religions but are playing as a team, would you still need to convert all cities to the same religion?

 

[Gort]

The lack of any news seriously bothers me. It makes me think it doesn't work well enough for them to show it to the public, which bodes ill.

 

[grant2004]

I've also been looking forward to multiplayer. When they announced the game, one of the big items on the list of features was new multiplayer modes. I was curious about those, but mostly because it seemed to indicate some forethought around multiplayer, rather than adding it in as an afterthought. However, since then it's been nothing but crickets on the subject. This is the one thing that's been holding me back from pre-ordering. When Civ 5 launched I remember at least some discussion of multiplayer, but when it came out the system was unusable, it took a year for the FIRST multiplayer patch to come out, and it had serious deficiencies multiple years after launch. How bad can Civ 6 multiplayer be if they aren't even willing to talk about it? Based on that experience, I'm not sure if it's worth buying the game at all if it ships with broken multiplayer.

 

[aw3524]

Am I the only one that thinks it's not totally unreasonable to expect, by now, stable multiplayer with a built-in ladder system "comp mode"? I don't even care about the new, hinted multiplayer speed/mode.

 

[Haggbart]

Am I the only one that thinks it's not totally unreasonable to expect, by now, stable multiplayer with a built-in ladder system "comp mode"? I don't even care about the new, hinted multiplayer speed/mode.

I don't care for the even quicker MP speed myself, however if it attracts more people to MP it would give the devs an incentive to make stable and better MP a priority. So as long as it doesn't take away the options I'll be playing I'm all for it.

 

[Magil]

Am I the only one that thinks it's not totally unreasonable to expect, by now, stable multiplayer with a built-in ladder system "comp mode"? I don't even care about the new, hinted multiplayer speed/mode.

It's very reasonable. It's just that Civ's track record in regard to multiplayer is to treat it as a secondary (if that) concern. Stable multiplayer hasn't been a launch selling point for... well, ever. So it's fine to hope, but also logical to not expect anything.

 

[Gort]

It's very reasonable. It's just that Civ's track record in regard to multiplayer is to treat it as a secondary (if that) concern. Stable multiplayer hasn't been a launch selling point for... well, ever. So it's fine to hope, but also logical to not expect anything.

Agreed. That goes double if we're six days from release and haven't seen a peep regarding MP yet.

If they'd done a good job, we'd have all kinds of details and they'd have shown it off by now.

 

[Baconissweet]

This is the last thing on my list. I've only played local multiplayer a few times and if that's the same as CiV than I'm good.

 

[ThomasClark]

Agreed. That goes double if we're six days from release and haven't seen a peep regarding MP yet.

If they'd done a good job, we'd have all kinds of details and they'd have shown it off by now.

Sadly this is definitely true. A ladder system would be really nice and it doesn't seem like that much to ask. Instead we had to semi-force their hand by asking about it a million times until they referenced it on the livestream... Once you play a game against humans, it's hard to go back to AI.

 

[CrsBenjamin]

I really just hope that its more stable than in Civ V. All of the other problems could exist, but stability was always the deal-breaker, obviously I hope they improve other stuff too though.

 

[Gort]

I really just hope that its more stable than in Civ V. All of the other problems could exist, but stability was always the deal-breaker, obviously I hope they improve other stuff too though.

I think the least we can expect is different problems. It's a whole new engine, I've heard.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I only have two demands

Hotseat that doesn't somehow bog down the resources and the ability to partake in diplomacy on the exact same level as the AI does to human. I wanna be able to denounce my friends and ask them stuff that the AI always does.

 

[Numdydar]

From this link (and excerpt below) it is obvious that MP is included. So not sure what all the churn is about

In addition, the game boasts an enhanced multiplayer mode, which will allow us to easily connect and play with friends. This new online mode will now have an objective which would help in keeping the multiplayer from lasting forever. I believe this is one thing they really needed to work on. If the online mode is coherent and fluid this should excite many players, I would love to see Civilization develop a competitive feature.

 

[Acken]

Huh ? The question is if its playable.

 

[rredding]

I play a lot of MP Civ V. Yes at release Civ V MP was terrible, but as the game was patched they got it figured out. The current state of Civ V MP is pretty good. Stability and CPU resource consumption have all been addressed and it is an enjoyable game. Some of the community mods for MP help it out some too with regards to balance etc.

Hopefully they will continue to build on the progress they made with Civ V MP. I am encouraged by the fact that all the systems they added to Civ V over the years are in Civ VI. Hopefully they retain the stability of the MP as well.