Multiplayer Queries - Pinging a tile and Seeing MP Team's Research

[Hank Fluba]

I looked all over and could not find any answers to these questions anywhere.

First, is there any way to ping a tile for a teammate like you could in Civ IV? My friend and I looked all over for a ping function and could not find it. Let's hope that pinging will be added in via a patch or the multiplayer mode update they told us about before release.

Secondly why can't you see the tech that a teammate is researching in a multiplayer game? In Civ IV you could see what you were researching. Am I just missing that as well and not seeing it?

If anyone could help that would be great. If not, maybe 2KGreg or someone else from 2K will see this and look into adding it in the future.

 

[real_jobe]

Pinging has not been implemented. Neither has a way to see a team mate´s research. Both hopefully YET.

 

[Hank Fluba]

I agree on the "Yet." Pinging and being able to see a teammate's research are key to making MP smoother and more enjoyable. It's a bit of a pain in the butt to have to continually ask over voice chat what my friend is researching. Here's hope the MP patch will fix this.

 

[soygreen]

I agree on the "Yet." Pinging and being able to see a teammate's research are key to making MP smoother and more enjoyable. It's a bit of a pain in the butt to have to continually ask over voice chat what my friend is researching. Here's hope the MP patch will fix this.

Are you wondering what he is building because you want to know how he is focusing his efforts? Because I understand you cannot trade technologies in this version - right? (I am just genuinely asking - because I haven't done multiplayer yet...)

And as for pinging - didn't they leave it out cause people were being d-bags about using it? Which begs why they didn't just make it an option to turn on or off... rather than remove it altogether...

 

[jjs]

I am planning to write a mod to correct these issues, and others. Have a look and feel free to post suggestions!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=382114

-jjs

 

[Hank Fluba]

Are you wondering what he is building because you want to know how he is focusing his efforts? Because I understand you cannot trade technologies in this version - right? (I am just genuinely asking - because I haven't done multiplayer yet...)

And as for pinging - didn't they leave it out cause people were being d-bags about using it? Which begs why they didn't just make it an option to turn on or off... rather than remove it altogether...

With regards to the ping...people might have been idiots about using it, but I would assume that more players used it properly. Plus, the MP games I play are just me and a friend or two as a team against the AI, so there are no "idiots" that could spam ping, other than us, and we are careful about pinging, and usually combine it with voice chat over Ventrilo or the like.

I want to be able to see his research, I can see what he is building by looking at the cities. You are correct that there is no tech trading, but we are on the same team and thus share techs and the like, and I should, like in previous Civs, be able to see what he is researching when I am choosing a tech to research in the quick drop-down menu or in the tech tree. The only way right now is either through diplomacy window or by having knowledge of the research cost of a tech and recognizing that what the game currently shows is lower than normal cost. Don't get me wrong, CivV is still a great game, and I'm enjoying both SP and MP, but there are a few "teething" issues that need to be worked out to bring it up to CivIV BTS levels (as expected; its not right to compare Vanilla V to BTS IV, but that's where we are right now).

JJS - I'm looking forward to the mod. I think you already have both of my issues in your list from other people. Here's hoping between your mod and a patch to add in more multiplayer functionality, this will get resolved. If I come across anything else in my MP games, that isn't on your list, I'll post in your thread.

 

[JRave02]

Did you guys check the Diplomacy tab? I swear I was able to see what my teammates were researching there at one point. I haven't done multiplayer in a day or two now so I can't be for sure.

 

[ddd123]

how can you consider pinging so important?

first id say to solve the load save and the disconnect reconnect issues

 

[Sefyra]

I would say that pinging is really important. Sure, a better save/load would be nice, but it works (barley) as it is. However, me and my friends who mainly play Civ in co-op vs. the AI, would really like both ping and to see our own team's research.

It's about discussing where to expand, where to attack, how to coordinate things in general.

Cheers

 

[Red Squizza]

I'm adding my vote for pinging for multiplayer. It's vital for communicating accurately and quickly where on the map you're talking about rather than either typing it all out or trying to describe the position over voice comms.

Research added to the player list how it was in Civ IV would be good as well, so you can see at-a-glance what's going on.

Also, the list of players at the side would be handy to have colour coded to the correct colour.

Multiplayer should be all about speed and clarity. If I have to go digging around to find information it slows my turn down which could hold up the whole game.

 

[Newti]

Did you guys check the Diplomacy tab? I swear I was able to see what my teammates were researching there at one point. I haven't done multiplayer in a day or two now so I can't be for sure.

Yes you can always see what your allies are researching in the diplomacy tab.

 

[Gamei]

Here's another vote for the pinging. "Look southwest of Thebes, east of the river, two east three south of the fur, what do you think about settling a new city there?" is a lot more cumbersome than ctrl p click. This is of course in team based games, such as 2v2v2v2. Unless I'm mistaken only your teammates can see your pings, so having pinging in the game shouldn't raise the hackles of anyone interested in competitive FFA. I would also imagine most people playing team games play with friends or other people that aren't dbags.

 

[Yamian]

I think the first question my friend asked about MP was "How do I ping"... And like Gamei said, when another friend asked me for advice where to settle a city... My response was very similar (it was between Thebes and Heliopolis, though). It would be also good if the "pinged" hex remained marked until end of the turn (just in case someone forgets).

I'd also like to be able to see a window with statistics of my team - like GPT, BPT, Culture/Policies, Military strength, hapiness, resources and so on. I know you can see gold/research in diplo window, but it would be nice to have it all in one place.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

It's not possible to view your team mates research, but coop research is possible and it does add together and shorten team research times. You just have to tell each other what you are researching.

CS

 

[Hank Fluba]

It's not possible to view your team mates research, but coop research is possible and it does add together and shorten team research times. You just have to tell each other what you are researching.

CS

Thanks CS.

Iin CivIV when I could see all techs the team was researching when I went into the tech tree it made it easier for us to decide more rapidly as to the best course of action with regards to research. We still talked about it, but it would make life easier if I could see his research and vice versa. Hopefully this gets fixed in the multiplayer patch/mode additions coming at some point to a computer near us.