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Tildes multiplayer games
A continuation of last week's thread. So, got any recommendations for good multiplayer games, and what do you like about them if so? Looking to get a multiplayer game going here?
A few of the open options from last week:
There's a survival Minecraft server
There's a game nights Discord server
There's a Guild Wars 2 guild for North American server players, contact me for an invite with your account name.
There's a Splatoon 3 pool
(Note that these are run by Tildes users rather than being officially Tildes.)
Palia is a cozy, no-combat hang-out-and-grind farming/life sim in closed beta right now. I'm enjoying it as a chaser between games, as it's very relaxing and not pushy at all. Sometimes I find myself just walking around in the town and talking to the NPCs. There's up to 20 people in a server instance at a time so it's never too crowded, but groups can party up and join a server together for coordinated gathering/exploration too. While it is in closed beta right now, open beta starts on August 10, and you can still try to get in on the closed beta from now until then.
And of course, Baldur's Gate III.
I have been playing both these games simultaneously lately. Palia is on in the background until there's a lull in my BG3 co-op campaign (waiting on my turn in combat, or waiting while my co-op buddies are organizing inventory/shopping/etc.).
I can second Palia. It's incredibly relaxing, and I currently have cautious hope for the dev team - they're doing well, and their monetization plans are ones I can get along with. They're also being pretty transparent with how the beta is going, which I think is good.
I've also been playing palia! really enjoying my time. I think it would be nice if we had a little tildes community or something :)
Scheduling the end of the beta well in advance of the beginning, to a mere week after the beginning, has been a massive red flag for me. That screams "we don't think there will be any feedback we need to do something about", and I've never seen a game pull that sort of thing that didn't go on to have massive issues post launch (I've been in many closed betas).
If I'm reading correctly, I think you misunderstand. The closed beta started on the 2nd, with invites going out in waves pretty much daily so they could control how many people join at a time. On the 10th, they'll start the open beta, where anyone can join - but it's still beta. They've had alphas and stress tests and such in the past too, open to select invited players.
Whilst they won't change anything in a week, they do seem to have their finger on the pulse of the discord - they're making channels specifically to get player feedback and see what's popular, and they're actually interacting with people there too. Bug reports are getting quickly noticed and responded to too - I put in one and a dev replied within a few minutes.
The game is solid for a beta, and once they're through the opening period, I'm looking forward to seeing where they go and what they add. For a free game, I've already had a lot of enjoyment out of it.
The one week long closed beta is a convoluted happening planned a long time in advance. Users subscribed in advance for it, were e-mailed about it and encouraged to register in advance for it.
If there is no real point to it in comparison to the open beta, when users will be able to just dive right in, what was even the point? Marketing? Word of mouth? That's not what a beta should be for.
I said in my first paragraph, it's so they can control the flow of players onto the servers. By sending invites out in waves, they know how many people are on, and the servers will be less strained by a "staggered launch" than just flinging the gates open and letting everyone in. Error Code 37 was a part of Diablo 3's awful launch, because the login servers were overloaded by people trying to play all at once - and then everyone began to hate the game because they couldn't log in.
It's this kind of forethought and care that makes me hopeful about the dev team. It's not about marketing, it's about making sure players have a good experience.
Meta discussion: Should the multiplayer thread be folded into the weekly game thread, or stay a seperate recurring thread?
There were a lot of great suggestions fielded last time, but not a lot of those translated into games actually played from what I could see. It's good to have a place where people can get recommendations for good multiplayer games to take back to their friend groups, but if possible I'd like to get a few more games running. Anyone have some ideas to make that happen?
As I see it, there are three main categories and one hybrid, some being more difficult than others. There are asyncronous games, the easiest to organize, like the old-school chess-by-mail or @Adanine's interesting Archipelago suggestion. There's server based, like the Minecraft server or GW 2, where the server is always running and people can organize from there. And then there's session-based, where games only happen when everyone is there, which runs into the hardest boss in any TTRPG: scheduling. There's also lobby based, which is a hybrid of server and session based, where the lobby is always open, and from there people can start a session based game. It might be useful to have people describe what type of multiplayer is involved when they list a game.
How about Core Keeper? Any other keepers on Tildes?
Let me just say, on the recommendation from last week's thread, I decided to give Guild Wars 2 a try. I'm a veteran of WoW (mostly original WotLK and before) and The Old Republic, and I'd always heard about GW, but never tried it. It's proving pretty fun so far (though I am, by no means, deep into it yet) -- familiar enough that I'm not totally lost, but with enough unique mechanics and lore that I'm having that fun "figure it out as you go" experience. I really like that every race can be every class (from what I saw) -- that kinda freedom is always nice. (Also, shameless plug, but @ICN was really quick to shoot me a guild invite after I asked; so if you wanna join us, we'd love to have you along!)
Guild wars 2 is my current go-to MMO. It's just so good and engaging, the gameplay and story are fantastic. It really is the most consumer friendly MMO on the market right now, you can buy the premium currency with gold, meaning you can potentially never pay a cent other than expansions for skins and content. GW2 is just a really well put together game that respects player time. I'm currently in an active guild otherwise I'd join the tildes guild.
You can be in up to 5 different guilds in the game, so you can do both if you'd like
Oh wow, yeah, how can I get all invite?
Just shoot me a message with your GW 2 account name and I'll invite you when I can log on.
Some of us have been playing BattleBit. Maybe if someone is high ranked enough they could start a tildes clan?
I think you need level 100 to create a clan and ya... I'm just not going to hit that any time soon.
Anyone want to start an Eve online corporation?
Hey fellow Eve player!
Starting a new Corp is a lot of work and really needs a critical mass of people in the same timezone. But would be happy to invite you to an existing one. I currently fly with Odin's Call which are a decent set of dudes (for Eve 😆)
o7 I'm not really looking to join a corp so much as I am looking for something to bring me back into Eve lol. Dreddit started from a thread like this. I agree that having a critical mass of players allows you to do some (most) activities more easily but that's not to say that small groups can't have a lot of fun. Last time I played eve I was flying with some people who were locked in a bitter rivalry with an alliance for months. We ended up infiltrating and getting them to add a few alt corporations to the alliance. Once we had a majority of corps I initiated a vote for executor and took over as the alliance leader and kicked the old exec. It was one of the funnier things I've seen in Eve.
I'm trying to learn the ropes for Eve right now, would you all be open to a beginner?
I'll ask. But since this group lives in wh space and is dedicated to pvp I think there are better fits for you. Not sure if Brave Newbies are still around but I would try my luck there first
Heck yes. I've recently been trying to get back in, have mostly been doing exploration/mining solo but would love to have other people to work with and have a sense of purpose. I'm kind of an advanced newbie, my character has a lot of skill points and can fly some advanced hulls, but I don't know the ins and outs of the game.
Trying to catch up on some smaller, shorter games before I lose my entire life to Starfield in less than a month...
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - I grew up playing the Professor Layton games and this is scratching a similar itch. Fun characters, incredible music, and the "turnabout" moments are always so exciting. It does suffer from the usual point-and-click issue where game logic doesn't always align with real world logic and you resort to trial and error (pun intended) throwing evidence at witnesses just to advance the story. Still, really enjoying my time so far.
Divinity: Original Sin II - The Baldur's Gate 3 hype is in full swing right now, but I am forcing myself to not buy it because A) see the first line of my comment and B) I had originally bounced off DOS2. Figured while I was feeling FOMO I'd give it another shot, and I'm glad I did. The game is really clicking with me this time (though I'm still on the first island). I think the Fort Joy area suffered from giving the player too many options where it felt like everything I did was the first step in a new questline and I wasn't actually making progress. I also feel like the quest log is a little too vague - normally I like that, but in a game with this much to keep track of I really need more detailed logs.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - I was always a pro-Nintendo/anti-COD kid growing up, but recently I've chilled out and started trying to find the fun in every game I play. My friend bought the campaign for me recently and I've been having an okay time with it. MWII is a visual spectacle, the campaign missions are fun, and the gunplay feels great. I do not enjoy the nationalistic "OOH RAH!" elements. I don't think I've fully figured out the flow of the gameplay yet, as I'm pretty good at other shooters (Apex, Halo, etc.) but keep getting obliterated in multiplayer. That being said, I love being able to hear the frustrated screams of people I kill.
I think you might've posted this in the wrong thread; your post seems more suited to the weekly games thread
Whoops, you are correct! Is there a ~lost.tildesians?
Been getting back into fortnite since they put in the no build mode. Way more fun to play with a few regular people than randos or alone.
One thing I forgot to mention: MUDs (multi user dungeons), the predecessors of MMORPGs.
I'm not playing any at the moment, but a presence of Tildes users would be encouraging. My suggestion is Iron Realms' Starmourn, a polished and fun F2P commercial science fiction MUD with more contemporary mechanics. It's got a Star Wars vibe.