Multiplayer?

B

Beheaded

Guest
Does anyone have any ideas about what might be in the multiplayer mode of HL2. They must be planning something really good if they arent telling anyone whats in it. And also what would you guys like to see in multiplayer?
 
TF2 would be great, its been what only about 6 years since it was announced?
 
It is true that is what valve said, im guessing the same will be true of CS2. The only thing about that is as most HL fans are quite used to receiving things for free (TFC and CS being the prime examples) what the reaction will be of many expected to pay possible full-price for what they view as being a mod? I know valve sold CS, DOD etc before, but you could still download them for free, and any stand-alone title (TF2, CS2) is likely to be far more comprehensive then their MOD counterparts, it just makes me wonder how successful they will be if they are full-price stand alone titles.
 
Brian Damage said:
I think some VALVe dude already said that TF2 will be separate...
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Sadly, I find it hard to trust Valve anymore. ;( They said HL2 would be out 8 months ago... :dozey:
 
I've been of the impression that they don't actually have any multiplayer yet!

As I recall, Yahn Bernier was put on the netcode for HL2 rather late (spent most of his time on TF2 netcode, and we all know what happened to that). Whether physics will be in HL2 multiplayer or not is hard to say. Obviously Valve would like it to be included cause it might be fun. There were rumblings from other games companies who were struggling with some serious physics problems, stuff that would bog down Valve as well. E3 should tell us more about what is happening with multiplayer.


As an aside as far as I can tell, the development process at Valve involves:

1) Creating rough test levels from concept art perhaps

These test levels are not complete as far as brushwork details, texturing, small scripted bits/details to add immersiveness. The test levels may have some A.I. paths and such but are really only used to test the gameplay for a level. Once Valve is happy with the way a level plays it may be passed back to the level designers to create much more detailed brushwork/texturing/scripting/adding of appropriate plot development devices.
I've always thought that their approach would be to sketch out the whole game as a series of undetailed test levels where they finetuned the monster A.I./gameplay. Once they are happy with the way the game plays as a whole they would fill in the details (the easy part).

2) If a level doesn't play well/is boring in the early stages they dump it.

They make tons of these levels trying to stumble upon "HL2 gameplay" or trying to figure what the ideal level design is to make the monster A.I. shine. It all takes time, lots of half starts and failure along the way.

As far as I've been ever able to tell is that Valve doesn't have many actual fully detailed/fun/finished levels. I believe last year at this time they were taking some of their test levels and having their level designers scramble to polish them up to make them look sort of complete and this is what we saw at E3 2003. I don't think they ever had what would be the definitive "HL2 gameplay" worked out yet. That is not to say however that Valve don't have alot of "big ideas" about what they want to do or how they want it to play. How much progress they will have made by this year's E3 remains to be seen, but I will be watching very closely for signs of "smoke and mirrors" gameplay. (both on the multiplayer and singleplayer front)

:dork: If they can make me a believer after this year's E3 then I will have alot more positive things to say - like maybe the game will actually come out in 2004!!! :D
 
ray_MAN said:
Sadly, I find it hard to trust Valve anymore. ;( They said HL2 would be out 8 months ago... :dozey:
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So they would lie about TF2 being a stand-alone title? You've lost me...
Personally I don't think Valve ever lied outright to the community (excluding Doug Lombardi, he's an arse), and I certainly don't believe that they haven't got multiplayer yet. That's just silly.
Saying "We've got a surprise for multiplayer!" and not even having basic DM is stupid. So even if it's not fully developed yet, then they certainly have some grand plans up their collective sleeve.
 
moominpapa said:
It is true that is what valve said, im guessing the same will be true of CS2. The only thing about that is as most HL fans are quite used to receiving things for free (TFC and CS being the prime examples) what the reaction will be of many expected to pay possible full-price for what they view as being a mod? I know valve sold CS, DOD etc before, but you could still download them for free, and any stand-alone title (TF2, CS2) is likely to be far more comprehensive then their MOD counterparts, it just makes me wonder how successful they will be if they are full-price stand alone titles.
Click to expand...

Just look at CZ, it surpasses even Far Cry in sales. If CS2 has enough to offer, the whole community will buy it.
Also, BF:Vietnam hadn't much new stuff to offer, but it's already far more played than BF1942.

It makes sense for Valve to make CS2 sales only, same goes for DoD and TF2. The reason why they didn't do it with CS1 and Dod is because they used to be mods and the community would have been seriously pissed if they had to suddenly buy the new release of the mod.
You can't expect Valve to spend months on developing CS2 and giving it out for free. Would be great if they did though :naughty:
 
el Chi said:
I certainly don't believe that they haven't got multiplayer yet. That's just silly.
Saying "We've got a surprise for multiplayer!" and not even having basic DM is stupid. So even if it's not fully developed yet, then they certainly have some grand plans up their collective sleeve.
Click to expand...

Sure they have plans...

But how to you measure when you "have" or "don't have" multiplayer???

Does having a bunch of textures and weapon models stripped from the single player game = having multiplayer?? In Gabe's dreams he "plays multiplayer everyday", but in reality he is probably just sitting in his office playing *Pikmin* on his gamecube. :p

Valve has never shown us anything probably because whatever ideas they have are just not fully formed yet. Now they haven't said anything in awhile now, so they there is always hope that they may have progressed enough to actually show us something. I'm a realistic person, just show me the goods and I'll believe you have them.
 
Keeson said:
Valve has never shown us anything probably because whatever ideas they have are just not fully formed yet. Now they haven't said anything in awhile now, so they there is always hope that they may have progressed enough to actually show us something. I'm a realistic person, just show me the goods and I'll believe you have them.
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What makes you say that? There's a lot of things they haven't shown or said because it'll be nicer if it's a surprise.
Oh whatever - we'll see it soon enough.
 
el Chi said:
So they would lie about TF2 being a stand-alone title? You've lost me...
Click to expand...
I'm not saying Valve lied. I am saying that I believe that they could be leading us down the wrong path. Again. That's just my opinion. Ignore me. :cheers:
 
ray_MAN said:
I'm not saying Valve lied. I am saying that I believe that they could be leading us down the wrong path. Again. That's just my opinion. Ignore me. :cheers:
Click to expand...

Marketing strategies all up in our Hizzies?
 
I don't like the idea that i have to pay for CS2.
I really hope that it is coming and using "source".
 
PvtRyan said:
Just look at CZ, it surpasses even Far Cry in sales. If CS2 has enough to offer, the whole community will buy it.
Also, BF:Vietnam hadn't much new stuff to offer, but it's already far more played than BF1942.
Click to expand...

BF:Vietnam is hardly comparable to CS:CZ.

BF:Vietnam:

Added better gfx, new engine, new sound fx, better teamplay, all new Era and weapons and vehicles etc..... (buggy but will get patched)#

CS:CZ:

years later, added Single player, slightly better character models, done nothing a mod couldnt have done.
 
valve has said so far about multiplayer: 32 player, vehicles, and physics...
 
The netcode is just going to be an improved version of the current netcode. At the Valve-ERC there is a Source/HL2 mod FAQ, and it hints to the same client-side netcode.

For example, I actually think they said that it was an improved version of the old one, and they said that they could now predict projectile weapons. :)

Good news for us dial-upers... gotta love 112k goodness :|

EDIT:
Here are some quotes, some sound odd without the rest of the FAQ, but they show that there will be prediction:

"Third, you have all of the low level prediction code exposed to you in the client .DLL and you have all of the server-side lag compensation code exposed to you in the game .DLL."

"One of the cool things we've added to the multiplayer engine is the ability to predict the creation of additional entities, such as projectiles... so you can do a predicted rocket, have it simulate on the client and even do a non-lagged rocket jump in your mod if you wanted to."

"On the performance of the networking code, it's as compressible and much more flexible than the Half-Life 1 code."

Link to the netcode specific article of the FAQ: http://collective.valve-erc.com/ind...06159033732043100&question=106159985587942600

Full HL2 mod FAQ: http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?faq=source_mod_faq
 
torso boy said:
valve has said so far about multiplayer: 32 player, vehicles, and physics...
Click to expand...

Hmm what did they say about physics?

The only thing I read was that it would be specificaly 'controlled'.

I.e. Not real physics but something that simulates it when an event happens like a wall exploding with blocks flying in the exact same direction and speed every time.

Also, I'm getting a tad sick of people thinking that Halflife2's production began shortly before september of last year.
What with people saying theres no mulitplayer yet and the like, how can you think that when the games been worked on 5 years already?
It boggles the mind...
 
They said that there will be physics in multiplayer and each object is able to be set to interact a certain way.. such as tons of debreigh being rendered clientside and not having any server side impact.. while other larger objects such as tables and doors being server side dependent.. meaning they are seen by and effect all players identically.
 
They've said plenty about the multiplayer, just not specific game modes. Gabe claims he's been playing it all the time. :)
 
Keeson said:
As an aside as far as I can tell, the development process at Valve involves:
Click to expand...

I just wanted to add some extra info about the development process, so here is a quote from:

Ken Birdwell from June 13th, 2003:


So how far done is all of Half-Life 2?

Ken - We've got all the game laid out. We've got about half of it in gameplay testing. Half-Life 2 is designed along a pipeline scheme: we build the maps, we lay out the geometry, the physics elements which are important to the gameplay and then we go thru play testing until we have a whole area of the game that's fun, that runs, that does what we want, plays how we want it. Then it will go on to the finish art team that will lay down all the textures, put the lights in, and put the detailed props in. It's a very time consuming process. To make a game this rich, and a world this natural, we want to make sure first that it's fun and then go through and make it beautiful. ​

Generally this quote supports what I said in my earlier post about the strategies Valve uses to develop content.
What I want to know is how long will detailing HL2 take??? What is Valve's real progress and how long to get the finished product???


Ken says on June 13th 2003: "We've got all the game laid out"
Ok, does he mean they have a script by Mark Laidlaw and a bunch of concept art and a series of uncomplete test levels???

And when he says they have "half of it in gameplay testing"
I guess he means very undetailed levels used to test gameplay only and definitely not the more polished levels seen at E3 2003.

Now once you've got a levels gameplay they way you like it, how long to detail it???

The key point Ken makes is: "It's a very time consuming process"
Think about this... once you detail it you will probably test it for performance on different hardware. What if it runs like crap on low end hardware. You will have to revise it!!! Then test it again!!! Rework the brushwork - maybe that affects the gameplay!? Uh oh!! This could take awhile to get everything just right.... and yet he just admitted that they only have half of the game in a very basic level of completion for a game set to ship on September 30th - a mere 3 months away!!! :bounce:

:dork: I might seem like a horribly pessimistic person, but all I've ever been trying to figure out it where exactly is Valve in the development process and how long will it take them to finish. This goes for multiplayer and singleplayer, I'm not a total crackpot for thinking they didn't have much progress on multiplayer in 2003.
 
No, Keeson, you don't seem like a horribly pessimistic person, you are one.

And you seem to positively delight in it :p.
 
Brian Damage said:
No, Keeson, you don't seem like a horribly pessimistic person, you are one.

And you seem to positively delight in it :p.
Click to expand...

I really would like to get a secret scoop of a more positive variety as far as HL2 goes. I would be great if I could read between the lines of what Valve says and find something happy :D :D :D If I find something cool that meets this decription I will post it for sure!!!

:dork: E3 2004 Let's Go Valve!!! :p
 
Ahh TF2 god how I wanted that game.Very similar to HL2 really but a much more drawn out process.I remember being so excited when I saw the medic feeding ammo into a machine gun.And now its in source oh I cant wait.
I remember an article in PCZ years ago about TF2 and how it had changed engines.Is this the first mention of Source(Not by name of course)?
 
All I want in HL2 MP is a Manipulator Game Type! Yippee!
 
Some time after we announced Team Fortress 2, which was then being created on the HL1 tech, the decision was made to move the project to the Source Engine, the same engine used for HL2. The project is still in development here at Valve and we will be announcing more info after HL2 ships.
Click to expand...

-- Doug Lombardi

I don't think he's lying. That's exactly why I've thought TF2 has been delayed all this time as soon as I heard about HL2. If you still have old PC Gamers with TF2 articles (I do, so what :p), you can even read about some features that we already know will be in HL2.
 
Argyll said:
-- Doug Lombardi

I don't think he's lying. That's exactly why I've thought TF2 has been delayed all this time as soon as I heard about HL2. If you still have old PC Gamers with TF2 articles (I do, so what :p), you can even read about some features that we already know will be in HL2.
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Whats Team Fortress?
 
Your joking right? :eek: :eek:

If your not(And I hope you are) TF is a mod origionally made for Quake.It is a Class based shooter with CTF maps aswell as other scenarios.(Attack/Defend and Guard the Hunted)
Team Fortress Classic is the HL version of TF which has been going since HL release(How long exactly?)A great and enjoyable game which I must say was the first game I ever played online.
It was soon revealed that there was to be a sequel TF2:Brotherhood of Arms(Origionally it was to be shiped first however Valve made it and released it)which was to use the HL engine.Now here we enter vaporware territory as TF2 went through development it was revealed there was to be an engine change to an engine being made by Valve.(Which we now know to be source)After that it kinda fell off the edge of the world only resurfaceing once with the announcement of Power Play which I think was a precurser to Steam.As I said it gets vaque.

So thats my take on TF history,its probly wrong on numerous points but someone will hopefully correct any major ones.
 
Um...to get back to the point of this thread...

I would like to see CO-OP with 16 max! That would be real hot, having 16 people kickin the computers ass. That would wear out quick tho, but I think CO-OP wit one or two of your friends would be coo. Of course deathmatch and all that...

One more idea...imagine a A.I. that would adjust the game to meet up to 3 players. Meaning that, there would be things that need to be done in different places at the same time, or you would get to certain points in some levels and your split up to go off on your own to meet up later on that map.
 
I have no idea what they have planned for MP, Im just hoping we get coop soon somewhere down along the line... I LOVE co-op.
 
HL2 will come with a really cool multiplayer or it will not include multiplayer at all.
 
You know what I thought would be a pretty neat and easy to make little deathmatch mode for hl2 would be?

Resistance VS Combine


You could have just a normal 2 team battle. Or CTF. And it could be set in all the different areas of HL2.

You could even have something like BF where you need to gain controle over as much of the map as possible.

And you could have vehicles in it and stuff.............that'd be cool.
 
ray_MAN said:
Sadly, I find it hard to trust Valve anymore. ;( They said HL2 would be out 8 months ago... :dozey:
Click to expand...


Why would you doubt that TF2 being stand alone? :O
 
Personally I think this time ppl should pay more attention to the HL MP itself, since HLDM was ownage, but it got ramped by CS, and we all know CS wasn't that good :p
 
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