Multiplayer Thread - Machinations

So we really want to do multiplayer but there are a bunch of paths we could take so some feedback on what direction to take would be great.

Do people prefer to play:

• Over the net: against random players, against friends, potentially both.
• If over the net on mobile data or just WiFi?
• Device to device via WiFi or Bluetooth?

How many players? Is 1v1 enough or are you really hanging out for and epic cut throat 4 player match?

To get multiplayer would you be willing to sign up to a third party lobby/net play organising app/site?

The motivations for asking the questions are multiplayer is hard and we don't want to put tons of effort into features people don't want.

Well, multiplayer would definitely add another level of interact-ability to the game which would be kewl. I think a well developed campaign mode could be just as engaging as multiplayer though, so I wouldn't rush to develop both concurrently, but rather tackle whichever is easiest first.

Over the net: against random players, against friends, potentially both:
Surely it would be a similar setup, backend-wise to allow random contestants as it would be for organised contestants, so my vote is both.

If over the net on mobile data or just WiFi?
Again with comms, I wouldn't think it much different to allow mobile data or WiFi, so my vote would be WiFi by default and then allow toggle for mobile data when no WiFi.

Device to device via WiFi or Bluetooth?
WiFi all the way.

How many players? Is 1v1 enough or are you really hanging out for and epic cut throat 4 player match?
I'm amazed that my HTC Desire handles 4 players with max map size and No. nodes, so assuming that the CPU cost of comms stuff for human multiplayer is roughly equal to that of AI for robot multiplayers, I say 4 player!

To get multiplayer would you be willing to sign up to a third party lobby/net play organising app/site?
Mebe.

The mobile vs WiFi difference is the latency. We don't know how much slower it would be any if we could make our comms code cope.

What we are trying to get a feel for is if everyone said 'Hell Yes!, if you don't support mobile mutliplayer I will not play your game and shake my fist at you' then we would put a lot more effort into it then if everyone went 'meh'

Same with WiFi vs Bluetooth. Close proximity networking could be easier then doing full blown stuff, but again we don't know yet.

The answers help though. Thanks for the input

I think multiplayer is very important for the game. You can have a great campaign, and make the AI so tough that it's near impossible to beat and thus a great challenge, but you will never replicate the tactics that a human opponent will use in-game that will continually surprise players and make them want to keep playing.

Initially, I thought local multiplayer (ie: between devices in reasonably close proximity, no internet usage) would be the strongest aspect of the game, but I'm not so sure anymore. It's analogous to the LAN vs. network gaming debate of most computer games these days.
I still like the social aspect of LAN gameplay, as you're physically near your opponents and can interact easily with one another without wearing headsets and using webcams (NB: I'm *NOT* a PC gamer, so my views here are somewhat biased.)
For PC gaming, this point is somewhat less relevant now with network gaming supporting in-game audio chat.
But for the mobile platform, that's still probably not practical. (You could pretend you had internet gameplay, then just use an AI anyway - no-one would know the difference! )

Playing an opponent on the internet with no other means of communication (unless you somehow integrated chat, which I think is a distraction) other than the gameplay would just feel like playing an AI, but perhaps more of a challenge when you get a good opponent.
This is a good thing, but it doesn't feel like it has the "social" aspect of multiplayer, which is one of the best bits about multiplayer.

I think people would want to be able to use WiFi or mobile data in a network communication scenario - and not have to worry about it.

For device-to-device, I wouldn't really think it would matter either... Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, whatever is easier or will allow the most devices to play (I suppose Bluetooth is in more handsets than WiFi... though with any new phone you'd expect both to be present) .

I'd be a little disappointed if multiplayer didn't support all human opponents.

The third-party host for multiplayer is probably a necessary evil, at least initially. Do people want multiplayer ASAP, or wait for ages whilst you write a customised solution, which for all we know could be doing all the naughty things that a third-party plugin would do anyway?