Introversion

Heya

Just watched the v1 video from EGX and was very curious with the escape mode...

Would it be possible to in a way combine escape and normal mode to form a sort of multi-player mode?

So, one person building the prison, the other trying to escape?
Possibly have it so a person building a prison can open up and have many people playing as escapees?

Pretty sure the devs have no intention of making multiplayer. This is a common question.

Also, this would be a horrible idea. The prison builder would just focus the player and send him to perma-solitary or something stupid.

Could be interesting if the player was assigned a random Prisoner and the population is large enough. He could blend into the crowd and try to behave like regular prisoners.

2 big things I want from escape mode is
a) some kind of incentive to follow the regime laid out by the prison, like you are punished if found outside of the canteen during eat time or something
b) the need to keep an eye on your prisoner needs. id like to see some kind of negative effect on your prisoner if you are neglecting your needs

there is so much potential with this game mode, with all the detailed mechanics already in prison architect this mode could very well become an escapists killer

Yeah I've never seen a way to make 'someone's a prisoner and someone builds' work. It takes a couple of hours to make a prison, most of that spent in fast forward. Wouldn't be very fun for the prisoner serving 25-life sitting on the grass with cuffs on.

That plus perminate solitary+armed guards+free fire makes for some bullshit gameplay.

Look, I really dislike the idea of MP in PA. I really do. I also sincerely hope it never makes it in.

However:

Since Escape Mode is supposed to be a random prison from the workshop, why not MP as described? 1 warden vs 1 escapee. Random prison selected from workshop. Neither player knows who they will be until the map is loaded. Game starts at 0800 intake as if both are on the bus (camera follows the bus in). As soon as any one prisoner gets off, warden gets control of prison. Prisoner, however, may be on first bus, or may be on second or third (pre-start config of prisoner intake #?).

To make things more fair - prisoner's sprite can wiggle around but warden player can only see normal prisoner (not wiggling, moves like other prisoners regardless of mouse orientation - hard to describe, sorta).

Warden is limited in what he can do, maybe only add a few items, only one shakedown/day, things like that.

Again, I am against MP in PA. But this could work for the MP lovers out there, Would keep the lifers off the lawn.

The Czar

Personally, I'm all for the idea of Multiplayer but things like this could seriously screw up the game's community and following.

I really don't think they're interested in multiplayer at all. Pretty sure there's an Alpha video where they flat out reject it and quickly move on.

Multiplayer where all of the players are prisoners *might* be functional, depending on how much time is spent thinking about balancing issues and whatnot.

I personally believe that a multiplayer mode where every player is a prisoner is a brilliant idea, but as far as I know there's a lot of effort that goes into a task as difficult as networking. You have to sync every prisoner's position, the direction they're looking, their status (knocked out, fighting, punching (i.e. in the middle of a punch), regular (nothing special, just walking around), dead, etc) and their reputations. Not only that, but you'd have to synchronize every single entity, such as guards, janitors, AI prisoners, etc., and this would be an internet-raper for huge 500-inmate prisons. However, it just *might* work well on small-ish (80 prisoners tops I think) prisons, where there is a lot less strain on the network.

I like the idea of a multiplayer escape mode, and if done correctly, definitely would be a fantastic edition to the game. However, no escape/sandbox multiplayer, because giving one player the ability to completely wall off someone's cell to troll them is a recipe for disaster.

I dunno... making multiplayer would be very hard in this kinda game, and even if they do de side to make it, it probably won't be in the next few updates

ronnie4444 wrote:Multiplayer where all of the players are prisoners *might* be functional, depending on how much time is spent thinking about balancing issues and whatnot.

I personally believe that a multiplayer mode where every player is a prisoner is a brilliant idea, but as far as I know there's a lot of effort that goes into a task as difficult as networking. You have to sync every prisoner's position, the direction they're looking, their status (knocked out, fighting, punching (i.e. in the middle of a punch), regular (nothing special, just walking around), dead, etc) and their reputations. Not only that, but you'd have to synchronize every single entity, such as guards, janitors, AI prisoners, etc., and this would be an internet-raper for huge 500-inmate prisons. However, it just *might* work well on small-ish (80 prisoners tops I think) prisons, where there is a lot less strain on the network.

I like the idea of a multiplayer escape mode, and if done correctly, definitely would be a fantastic edition to the game. However, no escape/sandbox multiplayer, because giving one player the ability to completely wall off someone's cell to troll them is a recipe for disaster.

That idea is good. Anyways, making a co-op game would be nice and "would not requiere" a lot of coding. If you're talking about multipllayer (more than co-op) obviously gets harder to create. I bet if devs like the idea they will find a way to solve that sync-everything issue. But as far as I can imagine a co-op game obviously is "easier" to code.

I think it a bad idea first. Since what about something the creator do to make it impossible to do it. Maybe a co-op Escape mode could be good or a Co-Op prison management is nice to do it. Like maintain a prison by 4 people or more.

Starcraft 2 Legacy of the Void does something almost exactly like this where 2 people manage the same base and control the same forces, they call it Archon Mode. On paper it sounds good, but in practice it can get frustrating as the other player can screw things up intentionally or accidentally which can ruin the game for the other player, or both. Granted its intended for newer less experienced players to help them learn the ropes and learn better strategies increasing their skill in the game. Its not really great for hardened/experience players for the above reason as people have different ways of doing things. Translating this to PA would be a bad idea IMO, especially for the sandbox mode. In escape mode it might have more merit as there really isn't too much that can be messed up. All players are trying to escape, so there's a common goal. That said as mentioned in previous posts, the devs have said they had no interest in any sort of 'multiplayer'. One it would require Introversion to host additional online servers (besides Multiwinia) which costs more money, plus the people to maintain those servers. Second it would farther complicate the already extensive complexity of the game, and likely require changes to the game's engine. In most cases PA is one of those games that's probably best played solo anyway especially as more features get added and older ones get ironed out. At the very least we get steam support with mods and ready made prisons. If any 'multiplayer' thing is added it would probably be something simple like a metaverse or score sheet with players able to compete for the top architect, or best escapists slot based on several key attributes in the game.