» Thu May 19, 2011 3:45 am
I have an entire idea on this, and even though it's not going to be in Skyrim, I'm sure Bethesda could pull it off with aplomb. Here's my idea, rather choppy, but anyway:
Now, to start, it wouldn't be a second game as much as a separate section of the game. Same engine, same characters, (SMALLER DESIGNATED AREAS) and it would only be mindless killing if you make it so. MY best friend and I dream of being able to flank a goblin party in a cave or working together to ambush a bandit camp. Simple, small-ish situations that don't need a matchmaking system, but a lobby, for couch co-op and private parties alike. Just short little episodes of fun for friends who want to play together and share the same love for the game. This is the ONLY THING MISSING FROM THE SERIES. You might be thinking BIG multiplayer. I'd say not over 3, but preferably 2 players. So yes, there would be the couple of multiplayer levels (scenarios) to have fun with, and Bethesda could create new scenarios and sell them as DLC. But the basics have to be there. Three simple situations and more for DLC. Why not choose a few caverns, forests, or mountain tops to let me and my best friend wipe out lairs, hunt foes, or challenge dragons? Just something that would make the scrumptious, heavenly cake that much better with amazing frosting.
So, that says it WOULD be separate from your oh-so-precious single player experience, and it would make it a total optional thing to do. No, only would it NOT require more people to make it (rather copy and paste), just a little more time for the lobby system, NOT matchmaking system. Think smaller, better. You can't go in and SEARCH for other players wanting to play what you do. You can only invite a friend, OR have a second profile with which to play split-screen. LOBBIES are different from MATCHMAKING, and require much less multiplayer-programming know-how. It's a simple matter of having the program run like it would in single player, but spawning two players in the designated area. How would this do ANY of the three things you said above? It couldn't ESPECIALLY if it is done AFTER the completion of the Single Player.
If you say “It’s not necessary,” you're right. It isn't “necessary,” but then again, are the better graphics yet necessary? Are the better physics necessary? They weren't for Oblivion and Morrowind, yet we all loved those games. No, not NECESSARY, but they make the game that much better.
Then the game will be one step short of "Game of the Century." How would taking ONE PIECE OF FOREST, setting up invisible walls to keep you from getting out, and spawning deer and other wildlife in it for you and your friend to play around with all day long WRECK the single player?
I know how coding works. (I really didn't want to say this because it sounds like something a six year-old would say) My father, with whom I work, is a computer programmer. I know how coding works. Some formula (essentially) gets altered and therefore alters everything with which it is related to and that which depends on it. The solution to coding mess-ups? It's called game-testing. Then the bug-fixers go in and try to find what may be wrong. So, in that case, all data added can potentially "screw up" the previous. Your point?
Again, everything added like improved _____ (fill in the blank) will make the game better. A simple lobby exclusively for friends and separate from the Single Player is an improvement, whether you care for it or not. (Or maybe you don't have friends that you might want to share the experience with [selfish?]...)
And please don't talk down to me like I'm comparing it to every shooter in the world. You might have a hard time believing me since, this is the internet and I could say that I am a 156 year old Siberian woman who loves to eat puppies, so I'm going to have to let you decide whether to accept the things I'm telling you or not.
"TES has never needed MP to make a game longer, more entertaining, expansive, etc etc etc etc, why start now? Specially when they are basically done, adding mp now would be beyond tacking crap on. Plus I can drop names of videogames that have suffered because the devs divided their attention on SP and MP. All dem resources (human and otherwise)."
Need is too strong a word, and if they add it, then what could be wrong about it if you aren't going to play it anyway? Tacking GOOD crap on. And are any of those companies as good as Bethesda? I doubt it. Their weakness in design was the downfall to their success. Bethesda's strong design, I hope, will keep that from occurring, and whatever they do with MP (hopefully it being a small feature that I keep requesting) should turn out in a splendid manner.
If I could talk to Todd Howard about this, and how many parts of the fan-base it would help (AKA, the little kids down my street who are "bored" with Oblivion because they don't understand the quests, and don't have the patience to do them), I talked with one of them today and he was all in. The hardcoe RPG-ers ("OMG, NO MP IN MAH SKYRIMZ!!!1!!11!") could have absolute fun with the single-player, UNTOUCHED by this, and there would be more little kids havng co-ops with their other little-kid-friends. Everyone wins.
And considering that the only work needed, besides a spawn system for enemies and copying and pasting different patches of the SP map for the co-op, they'd just have to work on a lobby system that lets two players join either one's lobby, and they can start the private match. It needs no matchmaking system, because privacy is everything for the fans of this series, it seems.
Tack on a small wooded area (1 square mile, would be fine) where deer (or other life) can spawn and we (my best friend and I) hunt them, and that's fine for me. Tacked on is just fine, because co-op is all I and my friends want.
I enjoy the series a whole lot, which is why I see the potential for MP. Of course it isn't likely, but if Bethesda pulls it off..... 'Nuff said.
But the bugs would only affect the co-op mode, since it is a completely different section in the menu, not affecting anything else but the Multiplayer realm. And if you're not playing it, then what do YOU have to worry about? I don't see why I and my friends are held back from possibly great recreational experiences, just because you and some other dudes say we can't.
You call this opinion unpopular? Go into the real world where kids don't have time to sit around on these forums, who love the Elder Scrolls like you and I, and ask them. Those are my friends for whom I am speaking.
