Y'Know, I still want a multiplayer where it just throws 4 people in around different points on the map. You dont know where the others are, they dont know where you are, they dont know what quests yoru doing, you dont know what quests they are, ect.

You could have some way to communicate, so you could do quests together, or you could hunt them down, leading to epic battles in various locations. You could trade items, or steal from eachother. And if you wanted, you could get all 4 together and kick some major ass. The enemies will be leveled in a middleground for all of the players nearby, somewhere in the center of difficulty but leaning to more difficult for challenge.

Programming is very very very very very very very difficult. Creating a two / multi-player environment in a quest based / role-playing world has so many problems with it, that it's not just a matter of a month of programming, or doubling the time, is more like squaring it.

First off, if you have two different characters in the same world-space, you have all kinds of issues when it comes to progress and leveling.
- If one plays for awhile, and the other doesn't, does the one that didn't play for awhile get hosed because all the enemies of the other player level up?
- Are you forced not to play unless both players play?
- Does the lower level player's level raise up to match the other players, even though he hasn't put in the game time?
- Do the enemies stay at a level on par with the lowest level character?

Then what about quest?
- Which one is the Dragon Born?
- Whose quest is it?
- Whose got the game save?
- What if one guy does really well, goes away for a bit and comes back to find the other person has mucked it all up?

Technical challenges
- Where are the games saved? Remote server? TES is already such a heavy game to play, I don't want a drop in performance by having my games on a remote server. What if my connection is dropped?
- Do two players network into the same game?
- Even on an internal network, lan party, is the performance reduced to the slowest computer?
- On PCs, keys can be reassigned to different commands at will, how will the system interpret input from two different computers?

Taking into account the Modding community
- Everyone has to have the exact same mod list, version and load order?
- Programming mods would become increasingly difficult to take in to account multiple players (my mind screams in horror at the idea)

I could go on and on, but obviously this is a Pandoras box of issues that cannot be taken lightly.

That said, I can only think of *One* possible option that *Might* work, and there's a big giant *Maybe* attached to this.
- If the game and character and quest were assigned to one person
- If only one computer/game system could be used.
- If a second controller/gamepad console was attached to said computer/game system
- Then MAYBE the second player could *take over* a companion.

I would put some major heavy restrictions on it though.
- Companions would not be allowed to interact with anyone in the game, as it could mess up the quest
- If they needed items or whatever, the main player would have to take care of that for them.
- They would be able to fight and cast spells (maybe), but that's pretty much it
- They would not be able to travel very far away from the main player

But personally, I don't think it's worth it. Go play WoW. Keep TES single player please.

Thanks for listening.

Seems like nowadays a lot of people need their co-op in every game. Single player experience is where it's at.

there were actually two project mods that made oblivion multiplayer, they were buggy due to the complexity of the system, but the way both of them did it was ingenious. Basically you entered another players world, though not exactly. What actually happened was that the game made an npc character in each players world that mimicked the movements and actions of the first, kind of like being a puppeteer. My point being is that even when the system didn't accommodate for it, a group of players was still able to implement it into the existing system. Now if just a rag tag team of normal everyday people with a passion for a great game could do it, whats to stop an industry giant like Bethesda to accomplish the same goal with there by far superior resources and skilled game developers.

I'm not saying for skyrim but we can cross our fingers for Tes 6.

I think they could just do a system link option instead of splitscreen. Have it a 2 player game making less script for the programmers to develop. ( Instead of a 4 player game.) I mean other games that have co-op campaign games like halo and the baulder's gate series and champions of norrath. This way your friends don't have to watch you obsess over this game and watch bored.

My reasons why multiplayer/co-op could be in game:
1.Cuz if someone don't like it he can play only singleplayer.He don't must use everythink in game.
2.If there will be multiplayer i think that there will be servers hosted by gamers only to hmm.....co-op with friend in another country or just in house next to yours.
3.It's not the reason but wish that if there will be co-op they will add splilscreen option cuz not everybody have 2 computers that can handle with that games.

I hope it will have co-op. If oblivion had co-op it would have made the game that much better.

I mean its optional. If people want single player then they can play single player. I don't see why adding a co-op option is a bad thing.

Its a bad thing because it takes away from development time for single player.

Co-Op yes. Multiplayer NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Co-Op:

-Max 2 players (three's a crowd huh)
-Same screen offline (doable IN 3RD PERSON) or LAN (no internet because if that's included people will want the next step to equal MMO)
- Player 2 joins with their character and stats/armor/weapons/items.
-Trading.
-No quests for player 2 (can just help player 1 out).
- Maybe no quests for both players if it's a problem (dungeon diving/exporing only)
-Player 2 can't engage in conversation with NPCs
-Lootshare option.

I do not want them to focus on multiplayer.... i want them to do their best on the story, side quests, and game world.....


and if their is its just like the other person cant go to far from 1st player and acts like a follower

If there had to be any MP in TES this is what I would want. The only thing is it would have to be for Vanilla Skyrim only, modded games would not work as well. BUT, I would rather it be Split Screen with players only being able to stray so far from each other. It wouldn't be much more to render and be a lot more fun.

I like to say that i know that programming is very difficult, but think about the product. It
could be charged for more money (maybe) with a co-op in it. Making two people wanting to buy
it to play it together increasing the sales.
Co-op
~~~~
-The way I would think of this game would be like a dark alliance game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYfsET_Zb-0&feature=relate (not the view of course)
Have shared xp or have whoever gets the last hit get the xp.
-Have the waiting system go for both people, so no one person could be in a different time frame.
-It could have a screen of view, making the players only be able to go so far from each other.
-Have an import function to bring in characters, and maybe have a menu selection for just multiplayer games.
-Maybe they could make the monsters still harder, but the lower level character gets more xp from the death.
-If one person dies it could end the game, or there could be a way to revive them, like going to a chapel.

Quest
~~~~~
-Make the quests in the same menu on each person like dark alliance.
-The dragon born could be the first player, as again in dark alliance the intro shows one person
instead of two for the storyline.
-the save game could be on a menu in a multiplayer save on both Pc's/Xbox

Tech
~~~~
-another way to save could be like in Warcraft III. Both players may save the game, but then they can load it on the computer for the other person to join up.
-it may take away preformance, but most computers these days should be able to play this game.
it isn't like we're back in 1998 with windows me and bloodmoon. This is 2011 with alienware
computers and terrabyte hard drives, and 4 gbs ram.
-Key control think of like wow, everyone has the same keys just have like an emulator type thing
with two player's enter the keys on different type of files and it works.

Mods
~~~~
-Well the mod order would shared and changed if needed. Think of it like file sharing on a PC,
it checks for the data files, and can get on the other persons computer.

they already confirmed that there won't be any.

Discussion?
jk

But just thought I'de chime in. Would love to be able to CO-OP with a friend on a Elder Scrolls game eventually down the road, like TES VI. I think it would be a nice side thing. For them to come in your room and bring their character and stuff and when they leave keep the experience and items only. The gaming gods know Fable tried and failed at this though so maybe it's not meant to be.

Wait I'm confused. No multiplayer is confirmed so why do we have an official skyrim multiplayer thread in general discussion? Why are we discussing a feature that we know doesn't exist and will not exist.

Edit: shouldn't this be "Official Discussion of Multiplayer/Co-op in Future Elder Scrolls"?

Co-op would be so awesome.I think it would work.The extra player 2 who joins player 1's world will not be able to do quest stuff.And for the love of god,let player 2 keep their stats and equipment(Fable 2 :thumbsdown: ...)

I think it would be good to have option to play with 1-3 extra players. So you would have one persons save that you would choose, and play that with your character from any of your owned games. Only the person who'se save is loaded would be able to use and perform dragon shouts(maybe?)

The amount of monsters and the health&damage etc of dragons would be appropriately increase. For 2 players it would be 1.3x. For 3 players, 1.6x, and for 4 players 2x. It would still be alot more easier to play in co-op mode this way and if it isn't enough you can always slide the difficulity bar.

I would be interested as long as there is no team killing/ friendly fire , I wouldn't want to be matched up with randomers who just kil randomly and are Cod kids who decide to leave their bro shooter and try this new awesome game and spoil all our fun.
Also if I could carry my Single character over and my friends could. E.G I invite my cousin to a game he gets his level 20 mage and I get my 14 assassins also there would need to be a quest line for smaller factions in Online.

When?

Because if there wasn't one thread for this topic, there would be dozens of them, even though it has been confirmed to not be in Skyrim. Because everyone is going to be in the Skyrim forum right now, and pay little to no attention to directions to take multiplayer discussion to the series forum. The very first paragraph in the opening post:




On the first page of this thread. Someone on Twitter asked Pete about the possibility of co-op in Skyrim. # @mattLefevre 0.0 percent chance. Sorry. 5:41 AM Jan 18th via web in reply to mattLefevre

Okay thanks

I would be happy if they made a co-op multi-player mode..
But this game will probably be more epic than any game I've played.. So I'm not bothered.
Single player will suffice (And it shall be great fun).

Mutliplayer would ruin the whole possibility of using and creating mods for The Elder Scrolls and Fallout Series, which was and always will be (and that's one point why bethesda is my favourite developer) a huge part of the franchises. (And that's why I would never ever buy them on console. hey are missing so much awesome stuff).

"Connecting to Host...Downloading 3.4 GB Data...Progress 0.1%"

No way!

Khajiit does not want multiplayer!

Mods technically are possible on both consoles now

No they aren't, on top of the reasons specified in the mods on consoles thread, mods improperly formed crash the game as is, what do you think will happen to consoles? Who's game data cannot be added or subtracted on. Have a static size and do not handle Data the way pc's do?