Multiplayer Idea (one battle with several players)

Lethaface said:
A cooperative H2H game in CM could really add to the immersion imo, also liking the OC/FC concept. One thing which could be nice to try out too, is how to coordinate combined arms with different commanders. For example FC1 has a company of infantry, while FC2 has 2 platoons of tanks. Nice task for the OC to coordinate those :)
I like that concept!!
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Lethaface said:
Interesting, what is the level of detail for the OC / CO orders?. Objective X, fire mission there; or is he also involving whether maneuver should be hasty vs cautious, ROE and stuff? I was imagining the OC giving guidelines how to conduct the operation, without going into detailed orders. For example 'OC want maneuver to be quick vs stealthy'. Or 'Fire at will vs hold fire until Plt decides fire superiority is achieved', etc.
Obviously the exact orders will have to be decided by FC, but a general direction should come from OC?

PS what does these stand for anyway, I presumed Overall Commander and Force Commander? :D
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OC is the Battalion Commander FC are the Company Commanders.
We are given general strategic orders and we are left to tactically put them into use
 
Lethaface said:
Interesting, what is the level of detail for the OC / CO orders?. Objective X, fire mission there; or is he also involving whether maneuver should be hasty vs cautious, ROE and stuff? I was imagining the OC giving guidelines how to conduct the operation, without going into detailed orders. For example 'OC want maneuver to be quick vs stealthy'. Or 'Fire at will vs hold fire until Plt decides fire superiority is achieved', etc.
Obviously the exact orders will have to be decided by FC, but a general direction should come from OC?

PS what does these stand for anyway, I presumed Overall Commander and Force Commander? :D
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Easy answer first! For me, OC means Officer Commanding ...

On the level, I won’t say too much whilst we are still in action ... and, this is a trial, to see what works ...

For me, I was / am trying for something “realistic”, given that I’m not seeing the live map / battlefield, but am going by reports back on progress on the overall strategy that I set at the beginning ...

As a nod to staying in C&C, I used up a few points of our allocation to provide an on map HQ presence that is meant to be me ...
 
Maybe this way of playing could be applied to huge singleplayer missions as well.

I'm currently playing the enormous "Mission to Maas" KG Peiper scenario. It's a great scenario, but it just becomes way too big for one player to keep track of everything. I find I lose units unnecessarily simply because there's a limit to how much I can manage at any one time.

Would be interesting to play it with several players each taking charge of one part of the forces.
 
Bulletpoint said:
Maybe this way of playing could be applied to huge singleplayer missions as well.

I'm currently playing the enormous "Mission to Maas" KG Peiper scenario. It's a great scenario, but it just becomes way too big for one player to keep track of everything. I find I lose units unnecessarily simply because there's a limit to how much I can manage at any one time.

Would be interesting to play it with several players each taking charge of one part of the forces.
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I haven't tried that one yet, but it does seem like an interesting scenario albeit daunting. Your suggestion seems quite a interesting one, we could play as COOP. The initial investment of time and arrangement would probably be higher compared to SP, but it would make subsequent turns less intense and more interesting imo.
 
PhilM said:
Easy answer first! For me, OC means Officer Commanding ...

On the level, I won’t say too much whilst we are still in action ... and, this is a trial, to see what works ...

For me, I was / am trying for something “realistic”, given that I’m not seeing the live map / battlefield, but am going by reports back on progress on the overall strategy that I set at the beginning ...

As a nod to staying in C&C, I used up a few points of our allocation to provide an on map HQ presence that is meant to be me ...
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Overall commander / commanding officer, conceptual similar at least :)

Interested in how it goes down!
 
I think that there are many promising ways in which the multiplayer-battles could be played. Many of them have already been written in this thread.
It could be also tried in the campaign system, both for singleplayer campaigns and the multiplayer campaigns. For example I think it could be interesting to try a campaign like the Brigades Battles Campaign with the multiplayer-battle system. But this would be a lot of work and would need many committed wargamers. But FGM is the best place where it could work.
 
I've been thinking a bit more about playing a large single-player mission in a cooperative way.

There's one snag: How to do it in practice?

Let's say I am the commander, and I have two players under my command.

First turn, I start and plot my orders, then send the file to player 1, who plots his orders, and sends the file to player 2, who plots his orders. So far, so good. But then what happens?

Player 2 could press "end turn" and see the results of all the orders play out. He could then save the file during playback and send the file to me and player 1. We would then also load it and see the turn play out, and then I would start another round by plotting my orders, sending on the file... and so on and so forth.

This system could work, but it would be a lot of file handling, and also it would be annoying for the two players, because they would have to first open one file to see the results of last turn's orders, and then wait for me to send the new orders phase file before they could act on the turn they saw play out. We'd get into situations where the players would first have to load the movie file, then watch it from all angles and make mental notes about what they wanted to do, and then quit that file, and move a new file into the game, then load that savegame, and then finally be able to plot new orders.

In short, I really like the idea of playing a cooperative game like this, but I'm not too keen on all the manual file management work needed to make it work..
 
Bulletpoint said:
I've been thinking a bit more about playing a large single-player mission in a cooperative way.

There's one snag: How to do it in practice?

Let's say I am the commander, and I have two players under my command.

First turn, I start and plot my orders, then send the file to player 1, who plots his orders, and sends the file to player 2, who plots his orders. So far, so good. But then what happens?

Player 2 could press "end turn" and see the results of all the orders play out. He could then save the file during playback and send the file to me and player 1. We would then also load it and see the turn play out, and then I would start another round by plotting my orders, sending on the file... and so on and so forth.

This system could work, but it would be a lot of file handling, and also it would be annoying for the two players, because they would have to first open one file to see the results of last turn's orders, and then wait for me to send the new orders phase file before they could act on the turn they saw play out. We'd get into situations where the players would first have to load the movie file, then watch it from all angles and make mental notes about what they wanted to do, and then quit that file, and move a new file into the game, then load that savegame, and then finally be able to plot new orders.

In short, I really like the idea of playing a cooperative game like this, but I'm not too keen on all the manual file management work needed to make it work..
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Yes, I understand what your saying. One one hand it isn't that much different from the process in multiplayer, as you need both files; 1 to watch the turn and the save for orders (or am I missing something?). But compared to normal single player it is quite a hassle ;-).
 
Lethaface said:
Yes, I understand what your saying. One one hand it isn't that much different from the process in multiplayer, as you need both files; 1 to watch the turn and the save for orders (or am I missing something?). But compared to normal single player it is quite a hassle ;-).
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Normally each player only receives one file, they open it, see the movie, then plot new orders, and end the turn. And with CMhelper, the process of moving that file back and forth is automated...
 
Yes I use CMH. However like the game they are playing, the second player in line would need to load the original incoming file in order to see the movie, and use the saved turn to add his orders. I understood you meant that this would be more tedious for single player cooperation.
 
Nathangun said:
I remember doing a regiment sized CO-OP battles in the CMMC2 campaigns, it was fun, even it took months to complete.
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Interesting! Only the command / communication friction between players would already be great to experience, at least I imagine.

Recently I've been reading some about of the campaigns you and others here have created and running on these forums. Before joining I had only vague knowledge about people playing these type of things.
All seem very interesting, i must say!

I hesitate to join such endeavors due to expecting that social distancing and working from home will not continue indefinitely and that I wonder how much daily time (on average) is required for participating in such large games.
That plus work can sometimes become quite the energy drain (especially before deadlines), so that not always leaves much energy for strategical/tactical considerations. Although I hope I'll be able to manage that better in the future, as one tries to learn from his previous mistakes :unsure:.

With 2-3 ongoing PBEMs and just started in 2 smaller tournaments I still have plenty of off time available at the moment. But if I have to drive home through traffic, arrange food and than have to setup orders for a regiment I might start questioning myself if I'm still at work ;-P.

During PBEM chat with Kraut he told me about this game.

@Buckykatt How is the current one going? still interested to read/hear how it went and available to try when a new one is started!
 
We are at file 040 (20 turns) and playing since about 26 days. That means slightly above 5 turns per week.
I need about maximum 15 minutes time per turn (replay, movement/fire orders, communicating in our intern message groups, moving the files inside the dropbox folders). But I am playing as a Company leader as defender, so that there is not as movement orders as I would have to do as attacker.
 
I think there could be enough fellow members to start a second parallel 3vs3 match.
If there is interest we could use this thread to rally the participants?
This thread has above 1000 views and therefore some interested readers who maybe like this concept or a curious about it to try and test. Also there are already two reserve players possible ready to start if there is a new match?
 
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