I've played some Multiplayer, and I'd like to write down a couple things I hope to be implemented before full release.
Let me start by saying that I know this is an early access game, and I don't expect any of these to take precedence over squashing bugs and balancing the game, which are both more important.
Currently MP looks like Civ. Each game has a multitude of options, allowing for a widely varying game. Just the difficulty settings alone change the end game completely. This works for a game like civ where you mostly play with friends And playing 20 games online would take dedication.
The issue in a game where 30 minute matches are the norm is figuring out who to actually play with. In Age of Empires, players had a rating. You knew by joining the game the rough skill level of other players. Something like this is (going to be) badly needed for OWTC. The issue however, is that with such a huge variance in game types available, a rating is meaningless. Being great on CEO with medium resources, on a huge map with 5 players is way different than manager on a small map with high resources and 4 players.
As such, I'd propose the following:
1. Create a rating system
2. Tie the map size directly to the number of players for rated games.
3. Have a CEO rated game type, a manager game type, and an intern game type. This would mean every player has 3 ratings.
4. Have all rated games of the same type play by nearly the same rules, or randomize some settings, particularly resource scarcity. This would put all rated games of the same type on an equal playing field.
5. KEEP UNRATED GAMES with all the variable settings, add those can still be a blast.
I think what this does is allows you to create a competitive atmosphere without making everybody play a"vanilla" game. As of right now, the meta is so underdeveloped that the game settings and the players' experience with those settings can have a larger impact on the game than the actual skill level of the players.
Typed on android, please forgive typos.
