A gentle introduction to multiplayer?

[Ganache]

I've already read the Multiplayer Tutorial, but I still feel pretty intimidated by multiplayer. Among my worries:

- I don't really understand how a lot of these popular custom multiplayer scenarios work (RPGs, coliseum games, 'heroes', etc.), and I'm afraid to just jump into a random one and annoy everyone else by being totally clueless. Even figuring out whether a game is team vs. team, or free-for-all, or players vs. monsters, or whatever is beyond me a lot of the time. Is there a good place to get an overview of how these different modes and scenarios are played?
- Even though I've beaten a few single-player campaigns, I still feel pretty newbish. I don't want to irritate people with my haplessness, especially in a team game. I've seen some rooms labelled "No newbs", but never the opposite - what's my best way to play some games with fellow inexperienced players (or patient experienced players)?

Any pointers?

Edit:

One more question, actually: why is the default era so unpopular? Have people just gotten bored with it? I was hoping to get a bit of a mastery of the most basic factions before trying any of the more zany custom eras. I mean, the extra eras are cool, but A) there are so many new units, I just can't remember what they all do B) They seem less polished compared to the mainline factions, in terms of sprites, attack animations, etc. and C) I can't help but wonder if they're less meticulously balanced than the main era (that's just a random hunch though - I'd be curious to know whether this is actually the case or not).

[Scatha]

Greetings!

When I started playing multiplayer I felt similarly to you. I still play almost exclusively straightforward 1v1 or 2v2 games in the default era (occasionally venturing Age of Heroes instead, which is the default era but with level 3 leaders and allows recruiting of units one level higher than normal). It may feel that there are a lot of variant games out there, but there is definitely still a fair proportion of "normal" games. I hope I don't offend the fans of the variants too much, but it seems to me that their main virtue is in offering variety -- they are less deep than the central game.

I would encourage you to avoid the games marked "no newbs" -- not because the players are too good, but because they are less patient. In my experience it is impatient intermediate-level players most likely to complain about "newbs".

You might try hosting a 1v1 game and put "first multiplayer game" or something similar in the title. This won't guarantee you a sympathetic opponent, but it might help. You won't always find that someone joins your game immediately, but if you're prepared to wait a little you can normally find an opponent.

That said, team games are often a good way to gain experience -- if you have a friendly and experienced team-mate, they may offer useful tips. I understand that you're worried about burdening your partner, but I assure you that a fair proportion of players in these games are both less experienced (or so it appears from their play, given that you've beaten single player campaigns) and less conscientious than you. You might try one of the frequent games on Isar's Cross. This is a very small 2v2 map which is considered too small to balance properly, but still has enough room for quite a bit of tactical play. It is popular because it's small, and games tend not to take too long. It might have a higher quotient of 'silly' games than larger 2v2s, though; you may have to try two or three games before hitting one that works for you. I would highly recommend talking to your team-mate (and if you like opponents) in-game; the 'm' key is for sending messages, and hexes can be labelled.

The main differences from campaign play, boiled down to one oversimplified sentence, are that your opponents are less suicidal (usually) than the AI, and also that you cannot expect to win while keeping almost all of your units alive. Perhaps someone else can put it better than me.

Most important of all, though, when you do dive in -- have fun!

[Velensk]

My advice is to simply not worry.

You might run into impatient people, and you might recieve some dersive comments (or advise) on your play but don't let it get you down. There is nothing that the people on the other end of the computer can do to you without at least some cooperation from yourself so relax and don't count your losses. There's a lot of friendly people to play against out there and if you keep trying you'll find them (Wesnoth is fortunate to have a relatively high ratio of them). If you can merely stick to the game for a decent length of time and learn from your mistakes you will likely become substancially stronger than the average player even if you are competely lacking in talent.

I have infact seen many games marked newbies only. Don't feel ashamed about labeling your games as such (though I will warn you that they are targets for people out specifically to annoy).

To a certain extent, you can familiarize yourself with many of the custom game types by downloading them and trying them single player (if the scenario allows it).

As a final note, if you're looking to improve your play swiftly you might want to consider saving replays of your losses and posting them in the stratagy/tips section and I will disect them for you and try to provide advice/direction.

[Atz]

- I don't really understand how a lot of these popular custom multiplayer scenarios work (RPGs, coliseum games, 'heroes', etc.), and I'm afraid to just jump into a random one and annoy everyone else by being totally clueless. Even figuring out whether a game is team vs. team, or free-for-all, or players vs. monsters, or whatever is beyond me a lot of the time. Is there a good place to get an overview of how these different modes and scenarios are played?

There's not really an overview anywhere. The easiest way is probably to watch a few games as an observer, then download the scenario and try it out by yourself before going online. Most non-standard scenarios will give you a message at the start with a brief explanation of the rules, so you should be able to get the general idea just by watching some people play and then messing around with it on your own. Some add-ons also have their own thread on the forums, which might explain it a bit.

Even though I've beaten a few single-player campaigns, I still feel pretty newbish. I don't want to irritate people with my haplessness, especially in a team game. I've seen some rooms labelled "No newbs", but never the opposite - what's my best way to play some games with fellow inexperienced players (or patient experienced players)?

Just jump into a 2v2 game with normal map and settings, and tell your ally upfront that you're a bit inexperienced and you might need advice. Most people will be okay with it as long as you're polite and you don't do something completely ridiculous like not recruiting anything and charging your leader down the field by him/herself. Also, try to get an ally who speaks your language (ie. if you're an English speaker, you should probably avoid games where the name is in Russian or full of kanji or something).

Avoid games with "no noobs" or things like that because they are full of impatient people. If some does get all grumpy with you because you're a beginner, just make a note not to play with that person in the future (or put them on your ignore list). Conversely, if you find a good group you might be able to play several games in a row with them, especially if you're playing on Isar's Cross which is fairly quick. Look for the same people making a new game when you finish one, or even ask if they're up for a rematch at the end of the game. People who are helpful can also go on your friends list to make them easier to find next time.

One more question, actually: why is the default era so unpopular? Have people just gotten bored with it? I was hoping to get a bit of a mastery of the most basic factions before trying any of the more zany custom eras. I mean, the extra eras are cool, but A) there are so many new units, I just can't remember what they all do B) They seem less polished compared to the mainline factions, in terms of sprites, attack animations, etc. and C) I can't help but wonder if they're less meticulously balanced than the main era (that's just a random hunch though - I'd be curious to know whether this is actually the case or not).

Yeah, it's basically that a lot of people have gotten a bit bored with the default stuff. Or they just think all the wacky factions are cool, I guess. It's true that custom eras are generally less balanced that mainline, some more so than others. Ageless is probably the most popular but it's also nigh impossible for it to be fully balanced, because it has loads and loads of factions in a context which they were not originally designed for.

[Caphriel]

A lot of the non-default content is designed for play against the AI, or on significantly smaller than normal maps. I suspect this is largely because a good game of default Wesnoth can take hours, and a lot of people don't want to commit that much time, for various reasons.

Something else to consider is looking for people with names you recognize from the forum, and asking them if they have time for a game. Active forum members will, in general, be likely to behave in a friendly fashion and offer advice.

[TheGreatRings]

I've already read the Multiplayer Tutorial, but I still feel pretty intimidated by multiplayer. Among my worries:

- I don't really understand how a lot of these popular custom multiplayer scenarios work (RPGs, coliseum games, 'heroes', etc.), and I'm afraid to just jump into a random one and annoy everyone else by being totally clueless.

Some players will be helpful and patient. The others aren't worth your concern.

Even figuring out whether a game is team vs. team, or free-for-all, or players vs. monsters, or whatever is beyond me a lot of the time. Is there a good place to get an overview of how these different modes and scenarios are played?

That's typically up to the host I think.

- Even though I've beaten a few single-player campaigns, I still feel pretty newbish. I don't want to irritate people with my haplessness, especially in a team game. I've seen some rooms labelled "No newbs", but never the opposite - what's my best way to play some games with fellow inexperienced players (or patient experienced players)?

Join some games and hope for the best.

[salade]

if you have concern to join any game, the best way is to create your own game.

In general, I don't mind to play with new players as long as they can communicate in English, have good manner and don't BS a lot, and I don't mind to teach them if they are willing to learn. I mainly play a few maps only, namely World Conquest (WC), A New Land and Undead Empire(UE). All of them are players vs AI. In those maps, there are different difficulties. In games like WC nightmare, UE hard etc, it is simply too difficult for new players, and I usually ask if a joiner has experience in the map or not, and if not, ask them to be an observer or play a game in lower difficulty. It is better for new players to play in a lower difficulty to learn the map. For lower difficulties, it is usually ok to take one or two new player(s).

There are many reasons I don't like to play with noobs. Some of them do not communicate (perhaps do not know English), just quit in the first few turns before fight, quit after losing a hero, in WC just take more than one treasures after warning etc. Say, in WC nightmare, if there is one new player, it is very likely he'll quit or kill himself before the end of the first map, so it is just a waste of time to take a new player for that difficulty. I put every quitter, bad player on a list to avoid playing with them again. However, i do not blacklist anyone who is just bad in skills. So, IMHO, if you are new, as long as you can communicate and play the game normally with good manner, don't worry too much about joining any game (unless they are explicitly stated as not for new players)

[naxoegg]

Sometimes I refuse to communicate after someone insults prematurely. I really do not have the mood to argue with people who would rather poke fun at my incompetence than teach me how to play. So I think it's up to a person if he wants to talk because it doesn't infringe anybody's rights, but when he insults someone it does.

I had a bad multiplayer experience once when my teammate just kept insulting me from the moment he chatted because I wasn't doing well, so I just ignored him and pretended not to understand English. Out of respect, I still endured the entire game up to the moment both of our leader were killed, but I learnt a lesson out of that game. It's better to play one-on-one so I don't have someone trash-talking when I'm not doing well, since nobody really cares if you play badly against them, but they have a lot to say when you play badly with them. You want a gentle introduction to multiplayer? Create a game with a 1v1 map and wait until somebody joins.

[Insinuator]

Completely agree with naxoegg. Don't do teams unless you know your partner.

[Rya]

I think the best way to go about it is to try to map yourself ALONE first. Then you will see what kind of map it is and how it works and when you think you got it, host/join it seriously.
Alternative you can join most maps as observer. I use that feature often, especially for maps that already started, so I can get an idea of how it is played in fast motion (not having to wait for player moves).
It's actually quite easy to get into Wesnoth Multiplayer like this, even though there is a lot content.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Play my "The 7 Seasons" campaign. It is for 2 players against AI and has full vanilla gameplay, easy to get into, but hard to beat.

[Ganache]

Thanks to everyone who replied for your thoughtful and helpful words. After posting, I did dive into multiplayer and I've had a great time. I'm actually now playing multiplayer far more often than campaigns. I've had some bad experiences with rude players, but also played with many more friendly, funny, and helpful players. Observing and playing by myself did help me figure out some of the alternative multiplayer maps (SXC, survival, etc.), though I still made some boneheaded mistakes at first (including one unfortunate SXC campaign where I died on the first turn ).

I wonder if the kind of information that was posted in this topic would be helpful as part of the multiplayer tutorial, or on a separate page on the wiki, or in a multiplayer FAQ somewhere or something? I also think the Multiplayer Code of Conduct wiki page could use a little beefing up. After playing multiplayer for almost a month, there are still some finer points of etiquette that I'm not totally clear on. For example, what's the proper protocol when you think you're going to lose, and you want to surrender? Should you just play to the end anyways? Is it okay to say "gg I surrender" and quit? If it's a team battle, should you seek your teammate's permission first?

Also, while I'm here, two more stupid multiplayer gameplay questions that I couldn't find answered anywhere else:

I) in a multiplayer game, is there any way to see: a) the names, numbers and colours of everyone who's playing, b) the order of the turns, and c) the player whose turn it currently is? I can basically figure out a) and c), by hovering over leaders (when they're in my range of vision), but I figure there's got to be a better way... There have been a few times where I accidentally did ":control 2 foo" when I should have done ":control 4 foo" and so on.

II) Once you've joined a game and you're in the waiting room, is there any way to change your faction, other than asking the host to change it for you (or leaving and re-entering)? It seems crazy that you wouldn't be able to.

[Huumy]

It's good manner to say "gg" or "I surrender" when you want to end the game. Also some players say "gl" or "hf" at the beginning of the game meaning "good luck" and "have fun" this is good mannered tho it's not bad manner not to say anything (in my opinion). In team games it's good mannered to talk agree with teammate when to surrender or atleast say to him first.

1) I think you can press "ctrl + s" or "alt + s" to see every player name, color, kills and losses.

2) Nope, only host can change the settings. This makes it harder to change your faction just before the game starts. If you are joining some1's game who you don't know keep an eye of the players income, starting gold and faction before the game starts this sometimes saves you time.

[Crendgrim]

I) in a multiplayer game, is there any way to see: a) the names, numbers and colours of everyone who's playing, b) the order of the turns, and c) the player whose turn it currently is? I can basically figure out a) and c), by hovering over leaders (when they're in my range of vision), but I figure there's got to be a better way... There have been a few times where I accidentally did ":control 2 foo" when I should have done ":control 4 foo" and so on.

Try pressing Alt+S. It should show you an overview of all sides with their respective leaders if you know them from the game's start. In a map with fog (like most of the multiplayer maps) you only see the leaders of your allied factions IIRC.
This should be what you look for nonetheless.


Crend

[Dixie]

About I) c): you can see who's turn it is by looking at the turn number you're at, at the top of the screen. See the little flag beside the turn count? It mean's it currently is that player's turn.

[salade]

After playing multiplayer for almost a month, there are still some finer points of etiquette that I'm not totally clear on. For example, what's the proper protocol when you think you're going to lose, and you want to surrender? Should you just play to the end anyways? Is it okay to say "gg I surrender" and quit? If it's a team battle, should you seek your teammate's permission first?

consider if you really familiar with the game enough to say a game has no chance. sometimes, ppl want to give up when the situation is turning down, or when they lost a few key units, they could actually survive and defeat the enemy. u could enjoy a game even if you are losing. it's challenging to fight against tough enemies. when there are lots of enemies, u got to utilize the terrain and time of day better, and make more careful moves to win.

so, my point is, when u want to quit, communicate with your teammates and see what they think about the game. maybe after u talk to them, u'll find the situation is not that bad. u got to judge if your teammates know the game better than you.