IGN blogger gamingmaster42 had many questions about the multiplayer aspects of The Conduit (as do many of our own forumites) and decided to send off a missive to get the straight story from High Voltage regarding ranking/achievements, friend codes and WiiSpeak.
Here is the response from Josh Olson, the game's producer:
- Proximity voice only applies for Free-for-All games. Team chat is used for Team Reaper and Team Objective game types. You can’t, however, talk to members on the opposing team in team games.
- You can only talk to Friends and Friends of Friends with WiiSpeak per Nintendo guidelines. While we would have liked to have been able to open it up to everyone, we’re obligated to follow Nintendo’s requirements.
- You can mute/unmute anyone, both in the Lobby and in-game.
- There is a ranking and XP system.
- You can add Friends in-game without having to manually enter a Friend Code either through sending a console friend request to a Wii console friend or through our UI if a player is a Friend of a Friend. For everyone else, you’ll have to manually enter their Friend Code. Again, we’re obligated to follow Nintendo requirements for Friend Codes.
- We won’t be supporting DLC or system updates for The Conduit. It’s something that we’ve looked at very closely and plan to implement moving forward with our future titles.
I don't know about anyone else, but the ability to send friend requests via the in-game engine is pretty cool -- even if you have to manually add them later.
Having WiiSpeak apply to friends of friends is also a nice touch that will make team chat more possible and the ability to mute individuals is also quite excellent and should enhance the experience overall. I'm normally not that keen on online play in first person shooters, but after seeing this information and a new multiplayer video I'm actually getting a bit excited about the prospect. I may even drop £20 on WiiSpeak, who can say?
[source blogs.ign.com]
Comments 22
I'm glad a developer is pushing Nintendo's really stupid rules. It sounds like the developers of this game want it to be as good a game as possible.
Looking forward to it!
Well, stupid rules? Maybe. I understand why they're there. I'd hardly like my online experiences to end up like XBLA's cuss orgies. I agree that the friend codes are at the very least, inconvenient and I'd like to see an alternative method for adding friends in the future. Maybe this is the start of something new?
@Blaze: Agreed, however it does sound like they've gone the extra mile to ensure multi-player could be a nice experience.
@Maniac
It's not just bad language. It's bullying and poor sportsmanship. I see it every single time I play online on Xbox.
@Gabbo: agreed and it's unlikely you know your Wii friends that well, so who knows what someone's like until you're actually in the thick of it?
Yes by far the Live experience sucks in games due to the attitude problems and cursing over everything, but Nintendo's equally sucks due to the obtrusive one shot per game lame codes. EA had the best setup with their form of the Lobby for MOH Heroes 2 and I'd really hope one day Nintendo grows up and goes with something like that as it works fantastically and this game could have benefitted from a mix of what they uniquely did and that EA Lobby.
Ugh... great, another Friend Code I have to log. Seriously, what were they thinking? Why can't it just be a one code to match consoles?
While I do agree that Live's voice chat is immature, their multiplayer system is great! You can see what your friends are playing at any time and even message them outside of a game! But you guys probably knew all this already.
Yeah, Nintendo really needs a Wii Friend Channel where you can do some kind of live messaging either text or voice, regardless of what app your friend is running. It sounded like WiiSpeak would provide the ability to see if friends were online, but that's only if you're both on and both running WiiSpeak (brilliant). The Wii cannot multi-task apparently (more like an old PC or console that only runs one application at a time), so that's probably not possible...
I doubt they see a good benefit - risk ratio in terms of PR though so nothing is likely to change * sigh *
Too bad SEGA doesn't have their own multiplayer servers... Or we could have had a "name" system like in MOH:H2.
Nintendo first needs to abolish friend codes for every new game. There is already a Wii system friend code to utilize and make a uniform friend list. There should be a friend list menu that shows what friends are playing. That friend list menu should be visible anytime when playing games by pressing the home button. People complain about Xbox Live online experiences when they try and back up Nintendo's backwards, unintelligible friend codes. Live provides all the necessary tools to just hear friends, mute people, and makes it easier to add friends and communicate and play game with each other. Nintendo requires that you go online to find people you don't know to enter their friend codes (most people do this even if you claim to have a lot of friends that have a Wii and buys the same games you do). You have to coordinate by phone, email, and forums when you're going to play a certain game, so that you can play at the same time. It's not only a hassle, but it ruins the experience. Nintendo should not try and put restrictions on communication. The tools are there to make online experiences fun and safe, but people don't use them and they complain when it's only them (or the parents) not taking responsibility for themselves, then they try to support Nintendo's dumb friend code system.
I don't know about anyone else, but the ability to send friend requests via the in-game engine is pretty cool -- even if you have to manually add them later.
That's still only for people who are already Wii friends.
You can't add random people.
Unless you already know that and think it's cool anyway, then never mind.
You can only talk to Friends and Friends of Friends with WiiSpeak per Nintendo guidelines.
Because, after all, you don't want all the little children playing this game to hear nasty words.
I GET NINTENDO S POINT BUT FRIENDS CODES AND PARENTAL CONTROLS """"""""""WHY BOTH"""""""""""" DOESN'T MAKE SENSE
@wiiboy: Dude, stop with the caps man, I've seen 3 of your messages already and they're all in caps.
I don't have to much of a problem, I use my action replay alot, so I'm used to memorizing long codes. Still a bit inconvenient, though.
Nintendo actually should be taking cues from Xbox Live. Yes, there are plenty of annoying douchebags you'll find online, but that will happen in pretty much anything (that's more or less why I stopped playing MMORGS on the P.C). However, Xbox Live has a better setup, more options and just all around better stability than the Wii online experiences. I guess this is just a curse of Nintendo jumping onto the online bandwagon late. Microsoft (and Sony, to a lesser extent) have had time to deal with the problems Nintendo is hitting with online play. Maybe The Conduit will be the start of better online online games on the Wii. Oh, and friend codes are just plain awful.
Lets just wait and see how it works out. It wouldn't make sense for you to only be able to add people who are already on your friends list. I'am sure you could add random people from online play to you friends list, just like in castleviana judgment with the rival system.
Does anyone know if this game will be rated Teen or Mature? I might get it if it's rated Teen.
@Bulbasaurus: It's rated T.
Ranking system? I'll only approve if its like CoD4 where you unlock new stuff as you gain levels. Otherwise, I could care less.
Speaking to teammates in-game?
What is this a LAN party?
What a bunch of whiners. This is awesome. You get friend codes virtually knocked off and there's still whinin'! SHEESH!
FRIEND CODES ARE SOOOOO LAME
im buying this...on day 1
hell yes i cant wait
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