Assassin's Creed Dev Explains Missing Multiplayer Modes

Cognimancer

Imperial Intelligence
Jun 13, 2012
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Assassin's Creed Dev Explains Missing Multiplayer Modes



Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is lacking some multiplayer gametypes that were popular in previous games - and according to the designer, those modes can't come back.

It seems like the only multiplayer these days is either free-for-all or team deathmatch between two sides. Every so often, though, there's a fight with three or more sides, which opens up a whole new way of handling the battlefield. One such mode was the Alliance gametype in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which split players into three teams of two. However, according to the lead multiplayer designer of Assassin's Creed IV, that kind of multi-team approach isn't coming back in Black Flag due to the way the game's multiplayer is built.

A Q&A on Ubisoft's blog had one player asking if the Alliance gametype might be making a return. "We'll look into the potential of adding more parameters," responded Ubisoft's Tim Browne. "Alliance, however, can't return. The reason Alliance can't come back is that it uses 3 teams of 2 players. None of the game systems support 3 teams any longer."

It doesn't get much clearer than that. Three teams is something that Black Flag doesn't support on a technical level, and though Browne didn't elaborate on why exactly it wasn't possible, he sure sounded pretty adamant on the topic. So no more Alliance, and no more modes with more than two teams.

It's a shame, since Assassin's Creed's new Game Lab allows players to tweak various settings to create customized game types - those are the parameters Browne mentioned. Players have been coming up with some clever modes, but that restriction probably limits a lot of ideas. At this point, our best bet may be to hope Ubisoft redesigns its systems to include that possibility in the next Assassin's Creed game.

Source: Ubiblog [http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag-multiplayer-qa-tim-browne/]

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Deshin

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Aug 31, 2010
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Since when did Ubisoft hire Valve devs?


I jest, but seriously now, on topic:

That is just a terrible excuse. Remember when programmers had to work around OBSCENE memory/programming limitations and they did and made some of the best games of all time? Now you're telling me it's 2013 and you can't add something as basic as splitting players into 3 teams instead of 2? Hell just off the top of my head here's a work around for you: Team A has 2 players and Team B has 4 players, for Team B turn on "friendly fire" and tweak the GUI accordingly.

Honestly I cannot even comprehend how this is an impossibility, is it a player cap thing? Can't handle 6 simultaneous entities at once?
 

SecondPrize

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Mar 12, 2012
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"It's not there because we didn't build for the possibility of it being there."
But why not?
 

Vivi22

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Aug 22, 2010
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I honestly am not sure how they could code the game in a way that that's simply not possible anymore, even with an update. What corners do you have to cut to make that happen?
 

Nathan Josephs

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Feb 10, 2012
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im sorry i thought we were meant to improve games with new releases not decrease playability. purty graphics over gameplay its a really annoying problem thats not going away anytime soon.
 

Buizel91

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Aug 25, 2008
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Nathan Josephs said:
im sorry i thought we were meant to improve games with new releases not decrease playability. purty graphics over gameplay its a really annoying problem thats not going away anytime soon.
Christ it's a Gametype in Multiplayer, hardly a game breaker.

Multiplayer games eventually lose and gain new game types, ACBF is no exception, be thankful we have a great AC game again. Multiplayer in my opinion has never been AC's strong point, its fun for an hour or so, but i only get AC for the Singleplayer, can play every AC game over and over (apart from 3...which im thinking of trading in) and not get bored.

Wonder what the next AC game will be, me is hoping Ninja's!
 

Grabehn

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Sep 22, 2012
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So... games from now on will only look prety but have jack shit on the gameplay/game-mode department? I understand... I guess I'll just keep on not giving a shit about any AssCreed games as I've been for a while... On that department though, can he explain why Revelation needed to have a code in order to access the MP?
 

otakon17

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Jun 21, 2010
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You gotta love how they break one of the fundamental rules of sequels: NEVER REMOVE CONTENT! Seriously if they got it to work in the OLDER game, to which I'm saying they had less experience with working with the system then why the HELL can't they make it work with the newer game? It's like bringing out an upgrade to an alarm clock but it no longer has a snooze function.

God I hope this isn't a trend that catches on.
 

MeChaNiZ3D

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Aug 30, 2011
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Are you fucking shitting me? They just decided not to allow 3 teams? Why the fuck would they do that? "We did a stupid thing and now we can't do anything about it" isn't an explanation.
 

TristanBelmont

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Nov 29, 2013
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This seems really lazy. Am I wrong, or didn't they build this game with the same engine as the former one? Wouldn't they just, y'know, NOT REMOVE IT?
 

Jandau

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Dec 19, 2008
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This is hilarious! I mean, others have pointed it out already, but the answer is basically: "It's not there because we didn't put it in". That's not an explanation in any way shape or form. None of the game's systems support 3 teams? But you BUILT those systems yourselves. That means you decided not to support 3 teams...

Though, I can totally imagine a scenario with early development where programmers forgot to put in 3 team support in the base game mechanics and later on everyone was scratching their heads, staring awkwardly at their feet and mumbling "Well, crap..."
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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The Worms games from a few years ago let you play with four teams of four, I guess Team 17 must have used super complex coding to make that work though if a current-gen AAA game can't do it. Or maybe Ubisoft are just lazy/crap/not trying?
 

truckspond

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Oct 26, 2013
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Grabehn said:
So... games from now on will only look prety but have jack shit on the gameplay/game-mode department?...
In optional MP yes; However because the focused more on the SP (You know; the thing that made games popular in the first place!) in this installment it is the best game in the series!
 

Grabehn

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Sep 22, 2012
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truckspond said:
Grabehn said:
So... games from now on will only look prety but have jack shit on the gameplay/game-mode department?...
In optional MP yes; However because the focused more on the SP (You know; the thing that made games popular in the first place!) in this installment it is the best game in the series!
I don't give a shit about MP tbh, especially in this games, but I still prefer the first one over any other, since it's the only one that has... you know, assassin stuff? I stopped caring about the games with Brotherhood, which had really janky controls, and this one just doesn't appeal to me at all.
 

Neyon

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May 3, 2009
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Big news everyone! There are missing game modes in Black Flag because the developers didn't code them in to the game! I've been blaming the leprechauns when it was actually Ubisoft all along.