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Gamespy RO2 Multiplayer Q&A

Comrade Kaizer

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May 21, 2009
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Red Orchestra 2: Exclusive Multiplayer Q&A

Source here.


GameSpy: How does the morale system work online? How is it displayed, what impacts it, and how does it affect the player's ability to play?

Tripwire Interactive: Online, it is tied in to the Suppression system, plus how capturing objectives work. It isn't designed to make players "worse" or "better", suddenly shooting straighter - that just doesn't fit with Red Orchestra. Seeing a bunch of your friends get themselves mown down will impact your morale, adding a level of suppression for a moment, with your heart racing and so on. Operating close to someone who has achieved "Hero" status will mean that the effects of Suppression on you will be reduced slightly and you will capture Objectives slightly faster. But if he then gets shot down right beside you, it will have the opposite effect.

GameSpy: What kind of interface will you have for joining servers?

Tripwire Interactive: Simply put, the core is a good, old-fashioned server browser with filters. Go hunting for the type of game you want to play, use the Honor level on the server (compared to your own) to find people at a similar skill level, pick a server that matches your requirements, join it.

GameSpy: When will the dedicated server be released, and what are the hardware requirements for it? What kind of interface will it have for server admins - will it have all of the features necessary to enable competitive play (spectator cam, remote admin, etc)?

Tripwire Interactive: Server-side will be ready in time for people to grab it and get their servers up for launch, plus we'll ensure there are a bunch of them already available. A 64-player server is, like any 64-player server, going to be a bit of a beast. We'll release the full specs as soon as we can - but we really need more beta-testing (ramping up now) to get a good handle on that. Plus we're working hard on optimizing right now, of course! Server admins will have the familiar web admin interface (Unreal, RO1 and others), with access to a large range of parameters they can mess around with, as well as being set up for competitive play from the get-go. We're likely to run a comp or two after launch, to get people competitive on "stock" RO! But this is PC gaming - so the tools are there!

GameSpy: Will the game include VOIP? If so, is it team wide, or just by squad? Given the game is so focused on players operating in squads, what other tools will you include to facilitate teamwork?

Tripwire Interactive: There are three channels of VOIP, including team and squad. There are also scoring bonuses for players operating as a squad, rewarding them for doing the "correct" things. Add in pieces like the option to "Spawn on Squad Leader" to maintain squad cohesion. Note that you can't spawn on your Squad Leader if he is surrounded by the enemy, engaging in close combat - he has to be relatively "safe" and there has to be somewhere "safe" for you to spawn, too. HUD tools help you locate your squad if you get separated. There's also comms system where the Commander and Squad Leaders can pick who, within their chain of command, they are issuing their orders to.

GameSpy: How does the game play with higher pings - can players still be competitive with pings around 150ms, or does it really require a low ping?

Tripwire Interactive: This is always an argumentative issue! We reckon you can play pretty well on our games with higher ping than some others, that the netcode is really tight. But some people just can't play with three-figure-ping, regardless - it is kinda "beneath them"! You can play at 150, but I think most people would want to keep it lower - sub-120, for example. On the other hand, there is no excuse for a shortage of servers - anyone can put one up!

GameSpy: Can you talk about the timing for the release of modding tools, or any plans around DLC?

Tripwire Interactive: The SDK is scheduled to be available from launch. Worst case, it might be delayed a few days, but it shouldn't be. A pre-release version has already been in the hands of a few select individuals and teams for a little while. As for DLC, we haven't actually put a date to that internally. Work has actually started on some of the first batch of new weapons and vehicles, as people start getting freed up from the main-line development. We'd like to think we can get the first free DLC out before the end of the year, but it really depends on what we decide to include in it, to be honest. But it will be free, as usual for us. We have talked about producing full expansions and asking people to pay money for it - but those would be pretty much as big as the base game, including single player. We don't charge for packs with "just" new weapons, vehicles, maps. Never have done.


GameSpy: You've included weapon unlocks and perks - how many hours of gameplay will it take the average player to unlock all of these, not including things like achievements?

Tripwire Interactive: Some people may never unlock everything, as some of it is class-specific. So if you don't play much of a particular class, you may not get there. And some people will burn through the whole lot in a few weeks. Some people scared the heck out of us with how fast they worked through everything in Killing Floor - and this is not intended to be that whole RPG-style thing. It is about getting small awards for progress, getting recognition for actually becoming good at the game. And the rewards are deliberately subtle - the Red Orchestra franchise is rooted in reality, after all!

GameSpy: One last thing, we noticed in our demo that anti-aliasing wasn't working - will that be fixed at launch?

Tripwire Interactive: Yep, should be fine. Famous last words - and there is probably a graphics programmer ready to kill us for promising anything! If there are any horrible issues (like performance), we'll hold off and fix it up later, but it is coded in, and we were dealing with optimizing it.

GameSpy: Anything else you'd like to add?

Tripwire Interactive: I think that, this time around, we've been able to build the game we wanted to build. The "old hands" worrying that we're dumbing down Red Orchestra 2 needn't worry. We're just working on making it more accessible, not "easier". We want it to be simple enough to pick up quickly - and very rewarding if you put the effort in to get good at it. The reaction to the early Beta has been good - we'll see how that goes once we open that up further. [Soon!]
 
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thanks for posting this!


Tripwire Interactive: Simply put, the core is a good, old-fashioned server browser with filters. Go hunting for the type of game you want to play, use the Honor level on the server (compared to your own) to find people at a similar skill level, pick a server that matches your requirements, join it.


...So...What stops people from just joining servers with a far lower "honor level" to farm newbies?
 
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Haha yeah. I hope there is no mutator that auto-kicks someone with a high ping. I can't even play Resistance and Liberation because the 1 server with people actually playing has too high a ping so it auto-kicks me out. With all of the servers that are bound to boom, you probably shouldn't have any problem though :)
That is a serverside thing and it should be, honestly im completely opposed to your opinion, I've nothing against Americans(or anyone living far away) but seriously I don't want them roaming around our Euro server with 200+ in ping. Like in any game , lets keep it fair and clean and don't have people bogging down the pub with warp, performance and latency issues.

Ping capping ours at 100-120 max!
This feature is nothing new its been available since the dawn of ages and it is crucial if you want to maintain some certainty.
 
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Excellent info! :D

the only thing that makes me shiver is the word "ping". I'm used to play RO with 190-250ms since forever. I hope I don't get kicked by idiot admins :(

I noticed here in Australia that in RO1 I can only find one server with a ping between 32-58, while all the rest are well over 300 ping.... I just hope it doesn't end up like that for RO2.
 
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That is a serverside thing and it should be, honestly im completely opposed to your opinion, I've nothing against Americans(or anyone living far away) but seriously I don't want them roaming around our Euro server with 200+ in ping. Like in any game , lets keep it fair and clean and don't have people bogging down the pub with warp, performance and latency issues.

Ping capping ours at 100-120 max!
This feature is nothing new its been available since the dawn of ages and it is crucial if you want to maintain some certainty.

What issues? I've never seen any problems with that before. Ignorant admins think that RO is afected by latencies like that source crap.

Quoting schneidzekk:


.... Unreal introduces into multiplayer gaming a new approach termed the generalized client-server model. In this model, the server is still authoritative over the evolution of the game state. However, the client actually maintains an accurate subset of the game state locally, and can predict the game flow by executing the same game code as the server, on approximately the same data, thus minimizing the amount of data that must be exchanged between the two machines. Servers send information about the world to clients by replicating relevant actors and their replicated properties. Clients and servers also communicate through replicated functions, which are replicated only between the server and the client which owns the Actor on which the function is called. ....
 
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What issues? I've never seen any problems with that before. Ignorant admins think that RO is afected by latencies like that source crap.

Lol that's a joke right?
I prefer not to have folks with 300+ ping in my game, latency is latency however you put it, and yes the unreal engine doesn't suffer the same performance hits that the quake and source engines does.

This has nothing to do with ignorant admins, just a autobar that keeps folks with 200+ ping out for consistency and fairness for everyone.(It's an automated system that follows certain variables) If you can't handle that then, thats your problem, im glad the function is there to be utilized and it is there for a reason.

We've open public server files, so there is absolutely no reason why you should play on a server with that high ping in the first place, unless you're from a really really remote location with a very very limited playerbase.

All in all, this comes down to server admins and their choice and I'm glad , we'll both have our ways.
I'm sure you'll find tons of servers without a ping cap so enjoy those and I'll happily enjoy those with pingCap.
 
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Yeah I agree people with high ping don't ruin a game but they are not fun to play with. It's really silly having someone warp around with 200+ ping.

Unfortunately I have little selection in servers with pings 150 or lower.... most are around 350+ and many of the ones I join have warnings saying anybody with a ping of 300 or more will be kicked.

And I do notice the lag when playing, especially when using a tank or AT rifle, where sometimes it animates me firing two or three times before it actually fires something.

Yet it's not like I'm living in the bushes of Australia, I'm in Melbourne, yet there's little to choose from and most servers have just too high of a ping with people moaning about you having a high ping when you join.... usually leaving me with either playing single player or not playing at all.

The lag is better in RO than in most other games with similar pings, nobody seems to be sliding or floating around the map in a jerky way, but trying to hit things with a second or two delay is pretty game-breaking.
 
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thanks for sharing but i think im over interviews
i glanced over that till i found this
The reaction to the early Beta has been good - we'll see how that goes once we open that up further. [Soon!]
which is all i want to know
i wouldnt mind seeing a nice new vid. but my excitement for the game is fading fast
i worry that by the time the beta is released it wont by "YA the beta is here"
but more " its about $%* time"

im not saying that just to be negative for the sake of being negative. im saying that cause im like alot of ppl. i have a short attention span and only a moderate level of patience
 
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Its pretty normal. You get hyped up/excited about something but longer you have the wait the more your interest wanes. When you finally receive it, it's not that you don't like it anymore it just is that much more enjoyable when you're super excited about it. To help with that, is to not check as often and do other things. Then when it's finally out, it catches you off guard and you get excited again.
 
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