I have now started work on a completely separate multiplayer mode for Eggy Swarm.
Swarm Multiplayer will allow up to four players to form a squad and take on dedicated co op operations together, with the mode being built as its own part of Swarm rather than simply adding extra players to the normal game, so it will have its own lobby, squad system, operations, objectives, difficulty and combat rules; the multiplayer area will have its own page where you can create a squad, invite other members, see pending invitations and manage everyone before starting an operation, with invites using XenForo member search so you can look up a username, send an invitation and have that player appear in your squad once they accept; each squad can contain between one and four players, every member will have their own lobby slot showing their character, status and ready state, the squad leader will choose the operation and difficulty, and the mission will only begin once the squad is ready, while presence will also show whether another player is available, waiting in a lobby, currently playing an operation or reconnecting after losing connection.
The actual battles are going to be much harsher than the normal Swarm experience, with multiplayer operations built around teamwork rather than simply giving enemies more health, so players will have to deal with larger groups of enemies, environmental hazards, changing arena conditions and objectives that may require the squad to split up, defend positions while another player activates something, or deal with several parts of the arena at the same time; the environment itself will also become part of the fight, with power failures, unsafe routes, hazardous areas and objectives that can change while the squad is already under pressure, while revives will play a major part in keeping the team alive because a downed player will have a limited amount of time to be reached and revived, multiple players will be able to help revive them faster, and longer operations will include recovery points so somebody who cannot be revived does not necessarily have to sit out the rest of the mission, although a complete squad wipe will end the operation; the first multiplayer operations being planned include Containment Breach, where the squad will deal with failed containment areas, defence points, emergency controls and attacks from several directions, Blackout, which will focus on restoring disabled systems while visibility and safe routes become more limited, and Extermination, which will be a much more aggressive operation where the squad has to hunt priority targets while enemy numbers and hazards continue to increase, and these will be proper multiplayer operations rather than renamed versions of the normal survival mode, with difficulty scaling around the size of the squad through enemy numbers, elite combinations, environmental events and more complicated objectives so that having four players does not automatically make an operation easy; multiplayer will also support reconnecting if somebody briefly loses connection, keep their place in the squad while they return, transfer leadership if the squad leader leaves before an operation begins, and use a dedicated live connection so player positions, health, enemies, damage, objectives, hazards, revives and the match state are shared between everyone playing, while completed operations will eventually contribute their own multiplayer statistics, achievements, squad performance and rewards, with the squad and lobby system being built first before invitations, ready states, presence, reconnect behaviour and the live combat system are brought together for the first fully playable co op operation.
Swarm Multiplayer will allow up to four players to form a squad and take on dedicated co op operations together, with the mode being built as its own part of Swarm rather than simply adding extra players to the normal game, so it will have its own lobby, squad system, operations, objectives, difficulty and combat rules; the multiplayer area will have its own page where you can create a squad, invite other members, see pending invitations and manage everyone before starting an operation, with invites using XenForo member search so you can look up a username, send an invitation and have that player appear in your squad once they accept; each squad can contain between one and four players, every member will have their own lobby slot showing their character, status and ready state, the squad leader will choose the operation and difficulty, and the mission will only begin once the squad is ready, while presence will also show whether another player is available, waiting in a lobby, currently playing an operation or reconnecting after losing connection.
The actual battles are going to be much harsher than the normal Swarm experience, with multiplayer operations built around teamwork rather than simply giving enemies more health, so players will have to deal with larger groups of enemies, environmental hazards, changing arena conditions and objectives that may require the squad to split up, defend positions while another player activates something, or deal with several parts of the arena at the same time; the environment itself will also become part of the fight, with power failures, unsafe routes, hazardous areas and objectives that can change while the squad is already under pressure, while revives will play a major part in keeping the team alive because a downed player will have a limited amount of time to be reached and revived, multiple players will be able to help revive them faster, and longer operations will include recovery points so somebody who cannot be revived does not necessarily have to sit out the rest of the mission, although a complete squad wipe will end the operation; the first multiplayer operations being planned include Containment Breach, where the squad will deal with failed containment areas, defence points, emergency controls and attacks from several directions, Blackout, which will focus on restoring disabled systems while visibility and safe routes become more limited, and Extermination, which will be a much more aggressive operation where the squad has to hunt priority targets while enemy numbers and hazards continue to increase, and these will be proper multiplayer operations rather than renamed versions of the normal survival mode, with difficulty scaling around the size of the squad through enemy numbers, elite combinations, environmental events and more complicated objectives so that having four players does not automatically make an operation easy; multiplayer will also support reconnecting if somebody briefly loses connection, keep their place in the squad while they return, transfer leadership if the squad leader leaves before an operation begins, and use a dedicated live connection so player positions, health, enemies, damage, objectives, hazards, revives and the match state are shared between everyone playing, while completed operations will eventually contribute their own multiplayer statistics, achievements, squad performance and rewards, with the squad and lobby system being built first before invitations, ready states, presence, reconnect behaviour and the live combat system are brought together for the first fully playable co op operation.
