Dear Community,
It's time to get thrilled! Our public Good Company Multiplayer Beta Test starts on April 26th, 3 pm CEST (UTC+2), and ends on May 10th, 3 pm CEST (UTC+2).
Many of you have been looking forward to this new mode, as it will provide a special experience playing our in-depth management sim.
We hope lots of players from the community will join the Multiplayer Beta, your support will be of great help for evaluating issues, bugs, and most importantly, the fun!
You even don't need to own Good Company, the Beta is open for everyone! You can join the beta once it’s live by visiting the Steam Store Page and downloading the playtest client. Team up with your friends who own Good Company or ask around (see below) for others to partner up with you!
To make it easier for you to take part in Good Company's Multiplayer Beta, we have created this guide. We hope you will be having a great time playing and testing!
If you have any questions, please let us know in this thread or via Discord.
All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots
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Community Communication
Your feedback will be extremely important. We want to make sure you have plenty of ways to get in touch:
- We have prepared our Discord Server for this occasion with several channels.
- We will open a dedicated thread on Steam and Reddit where you can report your findings.
- If you prefer to email us at [email protected], that will do fine, too.
Bug Reports
Please flag issues in the collective bug and suggestion thread over here or report them through Discord. For support and help, it would be best to get into contact with us via e-mail or Discord.
Whenever you encounter problems, please let us know! To efficiently find and fix bugs, it will help us a lot if you describe the issue as precisely as possible. Screenshots or short videos can also be used. If you experience any crashes, please add the following two log files to your report:
- The output_log.txt file in the GoodCompany_Data folder of the installation directory of the game
- The backend.log file found in /Appdata/Local/GoodCompany/logs
- If the problem occurs in a specific save file (or if you can easily reproduce it using this save file), please attach that too. You can find your save files in:
- Steam: /userdata//1955810/remote
Please note: ensure that the game process has
completely stopped before copying these files, as the backend.log file will only be written AFTER the game quits.
Languages
Please note: The Good Company Multiplayer Beta is only available in English.
Starting/Hosting Multiplayer Sessions
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Starting a multiplayer session in Good Company is easy:
- If you want to start and host a session, click on Freeplay in the main menu
- Adjust your settings to your liking and activate the Multiplayer Option
- Once the game has started, the session code will be displayed in the chat window that you may share with your fellow players
- A session can have up to 4 players
Joining Multiplayer Sessions
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There are three ways of joining a Good Company multiplayer session:
- If you are a host, share the session code with your friends. They can paste it into the Join Game section of the main menu to join you.
- Use platform (Steam) functions, either in-game via the overlay or via the friends tab outside of the game
- Use Discord Invites, both in-game or in the client interface
Please note: If the host
unchecks the “Make session joinable” option in the chat window, you can still invite friends via your platform's overlay. Other players will not be able to join the session, regardless of their friend status with you. This does not apply to Discord Invites though - these will only work if the session is set to joinable.
Leaving Multiplayer Sessions
A player leaves a session in one of the following ways:
- As a host, you can remove other players by using the kick button located in the Chat window
- As a player, simply exit to the main menu and/or quit the game
- If the host leaves the session, the session will end and all other players will lose their connection to the host.
Level Maps
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Level maps show information about their size and how many players they are recommended for.
Player Representation
Players in a session can be identified by two different names:
- Their platform name
- Their character name, which is the name of the character you create along with a new profile in the game
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In a multiplayer session, player names will be displayed in two different places:
- In the Chat Window (1) at the bottom of the screen
- In the Character Overview (2) on the right-hand side of the screen
Chat & Player Overview
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The Chat Window at the bottom of the screen enables you to communicate with your friends:
- There are two modes, the Chat Log and the Multiplayer Overview
- The Chat Log also lists activities like one-time purchases (buildings, Business Development, etc.)
Pings & Markers
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During your sessions, players might want to mark a specific spot in the game world for others. There are now several options to do this:
- Open the Construction Menu and select the right-most category
- Here, you can choose between Markers and Text, both of which you can customize. These will stay in the game until they are removed by a player.
- Players can also ping locations in the game world by using Alt + LMB. Pings are only visible for a short amount of time and will appear both on the minimap and in the world.
Minimap
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To keep track of where your friends are currently active, use the Minimap:
- You can open the map via the button on the lower left side of the screen.
- It shows the camera position of every player
- Pings are also displayed on the Minimap
Finances
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Obviously, money is a big thing in multiplayer mode, too. To keep things afloat (besides making huge profits) two ways are worth mentioning:
- There are weekly Budget pay-outs for each player to be able to independently contribute to building or managing their part of the company.
- If Budgets are activated, players get assigned success points and/or money to purchase anything with these currencies
- Left-over Budget will be distributed automatically
- Also, the total Budget can exceed the total company funds, but then automatic contributions can't happen anymore.
- Loans are available in multiplayer, too. If things are getting hairy, have a bank help you out.
- Recurring costs such as wages, material purchases, and Loan fees are always deducted from the total budget.
Game Speed
Any player can change the game speed or pause the game, and these changes will affect all players of the session. Automatic pausing (e.g. by un-focusing the game window, using logistics mode, or designing products) is disabled in multiplayer games.
