Hello everyone, this is Herman A.K.A. 1000 Gibibit, lead programmer on Turmoil.
We've announced multiplayer for Turmoil a while ago, and now that we're close to finishing, we'd love to tell you a bit more about it. So, welcome to a new series discussing the contents of the upcoming multiplayer update. In the coming weeks we will be going over several facets of multiplayer explaining the gameplay and design choices of the new game mode. This is a more lengthy format than your regular patch notes post, so feel free to skim the post if you’re not into that.
First off, a roadmap of the posts that are coming up:
- Multiplayer part 1: an introduction ← You are here
A look at what the multiplayer campaign is and what a turn of playing looks like.
- Multiplayer part 2: a match in action
- Multiplayer part 3: game history and end-of-game
- Multiplayer part 4: customization and matchmaking
- Multiplayer part 5: questions & answers
An overview of community questions that were answered previously. Make sure to put your questions in the comments!
The conceiving of multiplayer
Several players have requested multiplayer in the past, by asking about it on the forums. Some of those posts go back as far as 2015! The answer was always the same, we did not have the resources to start an ambitious project like this. So how did we end up where we are now?
You may remember that multiplayer was first announced back in September 2018. And before that, we already started working on the “remake” of the game in May 2018. That remake is in fact the 3.0 version of the game that is live on Steam. Around this time we were in a better position to take risks, partly thanks to the publisher for the mobile version of Turmoil, Leiting Games, allowing us to get started on designing the new online gamemode. More news about Turmoil on mobile soon!
In the initial brainstorms we came up with some crazy ideas, like a giant map where you would be able to drill on plots uncovered by the whole community, and invest as a group into rails to reach new areas. While this sounded really cool, we did not feel like this type of gameplay would be very well connected to the existing game. There were some other ideas as well, but in the end we compromised and simplified, two disappointing words for what is in fact a very exciting result!
The multiplayer campaign
The gamemode we settled on can be best summarized as follows:
An online version of the 4-player campaign, shortened to 12 levels instead of the regular 40
The normal campaign, but multiplayer! Meaning each of the AIs is replaced with a real player. All the players have to compete for land and shares in auctions, and the land you buy will be drilled for oil as usual. Whoever gets more than half the shares first, wins!
Because you are now playing against other people, the game is turn-based. Every turn you start by playing a level, and afterwards you bid on the land and stock auctions. This repeats for a maximum of twelve turns, until a winner is declared. You perform your turn in your own time, which means the other players might not be at their computer while you are offering on stocks, and vice versa.
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The multiplayer town - the background is the same as in the classic campaign for now
You can see some tid-bits here that are unique to the multiplayer campaign. The player status below the names (in this case a wagon) indicates what your opponents have to do to finish their turn. Of course, there is a brand new map to drill just for the occasion.
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The new map - you start at the top left next to the train
The multiplayer map contains 12 plots for every player, so a total of 48 plots. A free starting plot in the fertile lands, three plots in the rock-filled desert, four plots of gas-boosting action in the plains, and finally a nail biting finale in the harsh snow area. Because the map is much smaller than usual, all upgrades are reduced to about half-price. Your starting balance is still the usual $20,000.
Now that you have to bid against other players, the land auction does not happen in real-time anymore. Each player sets up their offers, and only after everyone has made an offer on four pieces of land, ordered by priority, the auction takes place. Placing an offer looks a little like this.
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Offering on land
Instead of overbidding other players as the auction happens, you have to decide your maximum bid on each plot. When the actual auction begins, you will automatically make an offer on your top priority, starting at $2,000. Anyone else that has the same plot as top priority, will keep outbidding you until one of you has reached their maximum bid and continues with the second best plot.
Like in the singleplayer campaign, the stock percentage determines who wins the game. Stock auctions start right away after playing your first level, so you can’t just cruise along and buy every upgrade you want! Some strategy is involved, and we’re sure you will figure it out once the game is out there.
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Offering on stocks
Similar to the land auction, you have to make a blind offer. Contrary to the land auction, the amount you enter is always what you pay if you win, so you can’t just bid your entire balance. Blind bidding may seem dull, but it was actually quite intense in our playtests. It introduces poker-like situations where you can sometimes get stocks for cheap, and other times force your opponents to bid unreasonably high just by having a lot of money in the bank. Note that you do not know the exact amount of money that your opponents have in the bank. This is only revealed after each turn has completed. More on this in the next blog post.
Turn-based versus real-time addendum
One issue we’d like to address but which did not fit in anywhere else is the choice of a turn-based game versus a real-time game. Some of you might not have a problem with the online mode being turn-based. Let’s be clear, you don’t play completely in order. Everyone can play their level for that turn simultaneously, and offer on the stocks and land simultaneously as well. This makes it an asynchronous turn-based game.
But why not full real-time? Just give everyone a limited timer of 15-20 minutes to take their turn and you can play the entire campaign in one sitting! This is simply not feasible. With the multiplayer campaign reduced to 12 levels, a full campaign takes about 3 hours to play. Turmoil is still a casual and relaxing game at heart, and having to play 3 hours in a row does not fit in with this vision. So we stuck with turn-based, which honestly is a perfect fit and just as exciting to play. Only with a bit of patience required.
To close
We’d like to leave you with a small teaser to go. The public Steam playtest for the multiplayer playtest is planned to be released Q1 of 2022. Just like the 3.0 playtest, that means you will be able to sign up for it on the Steam store page and have a random chance to be selected to play.
That’s all for now folks. This post mostly explained how multiplayer worked from the current player’s perspective. Next time we’ll explain how you get information about what your opponents are up to!
PS: if you're reading this in your browser, you can view any of the screenshots above at a higher resolution by using right-click -> open in new tab.
