Post tutorial Report RSS What Makes a Good Co-Op

Arkanj3l's first tutorial, which is about co-op gameplay, and how to get it right.

Posted by on - Basic Management

[page=Introduction]
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CO-OP
An article by the Arkanj3l

Co-Op is a very popular trend among mods nowadays, and with so much competition among us, sometimes originality is achieved, but then the mod is lacking in base. This article tries to explain the roots of co-op, and tells you how to join this rat race in power and style.

First, What is a Co-Op?

A cooperation, co-op for short, is a game where two or more people have the same goal. Unfortunately that leaves a broad spectrum of games in question. Is CTF co-op? How about team deathmatch? Is that co-op? How about Battlefield's Conquest? Or Counter-Strike's Bomb Defusal? Obviously, some limitation is needed. I suppose an unwritten rule in co-op is that it should be one set of players against an AI controlled group. Most co-ops are based of a pre-existing single-player component of a game, while some are completely original, and some are even both.

However, the line blurs here. Are games like the recently announced "Left 4 Dead" or the now infamous crossplayer FPS "The Crossing" co-op, then? You can play both sides of the post-apocaplyptic conflict. Decide for yourself whether games like this are a co-op or not.

So, here is my definition:

More than one person playing at once with the same goals as the others against a group of enemy NPC's, which can be assisted by human players if able to be warranted.

[page=Teamwork]

Teamwork
-Teamwork is the basis of co-op, and, in a sense, the basis for any game. One thing that any game maker should have in mind with teamplay as a feature is that they want to avoid "multiplayer solitaire", in which all players end up doing their own thing. This is especially true with co-op games. Otherwise, they wouldn't really be considered a co-op!

In co-op games, you should make sure that it has to be near-impossible to complete solo. You have to depend on your partner, it's a neccessity. You go down? Your team is your only hope. They have to heal you, or survive until the round ends so that you can respawn. It's hell on you, it's hell on each one of you, but not hell for all of you. That is co-op, and what you should strive for.

Make sure that their is a lot of interaction between players. Open as many channels as possible: voice, text, anything. Heck, some people appreciate having a waypoint system to stop some assholes from getting themselves shot. Communication is good. Heck, if you want to make a good co-op, it should be a requirement.

[page=Enemies]

Enemies
-Enemies are the legs that keep co-op going. The goal of most first-person co-op's are to kill things. Sure, an occasional puzzle here and there is good, but that isn't what you'd really find in "survival" co-ops, and what you'd find in objective based co-ops. Unless the puzzles involve two or more people working together, it's probably not worth the effort in non-linear situations. however there are of course, exceptions to the rule. For example, Splinter Cell multiplayer involved a lot of objectives. With a buddy tagging along to make sure you don't get fried when you are, say, hacking, or, having your team cause a distraction while you shoot out the lights, that's when you make things click.

In any case, enemies should be challenging and plentiful. Games centre around challenge and reward. An enemy should be fun to kill, because if it isn't, then, well, there isn't much more where you could get fun from. Balance is of importance as well. If enemies are too easy, then the player gets bored, and quits. If the enemies are too hard, then the player gets frustrated, and quits. The latter, however, could be given more leeway, since you have your teammates. A plentiful enemies allows the fun to go around, and gives the possibility of long, drawn out battles. And who doesn't like those? However, for the people that do, all three of them, you should remember to take into cosideration a "Plug 'n Play" factor, just be able to jump in, fight a little, and jump out.

Enemies should also have variety. Too many encounters with one kind of enemy could get bland, so another could be a welcome change of pace. Having different enemies opens new kinds of situations, and makes a game more intense. Having to shoot down a marine from afar, then suddenly having to change your shotgun because a zombie is coming after you, even though you are being pounded by alien controllers, gives excitment. It also opens doors for teamwork. One person keeps the team protected from zombies with his shotgun, while his other two teammates take down the marines and controllers.

[page=Humor and Conclusion]

Humour
-Yes. Humour.

Humour plays an important part in co-op. How so? Well, let me tell you this: when is something more fun, alone, or with your friends?

If you have any social life beyond the quandry of the internetz, then you would probably say yes (With the sole exception of passionate love making, unless, you know, that's your drift). In co-op, you can take this to the next level. Without an opposing team to call you "newb" or "whore" you can have pure, somewhat unadulterated fun. Having some humour in there can bring things up a couple of notches. These, quirky, unexpected moments give a game more flair, more replayability, and more people coming back. Things like a huge-ass monster chasing a player, while the others abandon him, "anal sex", driving vehicles indoors ala "The Silent Cartographer" (Halo), and sadistic, creative kills are all the things which players enjoy, and have a good laugh at.

Unfortunately, such "quirky moments" can't exactly be engineered in a game. The most you can do, really, is make a hilarious, whacky map, such as Toonrun from the ever famous Sven Co-op. Not to discourage you from doing so! Sometimes, a completely out of place map can be just what a serious mod needs.

It's also amazing how I can take humor so seriously.

Conclusion
-In any case, thanks for reading. The initial thread for this article is at Forums.facepunchstudios.com, and I decided it might warrant a post here at ModDB. I initially created this as a self-reference for a mod of mine in the making, which, not suprisingly, will be a co-op. I can't say much, other than it will be a somewhat original concept, and from my quasi-tests, will be "eerily" fun. Sorry for keeping all my ideas in the "dark". ;-) I'm currently looking for one or two coders with experience with the Source Engine. Right now, you don't need to do much other than program some quick weapons, and maybe a radar...

OK, blatant advertisements aside, if you have a suggestion, feel free to drop a comment!

Post comment Comments
Power-Mad
Power-Mad

I agree in thery, everything sounds out of wack, thus why I never played sven until I finally got forced to at around version 3.2. Somehow though, it just all works. Players stick together by hte mappers desine and can help enother out in simple ways like giving health, but the mod itself never forces you to stick by someone, jsut encorages you to fight what they're fighting together. This mod sounds like it's gonna trip over it's own gameplay forcing people into a round based system and such for lives.

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Leedeth
Leedeth

Power-Mad, the co-op levels in America's Army contradicts everything you've just said. This is just one example though, I'm sure that there are many more out there.

It has a rounds system. And it works - not just in co-op, it's in the regular multiplayer too. It makes people care about living, they won't just run in there blazing away. Just waiting and watching is fine, as long as it isn't too long - a few mins at max. Gives them a chance to do a bit of planning, or just to grab a snack. AA is also more player oriented...on one server you might have a bunch of pros, on another maybe a bunch of noobs. Find a pro server and you're not gonna want to leave.

I've never even been able to complete either of the two co-op missions by myself - the chances of dying are just way too high. Add the rest of the squad for a limit of 9, then you've got a much better chance of finishing, but it correlates to the skill of your teammates.

Expectations of people? Well...I guess it depends on which game you play. Of course there are idiots in every game, I've had my fair share of noobs that suicided the Humvee straight into a tank. But generally the people in AA know what they're doing. They will communicate and make sure that major objectives get completed, tanks get destroyed, etc. But it's not detailed right down to room clearing. There's not enough time for that. It's mostly due to the fact that AA doesn't have VOIP... XD

Co-op, like games, can be designed differently. It just depends on what kind of community it's for.

BTW, good tutorial Arkanj3l. :)

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Power-Mad
Power-Mad

No one plays sven coop for relying on your teammates, coop isn't even about cooperation so much. It's about playing the joys of singleplayer online with other players. If you can do a bit to make players want to stick near eachother, like given them distributable medpacks and junk, then do it, but no one wants to play in round based systems durring combat like this if you die. Good luck with your mod but uggg, you've destroyed the purpose of sven.

It's not about thinking hard on stratagies, it's about kicking *** singleplayer style on multiplayer.

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Sallycin
Sallycin

@ Power-Mad
*Gets very attempted to yell various curses at Power-Mad*
That is very ilogical. If the only point of cooperative mode is to have singleplayer online with no teamwork, then why do you even play online in the first place? A coop, as mentioned in the above tutorial, works on providing something more then a singeplayer mode. Teamwork is one of the key thing that can make it more fun then singleplayer. Try Gears of War coop.

Btw: The tutorial is quite nice.

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Arkanj3l Author
Arkanj3l

It does all seem to fit together in games like Sven. However, different co-ops work in different ways. You could either take a pre-existing formula, and only scratch it for difference (Sven), or you could re-invent the wheel, with the same concept, just a different mode of transport (my mod). Just because I say co-op is one thing, it doesn't mean it isn't another.

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Power-Mad
Power-Mad

Ok.... welll good luck, I just don't believe this will get very far, if it even gets started (A desine doc is not a start, actual modding is a start). You're trying to cover a genre of mods that does not need covering at all at the moent with other coop mods already out and popular.

BTW, zombie panic is not an example of coop, it's pvp.

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Power-Mad
Power-Mad

I admit, coop mods could do with some changes here and there to make things a diffrent expirience, but the coop you're thinking of... it's been tried before, it doesn't work. Lives system or rounds system is a must NOT have. It bores people to death just waiting and watching, chances are, they'll move to a diffrent server before the round restarts. "It's hell on you" is perfectly right.

Your expectations of people far surpases the people of real life. People wont cover eachothers backs and crap, they'll hide behind cover and shoot whatever comes at them/they come at. There won't be people saying "You take the door, and prepare a nade, we'll spray the place down with shotgun fire and everyone else rush in." It'll be more like "First guy comes to the door, runs in and gets killed or runs bac kwith low hp, people start firing at whatever they see, and a guy will probably throw a nade in there if they're thinking well that day. No communication done until after combat if something kool happened and they want to say it.

Coop is one of those things that if you want to get right, you need to redesine half life 2 completely. Right now half life 2 and 1 are run n guns at heart and will remain that. What makes me persistant on staying here talking with you is that you say this is how coop mods should be done and post it as a tutorial. This isn't how at all, it's just a desine article for your own idea.

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Arkanj3l Author
Arkanj3l

It is an original co-op. Not one based off Half-Life 2.

With that fact straightened out, let me point you to a mod.

Moddb.com
Also, read what Methulah says in MOTW: EC. You could argue that was because it was on LAN. Most games are better that way anyway (Try CS:S).

Halflife2.gamefront.com
I had people across several servers bitch at me for not covering them because they were getting swarmed (three people on server, including me).

A death of a teammate should be a setback, as many would agree. However, I've thought it through, don't worry. I hate waits as much as anybody. I'm not talking about a round-based or live-based system. Quite on the contrary, I'm doing respawns with time limits. You were reading between the lines.

If the maps had a small sense of non-linearity, then you probably don't want some person wandering around doing his own thing when there is work to be done. Things like Sven and such are based off a linear game, and therefore, give a linear (FUN! I LIKE Sven co-op, don't get me wrong.) experience. Present more choices for a team, and then you have to change a game along with it.

My mod isn't aiming to be abstract art. It is, however, targetting to go for both casual and tactical players. On one hand, go ahead, go rambo. Have fun! That is what games are about. It will present a challenge, yes, but not an overcomeable one. On the other, if you work with your team, you get a rewarding, memorable experience of the mod at it's fullest.

If you clicked on the Facepunch forum link at the end of the article, you'll find that most of this was not thought up by me. The thread originally started as a request for tips. I changed it to an article later.

Admittedly, this is more of article quality than tutorial quality (Tutorials are supposed to be followed word for word). If someone out there wasn't fond of an idea or two, then they don't have to follow it.

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cHr0n0sPh3r3
cHr0n0sPh3r3

Co-op isnt always based on teamwork true BUT many games do damand teamwork in order to win Take CnC Renegade as an example, u rush the enemy base on ur own u get pwned by the defnces, 'nuff said

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Hitlo1
Hitlo1

To me, a co-op game is when 2 or more players are playing together, on the same side, the same game on the same PC period.
If co-op requires an online connection, then that is just an online muti-player game like any other. Currently, isn't there the ability to play in a "multi-player" game where 2 or more players are on the same side and share the same common goal but yet not considered co-op?
That makes for the distinction between co-op and muti-player to me. At least, that's the way I think they should differ.

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DIGI_Byte
DIGI_Byte

As said before, Co-ops come in many variants, my particular favorite is 'Alien Swarm' for UT2k4, Anyway I was wondering if any co-op fans could help me out on my mod as its Co-op and i don't want players to go on a killing spree and finish it by them selves

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