Hello, I’ve really enjoyed the game on AoM, but quickly got burnt out after 150h playing singleplayer only. I consider coming back to the game only if there is a healthy playerbase. I assume I’d have to buy FG. What is the current state of multiplayer? Is it worth buying an expansion only for this purpose?
GrimDawn is primarily a Single Player game. There is no “Multiplayer Playerbase”. It is mostly just people here and there playing with friends every once in a while.
Well there are a still a Handful of players that play public (myself included), somewhat regularly. But since multiplayer can be a bitch performance- and stability-wise, it never was that big. I still enjoyed more then half of my playtime with other people in public games, but as I said it can be a frustrating beast. Furthermore you will meet people pushing others, grimstashers and people who buff their characters beyond the limits of the game, that is not too uncommon, sadly and will/can influence your experience. But more then half of the games you encounter are fine…if the ping is ok…and the hosts computer can handle it…lot of “if’s” in multiplayer…The story part is the most stable part.
Balance in mp is kind of meh. Here is why:
If you start with level one on ultimate (witch is possible in FG) and play with other people on a similar progression level it is fine. Though i recommend not using your sharedstash and sticking to chronological order of the story and avoid SR, because it can get too easy, very quickly. But it is enjoyable. Keep in mind that for this you need some guys/girls, who are willing to play that way, without getting ahead or behind of you. Can be a fun experience.
If you get into endgame territory (buildwise), it get’s numbingly boring, aside from superbosses (Ravager, Mogdrogen and two special bosses from FG.) who can be quite enjoyable. But most of the time, if you are running an endgame party, everything dies within seconds, even the final (story-) boss. Mostly due to the fact that HP for 90% of the enemys are simply way too low and your own party with all its shared buffs and resistant reduction, overpowers most of them with ease.
Shattered Realm?
I once envisioned it to be a thing where people teamed up and tried to get as high as possible. Sadly it still is the most unstable part of the game, if you play it in multiplayer, even thogh it has gotten better over time. Crashes and Blackscreens are still a common thing, sometimes there is no loot, quite often there is unintended bonusloot that is visible for everybody on top of your own loot, lag, asynch…the whole package.
That beeing said, for me it is the most enjoyable part of multiplayer, because bossfights in SR can get to the sweetspot of action challange, managable and time to kill. I had the most satisfying experiences of Grim Dawn in general, in mp-SR. But it all happens around certain levels of SR, due to its instability and lack of highend shortcuts, witch are essentiel if you are looking for a multiplayer-challange. Those highend shortcuts will be implementet in the next patch, so maybe there will be some more of that. We will see…
That was kind of a rant, wasn’t it?
I still highly recommend to buy FG, but quite obviously not for multiplayer reasons.
You don’t need multiplayer or the playerbase, to enjoy this expansion. It is fantastic and totally worth checking out, if you are looking for Lore, more builds to explore, more monsters to slay, more loot to farm, movementskills, quality of live, endless dungeon. It is all there and it is all fun.
Hope it helped, enjoy FG, it is worth playing.
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As far as i’m aware anyone can still join pubs with modified chars (facerolling maps with no gear at all and so on), so unless you play with people you can really trust don’t even consider playing multiplayer, MP as it is was IMHO a stillbirth from the start.
I’ve played some MP with RL friends…
As long as you both roll new toons and keep your quest-lines kosher, it’s pretty cool.
But still - expect desyncs, crashes, and general weirdness (like both players being in the same spot but can’t see each other etc)
TLDR: MP is decent as long as you play with people you know… FG is worth the cost of entry, period.
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