Initially, we stated prior sometime in the past that multiplayer will mark the day Maze Qore Arena leaves early access with a price tag, but after some months deciding hard on it, and re-evaluating the quality of the single-player component, we decided to release the first multiplayer update free into early access, and we will continue this tradition until Version 1.0, which will mark the full release out of early access.
In addition, we have already decided to make the singleplayer version a separate component via 'demo' release, available on the front page.
Now please note. this game is still not complete, let alone feature complete. We still have plenty of features to complete before the game leaves early access. At this point, due to personal reasons related to COVID-19, we can no longer guarantee it will leave early access before the end of 2020 as we had hoped, but we still intend to ensure it does, hopefully no later than Holiday 2020.
As for post-support, well to be honest with you all, that all depends on how well this game performs and how much the players care. We are willing to devote our time and efforts to supporting this game to be polished and complete, even after early access, however there is little purpose to do so if it is dead on arrival. To help prevent this phenomenon that many multiplayer titles succumb to, we are working on bots (player AI substitutes) to fail-safe this game from such predicament. As it stands now in V0.5, they are unready, and to a point where some game modes can be unplayable due to behavior. This shall be fixed in Version 0.6 or 0.7. Regarding mod support, this will also be completed during post-support for the very fears aforementioned - no point in mod support if no one cares about the game.
KNOWN BUGS
- Bot AI is a broken mess, yet they are fairly playable on Riot and Gang Riot.
- Players may seldom disconnect as the server changes to a new level.
- Players may be unable to rejoin the same server they were abruptly disconnected from, requiring a restart of the game.
- Score streaks are still a work-in-progress, thus you may experience an "unknown scorestreak" message, often when you kill multiple enemies.
IMPROVEMENTS
- Many features from singleplayer have been transferred to this multiplayer build, with necessary changes and omissions to balance online play.
- Players have the ability throw grenades and carry up to 8 at a time. Subject to change.
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I hope you enjoyed this update and thanks for playing Maze Qore Arena!
Establish, Explore, Expand.
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QUICK UPDATE
If you are having trouble finding a multiplayer server to play on, or finding players to play with, you can join our Discord server to lobby for players and join a match together.
Use !register to access the server, then use the #gaming channel to host a session to other gamers.