Rule an empire with your friends
Conquest can now be played online. Up to four players each take an empire and fight it out in real time on the same map, with the computer ruling any empires left over. Truces, alliances and betrayals work between players just as they do with the computer.
How to play
- Open Multiplayer on the title screen.
- Host for friends and invite them from your Steam friends list (Shift+Tab), or host a public game that appears in everybody's list.
- Everybody picks their ruler. The host chooses the map size, terrain, how many computer empires join, how strong they are and how long the opening peace lasts, then starts the war.
- No Steam? You can also play over a local network (LAN) by entering the host's address.
The war never stops
- If the host leaves, another player takes over the table and the war goes on. Nobody has to start again.
- If a player leaves, the computer takes over their empire from that moment, with everything they had built.
- If you are the last player at the table, you carry on against the computer, and winning still counts as an online victory.
Leaderboards
A new Leaderboards button shows two Steam boards, among your friends, around you or the global top ten:
- Online victories: how many online wars you have won.
- Best victory: the best score of a single online victory. Faster wars and more fallen empires score higher.
Good to know
- Every player's computer runs the whole war and only the players' decisions travel over the network, so even large maps stay smooth. If a game ever drifts out of step, it is put back in step automatically.
- Online games cannot be paused, sped up or saved. The menu does not stop the war.
- Handing the table to another player works for Steam games. On a plain network (LAN) it only works while a single guest is left.
- There is no fog of war yet: every player's game holds the whole map.
Also in this update
- Conquest maps now place their starting berries from the seed, so the same seed always makes the same land.
- The Steam page now lists Multi-player (Online and LAN PvP) and Steam Leaderboards.
This is the first version of online play and we want to hear how it goes. Tell us in the discussions what you would like next: a faster game speed for the host, saved online wars, more modes? See you on the battlefield!