So.... Was Local Multiplayer dropped as a feature?

I share your concerns, and definitely want to hear about it, one way or the other. However, I don't think the fact that they didn't mention it necessarily means it's not present. Might've just slipped their mind to specify. Vaelzad, care to enlighten us?

I'm on board with you in principle, but I have long suspected that local multiplayer is something only a few people actually care about these days.  Truth be told, older gamers like me don't really look to sit in front of a computer screen with a buddy as the way we socialize anymore, and I suspect that younger gamers simply grew up with multiplayer being an online thing.

I think they should include local multiplayer, but I hardly think the game will stand or fall on the basis of its presence.  I don't have the statistics to back me up regarding player behaviour, but I think you're really exaggerating on that point.  FPS games used to NEED local multiplayer, now nobody does it (do they? I haven't seen it in ages, though it's not a style of game I play often).  Things have changed.  Doesn't mean they changed for better, but I don't think Stardock is making the SC reboot only for a bunch of old-timers who aren't into network gaming like me.

Having said all that - and remember that I hope they will include it - if the supermelee were designed to be playable in a way that the camera focuses on the ship you control, rather than centred around the two ships based on the distance they have from one another, then local multiplayer means split-screen.  Split-screen changes the game significantly, and the result may not be for the best.  Is it best to have a limited camera or a more versatile one?  What else do you give up for classic, local multiplayer?

I'm not trying to be a party pooper, I just think these trade-offs are certainly in need of discussion if local multiplayer is on the table.

I used to buy games BECAUSE they were local multiplayer and sometimes because they were also internet playable. (Such as Magicka.  Local and online MP.) Not all my friends wanted to own the games that we played, so local is a cheap and easy way to play with friends.  Both is better, I've played 4 player Magicka with 2 players on my PC and 2 online and separated. It's fun.

All, 

Thank you for your support.

To add to this discussion, here are some points to consider.

1. This is not a PC only game.

Stardock was targeting the PC and the XBox One. (Is that still true?) If the game is being targeted for both audiences, it puts an even greater emphasis on local multiplayer. Console gaming is made for the second player, be it your friends, siblings, children, and even the occasional spouse. If it is there, people will play it, and they will play it long after the servers are shut down.

Console gaming is more conducive to local multiplayer in another sense... How many families own multiple copies of the same console and multiple copies of the same game?

2. The genre of SuperMelee is combat/fighting.

SuperMelee isn't a FPS. It is more like an arcade fighting game, where you choose your fighter. Imagine a fighting game without local multiplayer.

3. A 20 year old interface supported local multiplayer rather well. Why can't a modern incarnation of that game do the same?

To add to this... I challenge that if the interface cannot support local multiplayer, the entire SuperMelee game will not feel like SC2 SuperMelee. It will feel off, like New Coke or Crystal Pepsi.

4. The beauty of the AND.

We do not have to eliminate remote multiplayer if we add local multiplayer. Rather, we can have local AND remote. This caters to both types of players.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that without local multiplayer, my experience with SC2 and the Extra Life marathon would not be possible.

The new Halo: Guardians is TERRIBLE without local multiplayer. Just so everyone is clear.

Well

we will see...

i like multiplayer a lot... but only  Racing, fighting and FPS games

... and a little of Diablo and Starcraft

Local FPS MP is the best... 

Quoting Hunam_, reply 7

Local FPS MP is the best... 

Hey! Stop looking at my side of the screen!

While I do read every post that is made (including Kavik's) we are only going to respond when we have something we want to share with everyone. Questions about Local MP and naming convention haven't gone unnoticed, but that doesn't mean we are going to answer every question that is put forth. 

Right now I think it is safe to table any answer or questions with regards to local MP. You haven't played the MP of Star Control: Origins at all which puts you at a disadvantage of being able to talk about it constructively because you have no context, and we aren't quite ready to show it to you to begin that conversation. 

While I understand that you have been playing this tight-to-the-chest, you can still be up-front with us and tell us if this was ever a proposed feature. For all we know, you never planned on local multiplayer and are tailoring your assets and engine to only work with a 1-player-per-monitor experience.

Even though I have never played your game, I have enough intuition to put together the fact that you are providing a camera control system. Typically, those are not scoped to include multiple players looking at the same screen unless you build in split screen or a fixed camera for all. So again, this has me concerned that my most important feature was always outside the scope of the game.

Us SFB staff guy's have a bit of experience with this stuff, he...

They need to speak as little as possible for us to be useful too them.  This same effect existed in the forums that the SFB Staff operated in.  There was a time when even I had this effect on some people, but the really big examples are "The Steve's" and Chuck Strong.  They are the top guys ever in that world, by a long long way.  And they long ago learned to generally only speak publicly in the forums to give the "official rulings" on rules debates that only they can give.  It's not really like this today, but back when there was a large audience if one of those three said something it would just stop the show.  That must be the answer, so no reason to talk about that anymore...

In the modern game industry, being so different, every member of the dev team has that same effect.  That's why only the designer/producer/exec ever speaks in a game forum.  The devs contaminate the discussion that they want to see so they get ideas, warnings, whatever from.  There won't be a discussion if they are stopping the show every time a new subject comes up.  They want to see the debate about it, if there is going to be one. 

There hasn't been a debate about local multiplayer. There can't be.

We apparently have no basis to have any meaningful discussion because we haven't played SCO's internet multiplayer. All of that experience we've collected over the past 20+ years means little because we do not have any context.

Meanwhile, Andrew and co are painting themselves into their own little internet multiplayer corner with grids and cameras and anti-top-down pro-isometric rhetoric.

Woah, buddy. Just because we're founders doesn't give us any kind of actual creative control. We can influence, but we don't need to wax hyperbolic.

Sorry... You're right. I'm just frustrated with the non-answer and worried about not being able to have the same level of multiplayer fun that I had with SC1 and SC2.

For the record, I'm also concerned about that. I know it sounds patronizing to hear that they feel we have no context of the gameplay right now, but maybe that's because it's so different (in positive ways) that it's something we just have to do hands on?

It seems like such a simple thing to have, and was a main feature of the original, my guess is that they would do that.  If you are going to make one gamepad work, you've really already made the other one work too.

Local and internet multiplayer can come together, even from small teams, as Magicka has shown us.

Will they have the time, resources and manpower to bring them both to the expected level of polish, I sure hope so.

It's funny, the thing I'm nostalgic for is sharing a keyboard with a friend. But the thing that actually seems coolest for Super Melee *now* is sharing a sofa with a friend, each person with their own controller. Sofa local multiplayer is always a blast with the right game and right friend/s. Super Melee could totally be that. It'd be great for the Xbox One version of the game too, assuming that happens.

That said, they've got a hell of a job prioritizing what makes it into the initial release. I'd be pretty relaxed about local multiplayer being added down the track if it means the initial single player game is better for it.

If that's the case, then why put internet multiplayer above the single player experience?

Squeak Squeak Squeak. I know you are reading this. }:>

But seriously... Consider this. Are you using game servers for matchmaking and lobbies? What happens when interest wanes and the servers shut down? What happens to multiplayer? Will we be left destitute without anybody to play with? What is Stardock's long-term multiplayer plan? And why can't that include couch combat?

i really hope there is local multiplayer. It would also be cool to be able to do co op campaign, though I'm fine with doing that over lan/internet. but definitely I think single player is the most important overall for lasting interest and for me personally. 

I said this earlier in the month, and it appears to be prophetic.

Another argument for local multiplayer...

http://i.imgur.com/ISuTCuL.gifv

Well technology has changed a lot since 1992. Back then, only one kid in the whole neighborhood had a PC. So you had to have local MP. Nowadays not only does everyone have their own PC, but usually multiple PC's.

I am not sure the modern gamer technology can handle split screen anymore. Where would they sit?

Local multiplayer hasn't been dropped. But it isn't a promised feature either.  It all depends on the schedule.

It is something we want as we are planning an XBOX version of the game in the future.