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POSTAL 2: Share the Pain
Multiplayer FAQ
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When will POSTAL 2 multiplayer be available?
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How do I get POSTAL 2 Multiplayer? |
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 Good question,
Billy. There are two ways to get it. If you bought POSTAL 2
before it had multiplayer then you can get the "Share The
Pain" upgrade
version. If you don't have POSTAL 2, or you pirated the
game like a total loser and now you want to prove you're not
an utter scumbag, then you would get the full
version. Either way you end up with the same thing -- single
player and multiplayer, all in one.
For those who remember it differently, read
this note from Vince Desi explaining why things changed.
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Will it have <insert your favorite multiplayer
feature here>? |
| Hold your horses
Ritalin boy, this is an upgrade we've been working on for a few
months, not years! You're not going to get every feature and play
mode ever conceived plus whatever fantasy modes you wet-dreamt
last night. You'll get your basic DeathMatch and Team DeathMatch
plus our own special twist on CTF that we call SNATCH, and a neat
little game type called GRAB. And you'll get a bunch of neat-o
maps to play them in. You'll get crazy characters to play as such
as Gary Coleman and the Gimp and you'll get multiplayer-fied versions
of most of our single player weapons, which work pretty differently
than other, lame-o multiplayer games. And yes, you can piss in
your little friend's faces if you so desire. |
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But you're using the Unreal engine,
why didn't you just
include multiplayer in the first place? Are you morons? |
| Contrary to popular
belief, using the Unreal engine only automatically implies functional
multiplayer if all you're making is a graphics mod of Unreal.
Since we recoded all the weapons to make them functionally cooler
than just 11 variations on a basic projectile weapon, it took
real effort to get our stuff to work correctly in single player,
much less in an online multiplayer server environment. You have
no idea how many things were actually hardcoded in Epic's multiplayer
code to NOT ALLOW some of the things our weapons rely on to function!
So now you know. There is no multiplayer fairy. Stop crying. |
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So what makes you think your multiplayer
is worth a shit? |
Why you little
snot-faced prick... If your mom wasn't so hot, I'd...
...<ahem>...our multiplayer has a different feel for several
reasons. First, as stated already, our weapons function a bit
differently and have some interesting strategic properties, such
as the ability to alt-fire grenades to set mine traps and the
fact that you can shoot or kick normal and seeking rockets to
avoid getting blown up, possibly sending them toward some other
poor schmuck in the process.
Other weapons have some neat properties too, like the scissors,
which , when alt-fired ricochet around wildly. Pretty good cover
for escape in enclosed spaces. Normal or Alt-fired molotovs can
also serve this purpose. Our whole sniper rifle scheme is pretty
innovative so as to balance it's one-hit kill ability by giving
the targeted player a warning and also making the shooter give
away his position and possibly become vulnerable to counterattack.
Basically, the sniper rifle is super powerful if you're skilled
with it, but has enough trade-offs that it doesn't dominate the
game. The same goes for our rocket launcher. The fact that you
have to spend time "charging up" the shot and the relative slowness
and clumsiness of the seeking rockets prevent it from becoming
unbalancing while still leaving it plenty useful in skilled hands.
We've found that there isn't any one weapon that's terribly more
useful than another depending on your strategy and skill. In testing,
our matches never degenerated into "whoever finds X weapon first
dominates the game". With practice, players are just as deadly
with nearly any weapon in the game. Except maybe the shovel or
kicking...
Plus we allow for health items that you can carry and use as needed.
We've found that this doesn't adversely affect the game since
in the heat of battle it's easy to forget to press "T". These
items can also be dropped to make pretty tempting lures if you're
an ambush kind of person... |
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Yeah? So what ELSE makes your game so different? |
| Our map design
is pretty different from what you're used to seeing. We lean heavily
toward richly detailed environments that are packed with stuff
to hide behind and alternate routes and sneaky hiding places.
In testing we're finding that this approach allows a much greater
capacity for unique strategies than you find in your typical wide-open
figure-8 sci-fi pipe-festooned and/or Egyptian-motif boredom fests. |
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What's this whole "Snatch" thing that
Desi is so excited about? |
| SNATCH is our
twist on Capture The Flag (CTF). Basically, instead of capturing
a flag, you're capturing the other side's hot, dancing Postal
Babe. The idea, obviously, is to end up with BOTH hot dancing
babes in your team's giant heart-shaped bed. If I have to explain
any further, then it's obviously past your bedtime. |
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Now I'm hearing about some weird
new mode called... "Grab?" |
GRAB works like
this: there are ten bags scattered throughout the map. Each bag
you pick up multiplies the amount of damage you deal out with
the normal weapons and kicking. More bags, the more badass you
are offensively. You are not any harder to hurt, however.
The object is to be the one with all ten bags. You can see who
has bags both on the radar (which is always active in this mode,
you don't have to pick them up) and by noticing the bag stuck
to player's backs. The more bags they've collected, the larger
the bag on their back.
It's pretty funny when you've got one guy with
most of the bags and everyone else gangs up on him, causing
a riot when they all try to grab the shower of bags that fly
out of the poor dead guy... This is the one game type that
doesn't allow any inventory-friendly health pickups. That
means no "health pipes" or fast food bags. Just
medkits, pizza and SKILL.
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Will there be vehicles? |
| No, and there
won't be puzzle games, charisma points or juggle combos either.
Aren't you late for school? |
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UPDATE: Okay, I sorta lied. While we don't exactly have
juggle combos, we have discovered that if you jump-kick someone
who is already in mid-air, they will fly really, REALLY far. For
extra amusement do this in Grab when you have several bags.
It's making us laugh so much that we've decided to
leave it in. Just be aware that it's possible to get launched
into parts of the map where you're not supposed to go, so
if you get stuck, get a truly heinous frame rate due to seeing
too much at once, or fall off the terrain to your death, it's
your own damn fault.
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* Note from Vince regarding the Share The Pain upgrade:
We're sorry to have to charge for the upgrade to POSTAL 2: Share
The Pain. We know we have the best fans in the world and it sucks
that we had to do this, but we had no choice. Our relationship with
the publisher became a mess and the only way we could get this new
POSTAL product published was to do it ourselves, and this cost us
money we didn't have, also we had to pay for the game servers, anyway
enough excuses, it sucks and we know it, but we hope you understand.
It's the best we could do, you get all the new multiplayer stuff
for 10 bucks.
Thanks
Vince Desi |
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