I haven't found a game like this and have been waiting for years: imagine if you could hop on a game with your friends where you're building a base together - not "one guy has this faction another has that faction and they are friendly". NO. A game where the base belongs to all players and they can control everything together. One dude could be in charge of erecting buildings, another could be in charge of collecting minerals, the next takes care of the army, and so on.

There are three major ways I can see this being implemented

- you own a city and everybody picks a role they want to play: minister of health, minister of roads and construction, minister of agriculture, etc. - imagine frostpunk 2 but collaborative
- complete free for all - everybody's the ruler/mayor/president
- it's MOBA like with heroes that roam the lands and tell people what to do with the ability to boost or help them in some way

Maybe you guys can come up with other ways or even know a game that does one of these things. Maybe I missed it.

I can think of two examples (unfortunately not on GOG) that do this:

- Age of Empires 2 (the Definitive Edition for sure, I think even the 1999 original and the HD edition/2013 re-release) let you select the same player color as another players in multiplayer matches. If you do this, you start off with a single town center and control the same faction together. You can do this to fight against or with computer opponents or other human players, as it's just a multiplayer match otherwise.

- Starcraft 2's Archon Mode was specifically designed to support this. Two players control the same base and army and work together to defeat computer opponents.

++ To Puntolory's comment

Additionally: there's Dungeons 3 & 4. (One player builds the dungeon and lays traps, another controls the overworld army)

Spellforce 3. Not sure about this one though. Apart from being more of an RPG/RTS hybrid I'm not sure how the co-op campaign plays out. But part of me thinks this game might also have the feature you are looking for.

@Atlo, do you know where Dungeons 3 & 4 can be played by 3+ players in that mode? I can't find information on that.

I'll in the Spellforce forums. Thanks for pointing it out


@Puntolory Do you know if AoE2 and Starcraft 2 support those modes with 3 or more players? I'd like to do it with my buddies.

As far as I know all these features/games are all 2-player co-op only. ;(

I did a massively multiplayer one of these in the early 00s. (Like probably 00 or 01?)

It worked out well. Each player controlled one unit, but some random people on joining were assigned "overseer" mode and could ping on targets and paint suggested constructions. (Units were 'tanklike" but it was overhead the whole time)

I don't think it ever got released (I signed a virtual NDA and it was listed as pre-release tests). I can't remember the title or anything. It was fun for that summer I tried it, then I returned to college and never thought about it again until decades later.

For Starcarft 2 it 100% doesn't, but Age of Empires 2 I think it should work! I just can't guarantee it, but there's no limitation to how many players can choose the same player color in multiplayer AFAIK, I just never tried more than 2 myself!

You can also do something like setting a very high population limit (most matches are done on 200, but you can do up to 500) and thus have much more space for each player to do something within the same faction!

Aw man, alright, off the wishlist it goes.

Alright, I found a page that lists pretty much all games that support Co-Op and there is a filter for how many people can be in Co-Op

https://www.co-optimus.com/

Anno 1800 and other games pop up. I'm going to have fun going down this list.

Have a good one, everybody!

I remember playing Cossacks, a twenty-five year old RTS game, in co-op mode. I think it was only two per team though but not sure as I have stuck to single-player for twenty years.

I'm reasonably sure you are mistaken... it did have co-op; but not the ''One dude could be in charge of erecting buildings, another could be in charge of collecting minerals, the next takes care of the army, and so on.'' OP is looking for...

Reason: I used to play that game in multiplayer and I'm pretty sure I would remember if it had such a feature.

Also: GOGO Poland! Pikemen that cost only food & wood vs metal in 95% of all other factions. Winged hussars - heavy cavalry, but fast as light cavalry... Overpowered faction IMHO... yet in competitive games most picked Ukraine & Algeria for some reason. :/

I do not have any Cossacks game installed at the moment but this is straight from The Art of War manual:

"Players of the same team can select the same colour in a multiplayer game. This means
they will play for the same nation ("Two-in-one-Nation"). Note: This mode is particu-
larly useful if players are planning to share the responsibility. Thus, one player could man-
age resources and matters of state while the other takes control of the military."

I also like Poland as they are strong early.

O_o
NICE CATCH!

Did I seriously not play in that mode, or hath my memory foiled me yet again. =(

The moment towers are up and you have to resort to cannons -- that's when you know you are in for a long long game. :S
Hence an additional reason why my favorite faction! ;)