IamA Erin Daly, Lead Multiplayer Designer, and Quentin Cobb, Game Designer for Naughty Dog... Ask Us Anything about The Last of Us MP!

Will you be adding more multiplayer content in terms of stages or game modes for the PS4 version?

We plan to support both the PS3 and PS4 for as long as the community plays it.

Hey ND! Thanks for doing this AMA! You have created a very underrated multiplayer, what were your influences? Is there any hope to getting this game to the competitive scene? Finally, is it possible to have toggle options in private matches?

Thank you very much for your time and again for the AMA!

Thanks, glad you like the game.

Our influences were pretty varied - primarily of course it was the single player game, which gave us the world, tone, and game mechanics that we had to work with. In terms of other MP games, Gears of War 1 was a favorite of our game director.

In terms of getting options in Private matches, it's something we certainly wanted to add but didn't have time for. We don't have any plans to add it at this time.

Will we see more DLC?

We're prototyping to see what works. We'll announce something if we have something.

Regarding The Last of Us, any plans to fix the priority of shivs. I've lost count of how many times I've gone for a shiv and instead opened a toolbox, gone for the revive, or special execution.

Answered this below.

We definitely feel your pain and I've run into this issue myself many times. We've looked into this problem a lot and it's not actually a priority problem - if you have a downed teammate in front of you and an enemy who can be shivved, the shiv prompt does take priority.

The problem is that players run in spamming triangle so they can get their shiv as quickly as possible, and the range on a revive, execution, or lockbox is large enough that the player gets that before moving inside the shiv cone.

The proper fix for this is to use a different controller input for Shivs, which is doable but because these prompts are all handled in code it requires some tech time which we don't have at this point. It's definitely still on our wish-list to fix however.

Will the DLC maps on the PS4 version have the same player pools (As in separate player pools in accordance to DLC) as the PS3 version or will the maps be combined to 2 player pools per mode (Parties and non-party matchmaking)?

All the maps will be included on the disc in the PS4 version, and the playlists will have all these maps in both the Parties Allowed and No Parties playlists.

Almost everyone has seen the new hats, helmets, masks, and gestures. Any comment on this as to an approximate date?

Those were items we were testing. We can't say at this point whether they'll be released or not.

Hey there!

Will the number of players per match be increased in the PS4 version?

The number of players on PS4 will be the same. During the development of The Last of Us MP we experimented with more players and we felt it had a negative effect on the game - it made reviving less important, the pace was too fast, stealth was harder, etc.

Do you guys intend to make a playlist that contains every map at some point?

The PS4 version will have this, as every map will be included on the disc. On the PS3, with our current matchmaking tech this would split up the player base further (it would be treated as a separate player pool, and players would only matchmake with other players in that pool), so it wouldn't be a benefit for the PS3 version.

There's no way to unify the playlists in some way? Like, players are all in the same pool, but players with the DLC will sometimes be paired with each other, sometimes not?

There are definitely other ways to do it where each player pool is not exclusive, and we investigated them, but re-writing the matchmaking system was a pretty big undertaking and we didn't have the resources for it unfortunately.

I love this game but I have very minor gripes that much of the community also has -- and that is the use of triangle.

Are there any plans to either let us assign our own buttons or to make triangle priority go Shiv - revive - box? The game is nearly perfect otherwise.

We've looked into this issue a lot and it's not actually a priority problem - if you have a downed teammate in front of you and an enemy who can be shivved, the shiv prompt does take priority.

The problem is that players run in spamming triangle so they can get their shiv as quickly as possible, and the range on a revive, execution, or lockbox is large enough that the player gets that before moving inside the shiv cone.\

The proper fix for this is to use a different controller input for Shivs, which is doable but because these prompts are all handled in code it requires some tech time which we don't have at this point. It's definitely still on our wish-list to fix however.

What will eb the main difference between the multiplayer of the PS4 and PS3 version?

The main differences between the MP on PS4 are:

• All the maps are included on the disc
• Visually the game looks better - higher resolution, and we're targeting 60fps
• Load times are much faster
• Playing MP with the Dualshock 4 controller feels great

Hi Erin and Quentin! I've been waiting for this AMA because really, The Last of Us is one of the best, most well-balanced multiplayer games that I think I've ever played, honestly. So thank you!

Anyways, I've got somewhat of a hopeful suggestion. I'd like to see a limit on Interrogation so that low level players can't enter the gametype. If they don't know the maps, don't know the weapons, and don't understand the flow of the game, on top of not knowing the gametype, it often leads to the low-level players ambling around the wrong side of the map while the lockbox is being attacked. Which, as you can guess, is a huge setback for the team.

Even if it only limited players level 0-4, I think that would take some of the edge off so to speak. Is this something that has ever been discussed, and do you think it could be a possibility?

Again, thanks so much for the FANTASTIC multiplayer experience and for taking the time to do this AMA!!

(Edited to say hi to Quentin! Got so excited at the AMA I barely read the title!)

Glad you're enjoying the game so much!

I certainly understand your frustration with players not understanding the game mode. However limiting who can enter a game mode would have some serious negative implications for new players who are experimenting with the game and want to check out all that the game has to offer.

Easing the player's learning curve of the game is something we're definitely thinking about for the future, but for right now the best option for you is probably to play in the Parties Allowed playlist, where you're more likely to meet up with experienced players.

Will all the new DLC weapons and skills be on the PS4 version? If not, will us, PS3 season pass holders, be able to get them for free? I really want to get the PS4 version, but if I have to pay full price for the game AND it's DLC, sorry, I'll pass. And so will all my PS3 friends who play it with me.

We mentioned this in another question, but we are looking into the best way of handling this.

Did you run into any problems while developing the multiplayer or did it just go flawless. I've always wondered if those big studios just know what they're doing and everything goes well right away or if you do also have technical problems etc?

It certainly did not go flawlessly, not even close (and it never does). Naughty Dog uses a very iterative process with a lot of prototyping so we experimented for quite a while with different approaches to MP which didn't work out. Although that prototyping is part of the natural process of making games, it's a difficult balancing act because you're continually throwing out stuff even as the release date gets closer and closer. In the end we felt we were able to capture the tone and depth of gameplay we were after though. It's kind of a cliche about game development but everything does come together in the end.

Does my multiplayer character transfer over to the ps4? or would it start over?

Your progress from PS3 does not carry over to PS4, but we will be including a supply bonus for accounts that played on the PS3 version to give them a bit of a head start.

Hey guys,

Were there some unique ideas that were left on the cutting room floor for the multiplayer?

There were some very early prototypes that were kind of unique but didn't make it. One such prototype was a 1v1 experience where each player had a small squad of NPC's with them, and could direct the NPC's movement. It was all a super rough prototype and it had some promise, but ultimately the amount of work needed to make the NPC's behave intelligently in MP was more than we could take on.

Confirm or deny TLoU2? ;)

On a serious question note: How was working on TLoU multiplayer compared to Uncharted? What were the biggest differences between working on the two?

Thanks for a great game, ND!

It was extremely different - Uncharted is a very fast-paced MP game with lots of twitchy gameplay, which is great in its own right, but for TLOU our challenge was to capture the tone and gameplay from SP. This meant a huge focus on slowing the pace of the game down (we even added limited sprint, which was not in SP), and on making stealth a viable play style through map design, mechanics like silenced weapons, the smoke bomb/shiv, and survival skills like covert training.

Did you ever think of putting some sort of wave/horder mode for multiplayer? Would you ever consider it in the future?

We prototyped some experiences like this, and interestingly we found that it didn't have the longevity we were after. When fighting NPC's, TLOU's combat mechanics tend to work best when the player is moving through or infiltrating a space and has to use stealth effectively.

So recently some new customizable items were seen in the last of us but were then pulled. Any information on that?

Those were items we were testing. We can't say at this point whether they'll be released or not.

How long were you guys given to work on the Multiplayer before the game came out?

There was some very early prototyping before I came on the project about 18 months before launch. Then there was a fairly lengthy phase of prototyping and experimentation. The final MP game we shipped was mostly made in the last 8-10 months.

Hi Daly, I want to thank you and Macgruber for playing with me, xshot, Mckillers and i-Clarke few days ago.

I was wondering if we can expect more content for PS3, and if you would look into adding private matchmaking options such as only allowing certain weapons to be used?

Cool, we enjoyed playing with you guys too! As for more PS3 content, we can say that we plan to support it for as long as the community plays it.

Will you add more game modes to the Multiplayer?

We'd love to add more modes, but time and resources limit our opportunity to add anything as large as a game mode. Additionally, splitting up the player base more would cause more issues with matchmaking.

Can your team please make the No Parties room search for all purchased DLCs. I like to have fun playing more balanced games and the no parties search is better. It just needs to search for all purchased DLCs. THis will make the game a lot better. Why not?

Our matchmaking tech treats each playlist as a separate player pool, so the only way to do this is to create a separate No Parties playlist that includes all the DLC. This would split up the player pools even further and make matchmaking more difficult.

Just Curious, Why did it take you guys so long to come out with Multiplayer Info while TLOU was still releasing?

The single player was the main focus for marketing and we didn't want to take away from that. The MP game also took quite a while to come together, so we didn't have the luxury of having some near-final gameplay we could show well before launch.

Could we get a Random / Team ladders in place of current leaderboards? (ie Battle.net)

We don't have any plans to add new leaderboard features at this time.

Do you have a date for the PS4 version of TLOU you can share? Thank you for your time today also :)

Summer 2014