My main concern is that because of UE4’s inability to do multiplayer without the server host port forwarding it’s not possible to make a “free” multiplayer game for Mobile/Consoles. PC users will tend to not mind too much (especially as most will have had to port forward at some point in their life or at the very least have a designated hosting buddy (Out of my 6 friends two of us port forward as the other 4 seem to do something wrong in their setup and tend to default to Hamachi). Oh, there’s that too. PC users have Hamachi. And it’s a well known solution to this very problem.
Mobile and Console players are never expected to do anything technical. It’s unprecedented. The most severe thing I ever had to do prior to getting a PC that could actually run games (aka more than Solitare, Oregon Trail, and Moviemaker xD) was reset my modem/router to reset my NAT to open. I’m not saying that these users are inept or anything of that nature. But I am saying that there’s a chance (I’d argue it’s very high) that these users would be unwilling to put in the effort or might even be completely unable to (either because of perceived inability (ie College Campus, “I’m not smart”, ect.) or actual inability. As in doesn’t have anything but a console and thus can’t even access the router’s settings).
This should be a priority. And yes, I do realize that it’s possible to host a dedicated server on my computer for free but the internet available to me is very poor and wouldn’t be up to it whatsoever. Which leaves dedicated server hosting. Which means that I’d need to go through the trouble of learning how to do so, paying monthly for it, ect. And yes, I know that it’s not terribly difficult. But I chose UE4 because of Blueprints. I’m learning C++ on the side so that I can use it but I’m coming from GameMaker and thus am having to learn a lot at once (3D modeling, Animation, UE4’s general way of doing things (which I have MOSTLY down now but still find some funny twists here and there), ect.) all while still trying to make a game. It’s a lot for one person. And unfortunately all of the games that I want to make at the moment are multiplayer. This has been a weakness of the engine for a while now (as a google search can testify) and I’d argue that it’s a foundational feature of a AAA engine. I know for sure that there are a ton of other features that you’re all working to make real and I’m willing to bet that many of the developers even have something that they’d really like to get done but can’t even touch because it’s relegated to “Backlog/Wishlist” due to priorities that totally make sense. But I feel like, despite this feature being a mere 200 votes and relegated to that same list, that this feature is truly necessary. Perhaps not for PC users-maybe not even for console-but definitely for mobile. And as you’ve had a strong interest in mobile lately I’d say that this would be a great addition to the lineup of great features.
Epic pls.