Okay, I'm compiling some useful data from the Multiplayer portion of the game (mostly differences from Single Player) and to help inform people thinking about getting the game (now that I finally have my copy).
If a patch comes out and this stuff changes, I'll update it when I get time!
Here's a link to my new Boot Camp site (
http://www.republiccommando.net/index.php?action=bootcamp) , which will be devoted to Multiplayer strategy and information for RC on the PC. ;) It contains pictures of the various weapons and gear usable in MP as well as some other useful things with more being added as I get time.
Game Modes:
There's 10 Deathmatch maps included. Team Deathmatch uses the same maps. The DM map count actually includes the CTF maps as well (without the hologram flag projectors, thus leaving only 10 unique MP maps in the game).
You CAN load a Deathmatch map and run around alone to test out guns, explore, etc. I did this by creating a "LAN Game" and then loading up the map. It may be possible to do this in Internet game as well, but I have yet to confirm.
So far it seems that only DM can be loaded solo for the purposes of exploration.
You can't start a Team Deathmatch if you're alone (only spectate). At the start you can choose the Republic team, Trandoshan team or autoselect.
There are 8 CTF maps (they appear to be designed with CTF in mind, however they also appear in modified form in the DM map cycle, so there are really only 10 unique MP maps). Like Team Deathmatch you can't explore the map alone (only spectate until others join).
In CTF it's Red (Trandoshans) vs. Blue (Commandos). For the flags you get a hologram projector of your color (that projects the symbol of your faction and what I assume is a hologram of a standard helmet your soldiers use).
In CTF, like other games you can tag a dropped flag to return it (unlike Assault where it takes time to return on its own). As below with Assault, the flag limits you in certain ways while carrying it.
Assault uses the same (8) maps as CTF and appear to be identical even in the flag placement.
Calling it "one flag CTF" isn't very accurate. It's more like Reverse CTF, in rounds. Here's how it basically plays:
Round 1: Red attacks while blue defends. So they try to take the red flag into the blue base and have a time limit (default is 4 minutes). If they capture, Red gets a point. If Blue holds them off for the time period, they get a point. Once the outcome is established, the roles reverse. Now Blue attacks and Red defends. Once this outcome is decided, Round 2 begins with another set of attack/defend. Typically there are 3 Rounds to a match but this can be determined by the admin.
The match goes to whichever team got more points. Again, you can't explore the map alone, only spectate until other human players join.
A lot of matches end up in a tie (not sure how to fix that).
Weapons & Gear:
All of the SP weapons seem represented in the maps, except for the fourth type of grenade and the Geonosian Elite gun (perhaps it was just hidden somewhere and I didn't find it... I just did a 5 minute run through of each map once).
Ammo/clip counts for the weaopns are slightly different from SP, which makes sense from a balance standpoint.
You can't "adjust aim" of the pistol or standard rifle like you can in SP.
You can't cycle vision modes and your HUD seems to be preset to a minimal display (I could be wrong about the latter).
Melee works fine in MP. They do a lot of damage, but they are NOT one hit kills. Likewise they rarely if ever "splatter" your visor like in SP.
You can detonate "live" grenades early by shooting them.
In Deathmatch you seem to only be able to be a Republic Commando. You spawn with full health/shields, 2 Thermal Detonators, your Pistol (drains the clip in 8 shots, recharges just like SP), and your standard rifle with Blaster Attachment only.
"Rocket Jumping" doesn't really seem feasible.
You are limited to carrying TWO WEAPONS (+grenades). This includes attachments! You'll find Sniper Attachments and Anti Armor Attachments as pickup weapons. You have to drop a weapon in order to pick one up! So you could have like an Anti Armor and Sniper, but nothing else. I've seen Pistol pickups on some maps, but unfortunately you can't pickup a second one and go pistols akimbo (darn!).
It seems like you're limited to a max of 5 of any grenade type. You get 2 grenades per pickup.
It seems there are only three grenade types in MP (at least in Deathmatch). EC Grenades (blue silvery pillboxes), Sonic Detonators (half glowing yellow lightning bug things), and Thermal Detonators (the familiar red lined brown baseballs).
Bowcastor lacks the "charging up" animation that showed you in SP how powerful your shot was going to be. Instead you just get the steam leaking out and you have to time it yourself.
Instead of Bacta Stations, you have little glowing containers of Bacta lying around that restore your full life when you run over them.
Similar to Single Player, the bigger the gun, the slower your movement speed. The pistol lets you run around like a maniac, the Wookiee Rocket Launcher or the big trando heavy machinegun really slow you down.
There aren't any "shield pickups." Your shields regenerate automatically over time, just like in SP. You take shield damage first when hit, except from falling (and possibly headshots). Typically a glancing blow like a grenade blast nearby (but not too close) can wipe out your entire shield without killing you. A second good hit will take you down. Trandoshans's shields glow red when hit, while Commandos's glow blue.
Side to side "dodging" appears to work just like UT.
You get a full menu of taunts and orders, similar to JA's Siege (though a bit more). We'll need to find a way to bind these to keys so we can use them quicker.
When you empty a gun of ammo, you still hang onto it, and it'll keep clicking if you try to fire. The good thing is that you can hang onto a gun to use as a melee weapon, since you can concievably run out of everything and have no means of attack otherwise. If you drop the weapon in order to pickup another, the empty gun sinks into the floor and is gone.
Skins:
The Default skin (sans accessories like the default Trando) is a Clone Commando with the green stripe. If you go into "Customize" menu at the start of the game you can configure your look. You get the two basic models: Clone Commando and Trandoshan. You can then select the skin (basically clothing colors for the Trandos and Armor painting for the Troopers) and then you can select from a few voice files and attachments (bolt on shoulder pieces, leg plates, masks, arm clips, etc). The default Trandoshan wears a kind of reddish brown outfit without adornements or a mask.
You can't be a generic "metallic gray" Trooper. These were only shown in early screenshots, concept art and videos of the game before George Lucas himself apparently stepped in and insisted that the designers add in the "custom paint jobs" to Delta Squad. As a result you can't pick a simple unadorned outfit for your Clone Commando.
Since the Trandoshan always starts with the Repeater, and it has the same ammo values as the DC-17M, I'm convinced that they are functionally identical weapons in MP. So if you swap out your pistol for your opposite side's rifle, you effectively have double firepower.
You can fully customize your skin for any game mode. Customize your Commando AND your Trandoshan (hitting apply after you make changes to each) and then you're set. Anytime you're a Trandoshan, you'll be the one you set, and the rest of the time you'll be the Commando you set. This includes being a Trandoshan in Deathmatch, you simply have to setup your character ahead of time and whatever class was "last selected" in the customize section, that's what you'll appear as in game (in a Team game it will choose the class you had setup to match the team you're on). The trouble with picking a Trando to play as is, it doesn't seem to work if you're hosting a game, only joining one.
Miscellaneous Facts:
There's an apparent error in the game's manual. It claims that individual kills count towards a team's Score in CTF (or towards the victory). This might refer to "overtime" though, which could occur if the teams were tied in score and the round ended via time limit. Further testing is necessary, but I am inclined to think this was an error, since some games actually DO count kills in CTF towards a points score and towards victory.
The HUD in MP is automatically "minimalized" (it doesn't have the big fancy helmet graphics and such like in SP). Though this is probably more efficient, it doesn't look as pretty, and it would have been nice to have the option to choose it (even if it would seem out of place on Trandoshans).
The infamous "windshield wiper effect" from SP is absent, except in cases where you have been hit repeatedly in the faceplate by the enemy (thus it shows dents, cracks and bullet holes). Since this usually results in death, you respawn with the visible "damage" still on your HUD, which is then "wiped off." Not nearly as cool as SP. Though here at least you don't have to worry about not seeing through all the blood. Incidentally, where blood is concerned the Trandoshans bleed, the troopers don't (try gunning somebody down with the Heavy Repeater and see what I mean).
The Music is automatically muted (volume set to 0) and can't be changed in MP. So if you want to listen to the music tracks you'll have to extract the Ogg files and play them yourself in winamp in the background, for example.
Pointless info since you can't realistically dodge any of them, but the hits from the Rifle's blaster attachment actually hit surfaces BEFORE the beams. This isn't the case with the other weapons.
The Trandoshans have their own version of the melee blade, and they spawn with 2 thermal detonators, the pistol and the repeater. Commandos get a pistol, two td's and the Blaster attachment Commando Rifle. Anyone can use anyone's weapons of course. Trandos are just model swaps with different voices/taunts. Trandos are always the red team, and always start first in a round of Assault.
The "Announcer" for the game uses a voice similar to the species you choose. So if you are on the Trandoshan team, you'll hear a Trandoshan calling out the "Headshot"s (even if it's you getting headshot). And vice versa for the Republic team. Each side hears their own announcer voice.
Shooting up a Trandoshan's backpack doesn't make his body go flying in MP (darn!).
Although the manually says it's not supported, you can press CTRL+ESC to minimize the game to the desktop, like in UT. At least in Win2k, this doesn't appear to actually mess anything up in MP.
You can setup multiple "profiles" for multiplayer. This could be helpful not only for multiple people using the same computer (single player campaigns) but also for different key configurations. Despite the fact that there are no Force Powers to bind to keys in this game, you'll find you still need a LOT of keys, with all the taunts, orders, and other things.
When you die, your body "sticks around" for awhile before it disappears. You can thus "beat up" your own ragdoll corpse for awhile!
So far I haven't seen any destroyable equipment. The environments are nice, and you have to activate a panel on the wall with "use" to activate lifts or turn on/off blast shields (protecting a window from enemy fire).
The scoreboard features "Score" and "Deaths" in addition to showing your name and ping. In team games you're grouped within a colored box for your team.
In Team Deathmatch, when playing on maps that were designed for CTF/Assault (which is all of them but two) you will respawn in the area of your team's "base." That is Trandoshans will respawn in the "red" section, while Commandos respawn in the "blue" section, just like in those other game modes. In Deathmatch (and in Team games on the two Deathmatch specific maps) you can respawn anywhere.
The "Respawn Delay" is a rather annoying option. There is no "countdown" when you can respawn, it simply says "press fire" so you just have to know when the time is right to tap the button to reappear. Also you can't join spectator right away in a match, you have to wait until players have joined (in a team game) and then you can spectate. Thus an idle player will be stuck at the choose your team screen at the beginning of each new round.
Servers are able to use a badly functioning "weapons stay" cvar that creates Instant Respawning Items. This is generally bad because it throws off game balance. You can stand on or camp a pickup (including bacta and grenades) to get an infinite supply. Likewise you can stand on a weapon to get infinite ammo for that weapon. By default you have to wait for all pickups to respawn, but this cvar can be enabled on dedicated servers, causing chaos.
I tried various console commands and couldn't get them to work. BehindView 1 doesn't seem to work in MP, so you can't see yourself unless you die or win the match. Incidentally, BehindView 1 in single player reveals that the model you use in third person is low res (just like the demo). In MP however your third person model is high res, you just can't see it normally.
PS: If you wish to use any of the images on this page, please email or PM me for permission. I spent a lot of time making the pics, and plan to use them on a future site. So don't just steal them. Take your own danged pics! ;)