This is an interesting situation. How can the game handle a multiplayer campaign with 3 or 4 different opposed factions?
At the moment it can't (and even the AI FFA crashes despite working before), which is why multiplayer campaign modes are limited to 2v2: Imperials and Zealots. The other two factions vanish (and you switch to one of the others) once a second person joins. I really hope it's just a temporary removal, because I think a 3 or 4-person free for all campaign could be fun to play.
In an AI FFA Campaign, it's easy because those battles are auto-resolved, but how should the game handle it when two factions enter RTS mode, but the third or fourth have no units in the fight? In 2v2 with players, if any one person wants to do battle in RTS mode, they all must for synchronization reasons. They can't have other players sitting on the side twiddling their thumbs while the other two factions join.
It's a tricky thing to solve. I only see one reasonable solution: In a multiplayer FFA, if there's an RTS battle, all the sides join in. The players who have no units start with no units, just like in 2v2 if they didn't play units or mercenary cards.
If one of the two primary factions wins, it's business as usual. If a no-unit player wins the FFA, they get control of the country, but since they have no units, they have none on the Strategy map after the RTS phase ends. Any surviving or retreated enemy units are retreated out of it as normal.
With no units on that country, anyone can just swoop in to claim it without a fight, so this FFA no-unit victor will have to move units in from a neighboring country, or build a war factory. Yes, it doesn't really make sense for a country which is halfway across the map to possibly gain control over a random other country. Maybe just think of them as a covert commando team pulling off a coup?
Does anyone else have any ideas for how to make a 3 or 4 player free-for-all work in multiplayer?
