In regards to DA4 MP's netcode, and Vermintide 2

steamcommunity.com/app/235540/discussions/1/1473095965302283926/

This isn't what I saw, I don't frequent the Steam chats (and it is more than 6 months out of date) but it seems to suggest that maybe it might be a rarity amongst MP games? Although a further scroll down the google search page shows Vermintide 2 'cracks', so who knows.

With regards to Denuvo, my only experience with it is DA:I and recently MEA. It was much hyped pre-DA:I as eating SSDs. DA:I has been on an SSD since December 2014 and that SSD is still alive and well (save scummer that I am )

I strongly agree with the OP that BioWare really need to do their homework if they plan to release another multiplayer game. I am making my comparisons based on the following experience:

- I extensively played a number of peer-to-peer, 4 player co-op games with the same circle of friends from all over Europe (Germany, England, Finland, Sweden, Greece) over the years. These games were Left 4 Dead (2008), Left 4 Dead 2 (2009), Mass Effect 3 (2012) and Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014).
- I pugged the hell out of Vermintide (2015) with people from all over Europe, including Russia and Ukraine (I can tell because the Vermintide lobby browser tells you the country a host is located in).
- I play Mass Effect Andromeda (2017) multiplayer with my BSN speshul squad, also from all over Europe.
- Between ME3 and DAI, I upgraded my interwebs from 16 mbit/s to 100 mbit/s.
- I may or may not use the term "netcode", something that according to certain devs does not exist, during the rest of my post. If I do, this term will refer to the code that handles the data transfer between host and clients and how it translates to what you see on screen. Savvy?

Of all the games mentioned above, BioWare's offerings sadly have the most problems that are generally not found at all in any of the other games.
- ME3MP simply refuses to connect certain players. I definitely cannot connect to at least one member of my BSN squad, despite multiple attempts on different days. If we want to play together, we have to find a person we both can connect to and make them the host. Also, lag can lead to a weird, sometimes temporary desync where your character can still move and see what's going on, but cannot deal or receive any damage.
- DAMP suffered from crippling lag on release, so badly that the matches that ran in a playable state were actually the minority. Rubberbanding was a daily reality. I don't know if this was ever improved or fixed, since everyone I knew as well as myself stopped playing it for good before the year ended.
- MEAMP's teleporting fiend that can grab you through a ceiling has probably become the stuff of legend. The other games mentioned above also have enemies of that size - Left 4 Dead games have the Tank and the Charger, Vermintide and now Vermintide 2 have the rat ogre, storm fiend, chaos spawn and bile troll - and they're all handled just as smoothly as the normal sized mobs. As far as the presence of general lag in that game is concerned, I find it a bit hard to tell, since I'm never quite sure whether the enemy AI is just being retarded again or constantly correcting a flawed movement prediction. Given the fluidity of player movement and lack of rubberbanding it's most likely the former though.

In contrast to that, the Left 4 Dead and Vermintide games just work and their MP gameplay is so smooth that it is undistinguishable from a single player round with bots, an option both of those franchises offer.

In addition to those likely netcode related problems, BioWare's MP games suffered from connection unrelated issues like ME3MP's "lol enemy accuracy vs moving targets is based on the host's frames per second" or MEAMP's match difficulty being influenced by the host's single player settings and initial poor weapon balance.

That said, I found the Mass Effect MP games a nice addition and didn't judge them too harshly, since MP was not the main focus of those games. I enjoyed the shooting and the opportunity to do more in the ME universe than going through the story. DAMP just wasn't for me, there was not a single aspect of the game that I enjoyed. If DA4 offers solid single player story fun, I won't be overly fussed over how much I will or won't like the multiplayer part.

Anthem, however, will be a multiplayer focused game, so if it releases with ME3MP's connection issues, DAMP's rubberbanding or MEAMP's initial weapon balance and handling of large enemies, it will likely sink faster than a leaden duck.