Can You Play Multiplayer on Plutonium? A Comprehensive Guide

Yes, absolutely! Plutonium is designed to facilitate multiplayer gaming for several older Call of Duty titles, offering a robust and enhanced experience compared to the standard versions. Plutonium is a third-party client that breathes new life into classic games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 3, and World at War, by providing dedicated servers, mod support, and a more stable and cheat-resistant environment. This means you can jump into matches with friends and other players easily. Let’s dive deeper into how multiplayer works with Plutonium, common questions, and some important considerations.

Understanding Plutonium’s Multiplayer Functionality

Plutonium acts as a modification that overlays on top of your legally owned copy of a supported Call of Duty game. It doesn’t offer the game itself, but rather modifies the original installation to enable its enhanced features. These modifications center around:

• Dedicated Servers: Unlike the peer-to-peer system often seen in older titles, Plutonium utilizes dedicated servers, providing a smoother, more stable, and lag-free multiplayer experience.
• Server Browser: A significant improvement over the original games is the integrated server browser. This allows you to easily find and join games hosted by other players, or create your own.
• Mod Support: Plutonium enables mod support, meaning that the game can be customized with new features, maps, and game modes, enriching the multiplayer experience even further.
• Anti-Cheat System: Plutonium includes an effective anti-cheat system that significantly reduces the number of cheaters in online lobbies, making for fairer and more enjoyable gameplay.

How to Play Multiplayer with Friends on Plutonium

Playing with friends on Plutonium is generally straightforward. The most common method involves:

1. Starting a Private Match: In the Plutonium launcher, select the game you want to play. Navigate to the online section and choose “Private Match”.
2. Inviting Friends: Plutonium provides a friends list system. You’ll see a “Friends” button in the bottom right corner of the private match lobby.
3. Invite via Friends List: Simply select the friend you want to play with and click the “Invite” button.
4. Wait for your Friends to Join: Once invited, they’ll need to be in-game to receive the invite, then they can join your private match and enjoy playing together.
5. Party Privacy: For Zombies, click the “Party Privacy” button, where you can set the maximum number of players, which can go up to 8 players. This makes setting up a large cooperative game much easier.

For World at War (WaW), the process differs slightly: you’ll need to follow your friends using a green plus icon in the top right. Once you are both following each other, your friends list within WaW will be populated, and you can easily invite each other via the “Friends” menu in the Cooperative game mode.

Hosting Your Own Server

If you want to have more control over the experience, you can host your own Plutonium server. Here are the basic steps:

1. Get a Server Key: Go to the Plutonium Server Key page and create a key for your chosen game, giving it a name.
2. Copy the Server Key: Copy the generated key.
3. Paste the Key into Start File: Open your start bat file and find the set key=xxxx line, and replace the xxxx with your server key.
4. Run the Server: Start your server, and make sure your friends can join by adding your server to the server browser.

Hosting your own server allows you to control game settings, map rotations, and more.

Plutonium Multiplayer: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions about multiplayer on Plutonium to give you a more complete understanding.

1. Does Plutonium support cross-platform play?

No, Plutonium does not support cross-platform play. You can only play with others who also have Plutonium installed and are playing on the same platform as you, typically Windows PCs.

2. Can you play local co-op (split-screen) on Plutonium?

No, Plutonium does not support local co-op or split-screen. Even if it were technically possible, identifying separate players on the same PC would be a challenge, not to mention the potential for bans affecting multiple users on a single machine.

3. How many players can play zombies on Plutonium?

The number of players you can have in a zombies lobby on Plutonium depends on the game. Generally, you can set the max player count up to 8 for all the supported Call of Duty zombie games (WaW, BO1, and BO2).

4. Is Plutonium free to use?

Yes, Plutonium is free. The modification and its services are offered without cost. They only ask that you enjoy the experience and treat the community with respect. However, it’s important to note that you need a legally owned copy of the base game to use Plutonium.

5. Why can’t I join my friends on Plutonium?

Connectivity issues can arise from a few causes. Firewall settings, particularly ones that are too strict, can sometimes block Plutonium. You should also ensure that you are seeing a decent number of servers in the browser, as this helps confirm that there are no major networking issues on your end.

6. Can you play Black Ops 2 Zombies with Plutonium?

Yes, Plutonium is an excellent resource for playing older zombies games, including Black Ops 2. It offers a single launcher for WaW, BO1, and BO2, with improved settings and a dedicated server browser.

7. Can you force start a zombies game when only a few players are ready?

Yes, you can force the game to wait in the loading screen until a certain number of players have connected. Use the command sp_minplayers 2 in the console, replacing ‘2’ with the desired number of players needed before starting the game.

8. Can you play the campaign single-player on Plutonium?

No, Plutonium focuses solely on the online/multiplayer experience. Single-player campaigns are outside the scope of the modifications offered by Plutonium.

9. Is Plutonium legal to use?

Plutonium itself is legal to use as long as you own a legitimate copy of the base game. It is a modification, not a replacement for the full game. It is the plutonium element used in pacemakers and other things that is not legal for regular possession and is not the same as the Plutonium client.

10. Do I need the original game files to play on Plutonium?

Yes, you absolutely need the original game files to play on Plutonium. Plutonium modifies these files to enable its functionality. Without the base game, Plutonium cannot run.

11. Why do people play on Plutonium instead of the original games?

Many people prefer Plutonium due to its superior anti-cheat measures, dedicated servers, server browser, and mod support, all of which enhance the multiplayer experience.

12. Does Plutonium work with Steam?

Yes, you can link Plutonium to your Steam account. This allows your playtime to be tracked in Steam, your Steam friends list will be available, and the steam overlay will still work. This will still launch the Plutonium version of the game.

13. Can you play custom maps on Plutonium?

Yes, Plutonium supports custom maps. To use custom maps, first load them via the “Mods” menu in the launcher, then start the map through the console using the command map mapname (you can get the map name from the files located in the Plutonium mods folder).

14. Is Plutonium safe to download and use?

Yes, Plutonium is safe to download. Your antivirus may flag it as a false positive, but the developers have worked hard on the project and it is widely regarded as a clean client.

15. Can you get banned on Plutonium?

Yes, you can get banned on Plutonium for cheating. If you’re caught cheating, you’ll initially receive a temporary ban. If the cheating persists, the account will be banned permanently, and no further information regarding the ban will be given.

Conclusion

Plutonium significantly enhances the multiplayer experience for several older Call of Duty games. By addressing issues like lag and cheating, and offering dedicated servers, a server browser, and mod support, Plutonium breathes life back into these classic titles, allowing players to enjoy them with friends and other users. If you own a copy of the relevant Call of Duty games, Plutonium is certainly worth exploring to enhance your multiplayer experience.