Lobby Issues

Hey guys,

There is quite a lot of issues with the lobby on PA, some are really nasty, to me it is a mistake to not have them at the very top of the ToDo list.
The lobby is more or less the first thing the player see, if it don't work properly, the first thing the player will see about PA, it's that.

About the said problems,here is the list of what i can think of, bugs or misdesign :
- The absence of a ready button. It ISN'T a good thing never will be. If the host has all powers it mean that he can start the game before you have selected what you wanted, and it happend. The all mighty ready button system + force ready established on high majority has never received any complaint, it always work well for everybody. Why forcing the good guy host to ask to everybody if he's ready ?
- The ability for the host to change game rules, solar system, etc when the game is public. When a player join a game, he join it because what he have seen on the lobby explorer is what he wanted, how many time the lobby get from 1vs1 to 1vs1vs1vs1vs1vs1vs1 or 2vs2 or even 2vs2vs2vs2... Same thing for the solar system, getting from 2-3 planets to 9 by the time you connect... The ability to add an AI is ok i guess, it can be usefull to some to fill a lobby that has a hard time getting players. But to me what define a game (Game mode and "Map" should be locked).
- The absence of information relative to the size of the planets. A single number on top of the art of the planet would be more that enough.
- The very low refresh rate on both the lobby explorer and the lobby itself. It makes joining a game a lottery, is the game still available (the now famous "Failed to join game") ? Is the guy still here or is he offline ?
- Lack of a list showing who is on the lobby, if a player hasn't selected a slot, nobody can see him.
- Minor thing, but a rolling menu to select the comm and the color would be a lot easier.
- And a pretty bad one, the "connection to server lost" at the join attempt, but i've red that it's being working on.

Thanks for reading.

It does get annoying. I keep joining games that appear to be 1v1, only to find that the host just set it like that to get someone to join before changing it to a large team game or ffa. People don't like to wait for a 10 payer game to fill up, so some game hosts have learned to trick their first player into joining this way.

They are. I don't know if you've noticed but we've been patching it EVERY SINGLE DAY.

+1 on the ready button, w/ majority override.

-1 on the no changes after lobby is joined; what if the consensus is to make a change? gotta clear out and everybody find the new game? a ready button that gets deselected upon any changes would take care of this anyway...

i gotta figure planet info and dropdown lists for comms & colors are planned. it's the only thing that makes sense.

I do that kind of stuff all the time. In sup com I used to add like 4 computers to start so people say "Oh look, 5/8 players lets join!" only to find out 4 of them are computers LOL. Most of the time I'm able to remove computers as people join.

I also used to start the map off as Seatons, only to change to map to a less popular 1 I wanted to play from the beginning when it's full and then start the game quickly before anyone notices.

Also, when I'm playing with RL friends we start off on opposite teams so people don't know we are "pub stomping" then at the last minute (kicking players if necessary) we all join up on the same team.

It is true, I am an *******, but whatever. Those are minutes of my life I'm not wasting in exchange for the hate of random people I'll never meet so it's a good trade to me

These are fairly large changes, so if we do change them it won't be in the next couple of days.

The person who starts the lobby is the owner of the lobby has been the thinking. Letting them change things has pros and cons. For instance if you force people to lock it in then you cannot change it...

But maybe we are giving the owner too much power.

there is such a thing?

I dislike the fact that once you hit ready you stay ready. I've hit ready beofre when the game looks good, then my partner left, some1 joined my team just to change my colour so they could rejoin their team and steal it, then the game starts while everyone has a partner but me... So Awesome!

I also wish you could preview at least the basic info of the planets of a map. Game says 7 planets so no1 wants to join even though 6 of them are tiny 3 halley moons...

Maybe a "Host has left the game, so this lobby will be terminated now" would've been good enough.
I think FA has it and it has never been an issue.

NO!!! Bad idea. Often I have to leave and rejoin games I host just to get the chat to work...

Depends on what is easier to fix: The chat issue or the "we need to transfer the godly lobby creator power" issue.

Dont forget to add so other players can switch to alliance or share army mode. As of now only the host can change which is very annoying. But keep up the good work I know there buggs and you guys will fix them like usual . The game is great.

In other games Ive played like RUSE (rts game) . The player had a check mark next to his name in a box. So you can ready and unready at any period. But once you readied you could not change your army or team. You had to unready and change your team then ready up again.

I prefer that the host can change the settings, as it allows post-lobby creation alterations to the game mode if people want to change. I can accept that some people will abuse this function if it makes things more flexible, but we'll see.

This is why we can't have nice things

The host should be able to do whatever he wants to do, it is his lobby... and I do of course assume that people are communicating with each other in the lobby.
I also hope that the ban/kick ability will come back as well.

I'm sorry, i didn't said that that way. I know you have made some serious improvement.
I just wanted to insist on the importance of some of the points i've made, like the ready button, that everybody wants back since day 1 or the refresh rate, which bugs me since i've first started, when the beta came out.

To me, a public lobby is a definitive lobby. When you publish something, it's final. Changing it is not fair to other players. If everyone wants a change, there is a lot of possibilities, an "Unlock settings" button for example.
The host has the right to make the game he wants, that's the all point of being host, but not if it mean that other players will be deceived.

@iron420 : It's exactly because of people like you that everything has to be locked to be sure that someone won't exploit it. "LOL ! I don't care, i don't know them". Be proud of this one, it's pure gold.
It always amaze me that people really think that being a **** to people they don't need is ok. That's not like it is the exact definition of being a **** afterall.

Don't worry, I am. Being an ******* is why I'm successful IRL. Literally. Pro tip: Nice guys finish last. Sooner you realize that the sooner you stop losing

Chalk my "exploits" up the "Gamma Testing" lol

I would like my children to grow up in a world where people don't have to screw other people over to be "successful". It's one of the main things we haven't yet worked out to do as a species. I've been a nice guy my whole life, and have ended up okay, so we'll see how it goes.

Back on topic, my most anticipated feature return for the lobbys is indeed a ready up button.

I think the button needs to say something like "Ready to Annihilate"

I agree, making changes although the game had different settings in the beginning can be annoying... but who does that? You should tell the host... another point is, in Supreme Commander for example, join a lobby and those people have wishes... why should the host not be able to make changes if everyone agrees? It would be a pain if you would have to abandon the full lobby and re-host the game just because people had a common wish... and the host agreed to do it.