I had an idea that the "Ready" button could serve as 2 step button to both generate a system and then signal ready for game to start.... 1, The ready button should be labeled "Generate system" then once it's clicked you start generating the currently selected or hosted system. 2, The button should then change to an orange or red "Generating" button, until system is loaded and during this time it would be disabled/unclickable. 3, Once the system is loaded the "Ready" button turns green and a player can then click to signal ready status or start the game.. Players could also have the pregame lobby system generation dot that was in beta next to their names in the lobby so everyone can see if they have generated their system's yet.. Nothing advanced just red for not generated then green for generated.
Did some quick draft pic's of the idea for the ready button in the lobby.. The ready button should be labeled "Generate system" then once it's clicked you start generating the currently selected or hosted system, Once it has been clicked the button should then change to an orange or red "Generating" button, Until system is loaded and during this time it would be disabled/unclickable. Once the system is loaded the "Ready" button turns green and a player can then click to signal ready status or start the game.. Added in the dot from the beta build.. (each player should have this dot next to their name to show if they have loaded the system yet)
I'm a little hesitant on this system, forcing players to load before they hit ready. Mainly because the current system doesn't allow the game to start until everyone has readied up. What if someone has a bug/crash when loading, does this system paralyze the entire lobby. Saying that, I am VERY willing to try this out and see if it would work. It seems like a very easy and informative system that wouldn't confuse anyone.
if this style of system pre-generation was to happen i guess it would only be client side, so if anyone crashes during this part they will just drop out of the lobby... when every one has generated the hosted system client side and clicked ready the host would then click start game and the server would then generate the hosted system and everyone would then join at the same time when the server finishes it's part of the generation. the server takes far less time to generate the system than clients as its not textured or loading detailed 3d models, its nothing more than a bunch of collision boxes being animated by the sim and then synced to the clients..
side note... if we all had our system pre-generated like this client side in the lobby, and the server did it's generation when the start game button is clicked by the host, in theory everyone should start/see the starting area selection in game at the same time. it would also eliminate the " i didn't get to pick my starting area" issue for clients that take a long time to generate systems
Fair, but and I would assume that would be the system. But the lobby doesn't drop people instantly and client server connection fails sometimes tale 30 sec to a minute to register. These situations need to be accounted for and even happen on good connections.
