jump into an already started game?

so, would this possible, maybe a possible request

if there is a free player slot OR AI playing your able to occupy the free slot or take over an AI player after the game has already started, might be a tad unfair if the game has been going on for a while, i think it could be a good feature though.

No.

Yes.

Already talked about favourably by neutrino. Read the list of features and suggested features. ;D

This is a great idea.

If it can be implemented well (which it might thanks to !planets!) then it will provide a way for me to call my friends in (or as an mmo vet start up another client on the second screen).

If it is implemented poorly then I will love it when new sources of scrap metal pop up next to my base or near my roaming armies of doom.
:evil laugh:

Hi,

Hello BM,

must have missed that in the other thread !blush!

great news!

it would be totally AWESOME also if co-op campaign is implimeted and were able to
allow friends to join whenever they want.. for long tough games this would be totally awesome.

cheers.

In the context of taking over another player's units in a team game. The OP is talking about just having players randomly join other games that are in progress, which is a terrible idea. In a 1v1, think you're doing pretty well? Nope, an ACU just spawned in one of your expansions, and the resources you'll expend crushing it will cost you the game. All this "feature" can cause is people randomly losing games because they were the closest player to the newcomer. Newcomers have zero chance of winning if they join after the first minute (and a very slim chance of winning if even if they do, since seconds count).

For the record:

What it says in xedi's thread is misleading, it should probably be changed.

Hi jurgenvonjurgensen,

maybe your incorrect about how "some" games/servers will be run, we do not know the scale of such games, maybe they will be of epic proportations in which case, later joining players will not tip the balance so much, it changes the game slightly, in that if your winning and the opponent brings in a player and teams with him to beat you.... KEW

i think there is a misconception about this game, its an RTS yes, but its different to other rts games, there will be small quick games ofcourse, but im getting the idea from the devs that there will also huge epic multi-multi planetary scale warefare going on maybe interstella different galaxy type games that last days :| joining these types of games would be fun, where there is already established players and AI going at it, there could even be invasion gametypes, where some alien race is in one "galaxy" and all humans in another, we have to go and invade the other galaxy and beat the extremely fortified hard AI to win that game, it could never end haha..

who knows how game servers will be run,
all i know is that i have many many things running through my mind..
i just hope that the speculation lives upto the actual game..

its gonna be totally AWESOME 4sure!

I could see it working in the galactic war. But it should not be overused.
On important battle like the last solar system of a clan is under attack, there could be reinforcement rules which could add awsemness to the last battle.

As long as there's a toggle to allow joiners or not, this could be interesting.

I can't honestly see how somebody could join an existing game and be competitive, but there are probably ways that the game could account for that that I haven't thought of.

Make it a lobby option, and disable it for ranked games.

Now was that so hard?

It'd be a perfect addition to a persistent real-time GW.

I'd be ok with taking over an ai. Other games do this, such as Star Ruler (completely drop-in drop-out) and Shogun 2 (for the actual battles, not the campaign ai).

Not sure about dropping in a new ACU though. It would possibly make sense in the context of Galactic War, say a third party wanted to drop in for the hell of it or for backup, but not really elsewhere. And obviously a 1v1 wouldn't have OPEN player or ai slots, so it wouldn't be possible anyway.

I'd say just go with sharing units, like Shogun 2. Gift some units to the other people joining on your side so you can all play, unless that person joined the game at the lobby as a player with their own army. Add in some options so this can be turned off and on as liked.

Huh... I don't know about this.

How do you keep new players from getting crushed?

And if they are kept alive by some contrived "spawn shield" for a set amount of time, it's going to be really annoying when people join games that are otherwise wrapping up.

Joining to take over a quitter should be okay though, so long as they didn't meet the conditions for defeat when they quit(ACU still alive, etc) though most likely they quit because they were in ****-shape, and it's not going to be fun for a new player to try and fix the broken mess they walk into.

Well, I'd assume a new joiner would spawn next to or in a friendly base. Not in a random spot who knows where. Assuming shared resources, they would be able to build themselves up over time without necessarily needing to immediately join the fight.

At that point though, it's extremely similar to sharing units and there's not much reason to have a secondary ACU. Maybe they could make beaming in an actual ACU be a risk/reward situation?

Then again, I'm also assuming only two 'factions' fighting each other. If there are more than that many teams in the galactic war, I don't think a completely unrelated player in a battle could join in unless they had an army nearby. And then, what does an 'army' mean in the context of the PA metagame? Too many unknowns, but I guess that's what these threads are for. Voicing ideas and then waiting for the Devs to drip feed a few snippets of info

Hi,

some of these points are obviously valid, if joining an already started game and you dont know any of the players, the most prudant thing for me would be to -

seek help from another player and maybe get a transport to one of there planets.

or

tough it out for the win cause im totally awesome.

if you know someone on the server
team with them and get a transport to a safe place.

obviously if its a serious game then the game should be secured before hand so that
others cannot join, if you join an already started game you know what is going to happen, you will either get smashed in a short period of time depending on map size and game time or you will team with others, who knows maybe the other players will leave you alone for a while and continue there orginal strategy in smashing the other players.

for gw this should be 100% implimented so we can join games on a team and just blow **** up for fun

if joining started games to play is not implimeted then joining as a spectator should be 100% added, i love joining my clan servers some nights and just watching and chatting in game with my friends as they play. (on other games)

I also see this leading too gangs running around ruining random games and just making people angry for lolz.

I like the idea of slots that can be filled by people, so that you know how many can and preferably an alert if someone new joins. And a check box that can be selected to allow disallow late comers. I think being able to join a team after you join a game shouldn't be done, as that leads down a path to switching sides which I feel is more place for abuse.

yeah thats what the banlist is for server side giggle.

lets just not forgot that IF this is added, its not mandatory, the user can set there server up however they want, they can either allow this or not, personally id allow it, in every game you play online there is always someone that tries to spoil games, there is always means and ways to get rid of such offenders.

I agree to that.

If you want to play a strict 1v1 "get rankings or die trying" match then just start up a map with you, one open slot, and all other slots closed. Then you are good to go. Also like many options in an RTS it will probably be optional.

What this feature would be great for is LAN parties. How many of you have been playing a long game (10 hour Civ 5 marathon) at a LAN party, then someone shows up late, or they die early on and don't want to spend the next 9 hours watching others play.

That's why a lot of arena games are popular at LAN parties, not because they are better, but because you can have people freely joining and leaving at their leisure.

I'd say make it optional, and if a new player wants to join your existing game just plop them down with an ACU and a pile of engineers (based on how long the game has been running) on a distant spawn point somewhere. Yeah it's not a perfect option but it's better than having an 8 person LAN party with 7 people still in the game and one poor bastard killing time on YouTube waiting for you to finish the match.