Lobby Decisions - How to start a game?

The host should be able to kick people, and promote a different person to host.

like a vice president in case he "dies".

I can't find fault with this... Though the psuedo Ready concept is somewhat grotesque.

A promote button is doable although there is a UI question about where it should be.

Keep 'em coming. I will summarize what we are doing tomorrow (going to look similar to what I started with so far but some really good tweaks coming in).

well if we can move to a more general idea, how about having the games list on 1/4 of the left hand side screen it really needn't take up that much space. side-by side is crucial I think.


ignore the create game in that image.
once in a lobby you could see the other hosts and switch to another but not create one.

@neutrino, I think the new lobby is slick and I also believe that its not fair to pass judgment on the new lobby without even giving your plans a chance to fully hatch. I cant speak for everyone so this is purley my opinion.

I am looking forward to more game options in lobby like multi planet starts and no nukes etc.

I like your proposed changes. I don't want to have to wait until everyone hits ready. This can still be abused by dicks who join the last slot and then don't hit ready on purpose. Then we all say "rdy up please, hey u there? rdy plz plz" and they refuse or went afk as soon as they joined w/e. Regardless though there has to be a kick option. I don't like the idea of people being able to vote out the host simply because groups of dicks will join and vote kick the host out and hijack the game.

any model can be abused.
if the host is the troll he can click ready repeatedly even though everybody tries to cancel it out.

I feel the ONLY acceptable solution is having each player have a ready button which the host CANNOT override, I almost always host my games, but I would never join other channels with friends if the host can autostart like they do now. Trying to get 2 people on the same team without even knowing the game is set for 2v2v2v2v2 or 5v5 and joining a lobby only to find out someone else joined at the same time (not your m8) and the host auto-launch because I can/don't want lobby members to be upset that I take the time to figure out if the new members even want to play is awful.

Furthermore host being able to override has significant issues, me and my m8's often team up together and one might have to do some chore during the first couple minutes of the game, sure he's afk but we know/accept that. If I go afk with my agreed buddy then the host kicks him and starts the game whoever plays with me had ought to be pissed.

that example...is a perfect example of how people will troll the lobby if they can cancel the game start by unclicking ready.

yes any model can be abused and giving too many options to something that doesn't need it just makes it more likely to happen.

You should already be completely ready to play if you join a game lobby.

All it needs is a ready button, host can kick, and a SHORT countdown. Anything more is completely unnecessary and just opens game lobbies up to time wasting trolls.

no it isn't since it's the model used in SupCom And SupComFA and SupCom2 to this day and with FaF and it's had tremendous sucess with a community excelling above all others, they must have been doing something right.

Oh don't forget "kick" vs "banhammer for life" option.

The current solution sounds fine to me. I hate when people join any multiplayer game lobby then go afk and hold everyone else up. If you aren't ready to play, why are you joining the lobby?

The proposed solution sounds like it would just cause confusion to the player. The host might think he is supposed to hit ready and then the game starts. Then all the other players will be wondering why they even have a ready button.

Also, since there's only 1 race, there isn't much excuse for the joining player to not be ready other than maybe they don't get the color they want, which is pretty minor, and could easily be fixed by having something in the options that auto-chooses your preferred color if it's available.

The only real issue to deal with is when you are waiting for a lobby to fill up. In this case, people tend to alt-tab and surf the web. I'm not sure how they did it, but Blizzard was able to auto-maximize the game window when a game started to handle just this case. Maybe PA can do the same?

Guys I think I have a good idea. There are two main problems that need to be addressed:

1. everyone has to be actually ready when the game starts; not the "I clicked ready and then walked away" kind of ready, the I'm sitting here and want to start kind
2. people who are for one reason or another unable to participate, either disconnected or whatever

I believe this could be a viable solution. The owner is the only one with a start button, when the owner starts, a countdown of 1:00 starts. Each player then has a "Ready" button appear for them. If each player touches this ready button within the countdown, then the game begins. Anyone who fails to press it will be kicked, and the lobby is reverted to the planning phase.

I think this is a really good option, so I'll bold it and say it again:

• the lobby owner presses START
• each player has a READY button appear
• if every player hits READY within a minute, the game starts
• any player who fails to do so is kicked and the owner must restart the countdown

Keep it coming.

I love this type of discussion, it makes me so happy. I dont think I have EVER seen any other devs out right go and ask the community how something should be implemented.

Now, my thoughts. What are the potential problems with lobbies/What do we find most annoying about them?


1. Dead lobbies. A player or host is AFK and prevents the game from starting. This outright stops the game from starting and can fill up the game list with trash.

2. Games that start without somebody. While not as bad as #1, it can often doom a team that starts a man down. See League of Legends lobby.

3. Any time a player is not 100% aware what type of game they are getting into or it starts before they are ready. I have had hosts change settings right before starting the game, I find this rather annoying.

4. Too many options, the GUI should be clean and straightforward.

I cant think of any others, but I'm sure other people have them. Before we try to solve a problem, lets make sure we know what all the parts are! Append this list if you come up with more.

I like the ideas that are going around:

Host makes the rule
Host starts the game by default. In most scenarios this is the wanted option. The host can be notified of the players conditions but can start the game whenever they want. Generally because they are organizing a game they are there.

However, in the game lobby (and visible only the host) there will be an option to allow the game to be started by a vote or just when everyone hits ready. This way if the host decides to leave, or doesn't care when you start, he can select this method. Also the host can overide this at any time with a game start.


Player notifications
The notification system wouldn't start a game, but just inform the host on the state of the players in the lobby.

Players should have a ready or "Good to go button" that won't do anything but signify that they are there and present. As info to the host and the other players that they are there. Just a simple green thumbs up means they are there, a red thumbs down telling the host that they are not ready, and a yellow away from keyboard symbol to let people know they are afk. A message at the top of the lobby will appear in any senario and say what the condition of the players is. If noone has selected an icon it will say nothing. If all players have selected green/ready/good-to-go icon, it will say "All players ready". If a (just one person has to vote not ready) votes red/not ready, the lobby will say 'Player(s) not ready', and if some selects the yellow/afk icon, the lobby will say "Player(s) is/are afk".

All icons would appear on the players name bar on the rights side, opposite their name, but greyed out. When a player hovers over them, a tool tip will apear with what the icon means, and that icon will produce a faint color change. When a player selects that icon it will become a full green/red/yellow. The player will not see the options of other players, and will only see one of the icons once a player has selected that one.

Now these symbols do not have to be permanent (as players will hit ready then walk away from the screen). You can use a system where the green 'good to go' and red "not ready" will appear for 30 seconds then disappear. The yellow afk symbol will remain on until the player returns to the game and deactivates it or selects one of the other icons.

This system can also be modified so the host can request the players to use one of these systems, in a forced vote. Red icon and green icon. The players will have 30 seconds to vote. If they vote ready, the vote will end, a message will appear, or say at the top of the lobby that all players are ready in green. If someone (just one person votes no), the vote will end and the lobby will say 'Player(s) not ready' in red. If a player doesn't vote over the thirty seconds, the vote will end and all players who didn't vote will have a yellow afk symbol next to their names, the lobby will also say 'Some Player(s) are/is afk'.

Whatever the senario this won't be a vote to start, but a signal if the host should start the game or not. You could however modify this system to start the game in a different version.

Player Vote Out Host
Players then have the ability to vote out the host if the host is afk, and has not activated the feature to enable the lobby players to vote on game start. A certain percentage of the players (based on settings in the server) can switch the host out for another player.

There can also be options where admins can't be kicked, or a server can turn these options off. The default should be something like 75% of player vote to switch the host, or 66% (3 players). A different system would take place for two player games.

Additional thoughts
-Host abilities:

• Kick needs to be fixed.
  
• Host needs the option to move players between different teams.
  
• Ability for host to give/switch with another player.
  
• Changing the password for the server on the fly, and on/off.
  
• Ability for host to change the name of the lobby

-Player abilities

• A poke system that players can send to another player in the lobby that will display a message to that player with a noise/ding. Host has the option of turning this off for all players in the lobby.

Thanks!
Well thanks for reading this! AND MAKE SURE UBER READS THIS!

One of the most irritating things about the lobby now is there is no way to kick problem players or to move people to other teams. If I want to have my cousin on my team it is a pain if he doesn't join right away.

Next, it seems that only 25% of the time in 2vs2 there are actually 4 people in the game playing. Someone on the other team apparently is afk or didn't load. Really sucks to be 5 minutes into a game an scout a single commander sitting there. Feels like a complete waste of time. There is no penalty for players leaving. There is no ranking at all.(all in due time)

Next, the developers should really try playing this on a normal internet connection to say from the US to Australia on DSL using WIFI to get a feel for what is happening to a lot of players. The screen "generating planets" is so slow and doesn't use my bandwidth up at all. (10mb/s) It seems to trickle in slowly starting very low and ending up at only 100kb or less per second (monitored via resource monitor). The same system in the system editor loads within 4 seconds or less..

YES

This is crucial. You have no idea how many people would "yell" at other players to ready up when they are generating.

I have forwarded this to the team to make sure we double check this. The bandwidth should not be throttled during this process.