Spring RTS Engine

I don't know whether it's a decided behaviour.

AN OPEN STATE SHOULD MEAN A GAME YOU CAN PLAY WITHOUT WAITING FOR AGES.

I don't care about any points on this, this is pure nonsense IMO.

Don't like it? Find another host or host a game yourself.

The server needs to be changed to allow 'open-ingame' status. Right now such a state doesn't exist, so it sends 'open'.

hmm, maybe I should start a thread

what i hate is when springie hosts CA game and it seems open but its really in progress. Feck it, i am not joining anymore, this is insulting me.

El Capitano wrote:Don't like it? Find another host or host a game yourself.

You don't understand. I've always been hosting when I wanted to and it's not a problem for me. I don't play much anymore et I sometimes spec. When I wanna spec, I join the 1st fullest game in the battle list.

Since autohosts are faking open games (the game is running and the battle is open), this trap is a pain for everyone :

Many players are joining cause the game is the fullest one, then they don't understand, wait a moment and leave cause the game won't start for an hour.

Another game could have been full and started in the time people waste to wander in those stupid faked open autohosted games.

Is that so hard to understand ?

ginekolog wrote:what i hate is when springie hosts CA game and it seems open but its really in progress. Feck it, i am not joining anymore, this is insulting me.

This is what I'm talking about. Nice to see I'm not alone to be fucked up by this crappy behaviour.

lurker wrote:The server needs to be changed to allow 'open-ingame' status. Right now such a state doesn't exist, so it sends 'open'.

I don't understand why such a state should exist.

Masure wrote:You don't understand. I've always been hosting when I wanted to and it's not a problem for me. I don't play much anymore et I sometimes spec. When I wanna spec, I join the 1st fullest game in the battle list.

I understand plenty. Autohosts advertise they have a game in progress when you join, it's not like it's being sneaky and not telling you.

Many players are joining cause the game is the fullest one, then they don't understand, wait a moment and leave cause the game won't start for an hour.

What is not to understand? They join and a big purple message tells them there is already a game in progress. Personally, I like the idea of the open-ingame status to allow people to spot this before joining, but it's hardly a major stumbling block.

Another game could have been full and started in the time people waste to wander in those stupid faked open autohosted games.

Why don't you ask the people who are there but not in game? Those people are there to play, suggest that you'll host a game and they can join yours.

Well, perhaps if for some reason you want to join that particular host, you can, even if the game is in progress. That way you can't miss it when they are going for another round. And how hard is it to see people are ingame? Everyone's status is "ingame", the autohost informs you the game is in progress and, with springie relaying chat between game and lobby, you can ask if the battle is in progress and how far, etc. Doesn't need godlike skills of deduction.

lurker wrote:The server needs to be changed to allow 'open-ingame' status. Right now such a state doesn't exist, so it sends 'open'.

I don't think we need to create a new 'open-ingame' client status. In my view currently we have two independant states which allow every combination we need:

• host "in game" status: "normal"/"in game"
• battle "locked" status: "unlocked"/"locked"

So, simply allowing users to join running battles sould do the trick. We can still lock the battle when starting the game if we don't want people to be able to join it when it's running (auto-lock when starting and auto-unlock when ending would then be lobby clients options).

I didn't actually mean a new status flag, per se, but the server (along with the lobby) needs to not block you from joining an ingame battle, allowing it in some cases to be open. The plan I thought of for maximum backwards compatibility was to have the server automatically lock the game when it starts, and anyone wanting to be open should send a separate unlock command after starting the battle. Then tasclient and possibly springlobby need to not block join attempts, since that's already the server's job, and both need minor icon set changes.

lurker wrote:The plan I thought of for maximum backwards compatibility was to have the server automatically lock the game when it starts, and anyone wanting to be open should send a separate unlock command after starting the battle.

If you want to keep the same behaviour as currently even with non-updated lobby clients, then the server will also have to automatically unlock the battle at the end of the game, but only if the game was not locked manually before the start of the game I'm not sure the server should be in charge of doing all this...
Is it really a problem to change the default "joinable" state of an in-game battle, as long as we provide a way to change it in lobby clients with "autolock-on-starting" and "autounlock-on-ending" options (which can be set to values that mimic current behaviour by default) ? I don't think it brakes any compatibility for older clients, it just changes default behaviour...

+1 for "open, but in-game" status.

imbaczek wrote:+1 for "open, but in-game" status.

Yes, but I like what others have said - use the existing "red box" status to mean that, and add the "red-box-with-locked-hand" status as the current "in-game" status, since most players want the game to be locked when in-game.

I used to be angry with open but in-game games too but then I noticed they are an awesome help for setting up games as you dont have to worry about monitoring the lobby to get a game, especially from a small mod... instead you join a autohost, If the game is in progress you wait doing whatever you fell like doing and then it ends it rings you (if you commanded so) and you get in the next game. Beside making it easier to play it also encourages greater game sizes, another big help for small mods.

Go tell springie to stop hosting. good luck convincing him.

I'm open to convincing as far as changing the settings.

Tribulex wrote:Go tell springie to stop hosting. good luck convincing him.

Her. I think Springie is definitely female.

I think I have free time this weekend!