Game rooms

[JeeZ]

Edit: This post was posted some time ago in the private forum. Since Spring is GPL now and other people than Jou are working on the multiplayer client etc, I moved it to this forum

I must admit that I haven├óÔé¼Ôäót been on the Zone or other game services for a long time. But I remember that one problem with all of these services was to actually get a game started ├óÔé¼ÔÇ£ at least if you cared a little bit about who was going to be in the game.

Sometimes you want a play a game with some specific players/friends. Sometimes you just want to make sure that the players that join have all of the required expansion packs, units, maps etc. Another problem is that some users are just being a pain in the ass, not accepting that they are not allowed in the game.

Just allowing the game room ├óÔé¼┼ôowner├óÔé¼┬Ø (the one who created the room) to lock the room with a password is not a perfect solution since it is much more complicated to join such a room if you haven├óÔé¼Ôäót been invited (even though you are quite sure you would be allowed to play). To join the room you have to ask for password etc.

So, how can we remedy these problems?

My suggestion is that we make the game rooms more flexible/open but at the same give more control to the game room owner/moderator(s).

The general idea is to allow anyone to join the room. The number of users in the game room does not necessarily reflect the number of starting players in the game. The room operator(s) selects who is going to play, who is going to watch and who is not going to play at all. The operators can of course kick users from the room and even ban users from joining the game room again.

The user who creates a new game room automatically becomes the room operator. An operator can give operator status to other players that join the room later (similar to how it works on IRC).

As mentioned above, the operator also selects the gaming status for each user in the game room, i.e. if the user is allowed/planned to play, watch or will not be allowed in the game at all.

Of course, it should be possible to lock a game room with a password in the traditional way as well. It should also be possible to block further users to join the game room.

It would also be nice if it would be possible to permanently ban a user from joining rooms that you create. In the same way it would be nice to be able to always give operator status to friends in the game rooms you create.

The operator status and gaming status of each user in the room could easily be represented by icons/letters in some columns in the game room user list.

It should also be possible for an operator to configure the game room so any user that has joined the room can set the playing/watching status themselves.

Anyway, this system would allow that players can join the room and while you're working out if they can play or not (checking requirements etc), they do not prevent others from joining.

Also, this system makes it smoother to add system for specifying requirements (maps, units, CPU speed, bandwidth etc) for the game. A player who do not fit the requirements could still be allowed to join the game (if the game room is configured to allow that), and the operator can decide if he can play or not while in the room.

What do you all think?[/b]

[jouninkomiko]

I definitely like that idea. I'm pretty sure I can poll system configurations easily from .net and send the information desired, like cpu speed, ram, and so on. The problem lies in the unit packs, since it is so easy for someone to manipulate a single lone unit, just to be a jerk.

So I'm going to work on a more detailed battle room setup screen that allows for this kind of thing. There can be a unit selection screen, that allows you to choose which units you have that will be requirements to join, and if someone doesn't have those, if they should be auto blocked. I haven't messed with fnord's unitsync dll yet, but I'm pretty sure I can get this functionality from it. You won't be seeing any of this in the first version, but I agree that it definitely needs to be put in

[JeeZ]

Moved this thread to a public forum (General Discussion)...

[Ace07]

Hey, I like the ideas myself. I haven't investigated the unitsync.dll however, so I don't know how Jou has integrated that and all. It would still be nice to be able to check through the install folder of spring and check for various files. Each of the clients could check their folders for the specific mod that is desired, and tell the host if each client has it.

This game supports observers right?

In any case, it shouldn't be hard to do any of that. However, there still needs to be a max on the number of people who can join. Also, allowing "private" games wouldn't be a bad idea either (rather than passworded games). Allowing people to host games that don't show up on the list would work too (you need to know the name of the game to join it).

[Ace07]

And for private games to work, you need to allow private messanging too. Its too hard to distribute passwords within springclient.exe without making another channel.

[jouninkomiko]

PMing will be in the works as soon as finals are done in a few days

[Ace07]

Will PMing be allowed from within games? :)

Now that would be cool...but...

[el_muchacho]

Concerning the GUI of the Lobby, maybe one could have the possibility to hide games with/without passwords (or group them in a different tab), or show only games with a particular mod.

[Ace07]

Concerning the GUI of the Lobby, maybe one could have the possibility to hide games with/without passwords (or group them in a different tab), or show only games with a particular mod.

That is what a "Private" game is. It doesn't show up on the list, so you have to type it in to join it.