"Ready" checkbox and timed game starts

[tomreyn]

I was again thinking about how we can have more servers. While I still think having a dedicated/headless server software is the only way to achieve this, there can be another way to achieve it with less efforts involved.

The following new features and changes can get us closer to this:
* from now on, all players connecting to a server become observers
* when they check the newly introduced "ready" checkbox, they will become active players instead.
* the server admin can schedule automatic server starts, based on time ("start this server in 15 minutes") or based on # of connected players ("all players are now connected, please set up your options, the game will start in 30..29..28..27.. seconds")

This would also allow for setting up games where the server admin just keep the computer running but does not actually participate in the game.

[olaus]

good idea but players should have the ability to change the settings, otherwise that's quite limited. just setting the CPUs to fit the strength and numbers of players would make this required.

[softcoder]

Ok svn now allows players to set their status to indicate if they are ready or not, things like be right back, not ready and ready. This only applies of course to network games.