game start count-down timer display

[andy_5995]

I would like to suggest a feature to set the time - in minutes - of when a game will start. Once set, the count-down timer will display to users who join a pending game. They will see the timer, and they can decide to wait, or come back, or try to start another game.

Once the timer reacher reaches 0, the game will auto-start, unless the user controlling it makes a change to the timer.

I believe using a timer will make it easier for 8/4 player games to be played.

For example, if I were controlling a game, and the current local time was 03:24, I would set the count-down timer to 36, 66, or 96 minutes.

[andy_5995]

I refer to this link for the quote that follows

How you and anyone can contribute to MegaGlest

Schedule and announce game events - yes, everybody can do this!, such as multi-player games for players in a given region in the world, tournaments etc. Announce it on the forums and we'll do our best to make it more widely known.

Because it's relevant to this thread, I simply wanted to make a note of it for forum readers.

[tomreyn]

While this may seem a good idea at first, I am not sure it will work out. I know of several other games which tried this, and even introduced penalties for players not playing, but they still had this issue of players initially joining the game, then going to walk the dog, just forgetting about the game. In the end you end up with a game with five connected players of which 3 are actually around and willing to play. And those get frustrated by the fact the other two are missing.

Voting to disconnect inactive player can help there to a degree, but I'm not sure it solves this issue.

On the other hand making some attempt to solving this long standing issue (of how to get many players into a game at the same time) is definitely worth spending some energy on. Maybe tweaking this approach a little more will make it really good (but I'm not sure how, yet)?

[andy_5995]

On the other hand making some attempt to solving this long standing issue (of how to get many players into a game at the same time) is definitely worth spending some energy on. Maybe tweaking this approach a little more will make it really good (but I'm not sure how, yet)?

I'll throw some idea out to help with the discussion.

First, a system where people can enter in times - or a range - when they are most likely to play. This system could just be a single forum thread, and then people can edit their answers at any time.

After a month, using the information from that post, try scheduling a few games around the most common time frames that people are available.

I don't see that any kind of formal "sign-up" sheet would be necessary. As you say, Tom, sometimes people forget or something comes up, so no reason that anybody has to commit.

For instance, if we see that several people will be available from 4pm-8pm (Time zones not needed for this example ), post a schedule that a game will start at 5pm & 7pm.

So people see that, and if they can plan ahead, they are able to arrange to be in the lobby at those times. They know whoever can meet at those times will be there. Whoever shows up, plays. If there are lots of people, two or three games can be started at those times.

Another idea is to encourage people to post in the forums the times they are likely to be on. Other people will see "so-and-so" says he's often on daily at 6, or Saturdays at 3.

A third method would simply be to post in the server announcements something like "Headless server 3 will be starting a game at 5pm every day"

With all of these ideas, it has to be understood and agreed by regular participants to not start the server earlier than the times that have been posted.