lobby connectivity suggestion

[megatron219]

when the host tries to start a game and there's connection problems, it shows:

"A can't connect to B"
"A can't connect to C"
"A can't connect to D"
"B can't connect to A"
"C can't connect to A"
"D can't connect to A"

unfortunately, this overwhelms most hosts, who can't figure out that only A needs to reconnect. Instead, why not make the connectivity screen do the following:

"A can't connect to 3 players (B, C, D)"
"B can't connect to 1 player (A)"
"C can't connect to 1 player (A)"
"D can't connect to 1 player (A)"

I think this would make hosting easier. ESPECIALLY if there were a button to let you see where the connection issues are BEFORE you try to start the game (so everybody doesn't have to be x'd in to check who's connected). thanks!

[rootbeer23]

"A can't connect to 3 players (B, C, D)"
"B can't connect to 1 player (A)"
"C can't connect to 1 player (A)"
"D can't connect to 1 player (A)"

I think this would make hosting easier. ESPECIALLY if there were a button to let you see where the connection issues are BEFORE you try to start the game (so everybody doesn't have to be x'd in to check who's connected). thanks!

good idea. but maybe it will not even be necessary when zep reverts to his earlier solution to the connectivity problem.
also, the faforever lobby should not remain so strict on allowing new players to join a game. It happens that you are 1 player short of a full game, 1 former player is still a ghost in the game and the lobby reports 12/12 and would not let anybody else in.

[megatron219]

i agree with rootbeer that it shouldn't be so strict on who can join a game - i've had problems with that

[Ze_PilOt]

That info can be displayed but only when you try to launch. I can *maybe* add a button to display it at any time.

[rootbeer23]

That info can be displayed but only when you try to launch. I can *maybe* add a button to display it at any time.

or make the launch button always clickable and do the connectivity check, but just not launch the game if not everyone is ready.

[discoverer2k4]

also, the faforever lobby should not remain so strict on allowing new players to join a game. It happens that you are 1 player short of a full game, 1 former player is still a ghost in the game and the lobby reports 12/12 and would not let anybody else in.

I also think, until the problem with this "ghosts" is not solved entirely the function should be taken out. Recently, we waited 15 minutes for the last player before we noticed that the lobby shows up 6/6 players "in" and thus nobody where able to connect
Ok if I host a game, I often refresh the slot after one disconnects, but not all hosts do that or know that...

[Ze_PilOt]

That a chicken/egg problem.

If I remove the function, nobody will report it or will try to find why it's occuring.

[Eukanuba]

Is it desirable even to have a game blocked when it's “full”? In many cases one player will leave for one reason or another, and having other players in the pool means less waiting. Also this stops people being able to observe games in progress, which seems to be an unnecessary removal of a standard feature.

[Ze_PilOt]

Again, it's to force you to make report.

[rootbeer23]

It happened yesterday in the following situation:

I was hosting a full lobby on twin rivers ep. Everybody signaled ready except for ChaosRefractor. He did not respond to hails. We waited what seemed like an eternity and then i kicked him. At least 2 minutes later we were waiting for one last player to join our game and i noticed that he is still listed in the tooltip in the "Find Games" tab. I did of course try and refresh that slot with an AI.
Aside from the possibility that ChaosRefractor tried to join our game again at this very moment, the symptoms indicate that he still did not notify the faforever.com server that he is no longer part of the game. What would happen if his internet connection broke down for some time? Would FAForever assume he is well alive in his previous state, because he did not send anything? Maybe the faforever.com server should only trust the host on the game status. That could be implemented in the FAF client parsed game.log to learn about the state of the FA.exe lobby and reported the state to the FAF.com server.