Some Additions to the Lobby

[Lieutenant Lich]

Hello FAFers,
I have three proposals:

1) FAF offline mode. It still lets launch FAF at the version that the computer currently had and lets the person play games solely against AIs, as well as view local replays. The purpose of this is so that a player, even when offline, could still explore the game by sandboxing it, practicing maneuvers, reviewing old games or learning how to play Nomads (featured mods would also be available at the version that the computer has).

2) More lobby options - when you host a game, you have the option of selecting upper and lower bounds for players joining. When you change the options, it updates the game name live. The host no longer controls the game name, he just chooses some things and the name is written for him. It would look like this:
- No bounds --> "All Welcome"
- 1000 lower, 1600 upper --> "1000-1600"
- Nomads, 1500 upper --> "Nomads, max 1500"
- Phantom, no bounds --> "Phantom, all welcome"
And so on. Photo with an example is attached.

{EDIT (by Lich King)}: everyone whose rounded rating is not within the bounds is autokicked.

3) Tutorials - Vanilla supcom had a tutorials tab in the main menu, which contained videos of each unit's capabilities. Maybe make something like that for FAF? It would be easier to make a video once than have people explain every little detail to every newcomer, especially since not everyone can explain well. Vanilla SupCom had guides to economy, various techs, units, etc.

[PhilipJFry]

you can play the current faf patch offline already. even coop or featured game modes are available offline

[KeyBlue]

you can play the current faf patch offline already. even coop or featured game modes are available offline

This is true, but I think it would be ideal if this was easy to do.
Right now offline faf is a hidden feature really and impossible to setup without asking anyone or finding it somewhere by accident.
I think it would be great if we had an offline shortcut that gave you some different options to launch the lobby with. (faf, coop, eq, fafdevelop, etc).
Even better would be the possibility to have some custom launching possibility for develop testing or something.

So yeah offline faf should be

Regarding lichking's other suggestions:

2) More lobby options
This could be an interesting feature so you can avoid ever having to kick people for being under/over the rating limits.
But I doubt it would make lobbying a lot better, so can't see it being a priority any time soon. (i could be wrong in this)
So you either have to convince someone its worth the effort (which i'm not sure it is) or just doing it yourself.


3) Tutorials
Well if you're interested in putting in the time and effort required for such tutorials then I say go for it.
But how would it be different from Heaven's tutorials?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJYYaF ... vgJAqrhC2A
Or BRNK's video's about all the units?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... DJP7GvFCa8

If you want these tutorials to be anything like this : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12440
Then you should probably contact speed2 about how to make them yourself.

[Lieutenant Lich]

3) Tutorials
Well if you're interested in putting in the time and effort required for such tutorials then I say go for it.
But how would it be different from Heaven's tutorials?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJYYaF ... vgJAqrhC2A
Or BRNK's video's about all the units?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... DJP7GvFCa8

If you want these tutorials to be anything like this : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12440
Then you should probably contact speed2 about how to make them yourself.

tutorials that Heaven makes are good, yes, but they are lengthy. There is little desire for people to stare at the same picture for 10 minutes while listening closely. If you look at how Vanilla's tutorials are done, there is mostly video, which demonstrates what is said. Few people will desire to watch a 10 minute video, they'd much rather watch a 1-minute video.

[FtXCommando]

3) Tutorials
Well if you're interested in putting in the time and effort required for such tutorials then I say go for it.
But how would it be different from Heaven's tutorials?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJYYaF ... vgJAqrhC2A
Or BRNK's video's about all the units?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... DJP7GvFCa8

If you want these tutorials to be anything like this : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12440
Then you should probably contact speed2 about how to make them yourself.

tutorials that Heaven makes are good, yes, but they are lengthy. There is little desire for people to stare at the same picture for 10 minutes while listening closely. If you look at how Vanilla's tutorials are done, there is mostly video, which demonstrates what is said. Few people will desire to watch a 10 minute video, they'd much rather watch a 1-minute video.

Nty. If someone can't be bothered to watch a 10 minute video they aren't going to be bothered to actually improve their play. Some people just want to play "terribly" because they don't care. The game is a way to relax and the way they relax is not by studying how to git gud at ladder or how to balance eco so you don't collapse on your face 10 minutes into the game.

Of course if you can somehow cram the information Heaven gets across in his tutorials in 1 minute and still make the concept easy to understand you can go ahead and do it. I doubt that such a thing is possible without extreme sacrifices in concept explanation, though.

Also autokick is not a good idea imo. Hard enough to get a 1400+ lobby filled, sometimes you just let people that don't fit a rating requirement into a game so you can play sooner rather than later. By introducing this and then making it so you have to rehost in order to not get people autokicked is just going to make hosting even more tedious.

[Lieutenant Lich]

We can add an option to change the rating bounds in lobby, which will update the game's name live.

[PhilipJFry]

Changing lobby names is already an integraded feature in FAF.

Spoiler: show

It's just broken currently. Or at least for me it is. https://github.com/FAForever/server/issues/274