Multiplayer: Chat during game

[Polybios]

I would love to have a possibility to send a message during online games .... it is nice to be n contact with your opponent.

Lately I made a huge mistake and was really not very happy and would have been very happy to talk about it with the other side!

Is something like this planed?

[daviddunham]

Oddly, Game Center only supports chat for non-remote games. We do want to add something, though.

[s_nkarp]

Thea ability to send a message with a turn is high on the list of features for the next significant release.

[s_pixelgeek]

Yay! I really would have liked that in my last online game as Big Troy made some sneaky moves I would have loved to comment on

[rbeyma]

Community building is a win win situation for a game like this. More players get involved, they develop friendships with their opponents, you get to talk about the game. Also its a very effective marketing tool so that when the next game comes out, everyone will buy it.

There needs to be chat in game, and a ladder would be great as well. Team games at some time in the future would really get the community going as well.

[s_Uberskooper]

Yes, this game needs a chat feature. I need to tell gregorit my displeasure when we have two games going and do the same moves with exact opposite luck. Moving to attack Bastogne? All your shots miss and the enemy hits all of his. Sorry bro. Is the enemy attacking Bastogne? All of you shots miss and the enemy destroys you armor leaving the city vulnerable. Swearing silently to myself isn't as satisfying as bitching to my opponent.

[Yojimbo252]

Yes, this game needs a chat feature. I need to tell gregorit my displeasure when we have two games going and do the same moves with exact opposite luck. Moving to attack Bastogne? All your shots miss and the enemy hits all of his. Sorry bro. Is the enemy attacking Bastogne? All of you shots miss and the enemy destroys you armor leaving the city vulnerable. Swearing silently to myself isn't as satisfying as bitching to my opponent.

I hear ya.

If it's any consolation I'm storing all mine up until the time when chat is available. I'll apologise now to my first chat opponent as they're going to get an earful.

[s_Uberskooper]

Yes, this game needs a chat feature. I need to tell gregorit my displeasure when we have two games going and do the same moves with exact opposite luck. Moving to attack Bastogne? All your shots miss and the enemy hits all of his. Sorry bro. Is the enemy attacking Bastogne? All of you shots miss and the enemy destroys you armor leaving the city vulnerable. Swearing silently to myself isn't as satisfying as bitching to my opponent.

I hear ya.

If it's any consolation I'm storing all mine up until the time when chat is available. I'll apologise now to my first chat opponent as they're going to get an earful.

Saving up games isn't my style, but it's incredibly frusterating nevertheless. It would also be nice to chat with my opponents about strategies and good moves. Mostly I just want to vent my frustrations and make sure my opponent knows his bad luck is coming

[Yojimbo252]

Yes, this game needs a chat feature. I need to tell gregorit my displeasure when we have two games going and do the same moves with exact opposite luck. Moving to attack Bastogne? All your shots miss and the enemy hits all of his. Sorry bro. Is the enemy attacking Bastogne? All of you shots miss and the enemy destroys you armor leaving the city vulnerable. Swearing silently to myself isn't as satisfying as bitching to my opponent.

I hear ya.

If it's any consolation I'm storing all mine up until the time when chat is available. I'll apologise now to my first chat opponent as they're going to get an earful.

Saving up games isn't my style...

Its not games I'm saving up, it's my frustrations.

[s_Mylo]

I just played my first multi-player game. No fun. No communications and slow turns ( waiting minutes in between turns is unacceptable for me, I'm looking for turns to come back to me in one minute max).....I sat around 'waiting' way too much, one time for 15 minutes until I finally thought my opponent must have quit. I will not be playing BOtB multiplayer again, absolutely terrible gaming experience for me.

Mylo

[Yojimbo252]

I just played my first multi-player game. No fun. No communications and slow turns ( waiting minutes in between turns is unacceptable for me, I'm looking for turns to come back to me in one minute max).....I sat around 'waiting' way too much, one time for 15 minutes until I finally thought my opponent must have quit. I will not be playing BOtB multiplayer again, absolutely terrible gaming experience for me.

The game as it stands has been designed to be played Asynchronously allowing players to take as much time between turns as they like. I think a timer option would be a good feature for those that would like to impose a time restriction to keep games moving along at a faster pace. In the meantime a workaround is to friend players that would like to play at the same pace as you but as you say, without a chat feature this would have to be organised 'offline'.

Chat is something that's been requested previously and would really improve the online experience.

[s_ron42na]

I also like the timer idea. As an example, in Summoner Wars when you create a game you choose how much time a player has to complete their turn before they forfeit the game.

I like the chat idea and I think it will help build the community once it's implemented...which will hopefully lead to more sales for future games...which hopefully leads to more games being produced

[Yojimbo252]

I also like the timer idea. As an example, in Summoner Wars when you create a game you choose how much time a player has to complete their turn before they forfeit the game.

Agreed. I play SW as well and it's a very good feature for ensuring games have a finite time frame as well as aligning players' expectations as to the pace of the game.

[daviddunham]

I just played my first multi-player game. No fun. No communications and slow turns ( waiting minutes in between turns is unacceptable for me, I'm looking for turns to come back to me in one minute max)

I guess the realities of Game Center are so obvious to us that we didn’t set expectations very well. Think of it more like play-by-mail, only much faster. Leverage this by having a number of games going at the same time. And don’t waste your time staring at the screen, go do something else if you’re waiting.

As for communications, we are adding some in the next release (within what Game Center provides, which is not chat as most people would define it).

As for timeout, this feature is only available in iOS 6, and we still have a large number of players using iPad 1 (or otherwise not on the latest OS). In any case, I don’t think we would ever set it to minutes, which would mean nobody with a family or a physical body could play. Or anyone who likes to ponder their moves.

[Yojimbo252]

As for timeout, this feature is only available in iOS 6, and we still have a large number of players using iPad 1 (or otherwise not on the latest OS).

I'm not sure of the particular timeout feature you speak of David but there are a number of games that have a timer feature that support iPad 1s, Summoner Wars, Titan and Carcassonne being 3 such examples.

In any case, I don’t think we would ever set it to minutes, which would mean nobody with a family or a physical body could play. Or anyone who likes to ponder their moves.

You would be surprised how many players like to play turn based games 'real time'. Think of it as lightning chess which has a very big following.

Just to clarify the timer features in the aforementioned games are only options. If 2 players want to play without any time limits and take as long as they like that's perfectly fine. But if 2 others want to complete a game in a single 30 minute session the timer is there to keep them focused on that goal.

It's all about aligning players expectations so you don't have instances where one player wants that 30 min game whereas their opponent signs off and won't check in for another day.

[daviddunham]

I'm not sure of the particular timeout feature you speak of David but there are a number of games that have a timer feature that support iPad 1s, Summoner Wars, Titan and Carcassonne being 3 such examples.

Code: Select all

-[GKTurnBasedMatch endTurnWithNextParticipants:turnTimeout:matchData:completionHandler:]

is the only way I know of using only Game Center to have player 1’s game continue when player 2 has not moved. (I know that Carcassonne has their own multiplayer support, and is not reliant on Game Center.)

[s_Mylo]

I agree 100% with the comments that like minded players have to play with like minded players. If I play a PBEM game, I know what to expect and play them in a totally different way. I expect a Game Center BOtB game to be 'real time', maybe I've mis understood the multi-player function.

There simply HAS to be a timer AND chat, or it's an excercise in frustration that I personally won't sit through. Even being able to tell you're opponent, "Hey, I got to go, but let's pick it up again tommorrow at 8:00"...or whatever. There are occasions in my life when I have hours available to me in a stretch and that's when I enjoy gaming the most, I cherish those moments, uninterrupted by life, and will emmerse myself in a game (not plural). The last thing I want is to be 'waiting' for, ..what seems like forever, for my opponent to take his turn, not even knowing if he is even at his iPad at all. I don't want a bunch of games running at the same time as I like keeping my thoughts focused, I like becoming a part of the game I'm playing. I don't want to go build a dog house in between my moves either, running back and forth to my iPad all day. I want back and forth gaming that would be very similar to me sitting in the same room at the same gameboard with my opponent. My old gameboard buddies and I used to use a timer playing board games too, to keep things moving. I enjoy pondering my moves as well, and don't mind when my opponents do....to a limit. 1 minute to decide and make a move in BOtB would be my idea of a decent balance between having time to think, and keeping the game moving.

Having a "Game Timer" setting that is displayed when joining / hosting a game would solve a lot of irritation. If the 'Timer' was set to ....'indefinite', I wouldn't join those games, but I'm sure others would, those with 'a life','a family', or a 'physical body'. ...of which I have neither...spirit form only for me. I would look for games with 30 sec - 2 min timer games, and have a lot of fun in them I'm sure, with other players enjoying the same experience as me. ...back and forth...back and forth...to the end of the game....in one sitting, with the exception of bathroom breaks.

I'm thinking I could be speaking for others too. If I'm not......just disregard my comments.

Mylo

[Pat]

Thanks Mylo,

They're really good suggestions and certainly something we've considered. Infact I've still got the mockup from when we first discussed having online game time options (and I can't find it now but we had chat boxes drawn up too) .. but, as with many other things we've wanted to include during development we had to make dificult choices, some forced on us by software, hardware or time constraints, many of them unpopular even within the team but with hindsight, absolutely neccesary (you can probably tell by the moment of collective drawing in of breath during Owens interview at Pocket Tactics when he asked about things that got cut.).

But our belief was always that Bulge, while being a good game in itself, would serve as a foundation for a series of games and functional modules that we would build and improve upon and thats what we've done. We all want the same thing and its only going to get better.

So keep those suggestions and ideas coming. We never disregard comments and if we've had the same thoughts then it simply reinforces our belief that while it may of been impossible to implement first time round, they shouldn't be taken off the wishlist.

[s_Mylo]

BOtB is a fantastic game and a great leap for the iOS platform. .....it's so close to being a 'game changer', but just not quite there yet in my opinion. Keep up the good work and I see it revolutionizing how wargames are played online.

....I played another multi-player game the other night and it was great fun. .....back and forth turns to completion, just the way I mentioned. I was overly critical of the multi-player function of BOtB, it's not the game design, it's who's playing on the other end. Again, having a feature to match like minded players is what is needed, it makes ALL the difference.

Mylo

[docdaddy]

Interesting how people differ in their "wants" for a game. For me, a timer would ruin the game. I enjoy looking at the map, contemplating my move, without worry of a clock ticking. Some of the games I play online are with people who are busy with work, family, etc. and they don't have the time to move under time pressure and would not play if it was required.

I like options, however, so if a timer was added as an option, cool. I would never use it but again, people differ.

I DO want a way to send a message with my move. Right now all the communication is done via email while playing.

AND - while suggesting - an optional fog of war toggle would add another dimension to the game.