Multiplayer woes

[MolossianDogs]

Hey there,

first things first, I´d like to state that this is a decent wargame. It´s basically a neat tabletop ported to the PC. I wouldn´t bother writing this if I would think otherwise.

So, the battles themselves, their engine, their rules, their look, their feel etc are great. But finding one is unneccessarily hard!

Please note, that - for a layman, like me, at least - the proposed solutions don´t look like they require super sophisticated coding or a time-intensive revamping of the engine.

Matchmaking
a) why can I only message my fellow player at turn´s end? Why can´t I message those who opened a challenge?
b) when creating a custom game, why is there no option to let your opponent choose his own faction?
c) why can´t I name my challenge and only add a super short description in my custom game? The scenarios have 3-4 paragraphs.

- taken together, the above is making finding an opponent unneccessarily difficult and clunky. Basically you have to offer one combination of maps and factions after another until someone bites. Or spam them. You can´t even ask anyone what kind of game he would like to play. You don´t even know who is currently looking for one. And even if someone accepts you might find out too late he/she can only play one turn per week.

-But this can and has to be solved between players. So offer them a way to communicate. Like a lobby with chat or (concerns about moderation or privacy or whatever) without one. At least allow private messages to people offering a game. They are evidently looking for people, so noone will complain if he gets contacted by a stranger.

-Also having the option to let your opponent choose his own faction is standard practice in wargaming. Right now all you can do is randomizing it when you make a challenge. Few want that. I wouldn´t. It is perfecty normal that people root for specific factions and if they absolutely want their late era romans and noone else, why can´t I just let them?

Arranging games must be smooth and not result in many false starts. You also don´t want to force people to use a 3rd party tool just to be able to play your game. Not only is that disruptive, but it is out of your control. In addition, you most likely loose those players who aren´t part of a player group with their own reddit/forum/teamspeak, but would try out MP if it would be easy and fast. Because right now, if you are on your own, you really have to be comitted to get the game you want. Or a game, at least.

Misc
d) why is there no save function for army selection/army lists? That´s like a super familiar thing for tabletop players.
e) why is there no option to see the replay of your opponent´s turn again? Sometimes you just miss stuff.
f) Speaking of replays...why not make a replay of the whole battle which you can save? Seems like an obvious move and the technical aspect is already implemented.
g) why can´t you have a look at an ongoing battle, even after you confirmed your turn?

[jomni]

Actually I just accept whatever is available and set up whatever I feel like. Im not too fussy about the armies. The more variety the better. By accepting a challenge you already know what you’re getting into. If you don’t like, create your own battle and someone will pick it up.

Must forget the old FoG1 habits. Multilayer community of P&S are used to this system and is thriving. But it’s good for the devs to consider these comments too so that we get the best of both worlds.

[rbodleyscott]

-But this can and has to be solved between players. So offer them a way to communicate. Like a lobby with chat or (concerns about moderation or privacy or whatever) without one. At least allow private messages to people offering a game. They are evidently looking for people, so noone will complain if he gets contacted by a stranger.

There is a Discord server:

https://discordapp.com/channels/3673138 ... 9060856832

Also you can send PMs on this board.

why is there no option to see the replay of your opponent´s turn again? Sometimes you just miss stuff.

There is. The button is on the right hand side of the title bar at the top left of the screen. Note that you can only replay the replay before you have moved anything.

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We do take note of all of your points. Thanks for the feedback.

[MaxDamage]

Does the email service work? I ve just had a turn in FOG2 and a game started in PS and no emails.

[jomni]

Does the email service work? I ve just had a turn in FOG2 and a game started in PS and no emails.

Mine is working.

[jomni]

-But this can and has to be solved between players. So offer them a way to communicate. Like a lobby with chat or (concerns about moderation or privacy or whatever) without one. At least allow private messages to people offering a game. They are evidently looking for people, so noone will complain if he gets contacted by a stranger.

There is a Discord server:

https://discordapp.com/channels/3673138 ... 9060856832

Richard, I need a proper invite link to join.

[rbodleyscott]

Does the email service work? I ve just had a turn in FOG2 and a game started in PS and no emails.

Please contact support@slitherine.co.uk to enable it for you.

[rbodleyscott]

-But this can and has to be solved between players. So offer them a way to communicate. Like a lobby with chat or (concerns about moderation or privacy or whatever) without one. At least allow private messages to people offering a game. They are evidently looking for people, so noone will complain if he gets contacted by a stranger.

There is a Discord server:

https://discordapp.com/channels/3673138 ... 9060856832

Richard, I need a proper invite link to join.

https://discord.gg/nQZRHsk

[lapdog666]

didnt realize this untill now but it really would be good to have an instant chat box near the active game name in the lobby to be able to coordinate playtime with my opponents, instead of only being able to chat after i recieve the turn (or send).

also perhaps a general chat in the lobby,its perhaps even better place than discord ,or at least it contains good amount of players

[MikeC_81]

While I am enjoying the core gameplay tremendously, I must echo the original poster's observation that your interface is unnecessarily obtuse, the multiplayer's interface doubly so. The following things are what I consider urgent additions/fixes for it to meet the standard of a modern game.

1) Naming and searching of available challenges is almost a necessity, especially if you intend to grow this game to a larger audience. A quick look through the Accept Challenge screen shows just over a full page of challenges. Imagine 3 times as many challenges and having to scroll through finding the name of the individual. At least you put in a name sort making it a bit easier to find.

2) There seems to be little reason to have to organize in a 3rd party app. The OP is correct in that you should be able to set up a random map at a set force limit and have anyone willing to hop in be able to pick an army they want to play rather than just potluck it.

3) Not being able to go back and view a battle while its your opponent's turn is also a puzzling oversight as is not having replays available.

4) Why can we not have an army list viewer in the game with detailed unit reports. For example while I was looking into the Warbands balancing thread, I had to boot up the game, set up a custom match, pick the army I wanted to see the unit in, buy it, deploy it and then right click just to get the detailed stats and PoA modifier list.

I understand you are a small studio but these quality of life features that I expect see in 2017.

[MolossianDogs]

I would also like to recommend a possibility to delete ongoing games. In an ideal world each and every game would be seen through to its end, but we know this is not always going to happen. So we will be left with a list full of clutter of games we can´t abort.

There is. The button is on the right hand side of the title bar at the top left of the screen. Note that you can only replay the replay before you have moved anything.

Thanks, I actually overlooked that.

And it is good that there is a discord server set up. I don´t think that this alleviates the need for a lobby, though.

Discord´s (and any other 3rd party tools´s) greatest drawback is, that it is not accessible from within the game. Not all people who bought FoGII will use discord, but 100% of them will actually use your UI.

(some people might not know it or wonder where to get the url and there is also a tendency, especially among non-native speakers, to just avoid voice chat entirely, etc)


Of course, I don´t know how much work my suggestions would entail. Still, I think I am not too far off the mark in claiming that making your game (and all its game modes) as accessible as possible is effort well spent.
I would consider it almost tragic if this well-made game failed to find the audience it deserves out of such silly reasons like outdated menu and UI design.

[jomni]

There is already an option to delete / forfeit games if it has gone stale after a certain time.

[GiveWarAchance]

Good news is the player that abandoned two games with me has returned to the fold to continue them but never said a word but is at least playing them now and some good fights are happening.

[rbodleyscott]

There is already an option to delete / forfeit games if it has gone stale after a certain time.

It is currently disabled, because it was bugged, but it will go live again in patch 2.

[keyth]

I'll add my voice to ask for something like FoG I, where you could have pre-selected different flavours of the same army, put up a challenge with that army and allow your opponent to bring their chosen army to the party. The assertions that one should 'forget FoG I' and 'the P&S crowd are used to it' are not valid reasons not to implement this... in fact I'm quite surprised it wasn't in the core game at release.