QUEUE SYSTEM

[SinisterPoem]

So, for as long as i've been playing this game, one thing bugged me to no end. Namely that awful, awful way to join a game. Since usually there's one full server and a bunch of empty ones, i end up tapping refresh like an idiot until i see that blessed 39/40 and can join.

so, a suggestion, what about a waiting room? something that shows how many other ppl are actually waiting like idiots together with me for that free slot, when we could easily fill another server and have fun.

or at least some hotkey for refresh. whatever works.

[yosh56]

Was already planning to add this to the launcher.

[RoundShades]

Good to hear it is an idea.

However, just a heads up for now, a good "queue" is for you to keep IRC open until you see "* has left the game", with the game (not launcher) minimized so you can bring it up and immediately click join.

[Ryz]

Was already planning to add this to the launcher.

I always use Brotranquilitys method, but indead a good feature!

[Xtractor]

I had The same exact though ,Glad to hear yosh planning to do it .May I suggest something that reset after say like 5 mnutes .Because if the queuing doesnt start a game in a short time ppl will be AFK.

I would like something like there is 20 in queue game start when reach 30 .

I would like to queue only for min 30 players games

[MrSunshine]

I'm pretty sure there are enough players for more than one full server, but nobody wants to join an empty server. I can't really think of a way to fix that with a queue system that wouldn't require a lot of work, but maybe something else like displaying the current number of players viewing the server list/launcher would be handy?

Something like "Players online: xxxx" or a chatbox in the launcher could go a long way to getting more servers filled up I think.

[RoundShades]

I'm pretty sure there are enough players for more than one full server, but nobody wants to join an empty server. I can't really think of a way to fix that with a queue system that wouldn't require a lot of work, but maybe something else like displaying the current number of players viewing the server list/launcher would be handy?

Something like "Players online: xxxx" or a chatbox in the launcher could go a long way to getting more servers filled up I think.

Harder to do, but would be nice, if the queue lobby told you how many people were queueing and could chat with them. Then at least you could try to convince everyone to populate another server.

Even better, if a game would end, and there are over 8 people in queue, that it would have a 3rd option for everyone in-game and in-queue, to migrate server, and if a total of 16 people opted, then anyone who opted would migrate to the sibling server.

[RypeL]

In the very first launcher that I did I added an IRC plugin. This probably is the easiest way to do a chatroom. I know it wasent that hard when I did it. But that launcher was not done in C# so that stuff can't be reused for the current one and i couldnt translate it as im not a C# guy. But the idea of IRC could be reused.

Another option would be for me to just revive my old launcher and to finish that one. But im not yet ready to make that commitment.

[RoundShades]

Did Schmitzburg do the fixes to the quotes and junk to the launcher? Because IRC command to join upon "player left game" is very ideal and you already have code for it and Agent should be able to help with IRC or ServerBot half of it. If Schmitzburg could do something with the Launcher, that might be a good route to take.

Speaking of Agent, if Agent wanted to work on something like this, it is possible this could be added to server bot and IRC quick enough to make it able to handle joining from the in-game. Would it be easier then, to code Ren-X on the UDK level, to accept up to 14 people as "spectators" in-game, and just have a server bot handle "switch team from spectator to gdi/nod" at a first come first serve basis?

[Agent]

Re: IRC in launcher

This should be relatively easy to implement, given that I've already written an IRC client library in C++ -- it shouldn't be too hard to communicate with C# code to utilize it, though I might have to make a custom API for it? I have nearly zero experience with C#. I also have zero experience with implementing user interfaces. Yosh, RypeL, or somebody else would likely have to implement the user interface, though I could certainly do the back-end stuff. Since it'd most likely be a global chatbox (rather than per-server), we'd probably just have it connect to the #RenegadeX channel (similar to RypeL's old launcher).

Queue:

Since the stats bot already knows the population levels of servers in real-time, it'd be very easy to utilize it to implement a queue system (clients connect to the bot, send a queue_request, and wait for a queue_proceed event), so that clients don't have to constantly refresh the launcher. In addition, I'd be able to set up the queue such that if the number of queued players goes above a certain number (say 10), it just throws them into another server that can fit all of the queued players (perhaps with a bias towards servers running on the same IP).

[Schmitzenbergh]

Just a quick search gave me a libary for c# to communicate with a IRC server.

Perhaps this could do the trick?

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/8323/SmartIrc-net-the-C-IRC-library

Looks simple enough, linking to the gui would be the hardest I think (Due to XAML and databinding)

EDIT: there are many more libraries in nuget manager so options a plenty

[Ryz]

Schmitzenbergh should be added to the community developers, looks like he is a great addition to the team!

[RypeL]

Schmitzenbergh should be added to the community developers, looks like he is a great addition to the team!

Yeah. Done that. On the occasion ive created a new community dev rank as we already have enough Moderators for now i think (so far only Moderators were community devs).

[Ryz]

Great RypeL!