RelicNews Forums - What features are you missing online?

Old Painless

21st Dec 05, 8:55 AM

If you were to take some bits from the all seeing eye it couldnt hurt, the ability to see who is in the games before you join would be nice, smaller text and more information in the online front end would be nice, not as small as unreal tournament but it could be made twice as busy with no complaints, it is a simple looking interface with few features.

I would leave friend tracking in its current form as the all seeing eye or xfire etc can do it better.

I would like to see stats displayed for team games above 3v3 as well. 4v4 and 2v2v2v2 etc.

Auto downloading maps would be nice, only maps though, custom sound effects a la counterstrike (MBs d/l needed without your knowing when you join a custom map) are not on my wish list.

Ingame team speak in the match interface would be pure sex. I hate having to setup teamspeak (ip and program d/l etc) for new clan or team members when all they really need is a mic.

Having to leave the game when you click on the stats display and then having to type your name into the box to call up your stats on the self-opening browser window is a bit naff.

The amount of information displayed on the web page you are automatically directed to is low, could you show some recent replays or something? Maybe this is best left to dowsanc or this forum.

Thanks for a great game, more orky victories would be a nice 'feature'.

As for the kick bug, i ditched my wireless router when i moved house and i havent been kicked once. It got so bad i stopped playing online at all and i nearly got rid of the game(being kicked 15 time in a row anywhere from 5 seconds to 15 minutes especially annoying when hosting a full game and your about to click 'go'). Now i can play easily with no stress associated with connecting i am once again suffering sleep deprivation and an untidy house and loving it.

Moe

21st Dec 05, 8:56 AM

Docking to make it more visible. Keep it civil please.

Argonaut

21st Dec 05, 8:57 AM

1) Some proper language moderation. I get pretty disheartened when I log on and there seems to always be someone yelling hardcore swear-words. I appreciate that anonymity breeds this kind of thing, but a word censor would be awesome. Then you'd just get some guy spamming [censored] instead of some serious swearing. If the spam controls were pretty strict concerning this it would soon stop. I know for a fact the 'atmosphere' in the lobby has stopped many of my friends who have the game logging on, and they no longer play :(

2) A true reflection of who is actually online. By this I mean take into account how many people are in-game as well as who is in the lobby.

3) Some other win conditions. Not sure what, but something to stop people just playing anihilate constantly.

4)remove the 'stars' as this encourages people to spam imba units, rush noobs and generally be an idiot so they can get to 5 stars. Keep the points on Auto, but have some kind of other reward system for online play. Maybe a ranking system based upon games played rather than games won? How about things like Take and Hold master? FFA champion? So the style of game you play is rewarded rather than just plain wins vs losses. If you want to play competetive and 'stat pad' then go to auto. If you want some fun, play custom games. It feels that at the moment there's 2 different stat systems that are encouraging nasty players to use nasty tactics so they can get some kudos. These players are irritating the rest of us so we don't play online so much. Trying to get people to play cos it's fun may stop a lot of the whining about IMBA units. At the moment the stars just encourage people to abuse any of the little IMBA they find.If wins don't matter, then using nasty tactics may stop.

5) - The Holy Grail..... Custom Map Sharing Online.

Titler

21st Dec 05, 9:03 AM

* Allow whispered messages to appear in Game Rooms and across Lobbies, so friends can contact you where ever you are

* Allow you to either authorise friends yourself, or remove yourself from people's friends list. As it currently is, you have very little control over who messages you.

* Allow subgroupings for whisper in Friends chat, as in the main lobby (by clicking the Imperial Eagle)

* Allow Copy And Paste into chat.

* Tighten up the chat interface as a whole; It's presently still too easy to spam, and the constant refreshing of the window prevents easy scrolling to try and see messages previously sent... moving the chat window up or down should leave it there until you return to the bottom (perhaps by hitting End, at which point it continues to refresh again)

* Some form of ban list, to automatically boot asshats from your hosted games (but not automatch) and highlight their names in other's games. (Their names show in red maybe? Cuz red ones get ya out fastah)

* Remove constant refreshing of the server list, as it's far too easy to enter the wrong room, because the list moves around just as you click on the one you actually want. Just add new games to the end of the list, and only re-sort them when Refresh is clicked

* Allow "Ping", "Players" etc to be actual filters which sort the Server List for you.

* Some form of custom map transfer system. I know it's been discounted before, but pleeaaaasseee? Make it offer a download at connection to a game room, but not entry into the room until it's complete? Or if not that, how about just a pop up which the host can type "Map is available here: www.grotz-roxxor.com".

* Likewise, find some way to integrate all games, Mods included, into the same server list as the main game, with version number etc showed... I'm thinking the normal standalone Gamespy client here, with something like QIIIArena. The game community seems far more impressive, and you can see many new gameplay ideas, when everyone is all together: "Oooh, Rocket Arena, eh? Sounds interesting, and lots of people are playing it... I'll give it a try too".

* Upon connection to Gamespy, a pop up window which says "Gretchin Are Wonderful, And I Want One Of My Very Own To Love And Cherish" should appear, and you aren't allowed to connect to Gamespy unless you click "I Agree"

I think that's it for now... I'll add more if I can think of them.

Old Painless

21st Dec 05, 9:04 AM

I wholeheatedly agree, someone saying

"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"
"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"
"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"
"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"
"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"
"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"
"-------join noob bashin 2v2 now--------"

etc etc etc

gets me mad, there is a big list to look at so why are you bothering, we are not blind. <shrugs>

just wondering if 8 players is the max you can have? If you have say, an uber pc with an uber fast broadband can we have more players? 3v3v3v3 anybody?

Grabnutz

21st Dec 05, 9:05 AM

Something whereby you can see how many other players are currently searching for an automatch game.

So when you click auto, you get a message informing you of "so many players are seeking automatch game".
This way you wouldn't wait around hoping for a game to start, especially for 2v2 and arranged teams.
It could go in the same box thing as "new players are joining your game", "A game is being hosted" and "you are joining a game".

AridMonk

21st Dec 05, 9:09 AM

Originaly posted by Titler:
Upon connection to Gamespy, a pop up window which says "Gretchin Are Wonderful, And I Want One Of My Very Own To Love And Cherish" should appear, and you aren't allowed to connect to Gamespy unless you click "I Agree"

Never EVER going to happen. EVER.

And i wholeheartedly agree about the spamming. That just gets on my nerves. One idiot going

lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol
lol

for an age reaaaally annoyes me. A whole lot. :rant:

Pokey ork

21st Dec 05, 9:10 AM

I would think that the feature in the LOTR:BFME should be implemented.

Bassicly when you log on you start off in a news page and not in a chat room and from there you can select to look for a game or join a chat room.

Plus i also agree removing the stars. I would much prefer for mini puctures for a particular rating of each race. kinda like in Warcraft 3. For say 25 wins as ork you get a slugga pic. 50 nob 75 big mek etc.

Lastly i would also think not counting Custom games on your record would also raise the fun factor in DOW. sometimes i only want to play a game for fun and not to affect my record [in other games] in this game however it is not so. i think this would increase ladder activity.

P.S i would also suggest to either REMOVE the possibilites of chatting in the lobbies whilst in a game. The advertising Really gets on your nerves and disabling it would be great.

pizza123

21st Dec 05, 9:23 AM

Ancient_Death

21st Dec 05, 9:25 AM

P.S i would also suggest to either REMOVE the possibilites of chatting in the lobbies whilst in a game. The advertising Really gets on your nerves and disabling it would be great.

Its called the Ignore button.

Compstomps counting as wins, not good. Sure it will make your record look good but will the person be worth it? Compstomps counting as wins encourages the playing of it. If those games did not count as wins compstomps would only benifit your teamplay and knowing how other people play if you were going to play against them. But people taking the time to make their record look good, thats no fun, isnt this suppossed to be about having fun?

Road-kill

21st Dec 05, 9:31 AM

I know it's not just for multiplayer, but some new win conditions, or a modified annihilate; I find it pretty tedious that Annihilate isn't actually, er, annihilate, but merely 'Blow up factories'. If you mean business, it can be ludicrously easy to trash them.

havoc

21st Dec 05, 9:38 AM

SO:

1*--- remove the chat spamming and coursing on chat.

2*--- compstomps are nesessary for people that just bought the game , or for eg. 2 friends that want to play together agnist comps on skirmish AI, and if they are just compstomping 2v2 easy comps assasinate. thats their problem and everybody else that give a shit about stats so much.

3*--- kick bug

4*--- (balance issues, i know that it is not for this thread, but I just have to mention it))

5*---* Upon connection to Gamespy, a pop up window which says "Gretchin Are Wonderful, And I Want One Of My Very Own To Love And Cherish" should appear, and you aren't allowed to connect to Gamespy unless you click "I Agree"
:jest:

Thats all.

SnagglepussX

21st Dec 05, 9:46 AM

well i agree one in WA i join a game with set teams and we asked if it could be random teams and they all said no, they all had 75% winning rate and me and the rest of the player had 30% and less(im a noobie). I complained and they kicked me lol. Well maybe where u can see the players inside the room without acctuly joining it.

This sure sounds great to me. In other RTS's I loved teaming up with good friends in 2v2 and 3v3, but if that bothers some people as much as so many say it does, then a way for them to avoid being part of that would be useful and save everybody time and aggravation. It goes the other way too -- really experienced guys don't have much fun pounding new players either. Maybe some dorks will try to boost their stats that way I guess. But if everyone could know what they're getting into without having to enter and exit a game, it would fray fewer nerves and make everyone happy.

I really don't blame people for "team stacking" and have never even heard the term before, and I've played RTS's for years. Playing with a buddy on your side and working out how you guys can put together good attacks and cooperate is the most fun there is in an RTS for me.

Havoc, if two friends want to comp stomp, can't they just do it on direct connect?

Or, if they do it in gamespy, not having a comp stomp count in the rankings would still be a good idea. I don't begrudge people whatever thrills they get out of pursuing rank and stats. That's a lot of what keeps games going and popular. You don't have to give up comp stomps, but you don't have to count them either.

AridMonk

21st Dec 05, 9:54 AM

Maybe some dorks will try to boost their stats that way I guess.

lmao

I also agree with an earlier poster about the Pictures representing stats rather stars. Much more purdy
:)

Merry Christmas one and all, spread the love :santa:

EDIT: ive just had another idea- why not have a seperate sector for gamers who just wanna have fun? No stats records will be recorded while in this sector, and it would keep most of the scout rushers out, as all they are intersested in are stats??

Shadow Field

21st Dec 05, 10:07 AM

This may not fit under online features that i want, but i really wish i could use the tab key to move through fields ^^

ISLYFE

21st Dec 05, 10:17 AM

A streamlined Instant message/buddy list system with intergrated teamspeak features.

Dymo

21st Dec 05, 11:25 AM

Only 2 I can think of right off.

1) The name of the current game your in actually INSIDE the games start-up lobby. Lots of stuff in there but no Game Name. :)

2) Maybe something I am doing wrong, but it seems that Maps, seemingly from alternative language version of the game, show up in my version as BLANK in the mini window. I always just assumed I don't have those Maps, but on a whim one time, I entered a game and bingo, it was a default map but in a foreign language version.

I just always figured that "Bad Map" means it is a custom built map and refrain from joining those until I dn'd the map.

I would like to vote "Yea" on a Permanent (as in names written to file and referenced on log-in type of permanent) "Ignore" function.

DougyM

21st Dec 05, 11:55 AM

1: CO-OP. Im getting my cousin winter assualt for christmas and seeing as hes a 10 year old kid i cant realy play in MP games with him unless we are comp stomping or 1v1.... nobody likes getting wasted by stat whores 2 minutes into the game.

2: Removal of stats, promotes stat whoring (obviously)

3: Relic to have a pint! :Pint:

hybris

21st Dec 05, 12:50 PM

Most wanted features online:

1. Free of "issue order lag"
Each order being performed instantaneously, like in most other RTS:es. It's really annoying loosing units just because of a two second wait for your order to be acknowledged.

2. Removal of join bugs and lobby/ingame kick bugs
This is the game spoiler no1. Most of the would-have-been-played games never happen because of these bugs, or are being spoiled in game because of the ingame kick bugs.

3. Routerfriendly
Again. It's often impossible to host a game with more than one router owner. Even though they got all the right ports opened up correctly, since one of the router owners are blocking the other ones out.

4. Player pings displayed in pregame lobby
Would save a LOT of the spoiled games.

5. Replacing dropped players
Everyone except the last player on a team is being replaced by computers, if he/she drops from a game. Either that or handing that guys remaining resources and points to the remaining players at least.
As the game is now, it's really harsh against player drops, and since the game forces player drops on its own, it's not strange that some players fear this issue the most.

6. Individual Players' Loading progress bars
It's extremely frustrating not knowing what's happening. If the other players have dropped, who is still loading, how much further he has to load etc etc.
Homeworld had neat display bars for this pregame, so why couldn't DoW have this too?

7. Game start countdown clock
Not a countdown while in the lobby, but after the game has finished loading, so that all players knows and are ready the exact second the game starts. Only like a voice saying three, two, one, start or something, after loading and meanwhile the initial lag are being dealt with.

8. Clan ladder
Don't register player names in the team ladder, but rather a choosen clan tag, which one player (the creator?) acts as manager for.

9. Minimize the amount of smurf accounts
Wipe all inactive user accounts. Limit the accounts to three for each CD key. Make clan tags changeable (somewhat like in BF2), so that you can have the same loginname, but change clan prefix.

10. Objective game modes
Like capture, destroy or hold objective within a certain timeframe. One team acts as defenders and the other team attacks.

11. Synchronized Replay
Players should be able to connect to a replay in the lobby, like choosing a map, but instead be able to discuss a replay together realtime. This would be awesome!

12. Moe' Observers
More Observers. At least twice the amount of max observers. Only the host should be the judge at how many observers the players' bandwidth can withstand.

13. Skill Level Lobbies
Take back the "Beginner", "Intermediate" and "Advanced" game lobbies used during the Beta.
Then noobs wouldn't get lost and join wrong games (without intent), and game names wouldnt have to have "noobs" or "pros" written to describe them.

14. In game download
If maps were downloadable from the host, it would be a LOT easier to get custom map games running. A few MB aint much for map download size. Most online games have the same or even larger map sizes, as well as downloadable from within the game.
Let the players worry abt if the download takes too long. Players who don't want to download custom maps can always cancel and join another game, and hosts that realize a player is taking too long downloading the map, can always kick that player.

15. Small and easy tweaks
CHAT LOBBY: If a textline in chat exceeds one line, then the whole chat is bounced up one line permanently, and this bug is cumulative. A relatively easy bug, that is common in fresh coded text applications and easy to debug, but has been with the game since the start anyhow.
READYING UP: The host shouldn't have to click ready to be able to start the game. Neither should he have to wait for observers to ready up before starting the game.
PASSWORD GAMES: Focusing the "enter password" form directly when the window appears for joining password protected games, as well as enabling hitting "enter" after the password, joining the game.

Forget all of the above, if we just get RELIC.NET instead of Gamespy ;)

Dorkdav

21st Dec 05, 1:36 PM

Hybris's ideas are good!! DO them.

Especailly the router friendly part. The biggest downer for playing online is when you can't join a game with friends. It also makes it harder to get team games and automatches started.

Ignore feature
Needs to be better implemented. You should be able to click a player's name on the text box where the chat appears and ignore them that way. So I don't have to search through an entire list of people just to find their name so I can ignore them.

Better game discription
I would like some more information about the games when I click on them. Like whether it's auto teams or random. Who is in the game, so I can look for people I like/dislike.

Display Opponet's Race before starting an automatch.
Unless the person chooses random. I think would make for a more interesting game as players would start to use their best BOs vs. each race.

Sycnchronoized Replay is a cool idea too. Starcraft had that.

Slow_Runner

21st Dec 05, 1:40 PM

Hybris' ideas are very good ones. Also something to be done with the lobby spam would be very welcome.

SnagglepussX

21st Dec 05, 1:42 PM

Wow, some cool ideas there Hybris. I really liked the synchornized replay and the ping display in lobby.

Bl00d_R4VenS

21st Dec 05, 1:45 PM

use map settings maps. god those would rock.
and if someone doesnt have the map, they can download it as they join the game, like in battle net.

SnagglepussX

21st Dec 05, 2:16 PM

Hope this isn't out of place, but since someone mentioned replays, I would dearly like the ability to have a slider bar and/or forward/rewind on a replays's progress, both so I could skip ahead to a particular part I wanted to focus on and most especially so if I saw some cool maneuver or just a great animation, I could kick the play back a little and rewatch and study it up. This would be hugely helpful and add so much to the ability to study a game closely from all sides at will.

Da_Fish

21st Dec 05, 2:27 PM

A lobby specifically designed for automatch.
This would let all the automatchers flock to it and help us get more games :)

Remove the 300+/- autoing range.
I don't want to face 1600 players when I know I'm not ready for them :(

Have a "race" symbol beside the players name
This symbol(which would hopefully be on the right), would be a little icon that would tell you what the favourite race of the player was. It would save time clicking on teh information icon, which sometimes doesn't work and is quite slow.

santiago4ever

21st Dec 05, 2:32 PM

Consistent Ignore:

An ignore list very much like the Friends list would rock, also if it could look up all that users accounts and ignore them all that would be just super.

Spam crackdown:

Has any of you guys even watched the lobby lately? It usually looks something like this:

Spam
Spam
Spam
Spam
Spam
Spam
Spam
Spam
*repeat ad infinity*

usually in the form of 2v2 join repeated 50 times until someone does join. Blocking any attempt to say the same thing as you did last time would be a start. Adding a limit to posts/minute would be great and then mute any offender a short period for first offence, then do increasingly longer times for each time he does it to a max of 5hours/time or something.

Loading Screen:

I'd like to see:
User name (and auto score)
Race (random if random)
map name

Atleast in the auto loading screens.

But honestly, what hybris said stands true for all of us. We would be happy with anything if you made relic.net instead of keeping gamespy, there are so many issues with them and their servers doesn't even seem to be able to handle the traffic. Get flood messages in lobby all the time.

Oh and one last thing. Improved kick system, I don't care how you do it but if a player is lagging down the game and I chose not to kick him then he bloody well shouldn't get the option to kick me :grumble:

Edit: And I'm not sure but I think introducing rewinding into the replays would play havoc with the size of the replay file...

ThE|Android

21st Dec 05, 2:51 PM

Lets start:
1) Stats Win & Losses instead of Games & Win, maybe with some icon like warcraft III did
2) Channel divided for countries like Italian channel, france channel, usa channel etcetc not just European Channel etc
3) A different Whisper system, pretty boring this one
4) A different AT & RT system for auto match 2v2 & 3v3

vacant ronin

21st Dec 05, 3:25 PM

If were talking just about dow/wa multiplayer, then in my opinion, the whole thing needs a revamp, including....
1.A user friendly interface, news page, clan info, ladder ranks, chat rooms (for different nationalities too)
2.A moderator to man this site, helping new players, dealing with the spammers with the lovely language and just generally being a port of call.
3.The option to make the game rated/unrated, compstomps always unrated.
4.Organised competitions.
5.Being able to upload custom maps.
6.Medals or awards for unique milestones, (1000 games, 500 wins etc)

These are all taken from other rpg games i've played.

SACSlym

21st Dec 05, 3:49 PM

I would like to see a ping symbol (Green, Yellow, and Red), not referring to the internet someone uses, but whether they have a good connection with the lobby.

Also better join game parameters, ie having the game creator choose what section their game will appear in (QS, Standard, and possibly specific symbols representing 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA, and so on [also including misc for games that have uneven numbers] that appear next to the channel name. I know that info is there, but having it up front and not needing someone to go clicking through for info would improve the chances of a player finding what they want.

As a last suggestion, possibly a custom info field for people who often create games, that would allow for someone to have their teamspeak, or ventrilo servers put inside their game and allow for people to automatically find the channel without the maker having to put their name out.

DrDread

21st Dec 05, 4:31 PM

OMG! What a godsend of a question!

Display CPU stats: Total Annihilation had the CPU and RAM displayed for all players in a game so we can tell if someone had an ancient machine that would bring the whole game to a crawl. This is by FAR the most annoying thing in DoW and is the cause of about 100% of my quit outs!. Showing ping times is good also.

Teamate/Enemy win ratios: Don't remove the win stats, add a few more! About half the players worry about their win ratios and won't play with lesser players because of it, only playing with stacked teamates vs noobs. If you added an "Average Ally Ratio" and "Average Enemy Ratio" to the system which would show the average win ratios of your temates and the average winratios of your enemies. The ratio concious pros would WANT to play with newbs sometimes so their scores wouldn't look embarrasing, and their idea of "embarrasing scores" is the ONLY reason they try to play with stacked teams to begin with. Winning with newb teamates vs good players would be reflected and count for much more than just the straight win ratio. You allies/enemies number of games played could act as a "weight" along with their win ratios when it comes to affecting your score. Simply displaying these extra stats would get everyone playing together again with balanced teams while far more accurately representing who the good and bad players are! Displaying the average amount of enemies that are CPU opponets is good also.

Balance for Real: How about you take statistics on the units that are used the most and the units that are used the least, then up the power/effectiveness of the useless units (Mines, transports) and lower the effectiveness of the overused units until they are all used about the same (i.e. balanced)

timotheus

21st Dec 05, 5:11 PM

Buddy List that keeps track of ALL names of a player once you add him/her?
Would eliminate smurfing...somewhat.

Kick bug is horrendous, I have seen game rooms cleared out of all but 1 players (the host) for no reason they are dumped into the lobby and have to reconnect.

Stats to me are unimportant but you have to keep the automatch 1v1 score to stroke the egos and give the competitive freaks the incentive to auto a lot. Meh, keep stats as is - good enough for me.

LiKWiD

21st Dec 05, 5:11 PM

No more keeping track of comp stomp wins.

Make it so that you may only get a credit toward your win ratio if you play games with people with similar stats to discourage people from organizing "noob stomps" and to discourage people from dropping from an evenly matched game out of fear of what will happen to their precious win ratio.

BERSERK3R

21st Dec 05, 5:59 PM

Viewable system info
It might be handy if you could see if a player has set his graphics to high for his machine, and could concider to kick him, cause if his settings are set to high for his system to handle, it will cause lag.

Filters/sorting at serverlist
I'd really like to see a filter and sorting option for: map, players, servername, etc.
That will make looking for specific servers much more easier.

Serverlist autorefresh
Sometimes it can be very annoying when I have selected a server in the serverlist and want to see the name, map, players, etc. then suddenly the list autorefreshes, and then I lost the selected server.
So, considering the refresh button is already there, it might be an idea to make autorefresh optional.

Game settings languages
When you select a server, you sometimes see the options in a foreign language, and although I can figure it out most of the time what it means, it would be nice if that is just the language of you game.

Real random teams
There is a "random teams" option, but it doesn't do what I thought it would do.
What I would like to see as "random teams" is the starting location on your team side.
Normally when you start a game you start at location 1, and that can be quite dull after a while.
So with my "random teams" option enabled you start at random locations on your team side.

No more keeping track of comp stomp wins.

Make it so that you may only get a credit toward your win ratio if you play games with people with similar stats to discourage people from organizing "noob stomps" and to discourage people from dropping from an evenly matched game out of fear of what will happen to their precious win ratio.
I know that this has been mentioned but I just wanted to let you know that I also find that quite important.

D-coy

21st Dec 05, 6:00 PM

My ideas are (great ones so far!!! :D ) :

If these are possible:

- Make the Friend List display the Exact location of the player (friend). Which lobby, which game etc. (not just, "playing a game" :p )

-Allow people to whisper to or ignore someone in the game lobby (Game Chat) with a trigger next to their name on their slot (like in the Global lobby)

- Make it possible to change someone to whisper or ignore from the friend list, too. It's annyoying that you have them as a friend, but you always have to scroll through 134234214 names and select your friend's name from there. (the normal member list)

- Allow people to display the colour numbers of their current scheme (like, primary 213, secondary 110 etc. etc. ...) by pressing a button in the game chat (probably next to their colour scheme display) and ("or" for schemes) allow them to share banners, badges and sets after both confirmed that they want it. Then somehow it could be get into the respective folder automatically (banner, badge) .

Sorry if these were mentioned :confused: , cheers, D-coy :comp:

killerqueen

21st Dec 05, 7:22 PM

+1 For Hybris..he got the best ideas execpt the one that makes you see what race your opponent is in automatch..these feature should be there since the beginnig imho...

And by the way, thx for asking TanJ!

[eX]Xerxes

21st Dec 05, 9:01 PM

The connection issues are the biggest problem imo. All the other stuff is filler. Lovely cake filler we'd all be happy to gourge ourselves on, but they don't have the same impact on the game as flat out not being able to play because of the connection problems.

CrimsonFury

21st Dec 05, 10:25 PM

Bring back the flood control in the lobby. Ever since WA came out it seems the flood control no longer works and the spammers are back.

Also an easier way to put people on ignore would be nice eg clicking on someones name in the lobby text should jump to their name on the player list down the left side, instead of having to scroll through the whole list manually.

When you are scrolled up in the lobby it shouldn't jump to the top every time a new line of text gets added.

Auto match and arranged team auto should list how many players are currently searching within your rank matching range.

Shared resources should be split into 2 options, 1 for shared power and 1 for shared req. Shared power doesn't work well because when different builds need different amounts of power. However disabling shared resource means that if some players cap more flags the req is distributed unevenly.

Change the server browser so the common game settings for each server can be seen without clicking on the game. eg add a column for win conditions with icons for annihilate\T+H\assasinate etc. Also add columns listing resource settings (one standard for standard\QS one for low\med\high).

pizza123

21st Dec 05, 10:49 PM

well 4vs4 on insane is fun i think that the human players equal to the bots on insane should be counted

UnityOne

21st Dec 05, 11:07 PM

i think it would be cool to be able to a points battle online...like the table top you pick your army before you play, that way you just go online agree on the number of units and points and pick ur army and bam! pure tactical bliss, less resource management, less no tactical crap, more strats!

Ignore would be cool

Also i agree with the online downloading of maps

and the seperation of lobbies example =novices (0-30%) must be in that zone to enter
Intermediate (30-60)
Pro (60-95)
Untouchable (95-100)
ALL ARE WELCOME (everyone)

no comp stomps counting toward stats
also a way to check the ladders ingame would be cool

relic.net !!!!!

Maybe even avatars? more stats in the stat view, ie favorite unit, most units killed in a game, most units lost in a game etc

Fix da orks

and maybe even designated volunteer noob teachers or coaches?

i dont know just a few suggestions

Kombat

22nd Dec 05, 12:10 AM

1). Beating computer online shouldn't count to win %
2). Downloadning maps!!!! OR at least people who don't have the proper map cant join game with this map, OR other players can acually see that certain players don't have the proper map. OR the game won't start if someone doesn't have the map.
3). Leave stats as it is, maybe add more features like win% against races and so on.

admiral_the

22nd Dec 05, 2:16 AM

Online gripes-

The auto refresh of the game screen is very annoying, you were just about to click join and the whole thing starts again with no marker on your place.

If you know a friend's name you should be able to type it in to add it to friends list not have to wait for them to be online.

Is it possible to restrict people to one account name? Multiple smurfs clog up the ladder and allow people to give false representations of their ability. It also makes it impossible to get to know people and their ability (eg remember not to play with X again).

Automatch can be slow and unreliable.

Kick bug.

Ability to order games according to map or game type or number of players or game name etc

Fix bugs/problems which interfere (quite often) with stat reading online and top 100 stats disappearing.

In order to fix stats issue perhaps you could award stars on the basis of 1v1 ladder match rank which once achieved can never be removed even with ladder reset. EG 1000 - no stars, 1100, 1 star, 1150, 2 starts, 1200, 3 stars, 1300 4 stars, 1500 5 stars.

Perhaps a "just get me in a game" button. With preference options (3v3 qs first then 3v3 standard then 2v2 etc etc)

Basically the technical failures are the most annoying - automatch down, joining games down, kick bug, stats etc.

And balancing all races at tier 4 would be nice...the current situation is so far apart it's laughable.

$gtPopp3r

22nd Dec 05, 3:01 AM

If it's possible improve to improve the lag, then do that (improving netcode or whatever).

I also second this:

Loading Screen:

I'd like to see:
User name (and auto score)
Race (random if random)
map name

in-lobby map-download system would be nice

Old Painless

22nd Dec 05, 3:42 AM

It would be nice to have a drop down menu of your names or clan tags when your trying to get online instead of having to remember them.

Changing/choosing clan tags instead of registering a new name would be good, then i can have [DL]Old_Hand and [41W]Old_Hand too ! Plus clanners cant have the same name and self regulate. Instead of [41W]Old_Hand and [DL]Painless :down:

hangar-8

22nd Dec 05, 3:43 AM

Oh.. forgot to add this in my first post.. make the sort buttons in the lobby work (Map Name, Ping, Players), not just the Game Name button.

sCott

22nd Dec 05, 4:18 AM

ok, i didnt read the other answers..
but i wanna see in automatch which race my oponent has and which map will be played,
thx :)

EugenusMaximus

22nd Dec 05, 4:31 AM

I would like to see a Warcraft III like Map Dismiss Option.

Before the Automatch starts, both players should be able to "dismiss" 2 Maps from the usual Mappool. From the left maps one map will be randomly picked.

Gomasso

22nd Dec 05, 4:49 AM

I would like to be albo to choose the option of random map in my custom games.

murphyj

22nd Dec 05, 5:03 AM

Loading Screen:

I'd like to see:
User name (and auto score)
Race (random if random)
map name

I want this too

apettican

22nd Dec 05, 5:11 AM

Some sort of method to make people use the automatch button.

Have something along the lines of 2 types of game. Stat recorded/Unrecorded

Recorded games:
Are all AT/RT automatches, then we would be rid of the team stacking arguements forever. Players of similar calibre would end up playing together resulting in less "Noob" - "No you are the Noob" - "At least I have an army" - "I'm doing a landraider tech" discussions. This sort of approach would also almost certainly cut the amount of lobby spam, kicking due to stats, comp stomp stat whores and assorted other problems in the process.

Unrecorded games:
Still possible to play games with/against friends, with different settings than standard ones, but no stats will ever be recorded EVER. No stars, no win/loss ratio, no rating, no games played, nothing. These games are purely for fun. Anyone that wants to play for rating should be happy to play recorded games in one of the Automatch formats above.

Other things worthy of note: A permenant chat filter - could implement as an idiot list, works just like friendlist, but used to ignore idiots. Fix the hosting/joining/routing problems. Stop the game list refreshing so often, its almost as irritating as the spam. And fix Automatches so if your opponent lags out you dont get a match aborted or a loss.

santiago4ever

22nd Dec 05, 5:24 AM

in-lobby map-download system - Yes please

Being able to customize your clanname - yes please, especially if it will mean that I finally can use my [TLSC] tag and still have enough room for Santiago after it ^_^

Also most of what hybris says makes sense. Especially the connectivity issues.

noise_pollution

22nd Dec 05, 5:28 AM

Teamate/Enemy win ratios:
DrDread just had the best idea ever to improve stats and prevent noob bashing.

Add offline friends:
this would be the simple option of just type a nickname and adding it to the list, instead of having to wait till he is online and then find him among 200 other people.

Edit: i also dont think we should know the opponents race in automatch. its ok as it is now.

Listoric

22nd Dec 05, 5:58 AM

As you said "have you seen in other games", take a look at Battle.net

- console commands like:

/? or /help for help
/f a or /friends add NICKNAME (no matter if off or online)
and and and, most things are already mentioned about that type of feature

- hotkeys hotkeys hotkeys

I absolutely don't like that i have to -click- everything and everywhere. Shortcuts for certain functions would be great - same like in Starcraft Broodwar/Battle.net

Everything should be accassable via shortcut, in the game menue, as well as online.

M - Multiplayer
O - Online
P - Options
...

- the "join game button" should be something more like a dialog window saying:

Enter GameName: 2on2 Bloodriver by Mike
Enter Password: beagel

[x] Click on Checkbox to autojoin when created

That way we wouldn't have to wait till the game popps out of nowhere but we could seek it and join it automatically.

- as it is now, after typing a game password to join, i just want to hit ENTER to enter the game then, not navigate my mouse to "ok", would be great.

Titler

22nd Dec 05, 6:14 AM

Sorry, I know everyone is asking for it, but I have to say that opponent race being shown at start up is an absolute must to not put in the game, and certainly not their current ranking... If the races were currently perfectly balanced, so the race of your opponent didn't matter, than you might have a reason to argue that you should be able to see their race. But as it currently stands, they are horribly imbalanced, and knowing your opponents race gives a considerable advantage to you... especially if they are playing as one of the races particularly susceptable to those imbalances.

In effect, it is requesting that the game further formalises it's current unfair state: Those asking for it are thinking about what will help them personally win in automatch, about how the game itself should narrow down their own build order choices to the optimum one at the earliest possible time, and are not thinking about what is in the best interests of the game itself overall.

The same ignorance of the wider consequences applies if the motivation is only to help change the play style to one which focuses more on who has the "Better" APM skills, or dancing ability: But this game is not Starcraft, and frankly a large proportion of those who play are those who came to the game via Games Workshop: The kind of person who plays table top games is likely to be interested in strategy and atmosphere, and not in being a monsterous GOSU player. Making it more like Starcraft, reducing the ability of people to play strategically down to who can implement the Win Button Strategy of the revealed race fastest, will drive off many, many of those players... if not from just Automatch, but perhaps from the entire game. And frankly, DoW doesn't have the depth of community to be able to afford to alienate those players... and it's had it's time to attract players from other games. It appeals to the audience it largely has now, or it dies.

You can already see races in organised games, of course... and already you can also see people constantly leaving the host room because they don't like the racial balance. Or the skill level of the potential teams. And it absolutely will not help the game overall to bring that ability to be prejudicial into automatching too. The skill of scouting your opponent will vanish. The only people automatching will be those who know the Win Button against a particular race. Casual people will drop out, because they don't have the time to learn all 5 races, and thus take Random to avoid getting GOSU'd due to racial imbalance. And unless Relic can balance all the races, some of them will eventually be abandoned, because not enough people bother to play them to justify further development time. It will become a viscious circle.

I would however support showing someone's automatching rank after the game has ended. I would like to know the approximate skill of the person I have just fought so I can judge my own progress, without having to catch them in the lobby list, or use the webpage to look them up. But before? No. It's demoralising enough to be beaten, without being made to think you are going to be beaten before the game even begins... "Oh crud, he's 200 points above me, this will be hopeless". Afterwards, seeing the scores may make the bruises of getting walloped not sting quite as much. Beforehand? No, it makes the game far more intimidating for the lower ranked player. You might want it so you can experiment with new builds in the expectation of winning regardless. But it's not good for the game as a whole. New blood is what matters, not old hands. Score only after the game, when both sides have actually tested genuine skill against skill. Both start blind, because that's the fairest option.

Old Painless

22nd Dec 05, 6:44 AM

Being able to customize your clanname - yes please, especially if it will mean that I finally can use my [TLSC] tag and still have enough room for Santiago after it ^_^

Hmm, any chance we can have longer names? Were not working with DOS you know :banana:

Da_Fish

22nd Dec 05, 7:05 AM

And I'd like to you to edit your online profile(eg your name) instead of making an new one.

zyndikate

22nd Dec 05, 7:12 AM

Dawn of War TV
That would help the community most (imo) would be something like warcraftTV or gtv etc. For you who dont know what they do and are: they allow one observer from the game to stream it, so instead of adding 50observer spots in the game you can have only one observer which streams the game. People can then join his stream with a client and this wouldnt affect the game's performance(no lag mainly).
Something like dowtv would be great since you can watch the games "live"(i say that because there usualy is something like 1min delay to prevent cheating) and with alot of people.

hybris

22nd Dec 05, 7:20 AM

mmmm.... Agree zyndikate.

DoW-TV would have ROCKED, and helped triggering a LOT more interest for the grand finale DoW games, and big fights.
Watching them live would help benefit DoW greately, not only for the current players, but interest of curious other players as well.

AridMonk

22nd Dec 05, 7:49 AM

Take the option to cheat online off. i just played a game where some little noob removed FOW in an assasinate game. :naughty:

Not so much fun. :steam:

Rafta

22nd Dec 05, 7:52 AM

And I'd like to you to edit your online profile(eg your name) instead of making an new one.
i think thats a gamespy issue, you can't edit your name in battlefield 2 either.

@crazytechprist: how do you know and/or how did he do it?
you should open a new thread if you have evidence for cheating

SnagglepussX

22nd Dec 05, 8:58 AM

WOW, DOW-TV would be great. As much as I love playing a game, I almost always like watching one nearly as much and often more. Something like that would keep the game very entertaining to me even when I'm too tired or lazy or out of the mood to play a game. Or just figure I might have to run out the door any minute so don't want to make a commitment.

Very very cool idea.

Mall

22nd Dec 05, 9:46 AM

I would have a automatic Map download function in the next update like funcions in other games: "Warcraft 3" and "CS" etc.
Coustom maps get more importance ....
plz make it plz .....

Terminus82Est

22nd Dec 05, 9:55 AM

well, I'd really like to be able to see the pings instaed of ??? in playerstats, those laggers and dropers are really ..............

or even better an server option where you can define a minimum connectionspeed or something the like

Rafta

22nd Dec 05, 10:11 AM

JolieMonitor

22nd Dec 05, 11:13 AM

you can edit your online profile, if you go to www.gamespyid.com (http://www.gamespyid.com) and log in then you can edit your profile there as well as your nickname.

and yes Lag in DoW is caused by weak computers because the game syncs to every frame, so if a computer is rendering at 5fps then everyone will go at that speed. so everyone could have T3 lines and it would still lag.

Pokey ork

22nd Dec 05, 11:24 AM

I have a question Thq. How much of this stuff would you say you would be able to implement anyway? Considering it is gamespy an all i mean like are you asking them to add this to the DOW game specifically or?

Are you possibly making your own servers [from the WA profits]. If you could add MOSt of this stuff id say a lot more DOW players would be coming back but meh.

Listoric

22nd Dec 05, 2:44 PM

If it's legally not possible to have the maps shared, then maybe it is possible that the custom map opened, is stored temporarly on an relic/thq server and the others can download them via link. That way, you could share the map like it is downloaded from a page? Just a thought.

SNeakY_BuGGeR

22nd Dec 05, 2:52 PM

BIGGEST thing that I can think of would be to have the team automatch function sorted on 1v1 automatch scores/win ratio basis! At the moment team automatch games are based on the team automatch scores.. They are independant of each other!

So when you team automatch you end up with a 1400 player and a 1000 player on the same team! This should not happen. It makes the team automatch a joke as no one that is any good at all will play with a noob.

2v2 3v3 4v4 should all sort the players according to their 1v1 scores/win ratio etc. That way the team automatch functions would allign players of similar skill together on opposing teams. This would make people actually use the team automatch feature. NO ONE does it because at the moment it is a lottery and is also no fun when you get three 1300's and a 1400 on one team and 3 1000's and a 1300 on the other!

Titler

22nd Dec 05, 3:28 PM

Ahah, here's another one... Wasn't aware of this until tonight, but you can't presently have Random Teams for either 3 or 4 teams, only 2. That should be changed too. And finding a way of integrating Gretchin into it somehow, natch

vecctor

22nd Dec 05, 3:52 PM

Some of these I have seen before and others I haven't, but here is my list:

Downloadable maps in game lobby.

Downloadable map file format - a single file that represents all the files needed to play a map. I.E. "My_Custom_Map.map" This will make for easy transfer, installation, and backup of maps. Currently installing custom maps involves a process of paying close attention to complicated directory trees and copying files which is very error-prone for experienced users and near impossible for inexperienced users.

True annihilate - A win condition that requires destroying all units and buildings. Its been said that it sucks to chase around that one last unit, but let the players worry about that. It's worse to have a max population army just disapper when you kill their last barracks. Give both options "annihilate buildings" and "annihlate all" and let people decide.

Choose start positions in multiplayer games - This is one I haven't seen mentioned above. Currently you can choose fixed positions (player1 is position1, etc) or random. This is a big limitation for people who want to play against AI or on custom maps that have very specific layouts that require players on teams being in specific positions. If I host a multiplayer game, I will always be in position 1 and the only way other players can choose a position is if they join in a specific order. Also, if a player wanted to try a 2v3 on a 6 player map, this would be impossible to do. Host and his one other teammate would start next to a person from the other team if you use fixed positions, and random would put them who knows where.

Overall network performance and dropping bugs - Even on a LAN with 1 network hop to other players and no other traffic there is command delay. The frame-sync system means that if you want to enjoy the good graphics in this game, you either get laggy performance for all involved or you just get dropped. My friends and I have to turn the graphics settings all the way down just to complete a game without one person dropping. If we have them up even a little (and these are high end machines) over the internet, one of us gets dropped. Over a LAN we can turn them up a little, but it still looks pretty bad. Single player we can all play max settings with almost no perceptible slowdown. (Custom built gaming machines built in the last year if you want an idea of "how good is good").

In a nutshell: having the graphics settings influence lag and network game performance to such an extreme extent is a big no-no and a problem I haven't experienced in any other multiplayer RTS games. I can see some lag if your whole computer is bogging down and running file-sharing and a virus scan, but this stuff happens on the best rigs available in ideal conditions. It doesn't matter how good the game is (and it is!) if you can't enjoy it and finish a game.

Router-friendly: This has been mentioned before but I have a bit more detail. Currently hosting is done on port 6112, and there are a bevy of other ports needed to play.

Warcraft 3 does it very differently and much better. To host and get a full range of options for network play, you only need one port open and you can change what that port is. It defaults to 6112, but you can change it to whatever you want. The game might use other ports, but only that one needs to be open for hosting and everything else to work.

I have had 4 people behind the same router able to host games on battle.net by opening a different port for each. Everyone behind the router was able to join that persons game, or other games without any problem. There is a simple box in game settings where you can change the port, but I have also seen it done with .ini files in other games.

Currently, if you have 2 people behind a lan and another person elsewhere, you can get a direct connect game setup if and only if one of the people on the LAN has the host ports open and hosts. It will not work if the other person on the LAN hosts, and it will not work if the remote person hosts. Given this, I assume the host is acting as a central mediator for all the players, since the person inside the LAN is connecting with his private IP and the person outside is connection with a public one. Making it so each could have their own open port would eliminate this problem as well (and maybe some others). Each client could be uniquely identified by their own personal "IP:port" combination. Any player could host or join any of the others games.

Those are my BIG suggestions. Here are a few other minor ones:

Saw this before, good idea:

Shared resources should be split into 2 options, 1 for shared power and 1 for shared req. Shared power doesn't work well because when different builds need different amounts of power. However disabling shared resource means that if some players cap more flags the req is distributed unevenly.

Direct connect history - Save the last few IPs that you direct connected to, or at least allow copy and paste into that box from the windows clipboard (most games allow this for such things as URLs etc). Also, allowing enough space in the box for full DNS names would be a nice touch, for those of us playing on computers with a mapped DNS for easy address remembering. (Ok that last one was a real "icing" request but you asked!)

Hope you can act on the stuff in this thread. Thanks again for the great game.

Bahamut

22nd Dec 05, 4:51 PM

One and only:

Quitting Gamespy and havnig your own online service, Relic.net ^^ as someone suggested

Question

22nd Dec 05, 6:44 PM

I would love to get your feedback on which features you most want to see in the Dawn of War and Winter Assault online system. Please post any and all features that you have either seen in other games, or would like to see in DoW. Anything goes here, but please be constructive and respectful of your fellow posters.

Thanks

Lets see.........

-The kick bug that hasnt been fixed since beta........the fixing of said bug would be the "feature" im missing.

-Inability to add people to friendlist while they are offline.Try getting people 13 hours time difference from you to go online so you can add them.

-Inability to permanently ignore people,ignore list resets after every game.

-Inabiltiy to ignore people while you are in a game room.

-Inability to add people to friendlist while in a game room.

-The stupid,annoying whisper function needs a tweak.Example,im trying to whisper "John".It keeps finishing the name for me,which i do NOT want.I can type it properly,thank you,and you try doing it when multiple people with same nicks are online.

-The inability to sort a game by anything other than its name.Seriously this is like,the most basic thing?

-The inability to see proper pings.Most of the pings listed arent even shown as anything but a "-",and pings shown do not reflect proper lag......im tired of people screaming "OMGZ 56K LOLZ LAGGER!!!!GO GET BROADBAND!!!!" just because i live in asia and everyone else is in america or europe.

-The complete absence of about a dozen+ people from the forums with moderator powers to slap the constant spammers with 72 hour cdkey bans.

-The inability to permanently ban people.I am tired of losers using smurf accounts to get back into my games and trying to setup 3vs1 trap games or some other crap after i kick them.They should be added to the banlist, till i remove them,and teh banlist should be dependant on the cdkey.Accounts take about 15 seconds to switch.....IPs take about 30-60 seconds if someone knows what hes doing,and thats assuming he doesnt use dialup.

-The inability to download maps peer to peer and the complete lack of a proper modding system........why do you think WC3 is so popular?The brand name?More than 90% of the games online dont even play standard WC3 anymore,its all scenario maps!When you compare how pathetically easy it is to setup scenarios in WC3(hell to place units/etc its just a simple click unit....click on map system.......i couldnt even find the ability to do it in the RDN tools after looking through all the object,etc menues).....you will see why there are tons of scenarios in WC3 and zero in WA.Everyone plays DOTA,tower defence,etc,rather than the original game.You not only made it significantly more difficult to make the most played map type, but you also failed to provide any sort of P2P map transfer based on the 56k argument.

Do you really think people are going to go to a website to download maps?Less than 1% of the players will bother to do it and everything from dow to current WA status has proven me correct.A VERY small minority cares enough to do it.Any sort of custom map is only played by a tiny proportion of the players because people do not bother to go to a website to download it,hence only people who regularly play LAN or together with a large group of friends bother to do so.

Until you figure out a way to get custom maps to the masses custom maps will NEVER achieve anything more than the current token insigificant impact on the community.And thats very sad because some of the maps are excellent,but they arent being played because 99% of the players dont even realise they exist.

Dont believe me.......try going online,creating a game room with a custom map and get people to download it to play with you.......most will just roll their eyes and snort in disbelief that you expect them to do it.

This is a major,contributing factor to the low population numbers on gamespy........and its popularity.

mockier

23rd Dec 05, 4:37 AM

- RE spammers/ abusive chatters: Allow permenant ignore and Reduce their score by the number of people that have ignored them.

Question

23rd Dec 05, 4:56 AM

What the....reduce their score?Erm?Not everyone cares about automatch and this just leads to mass abuse with people ignoring the players who do have automatch scores just to piss them off.

SnagglepussX

23rd Dec 05, 5:34 AM

The reducing the score thing is silly, as clans will gang up and even create alternate identities to all bomb another clan's rep or even someone that the head knuckledragger gets beaten by or doesn't take a shine to.

AridMonk

23rd Dec 05, 6:34 AM

Raftaman-

@crazytechprist: how do you know and/or how did he do it?
you should open a new thread if you have evidence for cheating

I was stating that i think that the ability to cheat online should be taken off, not that i was reporting a cheater. It is highly unfair to other players and results in unfair wins and losses.

I dont know if this has already been mentioned or not, but if the ignore function is activatied for a certain player, then he should not be able to join any games you are in/hosting.

wendigo4160

23rd Dec 05, 7:06 AM

Has anyone informed relic about this thread?

vecctor

23rd Dec 05, 9:38 AM

Has anyone informed relic about this thread?
A relic employee started the thread :p

Takalth

23rd Dec 05, 11:48 AM

My suggestion would be changes in the next patch, but I think it would help:

Taken from Warcraft III: Make it so that when somebody drops, his allie(s) get control of his units, or at the very least, his resources. Having a dropping ally would still hurt your game badly, but not as much as it does now.

SnagglepussX

23rd Dec 05, 12:14 PM

Yes, this was the way it was with Total Annihilation as well. It can be very helpful.

Grabnutz

23rd Dec 05, 12:37 PM

Has anyone informed relic about this thread?
Round of applause please :lol:

Anywho, another suggestion, can anything be done about the constantly refreshing games? I keep misclicking, damn annoying.

DoWP_Chaplain

23rd Dec 05, 2:32 PM

I think that it would be really awesome if there were centralized objectives that weren't mission critical in the middle of a map. For example a air force control tower where a general broadcast to your air force (lying just out of screen range of course). So you could have a strafing run called in, sorta like the commander for the IG except more powerful like a Thunderhawks battle cannon shot or a pulsar from a Vampire Raider or a Fighta-Bomma bombing run. The control tower would need to be garrisoned much like in command in conquer. I think this would be an awesome tactic that would encourage people to bring they're armies out of they're bases.

IceCream

23rd Dec 05, 7:17 PM

Auto-download For Maps,thats All Im Asking For So Please Add Auto-download For Maps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Question

23rd Dec 05, 9:53 PM

Psst dowchaplain,this is about online features.This is not about game features like new units.

And...yea when someone drops his ally should get all the resources.That or change it to computer control.I think the latter is better.

ZuBR

24th Dec 05, 7:38 AM

If it is possible. I think that we need Tournament Generator inside GameSpy ladder, like in WarCraft...

With nominations 1x1 and 2x2.

Sweedumz

24th Dec 05, 9:19 AM

A resolution to the NAT issues is TOP priority!! I appreciate this may be difficult, but as it stands, I am able to join about one in six games. Everything else gives an "connection refused by host", or error to that effect. I'm finding myself stuck on Kaiser Lutien Quickstart as it's the only game I can get into. I'm behind a router with another player, which is unusual, but consider that more than one PC or laptop in homes is becoming more common.

The kick bug? What's with that?

Have you considered open sourcing the servers? Gamespy's service isn't great. This way, you can get other people to do the work for you. Make the servers some kind of distributed P2P servers so it's transparent to the user. It's a win-win scenario.

Please, whatever you do, do NOT implement the ability to see the opponents race in automatch. That would make a bad situation worse as has already been mentioned.

This ability would be OK in team games, as you could see their race in the lobby anyway. But don't let people know their opponent's locations! That would be even more awful than knowing who they are on automatch!

Location and names of allies would be an interesting feature though.

To go offtopic, rather than eye-candy, chrome, etc changes to the lobby system, I would prefer to see updates to the core game balance more often. As it stands people are simply sitting on imbalance for far too long. I personally did not buy DoW during 1.3 because of all the things I was hearing from Da_Fish. That went on for months. More frequent updates would do a lot to make the game more fun.

DukeRustfield

24th Dec 05, 2:32 PM

PERMANENT OVERWATCH

Could we get a button added to squads for Autofill and a global Cancel All Autofill? Where Autofill is perma Overwatch?

Maybe each button that can be right clicked for overwatch has 2 checkboxes at the top. 1st is overwatch, 2nd means autofill.

It's just kind of annoying to click overwatch and have it turn off as soon as it's full. Something like Gretchins will always want this on.

Yes, it can sap resources. But it could anyway with overwatch. When I click I want a squad full and to stay full, I'm really serious. That's why I clicked it...

NOTE: I didn't see another area for this. Please move if it's in the wrong place.

LOBBY CHAT FILTER

Seriously.

No.

Seriously.

If you guys want this game to have any kind of adult players to keep playing you need to get some spam filtering and make muting players permanent. I will gladly sacrifice 30 megs on my harddrive to maintain a list. Though I can't imagine it taking more than like 50K even if I was really aggressive.

There is no way I can recommend this game to my friends for online play because I know they will drop out once they are forced to sit in that lobby for 30 mins.

SnagglepussX

24th Dec 05, 2:38 PM

I think this problem is much more serious than Relic perhaps believes, if it's still here after the game has been out all this time. Many adults freak out at cursing or just bad behavior from punks. But more importantly, many will not tolerate their kids being inundated with that.

And just for general peace of mind and sanity even of adults not easily offended, not making muting permanent is a big downer. Adults work all day long, and they don't want to come home to see a bunch of idiot punks spamming out toilet jabber. Life is stressful enough as it is, and a game is supposed to be one form of relief from it, not a compounding of it.

Argonaut

24th Dec 05, 4:21 PM

I think this problem is much more serious than Relic perhaps believes,
couldn't agree more. I am the head chef of a 200 seat restaurant, and believe me - I have heard some of the foulest language conceiveable, and I witness it all between 7-10 PM GMT in the Dawn of War Lobby..

I do not want to come online and witness my adult work environment in a computer game lobby,especially for a hobby that is often pursued by children. I have a son myself, and there is NO WAY I would consider letting him play this game online purely for the fact that there is such a high level of very abusive language. If I ran a website that regularly hosted such profanities, and I had links to Games Workshop stuff, you can be damn sure that GW would have something to say....

Back to topic. How about utilising the mod community, and having a mod 'room'. Also, Making it possible for Mod makers to keep up with the current patch by giving continuing impressive mods prior warning so they at least stand a chance at keeping things up to date.(Steel legion, Thousand Sons and The AI mod come to mind, but there are many others). Prior to 1.2 (Maybe 1.3) mods were lively and frequent and good. But since these patches, there are many mods that have been killed by the patches.

I am not a 'mod fan' but there is some very impressive work being squashed underfoot because they simply cannot keep up with the fundamental changes to the programs structure. Adding extra races keep people interested and distracts from the 'IMBA'.

Relic, it seems you are biting the hand that feeds you.

Sweedumz

24th Dec 05, 6:39 PM

But more importantly, many will not tolerate their kids being inundated with that.

But are they right to? I don't know, but I CAN tell you that Da_Fish's verbal etiquette has gone substantially downhill in the 12 months he has been playing DoW. That said, who really cares.

Not NAT issues, those I care about.

Edit:
P.S. The game does have a 16+ rating.

SnagglepussX

24th Dec 05, 8:21 PM

You definitely have to care about who else is playing the game and in what quantities. It directly affects your ability to keep on playing it online yourself.

Very, very, very, very few games can afford to turn aside customers. This definitely is nowhere near one of them.

Question

24th Dec 05, 9:40 PM

Guys?This is about online features of a new game match making system,ala something like gamespy,only better.

This is not about new races,units or otherwise new ingame FEATURES.

All we need now is for someone to come into this thread and scream for tyranids,necrons and big fluffy bunnies wearing bikinis.

We of course need the auto muting of people who spam.........this is basic.We dont really need filtering.Filtering in my opinion is useless.Its very difficult to code a useful filter for example.......i regularly see games filtering just because of kids and it always turns out horrible.

Blitz 1941 for example has a filter that makes it impossible to say "assault gun" because of the "ass".The result is that players are unable to say they are using a assault gun.

Or the filter is easily bypassed by saying stuff like a-s-s.

Really,theres no point.Ive never understood the fascination with "protecting" children from vulgar language online.Stuff like "fuck" is fairly mild by my standards.Im more concerned about stuff like "fucking niggers!" TBH.

And ive never actually seen much of this swearing myself.Aside from a few retards spamming nonsensical sentences like "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK",ive always been in a game room waiting for players.I think you are doing something wrong if you can just sit there and watch players swear at each other for hours.Are you playing the game or watching the lobby?

Moe

25th Dec 05, 2:50 AM

Guys?This is about online features of a new game match making system,ala something like gamespy,only better.

Actually it's about online features. Maybe they are just trying to get an idea of what people want, maybe they want to add and improve the current system. Tranj did not say "we're making our own matchmaking system".

Question

25th Dec 05, 2:56 AM

That was the gist i got......especially in regards to the interview.

"Online features" seem fairly vauge though but i would gamble it doesnt mean new units/researches/races/objectives/etc that would come in an expansion.

Eh but if they do go in the 1.5 patch im not complaining.

SnagglepussX

25th Dec 05, 7:10 AM

Yeah, filters have limited value, but permanent ignore is something that should be standard with every form of online communication.

Surge

25th Dec 05, 3:21 PM

1. Free of "issue order lag"
Each order being performed instantaneously, like in most other RTS:es. It's really annoying loosing units just because of a two second wait for your order to be acknowledged.

This is the single reason why I don't play online. If my actions were carried out instantly, I would play online forever and ever.

If there is a single thing to be done about online play, please make it fixing this.

Old Painless

25th Dec 05, 7:01 PM

Thats down to people with Dell computers running at 1600x1200 and wondering why they get shouted at.

Dr. Imba

26th Dec 05, 2:03 AM

"Features" I'd like to see in DoW..
Well, what about a decent game browser ?
Seriously, I really don't understand how you can even think of releasing a game with a "browser" like this?
More sorting options, filter options and a less annoying way to refresh the list. Essentially, the most basic things you can think of immediatly when the word "game browser" comes into your mind.

It's more than one year after the release of Dawn of War and there hasn't been one reasonable improvement of the game browser.

A decent (I'm not even saying a good..) game browser is the absolute minimum I can expect. Period.

Titler

26th Dec 05, 6:32 AM

Actually, with a little hindsight, and with regards to custom map sharing, perhaps have the map icon automatically transfered in the game lobby when the room is selected, as it's quite small and would encourage people to say "oooh, that looks like a fun map!"... then start the downloading (however it is handled) once attempting to connect to the game room itself.

pepperkid

26th Dec 05, 7:46 AM

oK Mr THQ, I dont care much for what the others have said here cuz as much as i feel its all personal stuff and none really directed to the main posse of hardcore gamers. What you MUST do is create a option in the game to block out any player with any set score under which the host has set, E.G if any host want to set the rooms players to be over 60% well only players with thats % and over can enter. Ok i know all the mombo jombo n stuff about what if there new players n that crap but its a must do now at this stage as were is players are stacking games aginst noobs n stuff just so they can mash em up n its not fair and by saying that the game is open for any to play is just a load of ballz in my eyes cuz ive done it myself. We must have this option and fast. :banana:

SnagglepussX

26th Dec 05, 10:15 AM

This is a good idea and a way to steer people away from piling on the hate, which always endangers any online community and limits its growth. Many people just want to team with a friend, not beat up newbies, and shouldn't be accused of that. Giving them a way to let in only people of level X and up would let them have good games without wasting anyone's time, including theirs, or creating any more hate. As features go, this one is really a natural.

When I get decent, I'd love to regularly play 2v2's with a good partner, and don't want to take any abuse for it.

Old Painless

26th Dec 05, 3:16 PM

I think that the idea for rooms divided by the skill of the people who join (voluntarily join, not auto sorted) is a better way to handle this issue. If these guys could be a little more specific it would help, would the noob games be seen by high grade players? Would the noobs see the high grade games? What if a team has a new recruit and he has a 25% ratio but all the others have a 60% ratio, can he or she join their game?

vjghost

27th Dec 05, 12:59 AM

I think it would be good to match maps icons in lobby not via map name but via something else (like id). Then show map names in game browser in the localized names if possible. At the current state you have problems with foreign language map names, because you don't know what map exactly it is nor even map icon shows on game selection.

Game browser needs different sorting possibilities. Also refreshing is really annoying. It is slow and not every game is shown (probably because of large number of opened games). When list is refreshed the scrollbar jump to the beginning and if you are at the end of list looking for particular game it makes me really angry.

Not to mention game connection problems.

SnagglepussX

27th Dec 05, 2:20 AM

The level of documentation for online play is ridiculous too. You get like two lines in the book, and they explain exactly zero. To actually navigate among the games, you have to depend among the kindness of strangers. Please -- this is the internet. It's like pulling teeth to get any question answered and trying to figure anything out is completely taking a shot in the dark. Unbelievable how non-transparent the process of going online is. There needs to be something that will let you have at least SOME idea of what the hell could possibly be going online when you get there. Having an arcane, thoughtless introduction like this one to online play pretty much guarantees you weed out most people who aren't fanatic; but you get fanatics by making online fun and easy to get into, because that's what carries a game's popularity. You have to spend more than two cents on your instruction booklet to get people comfy with the game. At a certain point, cheaping out becomes trashing your own game and abandoning a loss rather than investing in a victory.

Question

27th Dec 05, 2:47 AM

The manuel is a joke.

Im sure we can write a much better one that accurately lists the condition on the internet though,but it would be pointless unless it got stickied.

SlyFrog

27th Dec 05, 6:00 PM

Automatch that works. Seriously.

AridMonk

28th Dec 05, 4:54 AM

I agree. The automatch function is seriously broken. I was speaking to someone who is sitting at 37% win, who played (and was consequently mushed by) an 87% player.

Correct me if im wrong, but isnt automatch about matching players whom are equally matched and so make the game fair??

:bandit:

ZellFish

28th Dec 05, 12:16 PM

It would be nice to be able to see the name of the game your in after you join the game. Because I often want to invite a friend, and I don't know the name of the game i Just joined. Also, perhaps putting the name of the person who made the game beside the name of the game\map would help.

Overseer

28th Dec 05, 3:50 PM

Hi Tranj,

I`ll waive my usual consultation fees on this occassion :read:

Online (framerate)LAG! reduction feature. :idea:

WA/DOW ONLINE=(framerate)LAG! Relic Needs To Fix! Solution Provided.
1st of the LAG im talking about has nothing to do with connection speed but everything to do with people running game settings way above what their machines can handle.

Relic have already stated that 56k modems are more than sufficient for 8 player online games and that Online LAG is mostly due to people running their graphical settings too high for online multiplayer games.

This has become a serious problem with WA more so than DOW as its requirements have increased.
(particularly due to the new weather effects /breath /snow)

In DOW (framerate)lag used to be an occurance/occassional dropper.In WA almost everygame turns into a slideshow at some point.

For the record Im running an 3700+ 3gb ram + 256mb 6800gt.
And even Im not running all at max and I use 1024x768 res.
Just incase someone tries to tell me its just me.

Relic still to this day have not said what specs are required to play an 8 player WA game on a large map all at max - and i wish they would (and if the pc exists yet).

To that end I propose the following::idea:

#1 I propose that the game settings for online play should dynamicly reduce graphics settings to the advantage of framerate preferably in realtime.

#2 Alternatively run a piece of code that collects framerate info at the end of each match and raise/reduce as necessary for subsequent games. (this would need to be locked from user)

#3 Lastly they could run a mini app at online log in that detects hardware/framerate and locks appropriate graphics settings.
(again this would need to be locked from user)

Or a combination of the above.

I would imagine the 3rd option would be the easiest to implement however the 1st would be the best method.

That way idiots that turn all their settings up to max can still play AI and LAN/Direct Connect slideshow battles but not at the expense of ruining online play for the rest of the community.

Winter Assault is an amazing achievement thats most spectacular credit - that of online multi play is currently seriously broken.

This seems particular to this game as framerate is dictated by slowest machine.

Discuss .....

Overseer.

DEATH is preferable to low framerate induced migraine !

Incidently many games have already implimented this and more importantly it WORKS!.

I posted the above ages ago but unfortunately the mods on this forum saw fit first to rubbish the concept as it seemed bad press ... then to lock the thread due to going off topic by other posters here of which a mod was guilty of to begin with.

I left the thread to die as it seemed those voices who genuinely were trying to make improvements were harrassed and shouted down by those who had ego issues.

If your interested in some momentary humour the original thread may be found here:
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=75544&page=1&pp=15&highlight=overseer

Disable JUST weather effects feature. :idea:
The ability to turn off JUST the weather effects separately from the other graphic options.
This could be implemented by a .ini command option.
currently you can only get rid off by using a low setting option.

Multiple online accounts feature. :idea:

I would like the ability/feature to have another 1/2/3 or more log in names.

Many players get around this by having many log in names and just remembering/making a note of their details.
They call them smurf accounts.

But this method is annoying and tedious.
Obviously only one should be able to be active at once.
However all should be remembered/in pull down list to choose at log in.

That way you can have a clan tag name and a personal one for fun games also without all the fuss.

Auto map download option feature. :idea:
This option should be host toggable / implemented before launch of game. To prevent droppers.

Host player Ban via product code/key feature. :idea:
Game hosts should be able to ban players via their product activation code/key.(this prevents ip rotating/spoofing)

Obviously this would be done via a seperately generated attached referencing number on GS servers etc.
As you wouldnt want to give out or have user access to "real" keys.

A true honest to god Relic/Developer online forum feature. :idea:
Due to afore mentioned problems it would also be nice to have a passworded true honest to god Relic/Developer online forum.
This may save you valueable research and development time both in patches and it seems code bugging time.
It could be done here .... but if it was it would need to be moderated by relic personnel.
That way important issues could be addressed without being locked or abused by fanboys -simply because it might look like a bad post to have on a public forum.
Also existing mods could perhaps have the ability to move sensitive/important posts from public to there also.
This would massively reduce your time needed to sift through stuff and get easy access to the meat and gravy of relevant postings.

Another reason is the current Onsite policy/Mod Decisions are proving Detrimental to the continued Development of Relic Software.
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=84713&page=1&pp=15

A fix to the current DOW/WA 16 bit texture problem . :bow2:
When using/enabling 16bit colour -texture curruption occurs, this can be more easily seen around strat points when zooming.
This has been confirmed personally on a Nvidia 6800gt 256mb and an ATI x800xl 256mb in standard non overclocked systems both with 3700+ and both with 3gb ram /latest drivers. 16bit= graphical error /32bit no error ?
http://img512.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fix25nw.jpg

Online easy to use FPS counter.:idea:
Although possible using console - invariably the peeps that need this dont know how to do it.
So I propose an easy toggable graphics option button for displaying framerate.

Widescreen support.:idea:
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=72317

Auto Switching/Downloading mods feature.:idea:
Current implementation of mods is bad.
You have to exit/select mod/ relogin /create game etc/also all other players have to do same.
Why not have ingame modifications selectable by host in ingame setup screen - others auto select mod upon entering room etc. Also auto download of mods could work like the map idea ..ie option should be host toggable / implemented before launch of game. To prevent droppers.

Old style replay chat window.
When watching replays you used to be able to click the chat icon and scroll through chat history. This has been removed somehow and was a usefull feature ... please bring it back.

When allowed/encouraged myself and others will continually improve your product..... enjoy .... Overseer. :hat:

Dymo

29th Dec 05, 5:33 AM

Just got reminded of another one.

Observers should NOT be allowed to VOTE on a lag KICK. No way no how. I found it quite strange the first time I was in Observer Mode and the Lag Kick Vote Button appeared. The Observer chair(s) should have absolutely ZERO influence in any game that involves them. The Vote option simply invites abusive behaviour. Thanks

Master Azrael

29th Dec 05, 6:43 AM

relic.net :D

SnagglepussX

29th Dec 05, 11:58 AM

Auto map download option feature.
This option should be host toggable / implemented before launch of game. To prevent droppers.

Interesting ramification here. People with maps you don't have might join just to download your map and then scoot, wasting your time over and over again as you're trying to get a game set-up. Not good, but you know it would happen, and all the time.

If the host could toggle it on or off, though, it would be a good way to keep out abusers. No map, no play -- go away!

Auto Switching/Downloading mods feature.
Current implementation of mods is bad.
You have to exit/select mod/ relogin /create game etc/also all other players have to do same.
Why not have ingame modifications selectable by host in ingame setup screen - others auto select mod upon entering room etc. Also auto download of mods could work like the map idea ..ie option should be host toggable / implemented before launch of game. To prevent droppers.

This sounds real nice.

Another note, though I may have at some point mentioned it somewhere else in these forums. The RTS's I've seen before let you replay much more like you were replaying a real movie or music from a CD player. You could scroll a bar back and forth to rapidly jump ahead or rewind, or use arrows to slow down the speed, etc. This was implemented in games that came out many years ago. This more modern RTS having such primitive controls takes a lot of the joy and utility out of replays.

If you want to see what one side is doing in one part of the map in any detail, you pretty much have to give up seeing what the other side is doing, because you can't rewind. You have to play the ENTIRE replay all over again up to the point you're at. Sheesh, you gotta be kidding me. It makes being able to really study replays a slow, painful process.

I'd also like to be able to see what orders any selected unit or building has. What is queued up, what stances they are set on, etc. Again, this is available in other much older RTS's, yet not in this one. We get a generic blanked out control screen with a few very big buttons and a lot of wasted space.

I realize replays aren't a direct facet of online play, but they are an indirect one, as you don't get multiplayer replays without going online in the first place! And when you get them, you want them to have a normal ease of use to analyze your mistakes and really see where you went wrong, or where the other guy did. With DOW/WA, you're stuck with a trivial level of development on replay control.

Obtuse

30th Dec 05, 4:34 AM

I definately agree with the whole idea of making rankings based entirely on automatch and arranged teams - this would solve both the problems of new people getting abused by stacked games and allow them to be played for purely fun, which would be great, and it would mean that automatches would actually be viable since people would need to play them to get their lucky stars (or whatever) so you'd always be able to get a game.

A good idea would be to have WC3-style awards to encourage people to play other game-types (sorry if this has been said before) such as FFA medals and other such things to encourage their use (the more spangly the better. Several levels of award also help keep interest and lust for pimpage).

The easier they are for other players to access the better, since this will increase the show-off factor, and that's all that anyone really cares about anyway :p

Gnug315

30th Dec 05, 9:14 AM

Imo Empire Earth's (original) 2.0 version patch that added the Multiplayer Lobby to that game is everything an online lobby should strive to be. It's fast, efficient, bug-free and has a lot of features. It just feels... crisp.

I recommend you check it out, if you're not familiar with it :)

Apart from that suggestion, I'd like to see:

* loading screen showing Oppenents name & race, map name as well as a loading bar (progress bar) for each player

* auto-sorting of names list each time someone new enters

* permanent ignore/ban feature

* communication possible across games/lobbies

Question

30th Dec 05, 9:39 AM

I do not see how removing rankings for non automatch games is going to stop new players from being abused by stacked teams....if anything it will get worse as the new players will have NO idea what kind of skill level the otehr team has,and it is VERY easy to lie "Oh im a newbie *scout rush in 30 seconds*".

Obtuse

30th Dec 05, 1:03 PM

Fair point, but I'm just thinking that there'll be a lot less motivation to do it without the stats reward. I'm not suggesting that you stop people viewing each other's stats in custom games, though I'm not sure if we might be thinking at cross purposes on that point.

A tally of games played could be a partial solution to that, as long as number of games played didn't carry any reward in itself. This would work based on the assumption that anyone who's willing to play over 100 games for example will be fairly competant by that point, but yes, it is a difficult one. Could work, could cause more problems.

I'm not sure there is a way to stop people lying in custom games to get cheap wins, they can just create smurf accounts either way, but if you remove the major motivation for cheap wins then I'd imagine the occurances would go down except amongst those doing it purely for spite.

It still remains the problems of people stacking teams in custom games by playing with their friends, but I'm not sure how to deal with that except by forcing random teams in some fashion. If the automatch system was healthy then that would be an alternative to allow for groups of 2-3 people to play arranged team matches together. I'm not sure, really. I'll have to see what other people think.

Question

30th Dec 05, 1:24 PM

I doubt there will be less motivation.These people do it not for stats but for the hell of it.......pwning noobs and such is downright hilarious and poure entertainment for them.

Obtuse

30th Dec 05, 1:46 PM

If that is the case, then only really the restricting of accounts per CD-Key would really limit that effect, since eventually (depending on how many accounts people are allowed) amount of games played on all of their accounts would make it evident of the experience of such a player. I would hope, anyway, that such people are in a very small minority :/ but I do agree that there should be some way for people to avoid unbalanced games as much as possible.

If a player were allowed to maintain one constant central profile that would keep track of their stats but allow them to use different names online (possibly to a given amount) that would allow them to add clan tags etc without having their stats reset, and if it kept track of amount of games played irrespective of name used would prevent "noob-bashing" because smurf accounts would no longer exist as such. If ignores and kicks applied to the central account people wouldn't be able to smurf back into a game they'd been abusive in. It's an idea, anyhow.

Question

30th Dec 05, 9:13 PM

That wouldnt work either,at least for a small minority.Some people would bitch that they didnt want their custom stats affecting their automatch stats.

Obtuse

31st Dec 05, 3:00 AM

A seperate amount could be kept for total games, automatched games and custom games, with analysis (i.e. %s and stuff) just for the automatched games which would in no way be affected by amount of custom games played. I think that would work.

Question

31st Dec 05, 3:17 AM

They would then bitch that they should be allowed to have multiple accounts because of relatives using the same computer or if they wanted to "fool around"...........

Theres no stopping it.

Zeromimolette

31st Dec 05, 3:45 AM

In my opinion, on gamespy with DOW, the biggest problem is not the quality of each game played.
We will never be sure that we will have a good game (too many parameters and some of them can not be managed: who can detect a moron player or can be sure he wont be a moron himself during this game?).

I could accept to get in a bad game if I would be sure to be able to join quickly an other game after that bad experience.

But with DOW on gamespy, it takes a while for a game to start because of:
- kick bug,
- non friendly interface (non downloadable custom map, different languages really annoying to check victory conditions, multiple unusefull servers which split communauty)
- behaviour of players who kick noobs or too strong players after checking stats or who leave for same reason (major stats: win/loss should not be readable on game launching screen).

If those problems were solved, games would start faster and it would not be a big issue to have a bad game if we waited just one minute to go into and same time to find a new one.

army0fdead

31st Dec 05, 5:14 AM

1: Online map sharing.

2: Being able to whisper to friends when they are in a game playing and I'm in the lobby.

3: Watch a replay with one or more people.

4: Take away the stats please for non automatched games. Takes waaaaay too long to get some games going sometimes.

5: A structured battleclan system that allows battleclans to moderate their members.

Thank you for asking. I find it amazing that relic is so interested in making this even more than what it is now, which in my humble opinion, is pretty awesome.

Finaldeath

31st Dec 05, 8:51 AM

Hmmm, I think some spam protection on the chat channels would be a damn good idea...

But if you want good multiplayer stuff, tell modders about how SCAR works online, or fix the sync issues when randomising things would be nice. SCAR in multiplayer could lead to some cool game types - its used for win conditions at the moment.

On that issue, some people like playing to the final death (heh), as in "Total Annhiliation" when all units are gone. A simple additional win condition would allow this which just checks if the players have no units left. Can help in team games when you die yet still have a large enough army to help your allies.

Being able to see the numbers on buildings you assign hotgroups for would be a good thing to have back. It was removed with version 1.4, which was a shame.

Meh, there are some things drastically needed so that friends can make games easily, but not very implementable without a whole blizzard-like own-server thing.

Obtuse

31st Dec 05, 10:19 AM

They would then bitch that they should be allowed to have multiple accounts because of relatives using the same computer or if they wanted to "fool around"...........

Allow 2 central accounts per CD key. This gives a free account for guests/relatives to use and to muck around on while minimising opportunity for newbie abuse.

This is not even mentioning that anyone who's not using it for serious play could just play custom games that wouldn't impact stats in any significant way since wins and losses wouldn't be counted, only games played. If they wanted to play it all the time then they should buy a copy of the game and stop freeloading! :soul:

The deal with the whole 'wanting to start afresh' in automatch. I'm not sure this should be catered for, since it places good players at the bottom of the automatch ladder where they can ruin the games of people just starting out on automatches.

AridMonk

31st Dec 05, 10:33 AM

Posted by Zeromimolette

- behaviour of players who kick noobs or too strong players after checking stats or who leave for same reason (major stats: win/loss should not be readable on game launching screen).

I disagree, especially when used as an argument for having fun games or not.

Ok, ill admit it, im not the greatest player in the world. In fact, im crap. And so, i dont wanna get mushed every game by a super fantastic player. Likewise, im sure that Mr. Super Fantastic doesnt wanna be mushing me every game either.

This is especially apparent in n00b gamez, where they try to make it a least a little bit fair for new players.

mean2u

31st Dec 05, 11:15 AM

I vote for no normal stats, even though I do sorta take pride in my numbers, heheh.

Edit: Scratch no stats, how about just shows how many games you have played?

Question

31st Dec 05, 11:23 AM

Incidentally if custom games dont count towards stats i can forsee the following situation happening :

Me : "Why the hell are you spamming webway gates?!?!?!"

Ally : No speak english!!!!!!(translation : i didnt pay attention in school,sue me.)

*synchronised scout rush by enemy team occurs*

Yea it will be a lot of fun all right.

Obtuse

31st Dec 05, 12:17 PM

If you want to have a game with a reasonable chance of fair teams then yes, you'd still have to use random teams, or you could try talking to your ally before the game starts. I really can't see someone with no idea how to play having racked up large amounts of games played, but I do see your point.

Warcraft 3 has stats only affected by automatch games, leaving it's custom games for the wierder stuff, which seems to work, but DoW doesn't have the alternative gametypes that it does because of difficulty of coding (I guess)

Possible compromise - have custom games and automatch both have seperate stats, both accesable at any time, but use a reward system (badges, icons etc) to encourage people to use automatch and avoid making any substantial recognition of custom game 'accomplishments'. The better the rewards are, the more likely it would be to work. Player icons, different coloured names, whatever, people work for stars and numbers nowadays so it wouldn't be difficult to persuade them to work for something a helluva lot more interesting. A good trick is to have empty slots for all of the awards etc which gives a "gotta catch 'em all' feeling to the whole thing. Heck, go the whole hog and completely rip off WC3 and just use the unit icons - hella easy to do and very compelling, especially if the best on is of something rock hard such as a daemon prince or the Emperor (ok, so you'd have to make that).

EDIT: I'm not smart or experienced enough to think of solutions to every problem that DoW/WA has online, but I think if a new system can make the overall experience better for at least some of the players by, for example, reviving the automatch a bit then it's worthwhile.

Also, if you want to be sure of a competitive game you'd be able to use the 2v2 automatch to get a reasonably competant team-mate since people would be actually using it in order to get the awards etc

EDIT 2: If this was implemented then the non-automatch games would mostly become games on custom maps and with mods, which doesn't sound too bad to me, provided some kind of effort is made to make playing custom maps and mods easier (either by transferring or by linking to the download - the linking could be controlled by letting the links for map downloads only come from a list of approved hosts (by Relic)and only link to the main page with the search term already entered, to prevent schenanagans and make sure that the most current form of the map is downloaded)

Cheers for all the objections, Question, wouldn't have thought of half of this stuff without ya! :thumb:

peturabo

31st Dec 05, 11:31 PM

If i have already posted in this thread i apologize.

- A ingame chat blocker option.
- A race selection on the loading screen, also this would largely give advantage to the random players and encourage it.
- Take away any wins awarded for playing against the computer, including non-competitive.
- A harder lobby spamming filter.
- A Automatch observer....so you can observe the next automatch game available if one hasnt started already.

But yes the 1st point ive going about a longtime and regular updates from relic would also strengthen the community i think :)

Pet

flyinghaggis

1st Jan 06, 10:46 AM

A selection of ideas, for various branches of the online gaming setup

Player lobby issues

Creation of private lobbies, not just the default gamespy lobbies. Would result in less redicuously big spam holes that we have at present. Would encourage clans to have their own rooms.

All lobbies pick games from the same single pool. Public and Private lobbies, all lobbies would take games from the same pool as with battle net. Would result in people -not- all piling into the same lobby. Would encourage people to go where they belong, US people in us room, european in europe room, clans could then gather in clan lobbies, fluff discussion could happen in a fluff chat room. Would make the lobbies work like actual lobbies not fulll of spam advertising and "you suck noob / no you do" arguements between 13 year olds.

Allow whispered messages to appear in Game Rooms and across Lobbies, so friends can contact you where ever you are

Some language moderation, sensors on excessive swearing. I'd love a filter on the word noob and all close relatives n00b,no0b,etc. If nothing else to add some maturity to the channels. Nothing wrong with swearing but if every other line has 2 or 3 swear words hardly worth contributing to the chat.
Perhaps a client side button to enable the filter. So those kiddies who want to swear all day can do so, those mature enough to tell them to shut up can just turn on the filter.

Allow Copy And Paste into chat from other documents. Allow web page links open up a internet browser. Allow the lobby text screen to be copied and pasted using standard windows c&p, much like an irc interface.

A spam filter, more than X lines spoken in X seconds and you cant type again for a minute, needed more than ever to counter those that can copy paste.

A true count of who is actually online. Take into account how many people are in-games as well as who is in the lobbies.

The Friend List display the Exact location of the friend. Which lobby, which game, not just "playing a game".

Skill Level Lobbies. "Beginner", "Intermediate" and "Advanced" game lobbies instead of meaningless named lobbies, so that players know where to go to talk to like minded/ability players for strategical advice or just making friends. As well as, fluff lobbies, places to talk about spacemarines, specific places to go if you want to arrange 'fluff' type custom games.

Remove the 'stars' from custom games, so that lobby icons are a reward for automatch games, RT,1v1,2v2,Arranged tames, etc, all option of automatch but only automatch. Games that cant be abused with comp stomps or noob stomps, thus 100% fair.

Have a "race" symbol beside the players name
A little icon that would tell you what the favourite race of the player was. To save from clicking on the information icon which often doesnt work.

Removing the possibilites of chatting in the lobbies whilst in a game lobby, thus reducing advertising spam. Not needed if their are private lobbies, but a minor fix to the present situation.

Game browser & in game lobby

Remove constant refreshing of the server list, as it's far too easy to enter the wrong room. Add new games to the end of the list, and only re-sort them when Refresh is clicked. Lets you know how old a game is too or simply if it is a new one.

Allow "Ping", "Players" etc to be filters which sort the Server List for you.

Let quick start be a filter, to stop displaying quick start games. It is such a big factor in gaming it is more important than anything including game name or number of players.

Try to find some way to integrate all games, Mods included, into the same server list as the main game, with version number etc showed to encourage people to play them. If the mod is installed on the system, the game lobby could automatically swap between mods without needing to leave the online lobby when the game is clicked on.

Auto downloading custom maps would be nice

Player pings displayed in pregame lobby would help everyone to find games that are more enjoyable less lag fests. Even if just a simple red bar, yellow bar, green bar.

Display CPU stats: Total Annihilation had the CPU and RAM displayed for all players in a game so you can tell if someone had an old machine. Perhaps as with ping, just a simple bar, green, yellow, red to indicate that the players hardware is upto scratch.

Choose start positions in multiplayer games. Currently you can choose fixed positions (player1 is position1, etc) or random. Especially useful on custom maps, eg ultramar if you want to setup on the hill.

The name of the current game your in actually inside the games start-up lobby. If not able to talk to main lobby and advertise, perhaps redundant, but at least it adds a feel of 'completion' and polish. If nothing else it might reduce people saying "QS PLS!" when its a game listed as standard.

The option to choose random map in custom games. Random map would be chosen to fit the teams in the game lobby. 8 people would be a 8 person map, 4 people a 4 person map.

Random Teams for either 2, 3 or 4 teams, not just the present option of only 2.

In game issues

Individual Players' Loading progress bars like in warcraft3.
It's annoying not knowing what's happening, sitting for ages waiting while some laggy bugger loads his high settings. Would be nice to know if the other players have dropped or if loading, how much further he has to load so we can go get a drink.

Replacing dropped players. Everyone except the last player on a team is being replaced by computers if droped from a game. Or like with warcraft3, the droped players go under the control of the remaining players.

Observers should not be allowed to vote on a lag kick, unless they vote to kick another observer.

Stats

Comp stomps counting as wins, not good. In fact, no stats for custom games at all. In order to increase chance of automatch team games working.

Stats only for automatches, of all types. Random team automatches, arranged team, 1v1s.

Give a bigger incentive for people to play these automatch games. A graphical benefit to them on their icon that cant be got via custom games. So you can tell who is a good player from their icon in channel.
This would get rid of stat whores in custom games which will please those that dont like stat whores and at the same time give stat whores something they want, nice shiny icons ala warcraft3. Something to actually compete over.

Why noob bash if you can get a identifable reward from playing properly?
As question said some people will find it fun to beat noobs, or beat easy comps, but if they gain nothing from it when others gain from playing properly, the number of 'abusers' will quickly fall to manageable levels.

system improvements

Its said many people have problems with autoamtch, ive never had one start so I wouldnt know, despite waiting hours. But if they have technicle problems, those problems would need to be fixed before a huge increase in people using automatch else the amount of whining would sky rocket.
I cant say specific problems, no doubt things involving routers and gamespy code that relic knows better than we do.

Gnug315

1st Jan 06, 1:01 PM

By the way:

The loading screen, when showing opponent name and race, should also provide info on rank, rating and wins/losses.

Soldat-Hans

2nd Jan 06, 4:15 AM

My Ideas were not for multiplayer, but for singleplayer. The first is done in Company of heroes. It plays in the time of ww2, soldiers take cover, buildings were realistic Destroyable.... But now I go on: You build up on a roundbased map armys, towns like in rome total war. Every building you build is on a map, when you battle there. when you use an Airstrikes on an enemy town, the game goes back in the 3d world, and it loads the Flaks you set in the town and in the landscape before. Than you see in relatime the airbourne trying to land somwhere, but gets stuck because off enemy flak. When a Plane gets shoot and so down on the ground, and lands in a house, this House gets realistic destroyed. A battle beginns from 0:00 o'clock till 23:59 o'clock! This means a day night change and if you play in real-time a second, then in the game will be gone one minute. So if you play a Minute in realtime, an our will be played in the game. So a battleround will be 24 Minutes long. When the round is over, and nobody won it, the game wont restart next round. no it saves, where The soldiers and tanks stood in the game. So you can continue a battle. During a battle, you can build up fortifications like trenches or repair some holes in a bunker. But real great entrenchments must be build on the round based map. If you spend 10 rounds on them, you have a great entrenchment with flak and good pak undits in there. In that Game, I invent, is a new resource: "artillery ammo"! You build em up in Ammoproductionfactories. If you have enaugh ammo, you can take streets under Artilleryfire, for a long time, but if you dont have or gain a lot of em, you can only do good aimed attacks witch only 5 or 10 shots. If you have an Airport, you can call planes that will help you, but when they get shot, you have to build up new one. German Stukas can attack Tanks very good, but were in a Dogfight not very good.

this for the first. I need a brake.

peturabo

2nd Jan 06, 4:27 AM

Nice posts flyinh haggis cudnt find anything i disagree with :)

General_Jim

2nd Jan 06, 5:35 AM

Flyinghaggis has made some very good points. But Zeromimolette has hit the nail on the head. It takes far too long to get a multiplayer game going and you sit around wondering what's going on for ages. So it would be good to see who is holding up the show or has dropped before the game starts. This would be the best area for getting more people playing. I like the idea of being able to control the armies of those who dropped (or at least have some sort of AI control).

hallaonline

2nd Jan 06, 5:46 AM

It probaly been suggested by someone else, but using the age of mythology system of having the average rating of the players shown next to the game name, although for DoW i would suggest having a box for the stars too because thats the main thing asshats try to get.

It'd be impossibly useful, because it helps to squash teamfixing, being able to tell the players in the game are all about 4 stars etc, you'd have to be an idiot to join it if you were 0 stars.

ANyway, my 2 cents there. Give me AVERAGES!!!

Eldred

2nd Jan 06, 9:15 AM

Well i got ideas about spamm that it works good in Guild Wars that if you wanna spamm it won't allow that sentence and word to be displayed and the other is about censoring well in the same game insted of you say fuck it goes as **** it is a good feature in that game they could do this to DOW and well i don't hv the game it self but i read replies here and i think automatch should'be removed and about some people playing noob well there should'be a diplomacy opiton in game that it would alllow some people kicking out of the team and playing alone but only if the other team members accept it so there would'be a no reason kick aldo player still could play both teams could kill him and yes there should'be a automap dl it would make things easier for players. And heres another idea taken from a fps game called gunz that there are lobbys that req a lvl to enter that lobby so there you would know who is good and bad aldo im not sure this would work perfectly

Question

2nd Jan 06, 9:51 AM

Oh my god.Punctuation is your friend.

peturabo

2nd Jan 06, 11:59 AM

A APM counter would be cool.
Was looking through some WC3 forums

i think itd be cool if there were some statistics at the end showing each guy his average apm...it cud also be used as good balance evidence imho.

Pet

Hello_Moto

2nd Jan 06, 12:43 PM

i wish there was a button that made nuking an obnoxious noob's hard-drive a reality.

Zeromimolette

2nd Jan 06, 2:39 PM

I wish you will remind you have been a newbie one day.

Jay_Davis

2nd Jan 06, 4:38 PM

OK, first, I'm going to stick to online issues only, since that is the question posed. I think the real objective is to make the online game interesting so that people continue to play. So how do you do that?

Well the first thing you need are enough people to play, so its sort of a self-fulfilling thing. If its good, you get more people, which makes it better.

Second, is the game needs to be balanced (or at least close). This is a real problem right now, but is a separate discussion. This MUST be improved or the rest is irrelevant.

Third, you need goals. Now, some people may not like the custom game stats, but it does give you things to shoot for. Win/loss is OK for automatch, but for other games, a much better set of stats would be useful. For example, stats per race as a start. Second, stats indicating how long you stay in a game, such as Total time in game / Total time of game. This would show people that drop all the time and people that drop as soon as they lose the first battle. For actual skill, I think you need some type of points system that is based on strength of opponent (easy comp being ZERO) and other factors. I'd have to spend some time to really come up with a good points system, but you get the idea (I hope).

Fourth is variety. The big thing here is maps. It is impossible to get custom map games going now. People don't have the maps and ignore the "You don't have the map" message, meaning that most games that do get started, end up with multiple players dropped at the start of the game. At a minimum, YOU MUST NOT ALLOW PEOPLE TO CHECK IN IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE MAP! This is the way it was in version 1.2. Now, beyond that, making maps a single file download would help. Auto-downloading the map icon when people join would be nice so they could see if it looks interesting. Being able to download a map while waiting for the game to start (with everyone being able to see your progress) would be very good. That idea for a random map selection would be a nice feature too.

Fifth is the mechanics during the game. If a game is lagging, boot the observers first, with no vote. Second, require a 3/4th vote to kick someone so one team can't just automatically boot someone to win the game. Having a comp take over for a dropped player would be nice, but I know that could be tough to implement. One thing that would be good to add is the ability to earn back "lag time". Right now, any lag starts a count down for a given person, when it reaches 0 you get a vote on them. Well, I've seen many times where someone lags at the beginning or for a short period and their countdown gets very low, however, most of the time they are fine. But in a long game, just one further hiccup gets them booted. Also, a minor lag every couple of minutes ends up in a boot during a 90+ minute game. So if you are not lagging and not slowing anyone down, allow them earn back that countdown. One other thing that might be nice is some sort of a status indicator(s) telling what is going on during the game load, so people don't drop thinking its hung up (not to mention making the wait seem a bit shorter).

Sixth is network setup. Thus needs to be simpler. I understand the firewall/NAT problems (very well), but there's no reason to have to open up more than one port (perhaps for both TCP and UCP) to accomplish this. Having that port be configurable would be a nice addition too. Making it easier for people to deal with network setups will get more people online and cause less problems with misconfigured people online.

The last it is the online environment itself, which is the chat rooms, menus, etc. There are a bunch of random items that would improve things:
- permanent ignore: I shouldn't have to explain why that is a good thing.
- Friend/ignore list needs to be accessible from within game rooms.
- Game option filter: Show or highlight games based on a personal filter. Make sure to default this filter to NOT liking things that are abused, like "Lock Teams" and "Enable Cheats" so new people don't get duped.
- Game list improvement: Right now it jumps all over the place and if the list scrolls off the screen it is almost impossible to look at and/or select games that have scrolled off the bottom.
- Additional info on games: In the right hand box where it shows game info, show all of it, like the team selection. Also, fix the multi-language thing where the game name and options show up in the host language and doesn't show the map icon.
- Kick bug: This has been there forever. The least that could be done is changing the message so that people can tell the difference between really being kicked and just being dumped out of the game for whatever reason.
- Spam filter: It is really needed. Not a fancy one, just something basic.
- Indicate line wrap of chat messages. People have "discovered" how to make it look like other people are sending a message by counting the line wrap. Showing that a line is a continuation of the previous line will stop that (and make it easier to read).

One last thing on the "environment", and its not an easy one. I've mentioned it in another message, but it really needs to be dealt with. I realize DOW online is a public forum, but some behavior is totaly unacceptable and needs to be dealt with. Whether its people using obcene language, racial insults, or having their online names even being abusive, it has to addressed so that it is NOT THE NORM. You lose people from playing the game because they don't want to deal with it or they don't want their kids to be exposed to it, and for good reason. And don't give me the "its the internet" garbage. Its a public place, just like this forum, and there are limits as to what you can do and say in a public place. Not to mention there had better be limits if its a place you want to encourage people to come to. Now, I know dealing with this is not easy, both technically and from the standpoint of determining what is acceptable and what is not, but it is VERY important, since it goes right back to getting as many people online as possible being the most important thing to improving the online game.

I'm sure I've missed a thing or two, but I think this would be a good start. It would be really nice to get this type up stuff into an upcoming patch. Things like fixing the "Preventing check in if you don't have the map" just can't be that difficult to fix.

SnagglepussX

2nd Jan 06, 8:58 PM

Question

2nd Jan 06, 9:17 PM

The idea that kids cant handle profanity is laughable.Seriously it is.

regulator111000

2nd Jan 06, 9:47 PM

I am a huge fan of DOW and WA and lurk these forums considerably. One thing that amazes me is the almost total lack of input by Relic staff into their own forums. How is the community supposed to know that their suggestions and comments are even being viewed if there is virtually no feed-back from the developers?

A successful multiplayer game requires a functioning, 2-way community and sadly this is something this game completely lacks.

There are many balance issues that the vast, vast majority of players accept yet Relic refuses to even acknowledge. It seems to me that any complaints/requests are falling on deaf ears (which kind of renders this post useless, lol). One full-time "community relations officer" (as used by many other games/developers) would make a world of difference to ensuring that gamers feel they are being heard and importantly, to ensure that the gamers' concerns are actually relayed to the development team.

I have no idea whether or not the benefit to THQ and Relic of having such a position would outweigh the costs. For all I know this game is viewed as "finished" by the developers and is consequently a low or zero priority for them to fix. Maybe they plan on releasing 5 more expansion packs? It sure would be great to know! A little honesty would go a long way. If Relic were to announce that "the amount of WA users is too low too warrant continued support and investment in the game, consequently we are withdrawing support" or even better, words to the opposite, IMO this would be appreciated by the community. The lack of input by Relic and THQ really hurts this game IMO.

I would therefore like to know a few things before commenting on the state of the game:

- Do any of these suggestions have even a chance of being implemented?

- If so, what scale of "features" are the develops willing to implement, i.e. how much time are the developers willing to invest in the game?

- How long do Relic propose to continue to support the game?

Jay_Davis

2nd Jan 06, 10:38 PM

As far as the profanity thing, I'm not a fan of it, but it is marketed as an adult game. I've had to click a few consent thingies about my age.

I really think the idea that profanity will ruin your children is a poor one. Kids cuss like crazy every minute unless an adult is around. That's what kids like. And most of the people cussing up a storm in a game lobby are probably kids too, annoying adults and terrifying the odd gullible one. Who may well be a mirror image of his kid, cussing whenever he likes as long as no kids are aroound.

It's kind of like a hoax people like to play with each other.

Sorry, no. Kids only learn that if they are around it. And I'm not just talking about a little profanity. I'm talking about completely abusive nonstop profanity that I wouldn't let an adult get away with in a public place or in my house. Then add to that the "Kill the xxxxxx" (fill in your racial group) and all the associated nonsense, and you have a place that is not a nice place to be. Remember, the objective is to get as many people as possible online. Get rid of the garbage and more people show up. Need an example, compare Manhatten today with 20 years ago. Much better place to be now.

As far as an adult game, unless you need an ID to buy it, it isn't an adult game. You know what, this has nothing to do with kids, this has to do with simply not wanting to deal with the low-lifes that act this way. Because in the end, people will just leave, and wasn't the whole objective to get more people online?

vjghost

3rd Jan 06, 1:34 AM

I'm missing one thing in Automatch settings (probably it's a bug). I plays random now and lobby system don't handle random as a race and switches from random to your last played race if you popup automatch dialog. I think it should be changed ;)

Zeromimolette

3rd Jan 06, 2:07 AM

Two minor issues I did not see in previous threads (one serious and one, let say, less serious) :

- if the creator of a game changes victory conditions or games options, all players who had already ticked shoudl be unticked to obliged them to check new conditions and to prevent any abuse of the creator of the game ;
- we have nice stars for win/lose ratio and numbers of games played ; could we have boots or shoes for numbers of kick ? im really bored of the kicking method abuse ; yesterday evening, i twas really hard to play because of that

DaMasta

3rd Jan 06, 4:01 AM

I want to see more love for routers, it's very annoying especially in Automatch

"Someone is joining your game. Someone is joining your game. Somoene is joining your game, Someone is joining your game. 1/2 Players automatched"

Takes forever to get one know, even more so beause no one hardly ever autos ;(

Master Azrael

3rd Jan 06, 7:06 AM

I totally and utterly agree with flyinghaggis

[OoE]ThOR

3rd Jan 06, 1:36 PM

Did not read 11 pages so forgive me if I repeat a suggestion (chances are I am).

Alot can be added to the online aspect of DoW, but I for now:

Show race/map in the load screen (!!!!!).
A better "friend" system.
Being able to customize the point range manually. Assume you dont mind playing people that are f.ex. 300 points below yourself - thats an option that should be aviable, and of course, only the person with most points can decide any range other than 200 points.

Overall, the interface looks horrible to say the least. You should change that entirely in DoW2.

Could think of much more, but I'm sure most of it has been covered already.

Still a fan though, and still very impressed about the overall gamedesign. Keep up the good work. :)

Hello_Moto

3rd Jan 06, 2:16 PM

i wish there was a button that made nuking an obnoxious noob's hard-drive a reality.

I wish you will remind you have been a newbie one day.

there's a difference between being a newbie and being a noob.....the word "obnoxious" is one of more polite words that i chose to use to define a "noob"

[eX]Xerxes

3rd Jan 06, 6:22 PM

ThOR']Did not read 11 pages so forgive me if I repeat a suggestion (chances are I am).

Alot can be added to the online aspect of DoW, but I for now:

Show race/map in the load screen (!!!!!).
A better "friend" system.
Being able to customize the point range manually. Assume you dont mind playing people that are f.ex. 300 points below yourself - thats an option that should be aviable, and of course, only the person with most points can decide any range other than 200 points.

Overall, the interface looks horrible to say the least. You should change that entirely in DoW2.

Could think of much more, but I'm sure most of it has been covered already.

Still a fan though, and still very impressed about the overall gamedesign. Keep up the good work. :)
I think you meant that point thing the other way around, right? Cause that just seems like the high ranked person could n00b bash all they like.

KHORNE8

4th Jan 06, 3:07 AM

Hi all,

most things have been said, but one is very important from my point of view :
PLAYERS SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE OTHER PLAYERS STATS IN THE GAME ROOM (not in the Chat room)
Because, many many times,
-> newbies kick good players,
-> good players kick newbies,
and, that the point,
->players-who-think-they-are-good (aka lamers) kick players-who-are-skilled because they are afraid to be sadly beaten, and that their ratios (aka their penis substitute) would fall down...

The final impact would be the end of wandering through "X" game rooms before playing a game....

Question

4th Jan 06, 4:46 AM

I do not want to keep losing because my ally doesnt know how to play.

army0fdead

4th Jan 06, 5:01 AM

Replacing dropped players. Everyone except the last player on a team is being replaced by computers if droped from a game. Or like with warcraft3, the droped players go under the control of the remaining players.

flyinghaggis,

i'd like to say that if the game allowed a player to take over, there might be issues with unit/vehicle cap . you'd just get a bunch of buildings but your unit/vehicle cap would be tricky depending on when the person got dropped. if they had a full army and so did you, congrats, here is your change to charge with 40 count of units and vehicles. If they got dropped early, you get 20 cap and still at a disadvantage. AI controled would be my vote.

Zeromimolette

4th Jan 06, 5:01 AM

I totally agree with Khornes.

There is an other issue that increases time to have a game to start. I think this is shared by other guys because i talked about it few days ago on the chat.
We noticed that even when there are many people on gamespy (more than 200), there is no significant improvement to have a faster launch for a game.
We think this is due to the fact that many people create games instead of trying to join existing games.

A system should may be implemented to prevent (or to delay) creation of too many games to incentive players joining existing games.

[OoE]ThOR

4th Jan 06, 8:38 AM

I think you meant that point thing the other way around, right? Cause that just seems like the high ranked person could n00b bash all they like.
You are aware of the amount of smurfs on the ladder?
I must admit its been a month since I played now, but I dont see why that should have changed.
That fact should make you want to think twice about "n00b-bashing".

I know good players quitting DoW because its too hard to get games - When I was top 10 I found it terribly boring to sit around and wait for games, and I do understand why people get annoyed by that. Its a shame really.

I understand your concern, but #1 I dont see it being a big problem and #2 I'd rather people keep playing the game as opposed to quitting because they have wait 10+ mins to get a game - let people "n00b-bash", it only really hurts themselves.

[eX]Xerxes

4th Jan 06, 8:46 AM

Timestamp feature in lobbies

flyinghaggis

4th Jan 06, 11:04 AM

flyinghaggis,

i'd like to say that if the game allowed a player to take over, there might be issues with unit/vehicle cap . you'd just get a bunch of buildings but your unit/vehicle cap would be tricky depending on when the person got dropped. if they had a full army and so did you, congrats, here is your change to charge with 40 count of units and vehicles. If they got dropped early, you get 20 cap and still at a disadvantage. AI controled would be my vote.

Have you watched a dow replay?

You click the swap user button then the interface changes and you see the different squad caps / resources for the different person.

Thats what would need be added, droped players units go under your mutual control. A button is high lighted that would let you control the other persons resources / army alongside your own, -not- on top of your own.

2 lots of 20 cap, not 1 lot of 40.

As I said, thats pretty much how warcraft3 did it. Nice, neat, (difficult if your not good at managing a lot of stuff) lets good players have a real chance to fight back.

SnagglepussX

5th Jan 06, 1:13 AM

Sorry, no. Kids only learn that if they are around it.

Sorry, you could not possibly, and I mean that literally, be any more naive. Kids ARE around it, all the time, every day. Face it, deal with it, and move on.

They cuss at each other and are thrilled to learn each new cuss word and think up variations of it. The fact that mommy and daddy might think it's bad or dirty makes it even more of a thrill.

No offense, and I know you're well-intended, but seriously, if you don't know this about kids, you grew up in a cave or are willfully indulging yourself in bizarre fantasies, or both. Kids learn cussing at a very young age, and are exceedingly fond of it. Better lock them up indoors and ban all media and friends, and perhaps move back to another century if you think it's gonna go down any other way, sorry.

Seriously, your taking cussing so seriously is a real waste of your time and mental and emotional energy. Better to lighten up, because the world isn't going to change.

I don't cuss around kids myself, but I'm under no illusions that they don't cuss up a storm themselves and get a huge kick out of it. Kids are dopey that way.

ThOR']Did not read 11 pages so forgive me if I repeat a suggestion (chances are I am).

Alot can be added to the online aspect of DoW, but I for now:

Show race/map in the load screen (!!!!!).
A better "friend" system.
Being able to customize the point range manually. Assume you dont mind playing people that are f.ex. 300 points below yourself - thats an option that should be aviable, and of course, only the person with most points can decide any range other than 200 points.

Overall, the interface looks horrible to say the least. You should change that entirely in DoW2.

Could think of much more, but I'm sure most of it has been covered already.

Still a fan though, and still very impressed about the overall gamedesign. Keep up the good work. :)

I like very much the idea of selecting a range of people you are willing to fight. It's not losing to a better guy that's boring or frustrating, but losing to a guy you have no chance against at all. And it's not boring or frustrating to set up a game then find you are with someone who is a little easier than you expected; it's boring or frustrating to waste your time just completely walking over a guy who can't begin to give you a challenge.

Heck, sometimes when people are close they will even handicap each other in RTS's by not attacking for a while, or not building X unit, or something, just to still make a match fun. You can't do that with somebody absurdly outside your skill level without just being flat out bored.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeromimolette
I wish you will remind you have been a newbie one day.

there's a difference between being a newbie and being a noob.....the word "obnoxious" is one of more polite words that i chose to use to define a "noob"

This is one of those loaded words that sets people off, and is highly favored by jerks. Probably worth steering clear of almost all the time, especially if used as a pejorative. It's hard not to find a better way of saying the same thing.

A system should may be implemented to prevent (or to delay) creation of too many games to incentive players joining existing games.

Interesting idea but I don't think it's a good one. If I want to play a game with my friend but can't because other people have games open, the online system would be very oppressive to me.

Far more than having a "big brother" telling me how and what to play, or being sure to meet the desires of strangers, I want to play what's fun for me, without guilt or explanation or waiting in line. An online system that makes you unable to play online is a contradiction in terms. I feel this would be a uniquely poor idea to implement, especially for those whose favorite thing to do is play with and against friends. (And I don't mean in a sexual way, not that there's anything wrong with that.)

LongFang

5th Jan 06, 1:32 AM

***off topic***
I would just like to complement snagglepussX on a well written and well thought out post.
***on topic***

Maybe with the stats you could include a consistency rating i.e. No. of games dropped/completed. That way you could stay clear of people who either have tech problems or tend to loose heart if a battle is going badly and then sadly run away.

THEYhunger

5th Jan 06, 1:50 PM

*first of all id like to see something done about the 2 second delay ingame, playing experience would be much better if units respond instantly

*second is the downloading of new maps/mods by joining the game room, this would greatly encourage community to make new maps and mods and if the downloading is implemented it would be nice to have the option to view replays online (i realize that doing this now is imposible because there is no download system, but if there is downloading for maps it should be for replays too). the replays view online is realy one of features im missing the most.

*the stars should be removed for custom games and only be made for automatches thus encouraging playing ladder

*personaly i dont mind the loading screen, but yeah would be nice to see races, loading progress, map, etc..

*please add a "random" race to stats and things liek that
and when u click quick-automatch there is never random selected but always a race - fix would be nice

*i know this isnt a thread about balance sugestions, but balancing the game should be a priority aswell, id realy like to see that because soemtimes its very frustrating to lose to something "overpowered", people always go for the easy win

*changing hotkeys is good, althroug there are some dificulties to do so, some things are just messed up like eldar hero attach to guardians and such, and would be nice to be actualy able to change the positions of the build icons aswell not just the hotkeys (example: scout build icon is located in the upper left corner, next to a servitor, so to be able to reposition it somewhere else - i know this is done in mods and such, i realy dont know if its posible to do for online play, correct me if im wrong

thats about all i can remember, most importants things to me are downloading system, fix of delay and balance of the game
hope this helps in any way :muffy:

Overseer

5th Jan 06, 4:43 PM

More stuff for Tranj`s IN Tray :3d:

Customisable Network/Game Tolerence :idea:
When kicked due to extreme lag.What exactly does this mean ?
Is it solely dependant on internet connection(internet bandwidth) ?
Is it due to low fps (non responding computer) ?
Whatever the reason It would be massively beneficial to have host customisable options in this regard.
With default set values but host toggable in game set up room under an advanced button or something similar.
ALL these options should be included.
Option 1:kick any peer/player with sub (x) fps.
Option 2:kick any peer/player who lags behind ingameclock by more than (x) seconds.
Option 3:kick any peer/player non responsive for a duration of (x) seconds.

Obviously where (x) = host toggable amount .(within preset limits if needed)

It would be preferable to have options chosen displayed in host setup room when others join etc.
This would also have the benefit of solving the current exploit of freezing/permanent pausing of multiplayer games.

Game Forced Launch Countdown Timer :idea:
There have been many times when a full room has a delayed launch due to non readying of all players.
When all slots are filled the room host should be able to activate a Forced game launch after a set period of time has elapsed.
There should only be enough time for them to select their army and colours - NOT to delay everyone by choosing that moment to redesign their colour schemes.
Say for example after 30 secs of a player joining a room the host is able to force launch.

Remove Army Painter from within multiplayer game room :idea:
Army painter should be an offline option only.
Many times hosts/players have been engrossed in their army painter designs oblivious that others are waiting to play as it
obscures all when loaded.
My preference would be to remove it completely from the multiplayer game room.
Alternatively if it must be there redesign/scale/mesh the interface so that it does not obscure the multiplayer game room completely.

New Multiplayer Audio Cues :idea:
There should be loud clear crisp (preferably customisable) new audio cues for the following:

~1 Player joins room. (toggable)
~2 Room Full / ready to launch.
~3 After all players are loaded just before comencement of game 5 sec delay/audible countdown....(eg. 5...4...3...2...1 Prepare for WAR!) then game starts.

This is because as it can take variably long times to get games going / game loads.
Many surf net/make coffee etc in the meantime.
Therefore the suggested audio cues would be a welcome addition.

Online Stats. :idea:
If a player is ticked in at game launch and drops before making it in game/disconnects immediately it should count as a loss.
As said before comp/ai bashing should also not effect stats.

Disable Team Colours should be ON by Default. :idea:
"Disable Team Colors -- You can drastically improve multiplayer performance by disabling Team Colors. To do this, simply switch the 'Team Color' toggle in the Multiplayer and Skirmish setup screens. When Team Colors are disabled, all opponents' customized team colors will default to existing presets on your system, saving considerable amounts of memory."
Not many people know about this or use it.
It also decreases loading times.
Its also pretty obvious it should have been this way round to begin with.
This does not belong in the game set up rooms.
This should be a toggable item in the graphics settings.
Why would a machine able to handle the setting in one game but not the next ?
It should also have an option for disabling only oponents colour schemes(leaving allies alone.) - as many players abuse by having their whole teams(everybodys) army colours exactly same in order to confuse.
As this affects game loading times it would also be nice if hosts were able to have an overide/toggle button for this.

NEW Badges&Banners Options :idea:
This in my opinion is one of the most fun things in dow.
The options for this should be expanded on so more people can enjoy them.
The settings for Badges&Banners should be kept seperate from the "disable team colours"/texture detail settings/model detail settings.
There should be individual texture detail settings/model detail settings that effect ONLY the Badges&Banners placed as additional graphic options.
That way for example you can have low texture/model game settings for performance but still have high texture/model settings for Badges&Banners.
(my marines may look like mush ... but check out their shiny new flag! and they now even have enough fps to raise it too !!!)

Option to replace slow loading player with an AI:idea:
If a player is taking a rediculously long time to load the option should be given to kick them from the game and replace them with an AI.
This could be an option available/cyclable every 3 mins for example.So if prepared to wait 3 mins ... after 3 mins ...vote option is given again etc.
This could be a standard vote /or only people on that players team.
The option/vote would be to replace them with a "standard" AI. As invariably they drop soon after comencement of the game anyway.

Selected group`s unit abilities :idea:
Having to tab through units when group selected in order to use there abilities is painfull and unnecessary.
Eldar FOF/marine nades/melta bombs/rally ...etc
Default should be all activate/use - select individual to use seperately.
It just makes more sense and helps gameplay.

enjoy .... Overseer. :hat:

SnagglepussX

6th Jan 06, 10:30 AM

If a player is ticked in at game launch and drops before making it in game/disconnects immediately it should count as a loss.

This sounds flat out mean.

Overseer

6th Jan 06, 2:39 PM

Hi Snaggle ,

"If a player is ticked in at game launch and drops before making it in game/disconnects immediately it should count as a loss."
I wholeheartedly stand by this suggestion and came to this conclusion after much deliberation.

I assure you the alternatives (ie as it is now) are flat out meaner.

Examples are:
20 mins to get a 4v4 up and running only to have a person drop while loading -invariably leads to 3 peoples stats being affected whilst the culprit (innocently or otherwise) incurs no penalty whatsoever.

This will in someway help address the problem of people joining games just to drop and watch ...and those you get the feeling know the other team and have dropped deliberately in order to secure a win.

Which do you think is fairer overall ?

Overseer.

SnagglepussX

6th Jan 06, 11:42 PM

I think a fairer solution would be a no-penalty decision within the first minute for any team that has had a member drop as to whether they want to terminate the game.

No penalty for anyone that way, nor any inducement to do anything crooked or dumb..

Overseer

7th Jan 06, 3:58 AM

Hi again Snaggle.
... fairer maybe ... but unfortunately not better in game play terms im afraid.

Like I said ... much deliberation....
Your suggestion above has already been tried and proved to be even worse.
What happens is this ...... rush rush rush .... assessment of rush after 45 secs .... if went badly ... player/team drops to no detriment. ( result = even more abuse )

My method though not perfect by any means, when thoughtfully deliberated, always seems to prove itself to be the lesser of all the evils available.

Overseer.

sypher_diaz

10th Jan 06, 12:17 AM

a few filters in the game display screen wouldnt go amiss, so it will only show 2v2s or 4v4s ect.

maybe in the screen on the right where game options are displayed, you should list the players already in the game. This way clan games or stacked games could be easier to spot.

I know people have already said it, but some kind of online map d.l would be nice. Even if its just a lobby where files can be shared. So that if u find u need a map, you can enter the lobby and d.l it from someone (napster style), who is probably there looking for a different map. This would obviously rely of people being fair and not just disconnecting you, but on the whole people are fairly decent and i think it could work.

being able to have a selection of people on a whisper list, so you can have a whole convosation highlighted between several people.

Question

10th Jan 06, 12:29 AM

will ya get a god dam ladder or competitions ffs "offical 1's by u i mean" and this game stacking biz is getting outa hand sort it out.

this is all a waste anyways cuz yaz dont god dam listen to what faithful gamers say.

I have no idea what you are talking about.The aol speak doesnt help.Theres already a official ladder.

vjghost

10th Jan 06, 5:03 AM

I think about more structured Ladders ala AOE III. Most killed units, most lost units, longest games etc. (average from all games of course). It will be more interesting than only competitive and noncompetitive ladder.
Also remove online games with computer player slots from all statistics (they count for noncompetitive ladder and win/lose ratio if I'm not mistaken)

TheAdmiral

10th Jan 06, 5:24 AM

there is only one thing i REALLY miss, and this is a duty for rts online game!
your own servers like "battle.net" !!!!
I get crazy with gamespy...there is no organisation possible, everybody ist chatting and spamming all around! id like to create my own channels, i want to see Nation channels, german,french,usa....and so on!
If there is more organisation possible, there will be more players and more clans organize themself! and so there will be a lot of more fun for all dawn of war players and fans!

so please : get your own (veryfastping!!!!!!!) servers like battle.net!

Thx and greetings
TheAdmiral :king:

Obtuse

10th Jan 06, 8:33 AM

Like I said ... much deliberation....
Your suggestion above has already been tried and proved to be even worse.
What happens is this ...... rush rush rush .... assessment of rush after 45 secs .... if went badly ... player/team drops to no detriment. ( result = even more abuse )

My method though not perfect by any means, when thoughtfully deliberated, always seems to prove itself to be the lesser of all the evils available.

If you made the time limit shorter than the time required for a rush to be implemented, say 20 seconds, wouldn't that work?

TDATL

10th Jan 06, 2:21 PM

I read to page 4 and jumped to 10 and thrue to this page from there. heres my extra things I think would be nice

1( on a 2v2 map with a 1v1 auto please make sure players dont start beside each other. I under stand changing the maps for more room and stuff but its extreamly counterproductive to start with no player locations between you.

2( in addition to not constantly moving the gamelist with new ones do the same for chat room. Its really annoying to look away and when you try to find something someone said to you the list keep moveing just as fast as you scroll and moveing sometimes all the way back to the newest post.

3( I have noticed that alot of times badges and banners don't show up in online games. this never happens to me in skirmishes. This is important to me because I use my clans banner and badges and it looks awfull to have my whole skeam thrown off by a giant green-grey banner because its blank. also Its not just my banner but other peoples banners and badges dont show up who dont use ours.

4( the only things I heard that I didnt agree with was showing a persons comp specs. because anyone who knows about computers knows your preformence is quite often not judged by the "numbers" but your settings, drivers, configuration, and background programs. I have played games on settings and with high preformence on systems that most people would tell me Im lieing. I really dont care if they believe me because if they cant see my hardware they dont have grounds for a kick. but just because your hardware isnt worth $23,000 like some rich people think doesnt mean you can't operate the game at a resonable level if not as good or better. I in no way say that was the person reason for posting. I do understand somepeople play on systems they should not or that they should not unless they can configure it right. also its kinda a invasion of privacy and not required.

5( final thing is more a community problem. alot of people rant and rave about balanceing issues. I personally think that the races are fine for the most part. yes some races are better at one thing than another but thats the idea. every race cant have equal units. but overall they should be able to be implemented with equal effeciantcy even if it requires more skill to do so aka micromanaging. For example every one seems to say the other races are unbalanced. because they want theirs to win easy. I have always played Space Marines. Even when IMO they were "weakend" as some thought I saw it as a new challange to learn to use them. alot of people change races with who they think is the "strongest". that is why they lose. because the dont stay with a race long enuff to learn its secrets and thoes little touches other people have that can completely turn the tides of a battle. I think the races all fit their profile. The space marines are heavy ranged hitters and the termies are powerfull but they are slower at teching and fielding units than the other races. I also know people will come back with SCOUT RUSH SCOUT RUSH. but that is one tactic. and with only one tactic you should be able to learn to counter it with your race provided you stay with them long enuff. right now chaos has the best start IMHO because of raptor rush. but like I said It was awfull to begin with but now I laugh at their feeble attacks on me. my point is you should not want an easy win or even easier than it is. you should want to know that you overcame a powerfull foe. also the more powerfull your enemy the more powerfull you will become because if you can beat the "best" race no one can stop you right? wrong. Its players skill at the game. If you cant manage your army you wont win even if its tactacly supperior to your oppent who mastered his "weaker" army. Its a game calm down and play to win. Watch replays of your matches and find your flaws and your enemys strengths or their weaknesses.

QuanChi

10th Jan 06, 3:45 PM

The MUST feature this game must have is NO LAG. Seriously, it lags even in lan, a trully JOKE.

Question

10th Jan 06, 5:44 PM

The MUST feature this game must have is NO LAG. Seriously, it lags even in lan, a trully JOKE.

You DO realise lag is caused by computers running settings they canno thandle instead of things like connection type right?Its been posted countless times on these boards.

QuanChi

10th Jan 06, 6:44 PM

haha dont make me laugh, in WCG, we played in ALL SETTINGS LOW, with great computers, with X800 video card, p4 3.0 512mb. You have no clue of what your are talking about. The game lags, it was a joke at WCG. "The only game in the world that lags in lan."

Question

10th Jan 06, 6:50 PM

There is a technical issue with high end radeon cards and their drivers that causes serious drops in FPS.I am fairly certain that the drivers at the time of WCG had that problem.That might be the reason.

Demonhorde

10th Jan 06, 11:04 PM

On the online fet to get me back into it would be; fix it so that the fet u have implemented to actually work like you wanted them to do. And setup a online page like total annihilation did where they added units and helped out the mod community. As it is now everyone is on their own. Setup something to cordinate the efforts and make it more Officaly supported like well the total annihilation fans had it when bone yards was online. What i mean with added units, is basicly expand on your expansion, alot of the stuff you had planed was cut due to time. And can you honestly say that the end result lived up to your visions, i doubt it. If you could put out the work to some modder to fix the broken FX and animations, and add a better structure to the unit balance i be a happy puppy. That is if you not feel that you have the salary to get one employe to fix the small work it would take. I know adding the units that you had planed would be maybe t omuch effort. But atleast think of the smaller stuff.

I realise this is a 0000.1% chance of happening but that is my wish, and im sure the community would swing up if it ever where to happen. But i guess its dreams.

ex of bad descision is comissars making guardsmen unbreakable. Im sure that this was implemented at a late stage and due to the fact that you couldn't finnish the other units that was suppose to even out the weaknesses of the moral break. As it is now its a working compromise but not at all what alot of people including myself sees as good game mechanics. There are also missing FX and Icons that need to be fixed. The predator being one. All in all i disslike the attitude of not finnishing what you started. I know money might be a shortage, but isn't pride something to think about aswell.

my 5 cents.

Surge

11th Jan 06, 4:52 AM

Question, what he's talking about isn't exactly lag, but just a really big delay on anything you do. It takes ages for your actions to be carried out, which is rediculous. Even on a LAN its there and it makes it very difficult to be enjoyable.

TDATL

11th Jan 06, 10:12 AM

like the messed up power fists. normally I wouldnt worry but the land raider in the original DoW is still messed up while the one in WA works like it should. because the old raider's twinlinked cannons didnt do almost anything to vehicals and buildings not even if compared to the regular lascannon on the pred. and I really hope that it doesnt take another game to fix the power fists like the raider. also the land raiders ability dosnt work, sometimes I think it makes it take more damage. I heard somewhere that it dosnt make it invunerable just 30% reduction. the problem with that is most hits individually dont do much, so reducing 30% of each bolter (or the like) hit dosnt reduce as much as the total damage it takes during the time of the skill. The power fist is main fix I know of that is needed because it makes even the Terminators power fist weak. Thankfully assault terminators are untouched.

also please return the FC and librarian's weapons to normal or have power sword before upgrade because the FC dosnt work as good without hammer and Librairan looks dumb with sword compared to his staff. or make it a seperate upgrade reserch or somthing I just hate leaving my sargents with chainswords because its not worth lossing the leader weapons especialy since I wont go to power fist because with the Powerfist bug it would be stupid to go to that.

also (I may have already metioned this but it makes me really mad when it happens 5 times in a row like it has before) please fix the starting possitions on the 4 player maps when on 1v1 automatch. Its really annoying to start right beside you enemy. especialy with orks because they can just build buildings and kill you by just being there because of their built in weapons.

I think the Idea about the units released like Total Annihilation is a realy good Idea. That was my favorite RTS until DoW. and with all the modders out their that do such amazing work like Deamonhunters and Thousand Sons maybe you could ask them to make some units and you could approve/balance/compatability them so they could be a offical release for patches so they could be used online in real matches. also I think all of the ideas by hybiss (I hope I got the name spelled right) back on the like the secound page are excelent and I believe they should all be implemented.

and on a side not I like the predator annihilator setup personally. but I know alot of people dont like it at all. so if you can make a version of both to be built Im ok with changing it back because more people seem to want the old one than the new one and the only differences are power and time to build which are more if you want annihilator while if you want devestator or hybrid at this moment you are just out of luck. So both would be nice. also the whirlwind should go back to tier 2 with less hitpoints. because by tier3 you might as well wait for heavy armor and get preds and Land Raiders. If it goes to tier 2 its hit points should drop alot like allitle tougher than the ballisk because the ballisk is a little stronger. and mayber to make the rhinos usefull you could increase their armor and have no pop but a limit on numbers like with servitors. also so you dont need so many have them hold more than one team like the chimeras. and have rampage like move that can only be used like every 3 min or sumthing so its not abused. also maybe you could have an upgrade for a twinlinked heavybolter on them that would cost 1 support pop that way people wouldnt get a free fighting vehical if you implemented the no pop limited number thing I thought of.

oh and a bit that matters not but I noticed. the predator is called a heavy tank. but ion the GW website (Im not complaining in anyway because I dont play TT) I saw it described as a light tank. which makes sense because its pretty fast. I know it doesnt matter I was just thinkin about how much alot of people care about the fluff. If I missinterpreted the site Im shore to get fussed at I know.

I know this is alot to put all at once. so maybe you could do this over several patches.

p.s. could you release the GoTY maps to thoes that already have the game also. because I bought both DoW and WA 2 copies of each one for me and my brother and I would like the maps but I am not going to buy 2 more copies of DoW just for the 6 or so maps. I personally think they should have been in WA because you could not use it anyway without DoW so its not like you could get WA and the maps with out the original DoW. They also would help give more options for automatch.

Question

11th Jan 06, 10:21 AM

Surge that is very strange.I do not have this problem.

Obtuse

12th Jan 06, 2:09 AM

The only thing I have approaching this is when my men refuse to leave combat, but that's another issue entirely (I think)

Surge

12th Jan 06, 6:56 PM

Well I'm pretty sure its not just me. I've heard alot of people mention/complain about it.

Its even present during a LAN game!

Question

12th Jan 06, 8:44 PM

It is definately not connection lag.Try asking help in tech support,moe/TBS/etc might be able to help you.

This is the first ive heard of something like this...........

Zeromimolette

13th Jan 06, 8:12 AM

BL4D3W4LK3R

13th Jan 06, 8:43 AM

Please include the GOTY maps in the next patch so that those of us who bought the original game when it came out can play them with those that we have recruited recently into battle. :)

Question

13th Jan 06, 8:53 AM

Yea thats another good point.Its a easy way to get more maps into the circulation.

Tranj

13th Jan 06, 4:21 PM

Sorry for the lack of recent communication, but it's getting awfully busy here. We are reading each and every post here in this thread and are taking all of the suggestions to heart. Many of them mirror our own wish list (auto map downloads, better friends lists, better NAT negotiation, etc., etc.) I know also I have stirred the pot a little with my announcement comments, and still no announcement. Sorry for it taking so long, but it's not entirely hammered down yet, so as soon as we can, we will announce our upcoming plans. I want to reiterate that we are listening to all of your suggestions, comments, compliments, and gripes. We would love to be able to act on each and every one of them as fast as possible, but development and the business doesn't always let us do it at the pace we want. We are listening, we are working, so some patience is needed. Stay tuned!

noise_pollution

13th Jan 06, 6:28 PM

Thanks Tranj... its good to know you guys are listening :D

About that delay in the orders you give to units... i remember that happening sometimes in DoW (i would tell a unit to move and it would only do it like a second later) i used to think that it was caused by very long distances... i guess i was wrong.

Anyway, i dont think i ever had that problem since WA came out... maybe it was fixed?

fragba1t

13th Jan 06, 11:54 PM

- dismiss certain maps for automatch like WC3 ( i hate playing 4 player maps)

- loading screen to show individual load times, player name/race...even if the complete stats were shown like game duration would be interesting and give strategic info about his gamestyle.

- a MUCH MUCH more elaborate replay archive system. the current one is a complete nightmae to find a good replay

- lobby spam control

*- Being able to continue automatch searching while you are checking out created games

vjghost

14th Jan 06, 12:56 AM

I think that complete stats should be removed (and only newbie, regular, expert shown) but even if they remain, they should be visible without clicking on any icon. Most of newbies don't even know about it. So player level shoult be visible somehow right away when you join game.

Question

14th Jan 06, 1:44 AM

Disagree,the current method of viewing stats is perfectly fine.

noise_pollution

14th Jan 06, 7:41 AM

Showing information about the enemy in automatch loading would suck... you are supposed to be blind... and knowing the enemy race would allow new methods of abuse... for example a scout rusher might not do that strat against orks and ig (shooty buildings), which would make an extreme rush like that much less risky.

About removing maps, the good players seem to like the big maps (more strategy supposedly); personally i would like the opposite: keep the current maps and bring back some of the old ones for variety (like deadmans crossing which allowed for some tier3 fights)... but thats just personal opinion now.

Obtuse

14th Jan 06, 9:53 AM

Make it so that the stats button is furthur away from the 'kick' button, so people don't accidentally kick people when trying to check stats

Question

14th Jan 06, 9:55 AM

Noise : People dont do scout rushes currently against orks or IG anyway.The first scout squad sees the race and they stop making scouts.This changes nothing.

Also i would like to request on valentine's day tha the lobby be decorated with flowers and pink, lacy things(in general), and the commander shown on the main menue screen dresses in a wedding gown and dances.

Overseer

14th Jan 06, 4:54 PM

Hi me again,

Theres been many wishing to change loading screens on route to battle.
I agree with others posted here that showing race/map etc would be detrimental. Mainly as first encounter / scouting can be fun and is an important integral part of the game etc.

So after some deliberation .....

"Definitive Stats & Loading Screen idea":idea:
I would implement this as follows......

First off ....
I would remove detailed stats from being available in the game room. Only leave stars available as an indication/hint of ability/status.
This would lessen/prevent the endless... "join/host looks@stats/kik" & the "join/peers look@stats/drop" situations.
(if it doesnt lessen/improve remove stars aswell next time)

Secondly....
I would then place all players detailed stats on the loading screen with their team/ (and/or with or without their names adjacent.)

and Thirdly....
"Toggable Hidden Selectable Race idea"
The ability to choose your race but have it hidden from others.
This could have 3 host/and or peer toggable selections.
#1 Race selection hidden from ALL! -Noone sees your race except you. (main use = FFA/Team Games)
#2 Race Selection hidden from ALL except ALLIES! -Only yourself and your allies can see your race selections.(main use = Team Games)
#3 Race Selection hidden from no-one! - As it is now etc.

(At the moment you can only choose random to hide your race ...which prevents hidden preselection.)

Note how the three concepts above work best in collaberation with each other.... simple concepts but with far reaching implications..... allow me to ellaborate ....

This means to TRULY know your opponent/s you MUST PLAY them. (This would shift emphasis onto remembering the players/names that would become more easily known and feared with time, rather than merely "disimbodied clicked on stats.")

It would additionally massivley improve join to ready up times in game rooms.
(as opposed to as it is now where people join game/ click on stats of every player in room/ponder chance of win/ decide whether to drop or click ready / If they then do click ready there then ensues the merry dance of race selection and counter race selection /and or "im not playing against race X followed by drop/kik" - multiply that time taken by the number of players joining room etc.. plus hosts accidentally clicking kick instead of stat.. and you can see why it takes soo long getting games going at mo.)

This would also add greatly to the awe and wonderment /apprehension when waiting for the game to load.
Plus it wouldnt obscure too much of the pretty loading screens, and gives something new and constantly changing to ponder upon whilst waiting for loading to finish/game to commence.(Loading times would almost become usefull.)
It would also have the benefit of actively encouraging people to try out/play more diverse races and strategies.
So as not to be given away by their loading screen/stats.

(Hmmm ...will those two 75% spacemarine players just discovered on the loading screen choose to scout rush with marines? They gonna go with their 55% Eldar? .... Or completely take you by surprise with a mix of Orks &Chaos ?????)
....feel lucky ??? complacent...??? ....nervous ???? :comp:

Meanwhile on the other side of the screen your opponents are having a similar dilemma :umm: .... tee hee.

The possibilities are endless.... and more importantly more exciting.

Obviously this wouldnt affect the current ladders etc so that true stat monkeys still have a place to hang and peruse too .

enjoy .... Overseer. :hat:
(so many ideas,so little time.)

jancz

15th Jan 06, 11:07 PM

allow 2 ratings
a qs one
and a standard one

Question

15th Jan 06, 11:12 PM

Erm what?A automatch score and a non-automatch match score would make more sense.....

fragba1t

15th Jan 06, 11:54 PM

^ instead, non-automatch wins/loses should not contribute to your stats at all ( win percentage). created games should be just for fun and have no effect on stats.

if a kid wants to play QS comp stomps, he can keep a shiny star.

-

knowing your opponent and scout rushing is just one side... even the other guy should be competent enough to know that he may either see ASM spam OR a scout rush.

you like scouting? go scout him even if you know his race to find out whether hes rushing then...

-

Overseers second suggestion makes sense, and would be the case in automatch ANYWAY since you wont know your opponent till the load screen. i disagree with the first, since you dont really want a a couple of pros sitting a room with anewb joining and claiming to be pro and ruining 3 ppls games.

-

agree with question on valentines day suggestion.

Joman

17th Jan 06, 1:58 AM

i hate this ingame-browser of DoW so much.
why u have no function to sort all games by ping or map?
the browser allways refresh after some seconds and it kicks me back to the top while looking for a game to join...i hate this!!!!

so please try to fix this problem in the next patch...it shouldn`t be such a problem i think :elephant:

---------------------------------------------------------
:wave: me again...

i would love if u can publish a replay-player where u can watch all replays of any version.
so i don`t have to install the game in any version to see all replays i have.

u think that is possible?
i think that would be a tool anybody will like.
maybe u can develop a stand alone replay-player so that anyone can watch all replays anywhere and anytime.

i better stop dreaming...but it would be so cool!!! :thumb: :slow:

Question

17th Jan 06, 4:21 AM

A better way would be to just allow backwards compatibility........

Overseer

17th Jan 06, 8:05 AM

Please note previous features/ideas Ive posted in this thread have been updated/ellaborated/improved upon so please take the time to re-read.

Now back to bussiness...

"Specific User Selectable Starting Locations" :idea:
The ability to choose/select precisely where players start on maps.(overide/influence autoplacement)
OR More importantly to be able to specifically select which spots on a map will remain blank/playerless.
This is important as ....

The implementation of this would make available a much larger map selection to players without the neccessity of adding new content.

As at the moment for example you are unable to play a 2v2 competetively on the map "Bloodshed Alley" as the auto placement prevents you from being able to place the 2 teams opposite one another.

This would also additionally solve the various inherent set up problems with playing against the AI.

enjoy .... Overseer. :hat:
(so many ideas,so little time.)

army0fdead

17th Jan 06, 5:30 PM

Reconnection would be nice also. I've noticed that sometimes I get booted from a game without actually losing my internet connection. Infact I run chat with friends sometimes when we are playing and when I'm booted from a game by the system I do not lose my chat connection.

I don't mean to take too much of your time. My point basically is that a player that has been disconnected from their internet and has yet to be kicked from the game by other players should be allowed to reconnect to the game and continue playing.

fragba1t

17th Jan 06, 7:31 PM

^ i dont think that is possible at all.

only worthwhile solution is like Wc3 wherein u are granted control of your teammates players. but in WC3 you couldnt transfer resources between your races.

Overseer

18th Jan 06, 4:54 AM

Hello again,

Additional ideas with regard to my suggested overhaul of the way mods are currently implemented
re the: Auto Switching/Downloading mods feature, I posted earlier in this thread.

"Mulitiple Mods Activation" :idea:
The ability to have more than one mod active at a time.
This would open up all sorts of cool possibilities.

So as an example you would be able to activate the following:
WA/DOW as base....
Mod 1: Activation of modded race X
Mod 2: Activation of modded race Y
Mod 3: Activation of balance mod Z
Mod 4: Activation of an alternative generic Skirmish AI.
Mod 5: Removal of missile weapons.
Mod 6: Activation of Capture the flag mod.

So that way you could play a game of Capture the flag using race X&Y,balanced with mod Z, with the skirmish AI, but with missiles disabled ...etc.

The correct way to do this is obviously to parse the mods in order.So additional mods/later mods will overwrite/have preference over earlier selected mods.
That will insure no breakable game errors.

The possibilties if mods were implemented this way would be limitless ......

The best example of a similar method for reference purposes was used with Total Annihilations .. TAM(TA Mutation) years ago.

enjoy ..... Overseer :hat:
(so many ideas,so little time.)

perser84

18th Jan 06, 3:58 PM

a good features is when you can see on the load screen on automatch the opponets name and race and the map that you are playing
and in my oppinon choosing opponets in automatch is not soo good it would be better if get people with the same win %

gbug

19th Jan 06, 7:24 PM

I want to see other player's ping, user info have a ping info.. but. I Can't see... It is just... '???'
and, I want to sort game list by ping, and user's number

Old Painless

20th Jan 06, 5:01 AM

If i am online i want to be able to tell my clan mates/friends etc to join a game, i want to see what game they join so i dont have to ring them or set up x-fire/team speak etc for a couple of short games so i know where they are going.

Group join would be good, set your 3 buddies up for group join, find a game which is 4v4 and all join at once automatically, no more organising them one by one etc.

balvenie

20th Jan 06, 9:08 AM

It would be nice to be able to see all of the games. Presently, you can see some, then you have to pull the elevator button down, and by the time you may want to join one, you have to drag the elevator bar down to find it.

I think something that asks you if you want to be added to someone's friend list would be nice. Seems like you can get on lots of lists and can't get off them.

Mnementh

21st Jan 06, 4:14 PM

Move the system to a more regular fps style game/server list and away from the current lobby system while also keeping a chat window. Allow the chat to be connected to another server if the user wishes while maintaining the server list.

Allow the launching of games directly from the command line, like dow.exe /s 192.144.212.132:8090. You could launch your game with a bunch of command line options (password, map, player limits, rules etc) and then paste a link into irc that people could double click to join. (Unreal does this already with its unreal://ip system) If the game was already running when you launched a game, then simply having the game auto-paste this information into chat could allow people on the server to click it and join the game if they knew the password (if it had one).

Moving away from the restrictive walled garden that is gamespy will add even more modability to the game, god knows there are enough people around who could take advantage of that and create some very interesting tools for matchmaking.

sypher_diaz

22nd Jan 06, 2:44 AM

One thing i would really like, is the ability to give up a strategic point to an ally. So if you want them to be able to build a relic unit, but they dont have a relic, you can give them yours.

Some form of limit to the number of times u can do this would be necissary so you cant just swap a relic around a team and get all your uber units out.

Maybe you can only hand over a relic if u captured it yourself. So that once it has been handed over, thats it. unless the enemy take it off you and you recapture it again.
Even if its just a case of relinquishing ownership, and them having to capture it. Its just irritating that other than allowing the enemy to take it, there is no way of letting an ally take over a needed sp

perser84

22nd Jan 06, 6:06 AM

decreased the time from contoll area and take and hold from 7min to 5 min

peturabo

22nd Jan 06, 8:26 AM

Stars dont indicate ure ability. Automatch scores do, however i do think when the game is loading i a custom game.....the stars from each player shpuld show& a automatch score their rating should show....is a very good idea.

I disagree Perser, i like the current timing on control area/take and hold.

Pet

[eX]Xerxes

22nd Jan 06, 7:54 PM

Having an option to auto-save replays would be nice.

Troubleshooter

27th Jan 06, 8:08 PM

First... I pretty much like everything Haggis had to say... please re-read his comments a few times if you are actually going to try to work some constructive items into the next patch/upcomming release.

Second : I would like something like a rewind button for replays... if not an actual rewind feature, how about a "jump back 10 seconds" button... wouldn't it work fine given that you only need to reset the graphics and unit states according to the log in the .rec - even if you had to reload the game state (loading screen...) it would be better than having to sit through 30 minutes to see one thing you missed because you blinked.

Third: Could we please bring back the chat-log in replays? I find the chat to be entertaining as well as instructive, because if provides insight into what the other team was thinking and doing. Like the point above, if the chat scrolls off the screen while I am not looking, or if there is a lag/spam moment - chat gets lost for ever... reloading and reviewing is tedious just for a few seconds of chat.

Fourth : can the pings players send in game be included in the .rec?

As for the rest of the on-line experience, could you put a "marqui" on hosted games that advertises those games to players that meet a certain criteria. What I mean is a flashing lighted icon next to a game where the host has set a criteria for the match that meets your profile.
Example : An experienced player wants to attract other players with 50% win ratio or better... he sets that flag when the game is created... and players in the "join game" lobby who have a high win ratio would see the game name, and it would be flashing, or have some other visual que that your presence is welcome and encouraged in that match.
Example 2 : An inexperienced player only wants noobs in the game, sets a flag for 20 games or fewer.... same routine, other noobs will see a visual que that this game is for them.

If you are able to institute some "team grouping" (stacked teams) measures, then team could set up a 3v3 match with a flag advertising that they are looking for another 3 player team to join... all other teams out there would see that game is stacked and is looking for another stacked team to join.

To take it one step further... alow the host to make the filter exclusive... so that "pro only" games will not allow "noobs" to join while the filter is active... make it a toggle to allow the host control the flow of players into the game. This would allow the game to fill without having to re-host in the event that no-one meets the filter criteria.

Phyr_Negator

28th Jan 06, 12:57 AM

Make automatic Online Campaign mode along with automatch with everyone free to join or with restrictions like have done before.
For example
Assault of Flab Quarv 7
Races Allowed: Chaos, SPace Marines, Eldar
Maps included:
1st Stage
Valley of Khorne
Blood River
2nd Stage
Meeting of Minds
Dread Peak
3rd Stage
Fury Island
Mortalis
And set permanent awards for winners wich will be displayed in player's stats. Something like: "Imperial Cross for securing of landing zone" with higher awards if player got most of wins in selected stage. Like:
"Iron Halo for taking part in defence of Kasyr Lutien"
"Mark of Chaos for playing vital part in Obliteration of Flab Quarv 7"
Same in theory can be applied to losers - but I doubt it''ll be popular to weild stamp of "Dishonored himself by retreat at Final Stand of Tartarus" or such and would lead only to condition when most of people would ignore campaign...
But personally I would be glad to see "award"
"Numerous retreats and signs of cowardice of the battlefield" or for numerous disconnects.
To prevent top players to dominate in campaign restrict number of games allowed - with CD-KEY, as there will be smurfs if there will be nick restriction. But this can be solved by pre-registering to take part in campaign.

mecha_manic

28th Jan 06, 1:08 AM

What id like to see is more game types, currently its just kill crush and destryo everything, or take a critical location while killing crushing and destroying everything. why
not add a breakthrough mission where one side gets garrisonable fortifications and one side has the get so many units to a point past the line, or a sabotage mission where one side (attacking) has infantry with demo charges but they have a limited cap and have to get into the defending base and plant the charges on a target.
basically id like to see some gameplay that wasnt someone marauding 'round the map with an army of spammed oblitorators :Slap:

Rayden

28th Jan 06, 8:20 AM

Give us the possibility to select the starting position!!!

For example .. you see locations 1,2,3,4,5,6 on the map icon.
The fourth player in list should be able select 3 as starting position.
Game will only start if every player has a different starting location.

This could be implemented as a new Starting Position option named "Custom" (additional to Random and Fixed)

I know there is not much space in game lobby window to implement such a option field ... but maybe you can replace the senseless blind out coloursheme button by a button to switch between race select and starting position select.

Esperflame

31st Jan 06, 1:04 PM

I'd like to see the Fire Dragon's Fusion Guns do the kind of damage they're capable of in the table top. It's pretty rediculous that 10 fire dragons shooting the crap out of a tank do almost no damage. These weapons are primarily designed for anti tank. They're freaking melta guns basically! This is the reason why Fusion Guns have such a craptastic short range. This weapon is way underpowered in DoW. And yes, these guns should also be fairly effective against troops too as well. The Fusion Gun should be almost on par with the kind of damage the SM missle launchers do. Now I'm not saying as powerful mind you, but they shouldn't lag far behind in damage, Only no explosion or knockdown effects.

Just my 2 cents.

LordBOB5

1st Feb 06, 2:41 AM

When hosting, make slots have an option that only allows friends to take their slots.
I mean, like there is an Observer slot already, now make an Open for Friend slot.
Would solve the kicking problems:)

noise_pollution

1st Feb 06, 10:18 AM

How about separate automatch scores for the each race?
This way we would be able to play with all the races in the same account.

The stats windows would have a small table with played races horizontally and 1on1, 2on2, etc vertically.

What do you people think about this?

Big_DWalk

1st Feb 06, 12:48 PM

I would like to see... when your a friend host a game say 3v3man that you can type it in a search bar to find the game without having to look through all the other games to find it

Jasper

2nd Feb 06, 11:06 AM

Apologies in advance if this has been mentioned already.

I usually play direct IP games with my friends and we all agree that having to re-enter the host's IP after every match is very frustrating.

At the end of a match, after the score screen, please drop all players back into the game setup screen. Returning to the local client's main game menu is especially troublesome for players with mixed connection types. Without Ventrilo running we'd be forced to constantly attempt to re-connect with the host to see if the game was back up yet or not.

x3sid

3rd Feb 06, 7:06 AM

Just get rid of the Gamespy, that is a good start. I never got into DoW MP because of that Gamespy crap, and i have seen other games being plagued by it.

Gamespy gave lot of promises about their Online system but always failed to deliver.

mono

6th Feb 06, 9:58 AM

Integrated voice chat (with requisite ability to block specific users) would be great.

As for the game browser. Ability to search for a player by name, or partial name, optional streaming resource downloads if you don't have custom files from a server.

Zeromimolette

6th Feb 06, 1:52 PM

Important missing feature: a moron detector...

Beep beep bepp !!!

Damnit, i have been detected !

techmonkey

7th Feb 06, 11:23 AM

I think it may already have been metioned but the ranking and star system could do with an overhall. I consider myself a low to average online player but I tend to keep doing boring comp stomps as I don't want to play against other people where I have no chance of winning.

Maybey have stars based on different types of games played etc (take and hold)

Oh and I know it's not an online issue but could someone please make it possible to attach the SM Chaplain to a squad. :D

Mrguyisme

7th Feb 06, 2:14 PM

I'd love to be able to message friends inside games. Friends list feature is good but without the ability to let you friends know you're online while they're in game, its pretty much usless. Majority of the time your friends that are online will be in a game. Since you can't communicate with them, it comes down to guessing whether they're almost done or just started in any case you're either going to have to and hope that they're almost done and catch them before they join a new game or join a name game only to have them finish there game.

TheEmperor

7th Feb 06, 2:41 PM

Some new multiplayer "Hold the line maps" Where all the players are allied and hostile CPU units spawn at the other end of the map and try to overwhelm you, victory condition is a 30 minute survival or something

vjghost

8th Feb 06, 3:32 AM

Some improvements to online gamebrowser:
1. Show time of game creation in browser
2. Default game sort should be by game creation time, which could prevent scrolling at refreshes because games are added at the end. Scrolling at the begining at refreshes is very annoying
3. All sorting possibillities - time, game name, map, ping
4. Filter that allows you to specify map size for displayed games (in form of select box: all, 2 player maps, 3 player maps, 4 player maps ...). It should work with sort setting together

I hope it wasn't suggested already ;)

Demonhorde

11th Feb 06, 3:12 AM

Auto Downloadable Maps! As In Cs:)

Question

11th Feb 06, 5:15 AM

One thing i just noticed in WC3 is that once the countdown timer starts you cant cancel out of the game.IMHO this is a very good feature.......it prevents the "OMGZ LOLZ 1 SECOND LEFT I LEAVE TO SCREW GAME UP!!!" retards....

Kool_Kirby

12th Feb 06, 6:46 AM

Take it from the maker of excellent RTS games. Blizzard.

What makes WC3 still playable with 10x more players (this is not an exaggeration) that DoW, even though it is very outdated?? It may not be exactly this, but it definitly helps: The Map Editor!!! (DUH Duh duh)!

WC3: TFT's map editor is downright amazing. There are SO MANY different types of custom maps, too many to count. Now, lets put that with DoW. If you were to create a sort of similar map editor with DoW, and have different win conditions, it would be much cooler. Also, we should be able to download maps we don't have from the user.

Here are my previous points numbered:
1. Modify map editor to be a lot different, more like WorldEdit from WC3, so you can do a lot of things with it. Example, add triggers.
2. Add different win conditions, and a Use Map Settings so the custom map would have its own conditions would let you win with a certain trigger.
3. Able to download maps that we don't have.

Note: This should not be in WA, but it is a good idea if the Relic staff puts this in their next expansion. I would wait 2-3 months more just for this feature in the next expansion.

BeserkWraithlor

15th Feb 06, 6:17 PM

I miss the Custom Games made by WC3 such as Hero siege and Real life. Custom Games in WA sound great.

Question

15th Feb 06, 6:32 PM

You dont understand it is (probably) possible to make those already its just that the map editor is so clunky and difficult to use.WC3 has SO many custom maps BECAUSE it is so easy to script in custom stuff including custom units, abilities, etc with simple clicks of a few buttons.Im not even sure if you could modify unit stats in the map editor.....you probably have to make it a downloadable mod and you KNOW just how that will fly......

Average joe : Na cant be bothered to download and install it

On the other hand in WC3 it happens like this :

Average joe : Sure start a game and send me the map then we can play

See the difference?

Hell WC3 is still going strong with DOTA and all those custom maps.Take a leaf out of their book.

Adeptus Flamus

16th Feb 06, 3:02 AM

Regarding the map editor:

I haven't tried the WC3 map editor but Starcraft's editor is really superb - so I assume that the same is true for WC3.

However, creating a such a map editor is certainly a difficult task because if you take a look DoW's game browser you'll see that even after more than one year there hasn't been a change.

If it wasn't impossible to design a good gui (with non jumpy listboxes for example) I would think that Relic just doesn't care.

In summary, I agree with mono and vjghost. This game needs a real game browser.
That would be a nice "feature" (in other games you'd regard a working game browser as minimum requirement, but yeah this is dow where nobody seems to care about a decent game browser - but on the other hand you could say that the browser is working perfeclty in most cases because there are hardly any games online :lol: ).

Okidus[PCE]

18th Feb 06, 4:03 PM

pathfinding

Locutus

18th Feb 06, 4:56 PM

Custom map sharing would certainly be nice, along with something which prevents people from spamming the chatbox and posting 15 lines in three seconds, all identical advertisements for their game.

Would also like to reinforce the sentiment against "compstomp" games, which are really just stat-farming.

A system that made connections easier would be nice too, can usually only connect to 1/4 games I click on, despite having a high-speed cable connection.

Something to prevent the host from kicking all but one of their enemies in a team game just before it starts, maybe a disable of the kick button once "start game" is hit. Really sucks to be the one guy left in a 1v3 game, which is completely unwinnable for all but the best of players.

EDIT: Allowing game descriptions to be 10 characters longer than the current limit would be very nice too.

santiago4ever

19th Feb 06, 5:36 PM

Just remembered one that I've been longing for a long time.

Fixed teamplay auto. And I don't mean fixed as in "yep you can play 2v2 auto now". I mean fixed as in creating unique 2v2 teams that gets the points instead of giving the points to the individual account. Lets say that me and a friend creates the 2v2 auto team "Redbeard Pirates" and win a couple of times, then I want that 2v2 team to show up in 2v2 ranks. Same thing with 3v3/4v4 only in those you should be able to register 4-6 players for the team or something so that you can get a team together more easily.

This would bring in some competetive teamplay laddering imo ^_^

Oh and you can skip that darn 2v2 random auto, automatch is competetive so if you can't find someone to play 2v2 auto with every now and then you can just join random 2v2 customs instead for the normal "oh great I got a total noob on my team, there goes my points".

NeoHunter

19th Feb 06, 5:50 PM

There is a problem with squad AI I think. I got a few good examples of the problems I faced with it.

Squads that have attached Commanders or other units do not move together at the same speed. One very good example would be if I attached a Force Commander together with a squad of Terminators. I ordered the squad with the Force Commander to go from point A to point B. Now, the Terminators were obviously slower than the Force Commander. However, the Force Commander did not run at the same pace as the Terminators and ran up ahead. In some multiplayer games, this often meant the quick demise of the Force Commander because he decided to be gung ho and charge up ahead without travelling with the Terminators as a squad. The squad should move as fast as the slowest unit in the whole squad.

Another problem with the squad AI is when I order a squad without any attached units to it to do an Attack Move from point A to point B. If along the way, some of the squad gets held back by terrain or other friendly units are blcoking most of the squad, the few guys from the squad who are not blocked will keep running towards point B without waiting for the rest. Then to make things worse, then they encounter the enemy on the way to point B, the few who are running ahead will stop and not fire at the enemy! It will instead wait for the rest of the squad to catch up with them then fire as a squad. Usually, by the time the rest of the squad catches up, the few guys who ran up ahead are already killed without the enemy losing a single hitpoint.

I hope Relic will look into this and see how they can improve on this problem.

NewbiePBer

20th Feb 06, 9:27 AM

i just got Winter Assault and i was just wondering why the Chaos Space Marines weapons upgrades are gone like for troops and the Predator

thegreatbooha

20th Feb 06, 5:33 PM

In automatch, display the races of each player, or if the player chose random, then you see random.

ImmortalChaos

1st Mar 06, 12:55 PM

@thegreatbooha: no way, that would simply ruin the fun of not knowing what your opponent was. Plus, chaos would get shafted as evryone would scout rush them.

And,
Just remembered one that I've been longing for a long time.

Fixed teamplay auto. And I don't mean fixed as in "yep you can play 2v2 auto now". I mean fixed as in creating unique 2v2 teams that gets the points instead of giving the points to the individual account. Lets say that me and a friend creates the 2v2 auto team "Redbeard Pirates" and win a couple of times, then I want that 2v2 team to show up in 2v2 ranks. Same thing with 3v3/4v4 only in those you should be able to register 4-6 players for the team or something so that you can get a team together more easily.

This would bring in some competetive teamplay laddering imo ^_^

OMG YES! This would be more awsome than anything, competitive teamplay ladder would be just awsome.

Also, i feel a better clan system would be cool. sat, there was an in game browser that allowed you to create a "clan", and you could use an in game e-mail to send "invites" to people who you wanted to join the clan. If they accepted the invite, they would automatically have that clans tag inserted into the front or back of their name.

Furthermore, that in game e-mail should be useable to send things to friends like, "try this crazy strat" and "omg check out this bug" emails to buddys who werent online.

Also, in the in game browser, you would have your own page, and each clan would have its own page. The clan could put "skill requiremts" and "recruting times" on their page, while player could post little jokes and factsn about themselvs on their page. The creator of a clan can give "leadership" to any other member, and would have it himself. The players with "leadership" could send invites and boot members. leaders couldnt boot eachother, and the founder had overide of this.

ITS JUST A DREAM, BUT THAT WOULD BE THE BEST ONLINE FEATURES EVER! (w00t)

PS: Most of these ideas are from a game called Starsiege: Tribes 2(exept instead of "clan"s you make "tribe"s). You guys at relic should try the online system. The game is old, but it has THE best online system ever created,