Autojoin function

[Een]

Maybe a bit unrelated, but have you considered giving small cooldowns (a few seconds) to people rejecting matches, before they're able to auto-match again?

Well, they already have to start over (for each game they were waiting on) and they have to wait some more, so it's already a bother rejecting a match. What I understood from the OP's post was not so much about people rejecting than about people joining/quitting too fast for the manual administrator of a table to start it with the exact number of people wanted.

[augustjologs]

We introduced a tweak today so that when one game has a high frequency of games being created, automatic lobby doesn't join manual tables anymore (automatic lobby players are matched between themselves).

For now, we have seen some unexpected improvement... for the automatic lobby!

Any feedback on the manual side?

I noticed that on 7 Wonders lobby, so many tables are created but don't get quickly populated by players, resulting in longer wait times to get enough players in a table. I suppose this is the effect of automatic lobby not joining manual tables.

[LongBeachGamer]

Hi Een, thanks, I appreciate you making the tweak and giving us some time with it. I have noticed that on WW games I have played since the change that the population more steadily increases like what we experienced before. It's still not as quick to start games as I thought, so I suspect a lot of new players use the Automatic mode. I can't speak for everyone, but I prefer the change to the way it was before. If there was a way to meld the Automatic and Manual player-verses together in a way that doesn't make it frustrating for hosts, I would be all for that idea too.

[ZanaFromMars]

In addition to this, when the table administrator kicks a player that auto-joined, this same player can be back on the table in a few seconds...

While people that register normaly can not go back to a table they've been kicked from... That's really problematic.

This is not the intended behaviour, we'll check this. Thanks for telling us.

This has been fixed now

Thanks a lot !!

[pinkyandthebrain]

Yes, my OP was about the high turnover rate coming from automatic joiners in the early days of lockdown (the ones joining but not sitting around the table). I guess this function was always there but only became a noticeable issue when traffic skyrocketed.

My suggestion (if possible) was asking about the option to filter out players that chose not to commit to just one table. I assume this is just a problem with games that require a high number of players as it's more likely you will have someone refuse a game start or go afk during the wait. For Werewolves at least it is also dependent on the time of day - sometimes there are many players and a game starts quickly, at other times it might be a 30 plus minute wait partly because of the loop that can be created:

Table 1 - 12 players with 4 autojoiners a, b, c, and d
Table 2 - 9 players with 4 autojoiners a, b, c and d
Table 3 - 7 players with 4 autojoiners a, b, c, and d

As Table 1 is full, the host starts (or now it auto-starts) and thus players a-d automatically leave Tables 2 and 3.

Then one player refuses to start the game - they aren't happy with the set-up - or perhaps someone is afk so a player cancels the starting process and Table 1 returns to the lobby. During this process I notice the auto-joiners are also booted so you go back to having a table of 3 to 6 players.

You are then back waiting and perhaps more auto-joiners will come along who might leave again if in the interim Table 2 or 3 is full and starts. All this means the member who is hosting Table 1 or just the players who have committed to Table 1 alone wait the longest for a game in which they could die during night 1.

So yes I think you've hit the nail on the head that needs to be addressed, the fact that at times there are multiple games of a similar set up (that have the same handful of players) - it makes me wonder just how many tables can an automatic-joiner sit at simultaneously?

I hope my post isn't what prompted the auto-start function (if so I'm sorry guys!). I was just hoping to have the personal choice to filter out the auto-joiners as I'd much prefer to wait patiently for committed players than have the more "promiscuous" player who spreads themselves out. I know I am not alone so I'll live in hope of this becoming an option one day.

Thanks for the continual tweaks!

Maybe a bit unrelated, but have you considered giving small cooldowns (a few seconds) to people rejecting matches, before they're able to auto-match again?

Well, they already have to start over (for each game they were waiting on) and they have to wait some more, so it's already a bother rejecting a match. What I understood from the OP's post was not so much about people rejecting than about people joining/quitting too fast for the manual administrator of a table to start it with the exact number of people wanted.