Board Game Arena

It would be nice to have a sound notification when a table is found. Some games have a long wait time, such as Carcassonne, and if you want to switch windows while waiting there's no way to know that a table has started and folks are waiting on you to hit accept. I've been caught a couple of times with this and I'm sure it's as annoying for the people waiting on me as it is for me to find I've lost the opportunity to play a game that I waited so long for.

Does the now-advanced lobby have a sound when a game is going to start? (The turn-based doesn't but that doesn't mean anything, and you take turns when you happen to be on and have turns. I also get this fun little triangle that goes round and round on the browser tab when I have turns.)

It would seem logical for all real-time games to have something that lets you know a game is starting, especially important for anything where you could be waiting a while. And pop-up messages and such like that seem to be browser-related and I don't think can be counted on. This can always be an option in case someone doesn't like it.

nandblock wrote:It would be nice for the site to make a sound to notify you when a table is ready. Currently it switches to the "Game is about to start" page silently, and I have sometimes missed the start of a game for this reason.

Thanks for reporting this. With the next release, the "table ready" sound will be played when redirecting from the simple lobby to a table ready to start.

I like the simple lobby a lot. I use it occasionally to find a game out of a few that I'd be willing to play in real time.

My only criticism would be I really wish I could pick "My level or below" for games where I'm less proficient. I feel like this is generally a good option for newcomers too as I've gotten into a few games where I was really out of my element using the simple lobby without it. I'd also like to be able to pick "my level or above" for games where I'm more proficient, but I'm also fine with just using the advanced lobby for that.

If I had to make a guess, I think they'd say that's why they kept the advanced lobby, so the simple one could stay simple.

"Simple" would be to just not go outside your level at all. The one flaw with that is that if you're a "beginner" then you may want to play with "apprentices" as well, or vice versa, but "beginner" is just 0 with no games so it's a lot tighter group of people.

What about the fact it starts up 3 or 4 versions of a game with different setups? What I noticed is that at first it starts with the right one and then later adds new ones.

gameypoehler wrote:I really wish I could pick "My level or below" for games where I'm less proficient. ... I'd also like to be able to pick "my level or above" for games where I'm more proficient, but I'm also fine with just using the advanced lobby for that.

Not quite what you're looking for, but under the advanced options per game, you can set preferences including for opponent level.

• Click on the cogwheel to the right of the game name
• Click on "Toggle advanced options"
• On the expanded dialog box that appears, set your preferences (e.g. "My level" set to green/preferred), "Any level" set to red/never)

That won't quite get you "my level or lower", but at least it help you avoid situations where one player is vastly better than another.