New lobby (integrated to game page)

[matthcs]

how can I use the old lobby please? now in the new library when I am playing bang, and set the number of players to 5 (I only want to play with 5 players), but then it suddenly increases/decreases my number of players on its own and I can't change it and then I'm matched with 4/6/7 players? how can I fix this? thank you

[pitdood]

It's just as likely that people invited to a game go to the game page first because you can't read the how to play from the current table page. A link to the how to play on the table page may have been a better update that confused less people. I just tried to accept an invite to a table, clicked "Join", and the Join button switched to a "Start" button. So I clicked the Start button because I wanted to start the game of the table I JUST JOINED. Instead, because my settings were currently on Automatic find a table, a NEW automatic pairing was started. If you are going to *completely* change how people have been doing things on your site for years, you should be reducing confusion, not increasing it. Especially since quitting that new game started by my confusion would reduce my reputation

[hakha3]

Functional changes are definetely important and I sure hope u will work on them, but imo this lobby still needs better layout. You took on yourself a challenge to have lobby and information of that game in same page, which is not easy to do. I really think u should change it so there is no need to scroll down to see more info about lobby (maybe some special settings, if there are a lot of them). I would still consider having like 2 tabs when u enter specific game, one for lobby and another for everything else. But if u really dont want to do that then some things from the top of the page should be gone.

Latest update: Is that really that important? Im fairly sure people would prefer it wouldnt take up lobby space.

Watch game in progress: This was always weird to me. Kinda advertising people to look up how others play. And then there is replay of game, which for some time thought is real game, but its just replay. Im not really sure what is/was purpose of it. If it was something like getting accustomed with UI, then tutorials are doing great job of and there are more and more tutorials. In that widget there are also other stuff, but all of them u can get also by scrolling down. So I wouldnt mind if that widget was gone or put somewhere on bottom

ELO/Arena ranking: Thats nice, but im sure u can put it somewhere else

There is also one big column of unused space, which Im sure u could do something with(maybe u already do), to have enough space for lobby to not need to scroll

[GeraldineMerida]

When you opt for rematch and are taken to this new lobby page, there is no option to restrict the game to friends, a certain ELO level, etc. So if the invited player declines, anyone can join the new game.

[nik592]

Yes, rematches in the new lobby are definitely painful because all options are not there. Either have rematches head directly to the old lobby, or possibly have an easy way to switch from a table in the new lobby to the old lobby (eg. A link "View this table in old lobby" or whatever). It doesn't have to be obtrusive, just there so it's not 3 clicks and having to go through the full old lobby page (which as noted, is slow).

[Respublik]

Why is there a 3 seconds waiting period before launching the white screen with this mode?

[miklomike]

Rematches definitely need to go through the old lobby because your new lobby does not have the ability to keep all the same options. Please make this change until you can properly fix this. I'm not even sure why a rematch needs any lobby, just going directly to the tables page is what should be happening.

The play now section was always set to only display favorites for me, it worked great at joining multiple tables or starting multiple turn based games. If I need to go to each games page to create or look for a game, that will take a lot longer, and result in users just playing less games because of it.

I would often look at my favorite to play my regular games and thenthen games that rarely have live tables "oh, there is a table for X game that I don't play often, but i will play it now since there is a table waiting". With the new lobby, I will likely never go to those games pages because there is so rarely a game waiting, and if others do the same, a lot less tables of that game will ever be played.

As to your comment on ELO games with no time limit, this is my default game against friends as it lets you play many turns live if you are able, or go days without playing either (longer than you could with a turn based game). But no one should ever be stuck since games end on their own after 90 days anyways.

[FamousTheAardvark]

This "new lobby" is nice looking, I guess. But it isn't very usable.

Had a game night with friends tonight. Players (who have all been playing here for years) were puzzled at the beginning of every game. After joining, they didn't know how to find and enter the game they just started. They mostly ended up going back to their own profile pages to find the game in their list of current games and entering the game from there.

We play in real time using turn based settings in case that is relevant here.

[nik592]

As to your comment on ELO games with no time limit, this is my default game against friends as it lets you play many turns live if you are able, or go days without playing either (longer than you could with a turn based game). But no one should ever be stuck since games end on their own after 90 days anyways.

Agree. As long as I'm playing with friends I know will finish the game eventually, this mode works better - sometimes kids and life gets you busy (heck that's half the reason we play on BGA now) and at least you can let those games slide while keeping up those with real time limits. I didn't realise they end automatically after 90 days, but I wondered why there wouldn't be some kind of thing like that - or where players still playing can request to end a game and it ends automatically after no response for even a couple of weeks.

[sourisdudesert]

how can I use the old lobby please?

Use "Play" in the top main menu.

When you opt for rematch and are taken to this new lobby page, there is no option to restrict the game to friends, a certain ELO level, etc.

Yes, as said previously, this is going to be available in the near future, but there are alternatives or you can still use old lobby (please read previous answers).

If I need to go to each games page to create or look for a game, that will take a lot longer

As said in the FAQ, the news lobby is not yet optimized for this kind of usage. Please continue to use the old one.

As to your comment on ELO games with no time limit, this is my default game against friends as it lets you play many turns live if you are able, or go days without playing either (longer than you could with a turn based game). But no one should ever be stuck since games end on their own after 90 days anyways.

The best for you is to set "Game Speed" to the "Infinite sign" (= training mode). This way, there is no time limit, and no one is stuck in the game because there are no penalties either.