Auto-start + spectators chat + many little things (May 8th update)

[sourisdudesert]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for your feedback on these changes.

Quick summary of this post

On spectator chat: spectators are now allowed again to chat with some restrictions.

On auto-start: it works pretty well but there are 2 issues (play with friends / freeze on refuse to start) that are going to be fixed.


About not answering / taking action earlier

When we change something, the unhappy players are all complaining, and the others are silent. That's normal, and this is why we get a majority of negative feedback whatever the change is.

So we cannot determine if a change is good or bad based of the number of your reactions on this forum. I'm sorry if it looks "anti democratic" or whatever, but this is it: feedback on the forum are useful for us to know your arguments and specific situations, but the number of reactions is most of the time irrelevant.

Evaluating a change takes time, but we always evaluate all our changes. I know that some of you think this is not fast enough, but constantly changing things doesn't help, really.

About spectator chat

We just changed the rules:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15938

However, I'd like to react to some of you who just said "there was no problem: why did you do that?". There was issues with spectators, which was solved by this change. We changed the rules again, and hopefully the problem won't appear again thanks to the new rules.

About auto-start

We identified 2 issues on auto-start:

• When playing with friends, if they accept too quickly you have no time to change the options.
• When refusing a game, the lobby is freezing.

These 2 issues are going to be fixed: quickly for the first one, and we don't know for the second one which is difficult to solve (this problem is ... random).

Apart from these 2 issues, auto-start is working pretty well and especially solved some situations (ex: when the table creator is on another part of the website, or another tab, and was missing the "you can start the game" message).

I've carefully read all your feedback, and saw that some of you are unhappy because they feel they cannot "choose" the latest player who joined the table. But in reality you can always choose to decline table start start (and expel the player), or set table restriction to make sure a player with a bad reputation won't join your table.

[Deranged]

Thanks .

Good to hear.

[Jeromie]

When we change something, the unhappy players are all complaining, and the others are silent. That's normal, and this is why we get a majority of negative feedback whatever the change is.

So we cannot determine if a change is good or bad based of the number of your reactions on this forum. I'm sorry if it looks "anti democratic" or whatever, but this is it: feedback on the forum are useful for us to know your arguments and specific situations, but the number of reactions is most of the time irrelevant.

Agreed but the autostart change was advertised as motivated by a number of complains.

I'm willing to bet that most of the complains are because the poor implementation of the autostart, not because of the concept.

When playing with friends, if they accept too quickly you have no time to change the options.

This also affects games that can be played solo (ex: Clans of Caledonia)

[Panterpe]

sigh

[Deranged]

Well, I think it goes like this.

Person 1: "I don't like A!"

Okay.

Person 2: "I don't like A either!""

Okay this is something we must take care of.

*taken care of by implementing update*

A veritable chorus nof voices: "BRING BACK A!!!!"

This always happens and is normal, regrettably. So they needed to wait and see if it was really all that bad, or if we were just a loud minority. To overcorrect for white noise is not a wise thing to do ^^. Often, the thing does not get turned back, however loud the minority is - I'm just happy this time is different. It sets BGA apart that they really did listen, decided they could work around the new issue without re-awakening the old issue, and did it.

The autostart still works, but at least the freezy thing which was a large part of the problem now no longer happens, so that's a step forward at least.

[Romain672]

Tell me if I should open an issue, but there is a third issue about auto start, it's when the game start so fast that the requirement of the table isn't done anymore.

I got that two times in maybe 100 or 150 games.
First one I join a table with 3/4 players, then immediately after saw that my own table was full, so I start my own table. Then the system start to remove people from table and start my own table at 3players when it needed at least 4, because the forth one was ejected from the other table.
Second one I did nothing special, I was just waiting for my table of 4 players, and it start at 3. (I suppose for same reasons than the first example)
(it's pretty old if you search the logs, I don't suggest you to do that)

It's maybe complicated but in short, the auto start remove people from tables without checking if the other table is already going to start their own game.

Maybe it's a problem from auto lobby and not auto start, but the auto start make it more commun.

(like i said earlier, I'm in the minority here who like the auto start)

.

Else, thanks for the changes

[Shaid]

First I would like to thank you again for returning to the chat.

I still believe that the question of automatic start could be solved with a simple "allow automatic start" button, which would be available to the host. After all, the host should still be the person in control of the table he is creating.

[Deranged]

First one I join a table with 3/4 players, then immediately after saw that my own table was full, so I start my own table.

Why did you join a table if you had your own table going anyway? Doesn't that mean that if the not-your-table had started first, all the people loyally waiting at your-table would be ejected unceremoniously, rewarded for their patience with... nothing?

If you value your own playtime so much, don't start a table. Join several if you want. But don't drag others into it.

This behavior, to me, is... well let's say strange, at least.

[Romain672]

Hmm, I suppose what I wrote was not clear.
If I explain again, it's possible to have his own table with 4 players needed who start with 3 players if another table start at the same time. That's all.

If it was clear:

Why did you join a table if you had your own table going anyway?

Tell that to everyone on the auto lobby.
Else, on hanabi, there is regulary some people on two differents table, when restricted with master+, and one with expert+, you can find similar people waiting on both table, so this case can happen.
And I'm not trying to force the bug, just it happen because my brain automatiquely click on start button on the top of my window.

Doesn't that mean that if the not-your-table had started first, all the people loyally waiting at your-table would be ejected unceremoniously, rewarded for their patience with... nothing?

Exactly. If they want to start a game faster, they can start their own game too. It's how they decided to turn the lobby on my opinion.

[Wreckage]

I would like Auto-Start to be an option when setting up the table, like all other settings. You choose player restrictions, variant, # of players, and auto-start.

Auto-Start option stays the same on your next game just like every other setting.