Board Game Arena

Many small improvements today (May 8th 2020).

Auto-start

A lot of you are complaining about players who are creating tables in manual mode, but never click on "Start" button, even if the table is full.

Now, when a realtime game table is full, you go automatically to the "accept game start" screen.

Spectator chat

We decided to forbid spectators to chat during the games.

We know that in specific situations, it may be useful. But there are more situations where this is causing problems than the opposite. And in real life, you would not want to let anyone come and start discussing around your game table while you are focused on your game.

They may be adjustments/exception in the future, but the new basic/default rule is: spectators are not allowed to chat anymore.

Many small things and fixes

In particular:
_ hotseat player playing with the wrong language.
_ notification counter blocked to 9 in your player menu.
_ + many small fixes & UI improvements

It might be a niche thing, but I wonder if spectator chat could be used in a separate 'room' in effect. I'm just thinking that if I want to explain to a friend how to play a game it could be useful to watch a game together and chat about what is happening while the game is going on. I wonder if it could be turned on for game replays too for that purpose. I completely get separating the players and the spectators, so I'm largely a fan of that, but I feel like there might be some merit in spectator chat as a different closed group

Maybe a per user preference setting for "show spectator chat messages" could do the trick, so each player decides if he wants to be bothered by spectators or not.

Why? Sometimes, I just want to talk

And is way too long to do (click on player)->(message)->(send)

I just spoke about these two changes on another topic.

Obviously I may be a minority, but I would like to express my opinion. Other players can share it.

About the automatic start of games I commented:

"All of my matches are starting automatically when seats are taken. In theory it is a good automation, but this prevents me from removing unwanted players who occupy the last slot. I notice that refusing to start the game we go back to the page and it is possible to remove this player, however this practice usually discourages other players who end up leaving the room. "

And about the chat I commented:

I joined a game to interact with friends and I was unable to chat, I think the game should allow by default and have the option to disable it if it is of interest to the players. As many have commented, sometimes I just go in to teach at a table for new players, in other situations I go in to watch friends play.

Giving this feedback so that administrators and developers know my opinion. I think it is fundamental in the development of any website.

I take this opportunity to praise everyone's work and dedication.

DoctorPelusa wrote: ↑08 May 2020, 21:46 Maybe a per user preference setting for "show spectator chat messages" could do the trick, so each player decides if he wants to be bothered by spectators or not.

believe it is a path

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑08 May 2020, 10:14
Auto-start

A lot of you are complaining about players who are creating tables in manual mode, but never click on "Start" button, even if the table is full.

Now, when a realtime game table is full, you go automatically to the "accept game start" screen.

Spectator chat

I joined a game of Sushi Go and when the table got full, the game still did not auto-start, resulting in long wait and some players leaving. Does the auto-start only apply to manual mode created games?

augustjologs wrote: ↑09 May 2020, 07:12 I joined a game of Sushi Go and when the table got full, the game still did not auto-start, resulting in long wait and some players leaving. Does the auto-start only apply to manual mode created games?

The creator of the table was probably offline. In this case, we avoid auto-start because it would trigger a lot of auto-start for nothing. In such a case, just choose another table.

No, the table creator was online, I checked his profile page and it said online. And if the table creator is offline, the table page would have an option to 'expel' the host. It didn't have the expel option either.

Personally i don't like the autostart.
1) when you are a host, you cannot select who seat at your table. Without a better filter mechanism, manual selection is important.
2) when you are a player, and you join in more table, sometimes one table start with the host afk. You lose your place in another tables without any advantage. In the previous situation, table is full but don't start. Only when host is online and want to start, game effectively start, as it is right.

Personally also i don't feel chat is a problem. There are limited situations where one spectator really disturb the playing with her chat. I think it is enough abilitate the option to silent a player, for yourself or for the intere table.