Board Game Arena

i primarily play turn-based games in training mode with friends. sometimes we do real-time and non-training, and i've played real-time games with strangers from time to time, but it's not my usual method. i have noticed something that drives me absolutely insane about creating games, but i'm not sure if it's related to that particular setup or a bug or what...

i will select the friends i want to invite to the game, i'll select the game, and while i'm configuring the table, an invite to the game seems to have already gone out to my friends, and they start joining, and then i'm told i can't change table settings after people have joined. to make matters worse, if everyone i've invited so far has joined, the game automatically starts before i've even clicked the "open table to other players" button, so i can't add any late-comers.

does anyone know if there's logic to this madness? is there some way to work around this? maybe this is somehow a good thing that i just don't understand? help!

Hi,

I think the logic is that when you join a table you know what the settings are and are safe in the knowledge that they won't change before the game starts. Otherwise you may be happy with the pace set/ expansions/ options and join the game only to have them chnages before the game starts

To get around it you can open an empty lobby, sort the settings out and then invite your friends before opening up to any random people you may want to join too.

doesn't it seem like invites should just not be sent until you click "open table to other players"? what's even the point of that button if the invites go out right away and the table auto-starts?

The "open table" button opens the table for anyone to join. This allows you to set up a table with the settings you like before people join. This is important as as soon as someone joins you cannot change the settings anymore.

I agree this is very annoying. The best workaround I've found is to tell people "don't join until I tell you to".

@coxy5 you mentioned "open an empty lobby, sort the settings out and then invite your friends".
HOW? If I try to do that it tells me I have to invite people first before it will open the game settings page.

What is your setting of the rightmost dropdown in the lobby? It sounds to me that you must have it set to "Manual". If you change it to "Play with Friends only" then I think most of the problems you describe will disappear. With the latter setting you define a group of friends that you currently want to play with (and doing that is slightly awkward sometimes) and when you select a game it will automatically add all of your "current friends" to it (and send them invites). It will create the game in Training Mode but you can change that (and any other setting) whether your friends have joined or not. And there's no auto-start either.

boris95 wrote: ↑20 May 2021, 11:43 I agree this is very annoying. The best workaround I've found is to tell people "don't join until I tell you to".

@coxy5 you mentioned "open an empty lobby, sort the settings out and then invite your friends".
HOW? If I try to do that it tells me I have to invite people first before it will open the game settings page.

I click play now on the top bar -> Find the game I want to play and click the blue button under it (either a table symbol or play now depending if there are already open lobbies) -> this causes a drop down to appear which I then select create a new table. Then I can fiddle with the settings before inviting people.

I am set to manual mode.

@jmcl99, I had it set on Play With Friends Only, but after someone joined I was not able to change any settings - including Training/Normal mode.

I'll try the manual mode and see how it works.