Unveiling The Official Soldat Web Gather

[thegrandmaster]

The gather chat is working perfect with Safari but the page appears as if it is always loading...
Anyways, good job jrgp and merry christmas!

Yeah really good job with it all! Have a good time.
The page is constantly loading, that's the way the chat works.

[`Guer]

Totally pointless imo, i wonder how many gathers already were played.

[thegrandmaster]

Totally pointless imo, i wonder how many gathers already were played.

I disagree. Admittedly, it's not extremely lively currently, however it has only been available for the last week and a half?
I've seen people come and go, and as more people do so they'll join and people will play more and more.
I think it's a step in the right direction.

[`Guer]

Totally pointless imo, i wonder how many gathers already were played.

I disagree. Admittedly, it's not extremely lively currently, however it has only been available for the last week and a half?
I've seen people come and go, and as more people do so they'll join and people will play more and more.
I think it's a step in the right direction.

I would agree with you, buth then we'd be both wrong. It will never work since we have irc gathers. When i red that both mm and jrgp were working on it several months, i just thought: oh come on, that time should be spent on soldat 1.5.1 / coding / fixing bugs, watever. Altough, like you said, its new, it wont work as it should.

[Monsteri]

No no Guer, It's extremely good thing, but we need to announce it more to rest of world! It's not much used now, but things can change!

Everyone hop hop to Gather!

[thegrandmaster]

It works. Features will be added that make it better for the user to use, make it better, easier, and simpler than IRC.
People don't currently use it because most dont know about it.
1.5.1 coding etc is being handled. The Devs are working to make soldat and the community surrounding it better.
jrgp (and MM) have been working on this for a lil while, but once it's fully equipped, it'll be awesome!

[`Guer]

Okay, lets say it actually works. What skill level can players expect? What target group the gathers aims?

[DarkCrusade]

After some testing I believe the 3 CTF servers should be changed to one 4v4, one 3v3 and one 2v2 server. You'll have the same capacity for players and it's possible to play without a load of players. After the gather match ended, stats for the players and teams should be displayed and players should have 15 seconds until they get kicked. Right now it's rather sudden and people complained about matches which weren't finished yet (which actually were).

Also, a gather match should end once someone leaves, or you cannot join another match after you left the game.

The limit for the Bloodbath DM server should be increased to 30, because 20 seems a little bit low for a 4 players game.

[Monsteri]

To fix a bit- Just those who leaved from gather should stop that, those who didn't -they stay there to play. Otherwise fully agreed with DC.

[thegrandmaster]

After some testing I believe the 3 CTF servers should be changed to one 4v4, one 3v3 and one 2v2 server.
You'll have the same capacity for players and it's possible to play without a load of players.

I agree in a 2vs2 server. 4vs4... yes I suppose so, but not right now since 3vs3 doesn't fill currently.

After the gather match ended, stats for the players and teams should be displayed and players should have 15 seconds until they get kicked. Right now it's rather sudden and people complained about matches which weren't finished yet (which actually were).

Also agreed, though I have suggested the lobby idea, which since it uses the lobby map, should resolve that:

As soon as a gather list is full in the browser, it should display 'launching' or something, and not go straight into stats. (see why in a minute)....

When the people have received and followed the link to the server, a blank map is what they encounter.
The server displays a countdown as people join. (e.g. "1 player in, waiting for 5 more").
Only when the countdown is complete, and everyone is in, a member of alpha (for 1vs1DM, player one chooses, or for bloodbath DM just any random player) can choose the first map using the ingame !map MAPNAME command.
At this point, when the map changes to the chosen one, 'launching' changes to all the stats and the spec button appears.
The game is played.

Once this first game is over, players are transfered back to the blank map. (the stats in browser could change to 'transferring' or something).
Then, a member of bravo (or player two in 1vs1DM, or any random player in bloodbathDM) can then choose the next map.
Map changes to the chosen one, stats in browser start for round 2.
Round 2 is played.
If there are clear winners overall, players are then transferred back to the blank map, the server displays a message "congratulations %s for winning the game overall" or something (and then kick the players after like 20 seconds?).
IF there's a draw overall in CTF/INF/?1vs1?, the server takes them to a specified tie-breaker map and displays a message 'The teams are drawn, the tie-breaker has been activated'.
The teams play, and the winner is decided. Teams are taken back to the blank map, the winner is announced by a script, and players informed to get out or be kicked in 20 seconds :L

The whole idea of this is to make sure players dont play half a game, and the people in browser know exactly when its starting and where the game's at.

To which jrgp said:

Yes, I will implement a lobby. Wraithlike has agreed to make me a custom cool lobby map.

Also, a gather match should end once someone leaves, or you cannot join another match after you left the game.

If the spec feature is introduced, then we could have subs possibly?
Working that out with ladders and stats will be slightly harder but achievable.
When a person leaves, the game could pause (and a message appear in browser - see attached for an example). If a sub is not found within 30 seconds, the server would save the stats of the people who are still there and then return everyone back to the lobby map. If a sub is found, then the game continues however the sub's scores should not be saved into his stats.

The limit for the Bloodbath DM server should be increased to 30, because 20 seems a little bit low for a 4 players game.

Yes, agreed, at LEAST 30.

[jrgp]

Got some stuff done today:
 - In-game !info
 - overall gather stats on site (under nickchanger)
 - more ingame stats stuff on site for currently running gathers
 - if a gather server was joined by a player, and then everyone leaves, the server shuts down and that gather queue is reopened
 - Until wraithlike is done with his current lobby map we'll use this . I hope to fully implement the lobby functionality tomorrow.

[thegrandmaster]

Woo awesome work, I'm liking all the new features!
The lobby will help the gameplay/workings of it much smoother

[jrgp]

Okay now nick recognition is in effect. Your ingame nick (changable on the site) must match your ingame nick, otherwise you are turned into a spectator.

[Illuminatus]

Yay, goodjob. You're making good progress.
I will post some more suggestions when I find the time.

[jrgp]

Yay, goodjob. You're making good progress.
I will post some more suggestions when I find the time.

Thanks, and sorry for the slow pace. I guess I'm getting it done in a bunch of relatively small coding chunks. Hopefully I'll have it all done by next month or so.

edit: Just added nick highlighting in the webchat. If someone says your username the site will beep and the highlighted message will be bold. (case insensitive)

edit again: you can use the up and down arrow keys while in the webchat message box to scroll through your previous messages (up to 5), like in irc

edit again (x2): added "most popular gathers" list to the page so you can see which gathers are being played the most

edit again (x3): Should I make it so typing !add in the chat adds you to the queue of the most populated gather server queue and !del removes you from the queue you are currently in, if any?

[thegrandmaster]

I like the beeping... could use with 5 or 10 second cooldown for the beeps however... xD

!add and !del.... maybe, I mean it's only one lil click away that I don't believe it'd be worth it.
Makes it very IRC-ish... would be nice to have advanced options for the people who knew how to use them though.

[jrgp]

!add and !del.... maybe, I mean it's only one lil click away that I don't believe it'd be worth it.
Makes it very IRC-ish... would be nice to have advanced options for the people who knew how to use them though.

I really feel like adding as many bells and whistles as possible.

As requested, just added Realistic 1v1 DM btw.

[Jerkington XIII]

As requested, just added Realistic 1v1 DM btw.

now it needs chat logs. ^^

[thegrandmaster]

haha.
Add moar stats!
One thing I think would be nice to see is this...
Make the list of gathers played (on your personal profile) into a clickable thing which shows the F1 score of that gather.

[jrgp]

Okay you can now add as spectator.

Make the list of gathers played (on your personal profile) into a clickable thing which shows the F1 score of that gather.

That's one of the things up next.