- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 1,341
(if this belongs in the lab, please migrate)
A huge deterrent to getting people to join custom games is the wait and down time. I can't speak for Garena, but many WC3 custom players use Makemehost.com or ENT hosting for their games.
I was wondering if it would be possible to do the following:
-Create a "meta" lobby for a created (or not yet created) custom game.
-When the meta lobby reaches the requisite number of players, the players are alerted that the game has sufficient people. In response these things would happen:
a. If the game wasn't created, it will be created automatically.
b. In any case, some software/magic automatically launches a player's WC3,
and automatically joins them in the lobby.
-Once every one joins in, the game obviously starts.
What's the advantage of this? People don't need to wait around in the actual lobby, or even have the WC3 client open until they are pretty certain a game is going to happen.
Other things that could be done:
-Allow a quantum/warning time. E.g. a game is filled, and after X minutes, the game will start. People might be in the bathroom or finishing up other tasks.
-Send an alert to players via email/text/whatever to alert them when:
-Lobby is close to filling up
-A player joined the lobby
-Game is about to start
-Game will start in X minutes:seconds
Other things possible:
-If meta lobbies are popular, players who can host on their can just do that, and don't need a bot.
-Schedule custom games: You join a meta lobby and the game won't be created until a certain time, e.g. 9:00pm, in order to give everyone time to be ready to play
There's a few hurdles obviously:
-Where's an actual useable API to directly control and interface with a WC3 client: i.e. just needs a way to start up and join games.
-Makemehost.com has a very powerful captcha. The custom game needs to be manually created and/or the host has to sit in the lobby, periodically refreshing the game (this can be automated).
What do you folks think?
A huge deterrent to getting people to join custom games is the wait and down time. I can't speak for Garena, but many WC3 custom players use Makemehost.com or ENT hosting for their games.
I was wondering if it would be possible to do the following:
-Create a "meta" lobby for a created (or not yet created) custom game.
-When the meta lobby reaches the requisite number of players, the players are alerted that the game has sufficient people. In response these things would happen:
a. If the game wasn't created, it will be created automatically.
b. In any case, some software/magic automatically launches a player's WC3,
and automatically joins them in the lobby.
-Once every one joins in, the game obviously starts.
What's the advantage of this? People don't need to wait around in the actual lobby, or even have the WC3 client open until they are pretty certain a game is going to happen.
Other things that could be done:
-Allow a quantum/warning time. E.g. a game is filled, and after X minutes, the game will start. People might be in the bathroom or finishing up other tasks.
-Send an alert to players via email/text/whatever to alert them when:
-Lobby is close to filling up
-A player joined the lobby
-Game is about to start
-Game will start in X minutes:seconds
Other things possible:
-If meta lobbies are popular, players who can host on their can just do that, and don't need a bot.
-Schedule custom games: You join a meta lobby and the game won't be created until a certain time, e.g. 9:00pm, in order to give everyone time to be ready to play
There's a few hurdles obviously:
-Where's an actual useable API to directly control and interface with a WC3 client: i.e. just needs a way to start up and join games.
-Makemehost.com has a very powerful captcha. The custom game needs to be manually created and/or the host has to sit in the lobby, periodically refreshing the game (this can be automated).
What do you folks think?