04-06-2003 20:40									#1
	GameSpy Multiplayer. Community building? Full PM-box? Change here!

I've been thoroughly enjoying RoN, both single player and multiplayer.
But I'm somewhat worried about the gamespy infrastructure for RoN. It's confusing!

I think there's no /find or /whisper command. There are just 9 room without the possibility to join a private room (or did I miss that feature?).

And game creation -> first someone has to create a 'game' on gamespy. And when everybody has joined and is ready, the player has to click 'launch' and then the _actual_ game creation screen appears.
Apparently you've disconnected from the GameSpy network and created a direct IP game.

Worst of all, between the 'launch' and the direct IP game, occassionally one or more players will fail to connect. And it's impossible to re-join the game via GameSpy (though I guess it's possible using Direct IP connect). So whenever a player drops, the host has to cancel the game, and repeat the entire game creation process.

And, when you're in the actual game creation screen, your name changes from the name you use for your GameSpy account, to your local RoN profile. very confusing!

Also, during the game you're disconnected from GameSpy, so you won't know when any of your friends comes online, and your friends don't know whether you are online.


Chatting during the game: after a few minutes playing I already get so many messages (citizen created, merchant created, caravan arrived, building finished...) that I completely ignore the message list. BUT... player messages also appear in the message list, although colored, they are very hard to notice.
This makes it very hard to communicate in-game, I've repeatedly tried to talk with my ally to discuss certain strategies. And it occassionally happened that my ally tried to talk to me but I failed to notice it most of the time. The sounds (nr. 1 through 100 (?)) do work to grab someone's attention, but I don't think that's the way to go.
(or did I miss an option to have chat messages appear somewhere else?)


-

Ironically, apart from the things I listed above, RoN's interface (and the way it displays data) is the best I've seen in a while.

-

Sorry if this sounds too negative, because I have to admit I enjoyed a great deal of multiplayer games, and the strategy being used is great fun. But I never got to talk with my enemies, and since their names changes when the game is over and we go back to GameSpy, I haven't had any good after-match discussion yet.


So, RoN community will have to rely heavily on sites and forums such as Apolyton. Although I hope some of these issues will be fixed in future patches.

	05-06-2003 03:20									#2
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I think the intent is that the "game" you create is a private room. I agree that the name change is a bit disconcerting.

I also find player colors REALLY hard to see. I'm not color blind or anything, but it'd be great to have in-game chat at least be brighter colors than the status messages.

	05-06-2003 06:42									#3
	Increase Your PM Length

I've had chat, along with all other text messages, stop working for me altogether.

That's right, there is a bug in RoN in which players are blocked from seeing chat.

Others have experienced this as well, it seems to happen near the end of games.

So, how many others here have had this problem of losing chat?

	05-06-2003 08:10									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Yeah, the RoN Matchmaking would be great if you included the /find and /wisper commands, as well as various other things that you mentioned, such as the WC3 interface.

The only problem with that is all those features require a VERY BIG pipe, with a VERY EXPENSIVE server. Battle.net can do this because blizzerd sells tens of millions of their products every time. BHG is far from being able to afford this and Microsoft wouldn't put that kind of finatial support behind a brand new development team that has yet to prove themself.

Personally, i'm liking the RoN matchmaking, besides the few bugs (and sometimes a bit of chat-lag) it's a great interface. Could use some improvement, but still better than your average release-interface for games these days.

	05-06-2003 08:54									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

You're right, I've seen far worse than this (ie. MOO3). Guess I'm too spoiled with Battle.net.

Hopefully they'll improve it anyway