Improve Lobby Timer

[Dementio]

Currently the lobby timer starts when 2 people are on each ship, which is 50%, which means 50% full of AI, and it is in no way guaranteed that within 5 minutes the lobby will be full and ready before the new lobby timer force starts the match.
As it is now, the timer feels too short, because it starts too soon and does not add enough time when new crewmembers join, if it adds any time at all.

Suggestion to improve on this:
- Remove the lobby timer entirely. If matchmaking works as it should then there should not be a problem getting the lobby full and thus started sooner then the pre 1.3.8 lobbies.
- Start the lobby timer later. For example, when 3 people are on each ship or the entire lobby is full.
- Add more time for each person that joins the lobby, unless they join as a spectater, which would delay the lobby timer for no reason.


"Lobby Timer" is not to be confused with the "Match Start Timer", which starts only when enough captains have readied up.

[Hoja Lateralus]

+1, any of those three should be good enough

[sparklerfish]

I like the remove the timer completely option.  But anything to improve it would help.

[sparklerfish]

I'm starting to wonder what the point of the lobby timer is.  Whether there are 200 or 20 seconds remaining, you still get people hollering "READY UP!!!!!!"  These people will not be happy until there is no such thing as a lobby and you click "play" and are instantly on a ship with whatever loadout you happen to have.  The lobby timer is pointless.  Either you have enough time to set up or you don't.  If you want enough time to set up, you shouldn't have a timer.  If you want to start instantly, play a different goddamn game.

It drives me CRAZY that this change has proven almost entirely useless and often makes lobbies take longer because captains will leave because they don't have adequate time to set up.

Lobbies of Icarus has evolved into Waiting for a Captain Simulator 2014 because nobody wants to fly an unprepared boat.

[Nietzsche's Mustache]

I'm starting to wonder what the point of the lobby timer is.  Whether there are 200 or 20 seconds remaining, you still get people hollering "READY UP!!!!!!"  These people will not be happy until there is no such thing as a lobby and you click "play" and are instantly on a ship with whatever loadout you happen to have.  The lobby timer is pointless.  Either you have enough time to set up or you don't.  If you want enough time to set up, you shouldn't have a timer.  If you want to start instantly, play a different goddamn game.

It drives me CRAZY that this change has proven almost entirely useless and often makes lobbies take longer because captains will leave because they don't have adequate time to set up.

Lobbies of Icarus has evolved into Waiting for a Captain Simulator 2014 because nobody wants to fly an unprepared boat.

quoted for truth

[KitKatKitty]

Currently the lobby timer starts when 2 people are on each ship, which is 50%, which means 50% full of AI, and it is in no way guaranteed that within 5 minutes the lobby will be full and ready before the new lobby timer force starts the match.
As it is now, the timer feels too short, because it starts too soon and does not add enough time when new crewmembers join, if it adds any time at all.

Suggestion to improve on this:
- Remove the lobby timer entirely. If matchmaking works as it should then there should not be a problem getting the lobby full and thus started sooner then the pre 1.3.8 lobbies.
- Start the lobby timer later. For example, when 3 people are on each ship or the entire lobby is full.
- Add more time for each person that joins the lobby, unless they join as a spectater, which would delay the lobby timer for no reason.


"Lobby Timer" is not to be confused with the "Match Start Timer", which starts only when enough captains have readied up.

+100000000 to any and all these ideas

[Wundsalz]

Yes, please. Currently the lobby timer pisses me off at times. If I join a lobby late as a captain, I simply do not have enough time to check out my team mates and enemies, choose a ship and prepare my crew on top of this.

[nanoduckling]

I think this is a case of YMMV / subjective experience.

While I'd like to see some changes to the lobby timer (especially if I join a lobby late as captain and need a bit of time to get folks oriented) I think the lobby timer does solve a problem. In the old system some games took 20 minutes to get started with teams that had relatively simple builds and crew that were somewhat experienced. Maybe sometimes they were talking tactics but I've been on teams before that were just chatting and hadn't readied because the captains hadn't noticed.

I enjoy a good chat but people have taken liberties in the past and if you are experienced you can chat and fly at the same time. The time may be a bit tight at the moment, and it could probably do with some tweaking, but it has solved a problem that used to frustrate me and I'd rather it wasn't removed.

[RearAdmiralZill]

Yes, please. Currently the lobby timer pisses me off at times. If I join a lobby late as a captain, I simply do not have enough time to check out my team mates and enemies, choose a ship and prepare my crew on top of this.

Unless you're getting like, 15 seconds to prepare once getting into a game, you don't need a lot of time to do those things. Picking a ship can be done before you even get in-game. Recommended loadouts for that ship are easy to pump over to crew. A quick check of what your ally is flying again takes no time either.

Fringe cases im sure happen. Won't deny those. Also, you could argue about changing your ship to better compliment your ally, etc. I've only been surprised by the timer once, and it was my fault for making a late change. Idk what to say other than, be prepared.

[Hoja Lateralus]

I asked Howard about removing or changing the timer on the Fireside Chat and he said that they are getting a lot of mixed feedback from both sides of the argument, therefore so far they decided not to interfere with current system.

[sparklerfish]

Feedback on both sides?  Like people still think it takes too long or something?  Do these people understand what lobby preparation time is for, or do they just want to start with three gunners so they can get stomped, ragequit after their first death, then complain that the game is unbalanced?

[Hoja Lateralus]

Well, I'm just repeating what he said
Well I can get their point of view - in 1.3.7 if someone didn't look for good lobbies it could really took ages for games to start. Now there's a fixed timer and games HAVE TO start quickly.
But of course you know me well enough to know what I think about that

[redria]

I have an incentive to play... I can hop on and know I'll be in a game in less than 15 minutes - something I never had any sort of belief in prior to matchmaking. I'll happily play a match with AI or with a "non-optimal" crew. Adds to the challenge. I'm here to play the game, not wait for you to convince someone who clearly won't listen anyway that greased is so much better than heavy clip that the other 14 people need to wait for a changed loadout. I love it.

I understand what lobby preparation time is. I also think a lot of people make a bit too big of a deal of it. If you need to prescribe a rigorous loadout to your crew, make a custom match and play with people ready to be micro-managed.