Disable mid match joins

[Narayan]

As the title says, what do you guys think about the option to disallow players from joining your ship once the match has started?

The problem with mid match joiners in my mind is this, while it used to be just friends who would join me now I'm noticing more and more random players, which means some of the etiquette I traditionally expect isn't there. Mid match players joining as a second gunner has been something I've noticed more which I would say is the first and most annoying issue 

The second is when you are in the middle of a fight you can't know for sure what loadout a person has and it it's the one you want for your ship, and it's usually a pain to make their person leave to get another loadout, and sometimes people aren't willing to do it.

Sort of the last thing is you can get a minor delay in their person losing in and getting a chance to familiarize themselves with what's going on and the loss of your ai engine. This can be fairly significant if someone joins in the middle of a very intense fight. Or someone could join and if they don't have a mic or don't say anything you are operating under the assumption you have an ai when you don't, and now you have a player who thinks they are gungie when they are in fact main.

This is a feature I would like to see I'm just curious how the community feels.

[Guagadu]

I don't think mid-match joining should be completely disabled, as I have been saved several times by other players joining my crew.

What might be a good idea is to give the player joining mid-match forced to take  the loadout of whoever they are replacing. This would disable loadout switching mid-match though, which has also saved me as well.

[Atruejedi]

Sort of the last thing is you can get a minor delay in their person losing in and getting a chance to familiarize themselves with what's going on and the loss of your ai engine. This can be fairly significant if someone joins in the middle of a very intense fight.

This is a big problem. Muse should implement a "click to confirm you're ready" button for the joining player that will then delete the AI from the boat and let the joining player go about their business.

But disabling joining mid-match? No. Instead, you should be able to "set" a loadout to thet AI slot that the joining player implicitly accepts by joining mid-match.

[Narayan]

Hmm the loadout setup would be nice, however it doesn't stop certain issues. Our big troll defense right now involves just not playing with the troll, however if someone joins mid match you aren't prepared to play with you're pretty much boned. 

To be honest there isn't a slot specific loadout mechanic in the game right now and I think muse could more easily close the slots that have loadout a assigned to specific slot.

[Huskarr]

How about tying it to the friends list?

You can only join the people with whom you are friends, or only your friends can join your crew.

[Helios.]

i couldn't agree more with jedi here

if you are joining a match, you are VERY unlikely to have had the kind of discussion with the captain and crew that you would have in lobby. if you join a match, you take the recommended load-out. you cant argue your point with the captain, hes busy. you click the button, the suggested load-out pops up saying here's your gear, crewman. then you can be like... hell no i'm not running a buffgeneer today. hit decline, it pops you back out, and you can go join another game if you want.

[Lysanya]

This would hinder jumping into lower level lobbies mid-match to teach.  I backfill lots of low level/novice lobbies to teach as a main engi, but I'd be less inclined to do so if this happened.

I'll offer an alternative.  Force the class based on ship slot (gunner slot 2, engi slots 3 and 4), but not the loadout.  Or maybe, you have to join as the same class that last occupied the slot, which would then force AI to do the same class.  Or however Muse would have to code it.  That seems like a more palatable option.  Still takes care of the second gunner backfill problem, but preserves the two gunner option for pilots if someone drops and you need that backfill.

[Richard LeMoon]

I think Lysanya has a good point. Gunner should always be in slot 2 once the match starts, even if they are not that way in the lobby. Maybe an auto-switch when someone picks gunner. Anyone joining the match NOT in slot 2 would NOT be allowed to choose gunner. Ever.

Also, this would help.



With popup warnings that two gunners are NOT recommended, and hoverhint over the ! saying the same thing.

I would also suggest the following procedure:

Someone tries to join through match list.

Pilot sees "X is joining your match in 30 seconds."
Pilot can click something to see loadlout (can never be a second gunner) and can talk to the person joining.

Pilot can wait the 30 seconds, or accept right away. Scrubs may not have enough patience for 30 seconds, and leave.

AI does not vanish until the player actually interacts with something, or within another 30 seconds, instead of vanishing the instant a player moves. Player can access the toolchest (see below) without making AI vanish.

This set of events gives the player time to fully load in and assess the situation, as well as giving the pilot time to adjust for a new crew member without having to ask "What did you bring?".

Finally, on-ship tool swapping. This should be an actual 'Tool chest' location on the ship you have to go to, click to open, and change tools. It could only be done once per match (or per time limit), and a message would be sent in chat to the entire match. "Name has changed to SPANNER - MALLET - CHEM SPRAY - CHARGED"

Aside from trolls, this would make crew joining run much more smoothly.

[Unarmed Civilian]

I'm not against this. Maybe make it only an option for veteran pilots. I'd say about 30% of the time when people are filling slots on my ship I end up with 2 gunners.

A big issue is not having the right loadout. There is no in-match system for changing class or loadout, even during respawn, and there should be. More knowledgeable people do workarounds for it all the time but not everyone knows them. Especially the class change one.

The other issue is instantly making the AI disappear as soon as the player has control. I agree with Richard's suggestion on that.