Entering a game in countdown

[Rainer Zu Fall]

You ever had the problem of looking for a game in the match list, joining some to take a look at them and suddenly you're in te loading screen? Then you know what I'm talking about.

Since it happened to me quite often now, here's an idea: Why not take the games in the countdown of below 10 seconds out of the match list / list them as already running?

[Echoez]

Just block joining to them when the countdown is below 10 seconds. I have experienced that a lot of times and it's realy frustrating.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

That's a good idea too!

[Chrinus]

Well, since blocking games in low countdown would likely be a pain to program (and if not cool, let's get on it!), what about a different approach to joining games as a whole?

Just like joining a game in progress, make players have to select their position and role before included in the game? This way you make sure to bring the right class, loadout, and know what you're getting into regardless of any countdown. My twopence on the subject.

[Captain Smollett]

It would be great if players were locked from joining once there were 10 seconds or less in the countdown.

[dragonmere]

How about an auto-unready when someone leaves/joins your ship? It would have to actually reset the 10 sec countdown though.

It's quite possible that there are some extremely negative implications to this idea that I'm not even thinking about because I haven't had any caffeine yet today.

[Eukari]

It's quite possible that there are some extremely negative implications to this idea that I'm not even thinking about because I haven't had any caffeine yet today.

My biggest concern is that you often get people jumping in and out of lobbies quickly. If everyone lost their "Ready" status when that happened, it's feasible the game would never start.

[Erheller]

What if you joined in a spectator slot instead of in a ship slot?

[Eukari]

What if you joined in a spectator slot instead of in a ship slot?

I thought of that, too, but there's no way switch from spectator to participant in the middle of the game. Also, you'd almost certainly end up with most new players waiting to see which team's winning, then joining them. (it's like that in TF2, and I totally do that there) Also, you could join as a spectator, look to see where one side is, then join the other team and give away their position. Ambushing is pretty important to a lot of builds and ships, and I'd be worried it would unbalance that. (I suppose you can do that now, with a guy in spectator mode plus teamspeak or whatever feeding you information, but if your side is that organized you're probably already going to win)