Posting this before I forget about it, and so it's in writing. This is something that (I assume) could be implemented farely easily since full blown multiplayer is far in the future.

The idea is to be able to challenge players to a beatmap, best score wins. Wins/losses would be kept in your profile for bragging rights and whatnot. This is mainly to drum up some more activity or get people that may have stopped playing Osu! some encouragement to come back.

You would choose an option that could go by something like 'challenge a player...', then select from the player list a player to challenge, whether they're online or not. The challenger's next score is then sent to the challengee to accept or decline, probably through email and/or a forum PM. Plays for the challenger to achieve the score would have to be limitted, as well as the challengee's score, so as to avoid retry whores (like me) from abusing it too much. Should probably be a time limit to accept the challenge, something like a week. I suppose there could be a leaderboard for this as well, but that's not really necessary.

Anyways, this is just something I thought might help out in getting existing people more active in playing Osu!, as well as possibly helping to get beatmaps that may not be as well known/popular discovered.

I think the challenge should be a sort of "live" performance, ie, you only get one shot.

Person A wants to challenge Person B.
A registers a challenge to B.
A then plays a beatmap (once, no-retry mode).
Once A completes the map, the song and score is then sent as a challenge to B.
--Not sure at this point whether B is allowed to see the score, but can see the map/difficulty.
B may choose to accept or decline the challenge.
If B accepts, B then plays that beatmap (B must have the beatmap in order to accept the challenge and may accept the challenge up to a certain point in time).

--Also, if A or B fails the map, the score that is registered should be, what? Score achieved divided by two?

This is just how I would see challenges.

I like AWP's idea. It gives it a sense of suspense that isn't possible just by looking at leaderboard scores.

Here's my ideas on how this should work:

1. Using in-game chat, full screen mode, player A clicks player B's icon. A dropdown box appears with options Watch This Player and Challenge This Player. Player A selects Challenge This Player. Player A is then brought to Song Select where the desired song is chosen. A confirm dialog appears with a summary of the challenge details.

2. Player B receives the challenge as an in-game pop-up (the challenge issue would be delayed if s/he is currently playing a beatmap until s/he is finished): "Player A would like to challenge you on <Artist - Song Name>. Do you accept?" Player B accepts.

3. Player A plays through the song a number of times (possibly able to be set as well?), with Player B able to spectate. Player B then plays through as well.

4. The best score from any of the attempts will determine the winner. After the challenge is finished, there can be a Results screen summarizing the results of the challenge, with a Rematch (same settings), Rematch (modify) and Quit option. Clicking Rematch (same settings) basically restarts the challenge straight away, while the modify option brings Player A back to step 1 where a different song can be selected and other settings changed as desired.

Other ideas which can be discussed are:

1. A #challenge channel that players can join from in game where you can challenge or be challenged, leaving #osu as a purely chat channel;
2. A VS section in each player's profile listing, showing the Top 5 players played plus win/loss record;
3. Other settings that can be chosen, like Video/No Video, Hidden, etc.;
4. An option to refuse all challenges (probably not necessary if #challenge is created);
5. A Chain Challenge option where multiple maps are chosen before the challenge is issued. Players A and B then take turns playing consecutive maps. Two winning modes can be selected: Best of 3/5/7, kind of like tennis sets, and Total Score, where the aggregate score from all the maps are added, and the winner determined from that;
6. An option for a person being challenged to decline, but send back a modified challenge with changed settings;
7. Integration of Roulette into Challenges, maybe as a "Roulette Mode";
8. Real-time taunts (one or two per map, activated by hitting spacebar or something) to put off your opponent whilst you are spectating;
9. A Challenge leaderboard, ranking players by their win/loss record, which is reset each week/fortnight/month (whichever is deemed best);
10. Alternatively, a points system devised for winning challenges, with more points awarded if you beat a player ranked much higher than you. Initially, rankings will be based on the current rankings leaderboard but in time, they can be based on the previous month's best challenge players;
11. Integration of SOTW into challenges, such that only SOTW can be used in challenges;
12. Knock-out tourneys, which players register for. Like in tennis (I've been watching too much of that lately), a knock-out draw is devised with pairs of players to face off against each other. Each individual pair will organize their own time to get online and play a Challenge. Winner progresses, loser is knocked out. The tourney progresses until the final, where a winner emerges. "Seedings" can be incorporated into the tourney just like in tennis as well, based on rankings in the Challenge leaderboard.

That was a full brainstorm, so some ideas may not be the best, but I think adding Challenges is a great way to boost the community. The points leaderboard is pretty dead at the moment, but Challenges, if there is a leaderboard for it which is reset regularly, will give everyone incentive to play regularly and chances for others apart from Saturos/eyup/Ivalset/Echo49 to call themselves No.1.

Feedback?

eyup wrote:

1. Real-time taunts (one or two per map, activated by hitting spacebar or something) to put off your opponent whilst you are spectating;

I don't like the idea of that too much, you can use it at specific places during some maps (eg. near the end of Hito's Still Alive [Normal], the second half of Can't Defeat Airman, etc.) to make them miss...

I guess that's the point of it though, right?

eyup wrote:

The points leaderboard is pretty dead at the moment, but Challenges, if there is a leaderboard for it which is reset regularly, will give everyone incentive to play regularly and chances for others apart from Saturos/eyup/Ivalset/Echo49 to call themselves No.1.

*agrees*

What kept me from posting a lot of what eyup has now posted was the fact that peppy didn't sound very enthusiastic about adding multiplayer just yet, so I opted with a very simple(ish) solution. I also plain forgot about spectating. >>

Would love to see the majority of what eyup has thought up put in at some point, though they all heavily rely on the players being in-game at the time. I would still like to see a way to challenge players that may not be able to be on at the same times (time zones, schedules, etc), which can also be used as an attempt at getting now inactive people back into Osu!

Saturos wrote:

Would love to see the majority of what eyup has thought up put in at some point, though they all heavily rely on the players being in-game at the time. I would still like to see a way to challenge players that may not be able to be on at the same times (time zones, schedules, etc), which can also be used as an attempt at getting now inactive people back into Osu!

Hmm I see your point from your original post now. So a "Delayed Mode"? That would work nicely with a tourney format as well. Although I'd personally prefer to be duelling with someone who was actually watching as I played - more pressure = more fun But it definitely wouldn't hurt to try and accommodate the big variations in timezones within our community.

Points shouldn't have to be the only means of winning, either. You could play to see who has the highest accuracy, or the most 300's hit, or something like that.

This entire idea strikes me as weird. I don't know about Ouendan, but EBA has a versus mode. There are special storyboards made such that two people can play against each other in realtime. Two agents play, cheering on seperate teams. Depending on who does better, one team will prevail over the other for each section (and ultimately, the song). Also, mods fire off at the opposing player if you get a high combo (I think that's how it works), such as shrinking their notes.

All that weird stuff aside, what's stopping us from having realtime multiplayer rather than taking turns?

TiZ wrote:

All that weird stuff aside, what's stopping us from having realtime multiplayer rather than taking turns?

Peppy. ;x

Saturos wrote:

TiZ wrote:

All that weird stuff aside, what's stopping us from having realtime multiplayer rather than taking turns?

Peppy. ;x

Hmm. It would be a monster to program...

Technically the biggest problem would be syncing the two players, imo.

it means we need to connect 2 players directly, or through a server.

Which would you prefer?

It is possible to use the current replay system, which goes through IRC.

There will be the option for direct connection and standard server-based connection, though I will definitely focus on the server one first. This seems more useful. Of course, direct connection will allow for LAN play at very low latencies to benefit with tighter syncing.