I play with a small group of friends. We just want to play by ourselves, but when waiting for everyone to join the game other people are always taking the slots. Even if we change the title to 'Private Game' other people still join. I think it would be very useful to have an optional password on multiplayer games.

Sorry if this has already been suggested.

I don't think that passwords would be the best solution; maybe an invite-only or friends-only (using the existing but underused friends list) option.

I kinda agree on the passwords idea actually, but just not sure how to implement. Will probably need another stage between creating the game and creating the room to specify such options.

Maybe have a "Game Options" box come up when you start a new MP game, and then a password can be set there, along with other things like game name...

^That idea would work. They do that in other games, too (like Digimon RP- *gets shot and dies*), and it would work well here too, especially for Game Name. Maybe have it something like...

Example:

Game Name: "Room of Pure Awesomeness"
Song: CLICK THIS TO GO TO THE SONG SELECT SCREEN! WHEE! by YAY!
Game Type: Regular, Taiko, or CtB: REGULAR!
Game Mode: Tag and such. : TAG!
Open or Password? PASSWORD!
Password field (if password is chosen): iKal749wKx


So something like that would work, I guess. Though you were probably thinking of something like that.

Right now, the host has no time to select a beatmap before opening the floodgates to people, who may wrongly start downloading the arbitrary beatmap that was there when the host made the game, or in any case may not be interested in the new beatmap that the host selects. So, imo there definitely should be some way to prepare, not just passwords but the beatmap, modes, title etc before opening the game up, as Ekaru and mattyu007 have said.

Making a new box before starting a multiplayer game is one option, but why duplicate effort and make new boxes for game title, beatmap, password... etc when there are good ones already on the multiplayer screen? You'd want to be able to remove the password on the multiplayer screen anyway so that too would have to be done twice... and potentially some logic for the options (e.g. code that says no tag with Taiko atm) too? Not sure how reusable current code for that is

Another option:

When starting a multiplayer game, initially have all slots except your own locked and leave the user to unlock them. This allows the current multiplayer screen to double as a "set the game's options before opening it to players" screen. Then, for the problem of passworded games, you just need to include a password box somewhere on the current multiplayer game screen (now doubling as a preparation screen), and insert a password prompt before that screen for joining players. No-one can join until you unlock the slots, so no-one will get in before you've had a chance to password the room.

Problems:

1. It's common for people to want as many people as possible in their games. Requiring another 7 clicks to unlock all the gameplay slots is time-consuming and pointless.
   Solution: When all slots are locked except yours, make the "Ready" button into "Open this game for players" instead? Or, add "Unlock all slots" button below the 8th slot?
2. You can't lock all 7 other slots at the minute.
   1. If this is because it would have no use, doubling as a preparation screen is (now) a use.
   2. If this is because people could hog rooms and never play in them, well two people can do that just as well as one, and why would anyone want to be in a multiplayer room by themself anyway, especially since you can't start the game in that state? >_>
   3. If this is because it might clutter the screen with unjoinable games, you could simply exclude all games that have "1 of 1" players from being displayed at all.
3. You need to develop a password prompt that goes before the current multiplayer screen in any case. Maybe implementationally this negates most of the advantages of putting everything in this one screen, I don't know?

For "friends" mode instead of (or in addition to) password, you could add another icon next to the lock, which would change a slot into a friends-only slot (semi-lock. only friends can occupy that slot, it's a lock for everyone else). Apart from the obvious "friends-only" games, this also enables "reserving slots" for friends while also allowing as many other people as possible to play.


In most cases (for non-passworded games) this change would mean one more click for the user, to open the game up.

Hyperworm raises some good points. How about, when you create a game, it doesn't appear in the list until you click a button? If this is the case, then all you have to do is put an extra textbox for the password and an extra button (or replace the ready/start button) saying "create" or "host" or something.

Im in the same situation as the thread starter... I play with some friends, but random people keep joining while we wait for the rest of us to come... a password implemention would make not only us, but the people joining, stop 'wasting time' and bothering.

About hyperworm's posts... well I gotta agree with the part of 'selecting game's options before giving it a go to everybody'... being able to select the song (and password if that'd be possible) before opening the game room would be a nice improvement for multi.

I myself prefer the idea of invite-only as opposed to passwords...

Anyways, there seem to be a few new things that people want for the multiplayer... Why not keep it nice and clean and just keep a "Settings" button or something where the host could change the things such as the room name, whether it will be a public or private room, and I guess game settings (team, tag, etc., though these would be fine being available right in the room as well), and it could be accessed both from within the room and also when creating a new room.

And for private rooms, there could be a command which the host could use from with the room such as '/invite name' or something like that, which would allow the people you wanted to play to enter the room. To go with that there could be a '/uninvite name' command which would, well, uninvite them if you didn't want them coming in anymore after they leave/you kick them again.


Just my two cents on the idea.

The bad thing about an invite option would be to invite a person every time he leaves, it due to internet problems, settings changes, toilet (:D)... So I think that it would be better to have a password method rather than a invitation one... but still, both would be perfect

Olinad wrote:

The bad thing about an invite option would be to invite a person every time he leaves, it due to internet problems, settings changes, toilet (:D)... So I think that it would be better to have a password method rather than a invitation one... but still, both would be perfect

But it could be set up so that that particular member would always be able to enter that particular room so long as they had been invited, and if you didn't want them to enter your room anymore you'd type something like /uninvite name

I assure you that no matter how it's implented, passwords are WAY easier. Reasons why:

1. You can just tell all your friends the password ONCE, and use the same one each time. Inviting each individual each time is such a hassle.

2. If your friend decides he doesn't want to battle ATM when you send him an invite, then he decides to battle again later, you'd have to do invite them again, AND they would have to PM you, and if it's in the middle of a mp game, you might forget to check their PM. If you guys kept a consistent password, they could just enter the password, and BAM. Easy.

Of course, it would take a couple sessions until you all memorized the password. Telling everyone to write it down solves any 'what?' issues. As to spreading it, do a forum PM, but send it to all of them at once. Good thing you can do that. Now that I think about it, having a forum PM would also have a place where they have it if they forget to write it down.

Anyways, I'd go with what Echo said. Personally, I would make sure the 'CREATE ROOM' button is nice, big, and most importantly, obvious. That way people will, well, notice it instead of spamming the chat with 'why can't people see my room?'(then it disappears when you press it. Maybe have it where the Ready and Start buttons are, then have it disappear when you press it, and have the Ready and Start buttons take their rightful places). So yeah, just a big button, and a two option drop down menu (password/open to all), with a dialog box thing that only appears if you have 'password' selected.

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