Server queues?
Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:07 pm
Hey guys.
I thought of something that might help make all servers more populated.
Personally, I think one of the biggest obstacles for growing our playerbase is that nobody wants to join an empty server and wait inside for others to get it going.
Any brave soul that tries would often go AFK and passers by will probably leave when they realise he or she is not actually present.
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people who'd want to play on servers that seem like the "underdogs" of our time (classic, unmodded gamemodes mostly), but refuse to wait inside for more players.
So why are things like FNF and SNS popular? Because people know when they're supposed to be attending it! The first few players are guaranteed to have others accompany them very soon.
But what if you randomly wanted to play some Possession? You'll be like "Shit, there's never anyone playing that stuff, ever!".
That being said, my idea revolves around servers tracking a "queue" of players, making lightweight communication with clients that are interested in playing on the server.
The clients wouldn't actually connect to the gameplay or have the game running at all, instead they'd notify the server of their interest, and the server would tell them whenever someone else joins the queue.
A sound notification could be played when the client's specified criteria would be met for the joined queue(s). (In example, someone could specify not to receive an alert unless at least 3 others are interested in playing)
For the record, it could tell players whenever a spot is freed up in a full server.
Server browsers could inherit such a feature as it would only seem logical to me, but zandronum itself would most probably need some additions to support this.
Let me know what you think!
I thought of something that might help make all servers more populated.
Personally, I think one of the biggest obstacles for growing our playerbase is that nobody wants to join an empty server and wait inside for others to get it going.
Any brave soul that tries would often go AFK and passers by will probably leave when they realise he or she is not actually present.
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people who'd want to play on servers that seem like the "underdogs" of our time (classic, unmodded gamemodes mostly), but refuse to wait inside for more players.
So why are things like FNF and SNS popular? Because people know when they're supposed to be attending it! The first few players are guaranteed to have others accompany them very soon.
But what if you randomly wanted to play some Possession? You'll be like "Shit, there's never anyone playing that stuff, ever!".
That being said, my idea revolves around servers tracking a "queue" of players, making lightweight communication with clients that are interested in playing on the server.
The clients wouldn't actually connect to the gameplay or have the game running at all, instead they'd notify the server of their interest, and the server would tell them whenever someone else joins the queue.
A sound notification could be played when the client's specified criteria would be met for the joined queue(s). (In example, someone could specify not to receive an alert unless at least 3 others are interested in playing)
For the record, it could tell players whenever a spot is freed up in a full server.
Server browsers could inherit such a feature as it would only seem logical to me, but zandronum itself would most probably need some additions to support this.
Let me know what you think!