Jay, how about alerting a player when a game starts in the ‘my games’ section itself.
Nothing much, just make it flash green, or outline it or something until the user checks it for the first time after it starts.
Not a big problem for normal users, but I’m guessing premium players would love to have it.
Jay, I believe all games should have a delayed start, that could be adjusted by the game creator. This allows the game participants to have enough time to read their notification email and be prepared for the start of combat.
All players have joined the game, and the waiting is almost over. The game will soon begin.
By default, I think real time games should delay start = Production Ticks, unless adjusted by the game creator.
By default, I think turn based games should delay start = Max Turn Wait, unless adjusted by the game creator.
Inside the game, maybe there could be a countdown timer.
This feature would remove the unfair surprise for players who got used to “waiting” for the game to start, when the final player has already joined the game.
Who knows ? Maybe this could reduce some of the early QUITs & AFKs, because players could have a slightly better start in the game.
I normally set my orders before the game starts, so the fleets get going as soon as the game goes live.
@Rosslessness But that is not ideal for dark start galaxies (the majority) since it is preferable to give initial orders and purchases once the map opens up for viewing.
How about an initial phase, like in turn based games for initial orders? Then proceed in real time?
It’s been a while since I’ve played real-time, but yea, I’ve advocated this before. Have an option at game creation that says once game is full, wait ## hours … or set the start time to be ##:## O-Clock so production is at at a more reasonable time (for at least some players).
If you blow the start, it’s often pretty difficult to catch up.
Realistically, I don’t think it will reduce the AFK/QUIT’s that much … but every little bit helps.
There were some previous discussions in this earlier thread.
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