How to improve the lobby?

[LKAOE4]

@WoodsierCorn696

I already made a thread about most issues you mentioned:

Thank you, I will poste there

[CutmanFS]

at a certain point, you guys need to just start doing missionary work or get into social services or become a priest because alot of the issues you are talking about are worldwide social issues, not problems with the game.

i think we would all be better served if we came up with legit 100% functional aspects that would improve the lobby. any public place could be considered toxic. thats why i stay at home and play aoe lol.

the server listing updating when you select it so youre not having to try joining 10 full games in a row would be a vert nice touch.

just like CSS, refresh gets the whole list, and when u select certain ones it updates that one so u see a current situation, not one from 5 mins ago.

[StrayanHades]

I really hope they address these minor things to matchmaking / lobbies because to keep up with other competitive titles like Starcraft II and Company of Heroes etc. But also because its annoying as hell to have to manaully party up everytime after a ranked match. I’m hoping we see this fixed in the next big update.

[LKAOE4]

For the fake noobs, we would just add a medal near near the nick name for

• Less than 100 hours playing
• 100/200
• 200/300
• 300/400

It would be easier to find fake noobs who only want to spoil the games of the beginners.

[TigersBD]

1. Need unranked game rank and play-win-loss data also so that no one can pretend being a noob
2. Need an option to ban any particular civ like vietnamese in nomad maps to balance teams in case of random civ lobby
3. Lobbies should have an activity timer and a limit timer to enter the game so that if a lobby is inactive for 10mins or did not get into a game within 20mins of creating lobby, that lobby should be cancelled automatically.
4. THIS ONE IS FOR OVERALL GAMING EXPERIENCE-
   ONE license game should be bound to one ID so that people are not allowed to create as many ID as some players like to remain as noob by creating additional ID’s. I know its a problem from steam/Microsoft account but as least there should be a way to tag those IDs so that all the ids and its stats are shown to find out the real condition of a player. In addition giving option for zeroing personal rank( as per players wish not whole community) should be allowed 2-3 times a years or after every 500/300 match retaining its previous data to encourage players to keep one ID while getting back to zero to play again at lower ranks. Its complicated but possible.

[BubblyMango3400]

This game’s lobby system lacks so many fundamental features that even games from 199x included in their lobby systems. some lacking features just make it unplayable.
Even the HD edition’s lobby system is better, which makes me suspect maybe it was deliberately made garbage so that people will only play ranked?

critical features missing include, but are not limited to:

1. Real time updates on the lobbies. you CANT expect us to browse the lobbies fast enough so that a refresh button is enough. lobbies change, close, reopen and get filled at the blink of en eye. we NEED real time updates on the list of lobbies. a refresh button can never be fast enough.

2. rooms should not be deleted after the game ends. what if we want a post-game discussion? what if we want a rematch? what if we set something wrong in the settings and we just want to re-launch the game with different settings? this makes no sense, especially for a game like AOE2.

3. The search function doesnt work. as simple as that. i heard, but i cant confirm, that the rooms list only displays a limited amount of rooms, and the search function only searches among those, which makes no sense. anyways, in practice, i can never find a lobby room by searching for its name/its participants. the only working feature is searching for its room id.

4. similar to point 3, some rooms just cant be found without searching for their IDs. those are not private rooms, just rooms that for some reason cannot be found.

5. the invite feature barely works. very inconsistent.

6. no elo filters.

7. there is no “noobs only” lobby. there needs to be one so that players who actually played more than X unranked games wont be able to enter it, so noobs can play with less fear of smurfs. it also helps non-noobs find games more easily coz their lobby’s rooms list is not overwhelmed with “noobs only” games.

Those are just some fundamental features from the top of my head. there are of course more. there are many other useful features, like a global chat, a list of browsing players, a friends list and so on but those are not as fundamental.

please correct me if Im wrong, and any of those features is present or working, but right now playing lobby games is a waste of time. even if you finally find a room and start playing, if even 1 player disconnects or even 1 of the settings is wrongly set, you have to start all over again coz you cant find the same people, they probably wont be able to find your new room, and i personally just gave up at this point.

[MemishStout]

Very good post I agree with everything

[CitadelAOE]

You know I really don’t know what to say
At this point I only look like I am hating on them

but, some of the decisions are just inexcusable.

[WoodsierCorn696]

How to improve the lobby?

Most people know i mostly play ranked games, but sometimes i do check the lobby for some games. Mostly it is a very bad experience and i run right back to ranked (which is much more superior). The lobbies of DE are even an downgrade of the lobbies at Voobly in my opinion. Instead of just ranting on the lobbies and say people have to go to ranked (which i still do support), we can also look at some ideas to improve the lobby and makes it more useful. 1. Unranked elo Let’s start with the big ele…

I already made a post about most of your ideas, so I do agree with most of your suggestions.

[BubblyMango3400]

I remembered your post, but seeing as it is old and didnt get much attention i wanted to create a new one with a different approach to spark new discussion around the subject and maybe get this fixed already. but i guess this is impossible in this forum.

[FreeWinPlz1739]

I agree with that the aoe2 need to show unranked elo in game so people can set elo requirement for lobby.
I stopped playing lobby games because I really hate the host who kick me out. I really don’t think the people who create public rooms without requirement should be able to kick people out. This is very toxic.

[CutmanFS]

your suggestions are all total garbage fyi

ok lemme explain why, custom games are custom, they are supposed to be vert specific, and the host is god within that lobby.

this cannot change, otherwise the unlimited potential to create unique games will be gutted. especially for anyone hosting a custom map or diplo, they will lose the ability to function as intended. and just for what? some rando noobs got kiicked from someones custom game or lost to some hardcore smurfs they stumbled in on?

noobs need to stick to quick play and ranked if they cannot understand what a custom game is and why it must stay like that.

oh but jesus, all it needs is a refresh of the lobby you have selected, so it updates to see if its still got slots or even exists anymore lol.

look at cs:source for example. one fix, instant 10000% improved

[Darkness01101]

@WoodsierCorn696

I would love to see some more exciting players stats. Now we have to rely on third parties. I have already mentioned aoe2.net some times, but there are also other sites with more details player info. So this info is already available, but isnt part of the game. I would love to see mmore player stats in the game. These player stats not only include lobby data, but also quick play, ranked and maybe even single player statistics. So it is not limitied to the lobby only.

Counterpoint: I don’t think aoe2.net or any 3rd party non-Microsoft entity should have access to player stats, game recordings, or chats that are in those recordings; let alone be able to disseminate that info across the globe via a lookup system – especially, but not exclusively, data related to single-player and private or unranked multiplayer games. And even if Microsoft had stats (which they do, because aoe2.net is probably using an API to leech the info) I don’t think they should have the right to post that info without express written consent acquired before each match.

There should be a pop-up before each match: “This match will be recorded for playback. Your private, personal chats will be displayed to the world, and the outcome of the game including APM and other stats will be indexed and accessible by random people of Earth, just like all the aforementioned stuff. You cool with that? Yes/No.” If you select “No,” then that stuff stays unrecorded and private; not accessible on aoe2.net or any current or future Microsoft website. How it’s legal to blanketly release all or a lot of this info (assuming they do, and I’m pretty sure they do) is peculiar

Where does the attitude of complete transparency come from?

A bit of different question/discussion. I’m a fairly new player, starting with DE in the beginning of the year and I am a bit baffled by the transparency in this game. Every match I play online can be found online, my complete match history, including dates, time and opponents. Now AoE.net even allows to download the replay files, which include the chat, and casters like t90 have been asking for things like this, as if this would be something completely normal and required. Though I can under…

[SouBotsito]

Since voobly the recordings are public and THIS was a feature requested to offer the same services to the community, aoe web is bad, thank god aoe2.net have an easy access to those games, without that fan service website the game would be worse, so think twice the next time.

[Darkness01101]

Sounds good, but just give a disclaimer for each match that is about to start, like I said, because a lot of people don’t want to have their recordings, chats, and stats made public … and the game doesn’t make it clear at all this is actually happening without your knowledge.

And in that pop-up disclaimer have a checkbox saying, “Don’t ask me again,” so your preference sticks. And have that option in the menu somewhere in case you change your mind at a future date. You would clearly say,
“Yes, please record and publicly display my game, stats, chats, etc.,” but others (especially unranked and private matches) should have the option to say, “No, please don’t.” THIS is my, and others’, feature request now; since we weren’t one of the ones asking for the “feature” and it went through without our explicit consent, as far as I know

I bet our consent is given when we first launched the game there was maybe a tiny disclaimer in lengthy Terms & Conditions to having our info given to 3rd parties via APIs, and made public by them or MS, but if so, that’s hardly customer-friendly. Even less customer-friendly to the average user and more disingenuous to do it without our consent, if that was the case

[CurvedBerry6507]

I have to assume this is somewhere in the TOS, possibly in Steam and XBox as I don’t recall anything on launching AoE2. A ton of information is sent to Microsoft, even while you’re just looking at the menu, but recorded games aren’t uploaded for single player matches, just some basic stats afaik and I don’t believe private matches are accessible either (not sure on this). In unranked if you uncheck recorded game, there is nothing to upload, so you do have the option to not have your recorded game uploaded. I believe you can use the NORECORDING launch option to disable recording entirely. If you don’t want stats available, then don’t play online… Stats are part of basically every online game. It’s linked to your steam/xbox/etc account, not your real name. Even without the MS or third party sites, you can still spectate the match in game and obtain most of the same information, and this has been a big part of the game since the release. Should the leaderboard, spectating, this website, deny anyone the ability to stream a match without permission from the other player, and all third party sites be removed/shutdown?

I can kind of understand the issues with chat, maybe this could be made more clear? Although I believe it’s common sense that this could be seen by someone else, it’s a game. Even if the recorded game isn’t uploaded, the chat messages are sent online (I believe to a 3rd party) for filtering, so just don’t send something through aoe2 chat that you wouldn’t post on the internet. I think in different situations everyone hopes and expects this to be visible, if you report someone for whatever, you kind of assume they are able to view the game and the chat messages, so why would someone expect privacy sometimes, but want mods/admins to look into issues at other times?

[Darkness01101]

@CurvedBerry6507

If you don’t want stats available, then don’t play online… Stats are part of basically every online game

I’m pretty cool with the actual company/dev of the game having such stats. That’s pretty much expected. But who owns aoe2.net? Don’t think it’s MS. (A ‘whois’ lookup didn’t yield much info.) I’m not cool with info being doled out via APIs to whoever wants to connect up to MS or Steam and gather up all its AoE data collections, game recordings, chats, game history, etc. Let them have Win/Loss records and ELO only; not everything else. I’m not aware of other online games publicly releasing stats, play history, game recordings, chats, etc of players playing their game? And if it happens to be Steam gathering up all this data on players and disseminating it, how/why are they allowed? They’re not the dev

It’s okay, I know this is an uphill battle. I concede.

PS: I guess it’s Elo, not ELO? Elo rating system - Wikipedia. I always thought it was ELO (all caps)

[TautAnteater3831]

Def a game lobby, sometimes you have good banter afterwards. Easier to get custom games going.