Demigod: Scheduled Games = the eVite of death

By Frogboy on May 13, 2009 7:04:34 PM from

One of the things we want to really expand on in Demigod is the notion of multiplayer options.

As many of you know, one of the things that absolutely kills MP games in the long-run is the ability to get matches going with people of equal skill level.

The solution to this is to create a system that works inside and outside the game for setting up scheduled games. Today, the web team submitted a proposal to provide an iPhone page to support this as well.

Here’s how it will work:

A user comes to the Demigod website and in the Pantheon area clicks on a future tab called “Schedule a Game”. On that tab, the person can either create a game or participate in a scheduled game.

If you choose to create a scheduled game, you would then pick:

Name of your game
What time
Number of players
Map
Game Mode
Minimum XP level
Maximum XP level
Maximum number of No Shows allowed
Maximum number of disconnected allowed

When a user tries to join it, if they aren’t on the host’s “ban list” (which will be implemented this Spring), they are then added to the list. The game creator can reject people for their game if they want.

At the scheduled time, players load up Demigod, choose “Scheduled Game” and it shows all the games that they’ve committed to. At the scheduled time, they choose “Fight” and off they go. There will be a 5 minute window for players to get into the game. After 5 minutes, if a player doesn’t show they get a “no show” stat added to their account.

So when?

I’m afraid to give estimates other than “sooner rather than later”. It will probably be part of the Demigod: Clan Wars DLC.

+912 Karma | 51 Replies

With regards to #8 and #9, can you please make that a percentage? Otherwise active players will be much more likely to hit such filters than inactive ones.

-Drexion/Ragarth

Sweet, but what about a resign bottom? an option to choose if you only wanna play 3 vs 3 on the pantheon? and a way to see stats ingame? those kind of things would be sweet....but one can only wish.

Interesting concept, but the reason I quit WoW was because I hate the idea of scheduled gaming.

that's what's so amazing about this concept. if you don't want to schedule a game, you don't need to use it. brilliant!

well the idea is not bad and could even be useful but the demigod is a kind of game where ppl love more just to "plug and play"

i still look more forward to a pantheon for teams and a good matchmaking in there for teams or friends or whatever, scheduling is more like a wow thing, you schedule since you have 25 ppl to meet

in demigod the good thing is playing with 2 3 friends, you usually dont schedule with those, you just find them online and play, unless its some big tournament or something

I hope you guys are listening to your customers, I haven't heard much people request scheduled gaming - I have heard many people request joining as a team (at any random time with random friends they choose). This is the impression that I get from most people anyhow (could be wrong)

I really hope you put more effort into the features that the majority of the customers want and don't waste time on misdirection.

lets hope connectivity is working by then

Yeah I don't really see myself using this that much. Something I'd really like is a team matchmaking system. Like same as skirmish matchmaking except you can team with people on your friend list.

I love this game and most of the things that you guys do, but this idea is really loopy and needs to be retired. Adding a way for players to segregate the community is just such a bad idea for a thousand reasons, including that you're feeding griefers a great new tool. News that an official "ban list" is coming this Fall makes me shake my head and wonder why you aren't focusing instead on making the game more compelling to *play* rather than creating ways for people to keep others from playing. There are a thousand reasons why players don't show or disconnect. Arming your playerbase (and griefers) with the ability to arbitrarily assume the reasons for these behaviors is not only a dangerous thing to do, it's a huge distraction from what you could be doing instead.

You overstate the problems created by the unreliable online community and you overstate your ability to address them. Trust me, this is going to wind up someday going into the category of "What were they thinking"?

Yah same here, i would rather have a system that matches players according to rank like supcom. In all forms of the game (including custom) be able to see someones rank next to their name, and when you hover over their name, the ability to see how often they drop ect.

Quoting RegnorVex,

reply 9

I have to support this. Hope you guys will listen to this feedback. Well said Regnor.

Quoting Nimbusg,

reply 8

Yeah I don't really see myself using this that much. Something I'd really like is a team matchmaking system. Like same as skirmish matchmaking except you can team with people on your friend list.

I agree with this. People will have some long list of friends (people who are nice in game, who have good ping with you, friends in real life, etc). All the game needs now is some form of matchmaking with your friends and such.

Or better, implement some kind of skill point system (rank) and team up people who are at the same skill level with you (something like in Quake Live). Like someone suggested, you can add a popup for each player, so i can see his rank and his nr. of in-game quits (for spotting rage quiters).

Or make a system so a good team can still play together, after the match has ended, if they want to. Or two teams, in a match. Introduce a vote system to restart the match or play another game with the same teams. You know how hard is to find some good balanced teams (people with skills and good team work)...

Scheduled gaming i think it's not a feature more important than the ones i've talked about above. Many people will not use it, or will not show up in a timely manner, ruining the game for everybody.

I've said it before (like many others), i not so exited about the Clan Wars dlc. There are many other things needed to be done before that, more important ones. Scheduled games and ban lists will only fragment the already fragmented player community. Who will invite a "noob" (new player)? Don't you think that many "pros" will just ban players who they consider to be noobs?

Sweet sounds neat!

This doesn't really add any additional functionality (except for the ban list). I can already try to schedule a game in the future without this system, so I don't see why resources should be spent developing this. Especially since there are many other much more valuable/desired connectivity features (team-joining Pantheon games, pre-mades vs. pre-mades, ranked matchmaking...).

Thank you for letting us know that this is being considered. I'm sure our feedback will play a big role in future development.

And what's the point ? Skirmish already match skill level, right ? I don't see much interest in to spend time on it.

Anyway it's just my opinion.

I have to agree with many of the other posters and have to ask the design team, why?

Why impliment this feature? Who is your target audience for this feature? What percentage of users do you think will use this?

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I think other match making features allowing a team to be formed up prior and a system similar to Microsoft's True Skill to match up your team with another team of equal skill (and good connection) has a greater desiger/need.

Sure right now if I go online I'm presented with only being able to play games with the user base that is also online at the same time I am. On one hand this may limit the quality of my opponents, but assuming the game is successful enough and the user base large enough, than this pool should be sufficient.

In short I don't see the value of this feature, what problem it really sloves and think the development team should use it's resources in other ways.

-Jara

PS: (The only problem I think this solves is if I was say in the top 1% of the player base, say for example I was the best demigod player in the world and the game was having trouble finding a suitable match. Then this system in theory could try to match me up with someone even if they're not available online at the moment. But, given I'm not online and time zone diffrences finding a suitable time that is actually possible due to real life commitments could be an issue. In the end, this feature does not really solve those issues)

PPS: I don't want to have game commitments or scheduled games, if I wanted that I'd play World of Warcraft and go raiding.

I think its a great idea for teams that want to be competitive...but i also feel like there needs to be a ranked match making system that allows for teams just search together to play against other teams. The more you win, the higher your rank is. Use a Halo3 or Warcraft 3 type ranking system....

i think that should be implemented ASAP so i can tell my buddies to get this game! there is a lack of motivation to just play and win/lose custom games since they essentially mean nothing

Offering an option to more adequately/easily play with friends and otherwise good sports is worthwhile. I support this.

It's really nice to see some creative activity but...

doesn't "Custom matches" already fulfill this purpose?

Quoting Staniels,

reply 19

It's really nice to see some creative activity but...

doesn't "Custom matches" already fulfill this purpose?

I agree. Seems a bit redundant. Ie: 3v3 useast Experts only... or 4v4 EU Noobs only... or 2v2 OZ Just for fun!!

Why schedule a game if you can just make one with a description of what your looking for.. at any time?

You can already play with your pre-made team in a custom match... and as the standard automatch becomes more and more reliable for solo players it should become pretty easy to find other pre-made teams to play with in the custom list.

I don't think the userbase is large enough to warrant extensive pre-made team automatching. It barely worked in Warcarft 3, and even then automatching arranged teams larger than a 2v2 was practically impossible. There just weren't enough other large teams looking for a match at the same time. So I think browsing the server list is a fine, quick, and reliable way to get into a game with friends.

The only thing that's really missing is Team Stat tracking, which is SURELY going to be included in "Clan Wars"package.

That said, being able to view stats in the game lobby would definitely go along way to making it even easier to get a good custom game going.

If you could change a custom game slot to "Reserve for friend" it would be useful. The problem with custom games at the moment is you get a bunch of randoms filling up the slots. The ability to host a game, change a number of slots for friends only would solve this and might be a quick fix.

I guess it's more of an issue at the moment because connecting is still so flakey and people often have to rejoin etc.

I support this feature wholeheartedly, how often have I tried to rally the troops for some nice game (not in this game) just to find out that we did not have enough guys at that moment.

Being able to set some date x for matches ist just the thing guys like me need, I always set my matches a week ahead so everybody can get their things straight and hopefully show up on time.

Rock on.

Quoting Staniels,

reply 19

It's really nice to see some creative activity but...

doesn't "Custom matches" already fulfill this purpose?

No it does not already fulfill that purpose.

Custom games do not match you up with opponents, so you're left waiting for someone to join your game which is inefficient.
Custom games do not match you based on skill -- it's just who ever happens to join your game.
Custom games in the future will not reward favor (too easy to exploit AI). You should be able to form teams and earn favor/Pantheon ranking.

I can orgainze my own friends to come play, it's called pick up a phone and call or shoot an email off.

Quoting Jaradakar,

reply 24

I can orgainze my own friends to come play, it's called pick up a phone and call or shoot an email off. We don't need a feature added to the game to do this. I think the SD is heading off in the wrong direction with this feature.

I understand that is a better way of getting friends together to play, however please do understand there are players out there like me who are casual gamers and most of our friends are met through forums and within DG, who are usually staying faraway from us. It is not feasible for us to just call or email as it cost alot (overseas calls) or it takes too much time organizing it (waiting and replying emails, some may make it some might not etc.).

With this new feature it allow us casual gamers to actually plan our gaming times more efficiently, so instead of getting into DG at our scarce free time and waiting aimlessly in custom game lobby hoping for someone to join, we can actually just set a schedule and go straight into the game at the scheduled time. So I don't think this is a wrong direction at all, in fact I'm happy SD actually support casual gamers =D

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Demigod: Scheduled Games = the eVite of death