Post 22 Dec 2014, 00:54

Re: Spectating next release

A couple of spectate mode i :wink: deas.

-As far as I remember, the main reason for 10 player/spec limit was that it was believed to be unnecessary to have more than 2 spectators in a 8p game. Seeing as we almost have to beat each other up for spec slots on TS nowadays, would it be possible to extend the spec limit?
There's no technical limitation on the number of players/spectators, it's about as simple as changing a number in the code. But more clients means more chance of lag which is the main reason that we limit it. Also for the player limit we don't want to increase the map size further for performance reasons, and there's probably not room for 12 villages on a 256x256 map. And finally, the lobby has no extra room on the minimum resolution, so we'd need a scrolling players list which would be annoying.
-It would surely be hard to do, but would it be possible to not treat specs like players, and for example let them get out of sync? This would likely be necessary if we plan to have a lot more specs which might mean more lags etc.
If they go out of sync then they would get an error and have to quit. We need to keep them in sync otherwise they can't watch the game. With your suggestion if a spectator is lagging a bit, then they would end up 10 minutes behind everyone else who is playing.
-Assuming above is done, could it be possible to let specs join without returning to lobby somehow? Pauses related to specs are quite annoying.
No, I don't see a way to do that. It would still need to pause the game, transfer a save, then resume the game once the new spectator had joined. That's the nature of having a completely client based simulation.