Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Many of you know that the KaM Remake now has a new multiplayer feature "Return to Lobby". At the moment this button can be pressed at any time by the host only, and it will save the game, then return to the lobby and select the save (although you can start a new game if you like). This has many advantages such as:
- Incorrect starts/wrong setup can be corrected simply and easily without needing to create a new room and getting everyone to join.
- If someone leaves, you can return to the lobby and find a replacement for them.

However, the way it works now the host has absolute control over it, which is bad. If the host wants to "troll", or if they are losing the game and want to sulk, they can click return to lobby and select a new map, and the other players can't really do anything about it. In public games the host usually isn't someone you trust, which didn't matter in the past since once the game started the host had no additional powers.

So I suggest we change the button from "Return to Lobby" to "Vote to Return to Lobby" (that won't fit on the button of course, we need shorter text). Once an absolute majority of players have clicked it (>50%) the game will return to the lobby. The chat will show messages like "Lewin has voted to return to the lobby (need 3 more votes)"

What do you think? Please discuss flaws/downsides to my idea and suggest a way to make it fit in the interface (since a button can't fit the text "Vote to Return to Lobby")

I'm sure we can all agree that something like this is absolutely needed. I cringe so hard when the host returns to lobby without knowing ahead of time.

I like the democratic approach (I'm an American!). More than 50% is enough, I think. I'm wondering if this power should apply for all players; though? And will this replace the planned pause function? Will this voting system happen in real time or will the game pause? Furthermore, will there be a limit on how many times the host/players be able to start the vote in a specified period (whether by game or cool-down effect)?

Sorry for all the questions

Yes, this feature is needed for sure, but it needs to be simple and fast to vote. What if, when host pushes "Return to lobby", vote is automatically set to "yes". There's for example 10* seconds to vote "no". When there's not enough "no's", game returns to lobby. There are also two buttons: "yes, return to lobby" and "no, keep playing". If more than 50% of players clicks the first one, it's instantly returning to lobby.

There should be visible panel in the middle of screen, like when someone lost connection and it asks about quiting to menu or kicking a player. Maybe the buttons should be next to each other, unlike when there's "lost connection" message, so it looks different.

I think a cooldown is not a good thing. Yes, the host can spam with return to lobby vote, but if he does that, I just wouldn't play with him. Limiting this "power" would be weird in my opinion, because if one of players wants to pause right now, he/she shouldn't wait.

As for button: maybe just add question mark after "Return to lobby".

*10 seconds is just an example, but I think it should be less than 30 seconds when waiting for kicking the player who lost connection. 30 secs is just too long. 10 secs seems like a good amount of time.

We need!

Good questions Ben.

I think all players should be able to vote, perhaps excluding spectators? (they could upset the majority since an entire team plus a spectator is a majority even if team 2 does not agree with the vote)

We could change the button to "Vote" which takes you to a voting submenu with buttons for "Return to Lobby" and "(Un)Pause" (and later other stuff we might want like "Kick Player", "Change Speed").

Yes there should be something like a cooldown. A simple way to do that would be to remember whether each player voted "Yes" for a particular vote. If they've already voted yes they can't click again (obviously). Then when there haven't been any votes for more than 2 minute, all players are reset to not having voted (so anyone can start the vote again). This can be tracked individually for each voting issue, so you can have two votes going simultaneously.

EDIT: TianK's suggestion sounds like it might be better and faster. However, I'm not sure if only the host should be allowed to start the vote, maybe it would be useful if other players could too?

I disagrree with this, because the host can make trolling with this also. I could advice to use a small popup panel on the left side at the messages. The game should to running under the voting.

The voting idea is really good. 50% and more is enought. /5 vote is needed in a 4v4 game/.



I cant imagine how the public will troll with these futures:S

4 things I like to tell you, from my opinion:

1. Make a limit for voting like in Counter Strike Go. If you want to kick a player there and the vote fails for like 90 seconds, this player can´t start another vote for 10 Minutes (20 min in kam would be fine).
2. All players should be able to vote(except for spectators). There is no need that the host will have more power than other players. That´s why it is a vote and not "Host has more power, so he can decide" :p
3. If you need still a shorter name for the button, what just about "Vote for Pause"?
4. How many players are need =>

=>8 players: 5 players need to vote for yes (WHY? 4 players(50%) is too few. At least one guy from the other team has to agree to return to lobby. This way you can still troll and make a pause whenever you want
6 players: 4players...
4 players: 3players...
2players: both players players... ?