s&box

Facepunch

JoinedApr 2021 Posts453 Score2,355

I've gone through the feedback in the last thread and I think I addressed everything that was bought up.

Can you all take a look at the latest staging version please and let me know what you would change, what is confusing, what is broken?

Basically:

1. Server browser - standard feature
2. Party list - should list joinable parties with game name etc
3. Global chat - able to talk and advertise your party etc

The party popup now lets you choose a game and its settings before you start playing. I'm thinking in the future this could also be a good point where everyone downloads the game, or at least start downloading it?

I'm not posting any screenshots on purpose because I want you guys to jump in the game and try it.

22 days ago

Қatka ♥

Member

JoinedMay 2021 Posts4 Score2,419

Seeing there is global chat but I haven't found a party chat, that might be something worth adding, too.

22 days ago

SuperCoolNinja

Member

JoinedJan 2023 Posts8 Score1,290

Two things:

1 - Global chat and party are confusing. (In the chat at the bottom you can see yourself in a party with others, but on the right you appear alone, how does that work?)

2 - When you get kicked, please let the user know (e.g. “You have been kicked from …”). That way the user understands what happened.

I’m going to give it another try later this weekend, but I really like it. It’s cool to be able to download the game while waiting for others before joining it.
great idea !

22 days ago

garry

Facepunch

JoinedApr 2021 Posts453 Score2,355

Party chat is just pressing ENTER anywhere on the menu

22 days ago

edited 22 days ago#5

Doctor Law

Member

JoinedApr 2024 Posts16 Score2,395

This is significantly better.

- Looks less AI (less glowy, no mild gradients on every panel -- could be placebo but it looks better)
- It's very easy to navigate to different game categories
- Only a lunatic would put global chat in a game like this, but I don't make the bacon here
- We have a server browser!
- The fact that I can move panels around is an insane W

I think that ...

- Switching to party chat is confusing
- The Active Multiplayer servers (Active Games) is low-detail. It doesn't have to be like Garry's Mod, although it's kinda close and I do like it, but what happens if it's an open source gamemode and people have servers that have their own identity? Right now it just shows the name of the server and who runs it. There's nothing else to it. This might take time to tune right, because it depends on whether the game is more of an independent project or something that can be networkable and people host their own.
- Friends list is a nice touch. I think it would be cool to have a favorites at the bottom where I can add five of my people.
- I really wish the global chat was collapsible to its own panel. I think it's an eyesore sharing a page with the server list and the party list. Can we make this its own subpanel that can be opened from a bottom right tab like old school IRC's?
- There is no chat censorship for super bad swear words. I get that it's not a politically correct game, and that's fine, but allowing people to say whatever they want in an IRC like this could spell disaster.

** I also would like to disable or somehow close the global chat. Thirty seconds in and it has already been a very Christian and above-board experience...

22 days ago

Grease

Member

JoinedAug 2024 Posts4 Score1,335

Could there be a setting where you can turn off the lobbies & party settings from appearing on your game? I use a non-standard way to make lobbies appear through my game itself, so I want there to be an option to turn those off if possible at least

20 days ago

seffy

Member

JoinedDec 2023 Posts11 Score4,335

I just used the multiplayer tab for the first time. At first it appeared to be a place people go to shit talk the game but the longer i spent chatting and reading what others had to say the conversation quickly turned into a party even with people who were negative about the game.

The global chat is a nice feature

It feels like there's some friction with joining some games as a party and it might be the way games are configured. Our party ended up losing some people along the way and i'm not sure why but eventually more people would join.

Open mic while searching is essential so you don't have to click off the search bar to talk with party members to come to a consensus on a game.

Switching games as a party could be easier here's how. When you're in a game it would be nice to have access to the party and the games search menu so you dont have to leave the game you're currently playing. Doing it this way just feels intuitive.

While playing Draw n Guess the party chat box kept getting in the way of the games chat box which is used for typing guesses in game. (not really an issue but it was annoying)

When I'm partied up especially with randoms we were really just looking for friendslop/ party style games. we hopped between 3 games during the session so if you emphasize and direct parties to these kind of games i think the session would have never ended. I'd like to be able to recognize friendslop with very little effort.

Before I started a party I found myself tabbing in and out of the multiplayer tab just to read global chat so it would be cool if that chat was always on screen no matter what main menu tab your in.

I like how I can see who's tapped into the multiplayer tab

I would like to edit my avatar no matter what game im in. I know some games will have their own playermodel setup and they're all different but those who use the dresser using ownerconnection could benefit from being able to access the dresser from the esc menu where all the settings are instead of having to go back to the main menu just to edit the avatar. Basically let games open the avatar editor and overlay the game. Afterall people spend money on the cosmetics and it should be easier to tap into that so it feels more meaningful.

Just yapping some thoughts because I really enjoyed my last session after using the multiplayer tab for the first time.

19 days ago

SLOW DOWN!!

Member

JoinedJan 2025 Posts21 Score7,481

seffy posted:

I just used the multiplayer tab for the first time. At first it appeared to be a place people go to shit talk the game but the longer i spent chatting and reading what others had to say the conversation quickly turned into a party even with people who were negative about the game. The global chat is a nice feature It feels like there's some friction with joining some games as a party and it might be the way games are configured. Our party ended up losing some people along the way and i'm not sure why but eventually more people would join. Open mic while searching is essential so you don't have to click off the search bar to talk with party members to come to a consensus on a game. Switching games as a party could be easier here's how. When you're in a game it would be nice to have access to the party and the games search menu so you dont have to leave the game you're currently playing. Doing it this way just feels intuitive. While playing Draw n Guess the party chat box kept getting in the way of the games chat box which is used for typing guesses in game. (not really an issue but it was annoying) When I'm partied up especially with randoms we were really just looking for friendslop/ party style games. we hopped between 3 games during the session so if you emphasize and direct parties to these kind of games i think the session would have never ended. I'd like to be able to recognize friendslop with very little effort. Before I started a party I found myself tabbing in and out of the multiplayer tab just to read global chat so it would be cool if that chat was always on screen no matter what main menu tab your in. I like how I can see who's tapped into the multiplayer tab I would like to edit my avatar no matter what game im in. I know some games will have their own playermodel setup and they're all different but those who use the dresser using ownerconnection could benefit from being able to access the dresser from the esc menu where all the settings are instead of having to go back to the main menu just to edit the avatar. Basically let games open the avatar editor and overlay the game. Afterall people spend money on the cosmetics and it should be easier to tap into that so it feels more meaningful. Just yapping some thoughts because I really enjoyed my last session after using the multiplayer tab for the first time.

You can filter genre by "Casual > Party Game" which should be what you want, but its not complete... A lot of games that could qualify as friendslop are listed in other genres like Shooter or Racing or Rougelite. Just filtering by multiplayer isn't good enough because you end up with games that have too much depth to them.

This might be an insane thing to say, but I feel like "friendslop" could be a dedicated filter. The term is silly but everyone knows what it means. The only problem is its poorly defined as a term while being something people would want, so devs might label games that aren't friendslop as friendslop. Is adding "friendslop" as a positive option on reviews out of the question? "Reviewers loved: Friendslop"

19 days ago

edited 19 days ago#9

seffy

Member

JoinedDec 2023 Posts11 Score4,335

SLOW DOWN!! posted:

You can filter genre by "Casual > Party Game" which should be what you want, but its not complete... A lot of games that could qualify as friendslop are listed in other genres like Shooter or Racing or Rougelite. Just filtering by multiplayer isn't good enough because you end up with games that have too much depth to them. This might be an insane thing to say, but I feel like "friendslop" could be a dedicated filter. The term is silly but everyone knows what it means. The only problem is its poorly defined as a term while being something people would want, so devs might label games that aren't friendslop as friendslop. Is adding "friendslop" as a positive option on reviews out of the question? "Reviewers loved: Friendslop"

Oh interesting I had no idea!

I'm sure if i played around with it some more I would have found more things I liked about the party system and multiplayer tab. I actually went back and looked after I posted this and there is some decent party games listed right away. I guess they didn't catch my eye well enough like the cards do in the discover tab. I also agree that labeling games depending on who's doing it weather through reviews or the developer themselves when it comes to discoverability this can be kind of a mess.

The term friendslop in this case was indeed used positively and think its what I really expect when I'm partied up for better or worse. As far as a dedicated filter it could be nice but also fall into the same trap that "multiplayer" does where just because a game has a global leaderboard or global chat or live stats per session it's accepted as multiplayer.