Sounds in gamelobby

[Ushiri]

Sounds nice with sounds doesn´t it?
would be good to get notified to attract bigger games with more knights.

Also a loghistory file when players enters and leaves the
lobby, to get to know when players usually enters the lobby and leaves.

[Stephen]

I have been thinking of adding a "recent server activity" page to the website, showing who has logged on recently and what games have been played. Also I was thinking of adding a sidebar to the front page showing "recent server activity" and "recent forum posts". This would make the front page a bit more interesting.

Also, we could show a list of recent connections when you log in to the server. Then, if no-one is online, at least you can see when the last few people were online and what time they were there...

[Ushiri]

Recent server activity---------
The thing with the sidebar and recent server activity is very very good to add, I mean no
mather what how good the game is, if you can´t find players to play with it will  die out. I know because
I´ve seen lots of very good mods over the years that I liker both Halflife1-2, but the problem is that there
is no players, and not an easy why to see when people usually start the mod.  I think this thing is a lot more
important to add than both new rooms and gamemodes together. Without player it doesnt matter how many
new stuff you bring in to it. 

( Sure people will play some, and I will play with my friend now and then, and with split screen. )

What do you think of the soundbox option? is it hard to add?

[Stephen]

Sounds are not hard to add, I just need to find a few soundfiles.

There are plenty of free sound sites on the net, if you want to have a look around and send me some suitable sounds, then go ahead. Just make sure they're not copyrighted :)

Sorry about the delay in replying BTW. I've been a bit busy this last week.

[Ushiri]

What sort of sounds do you want?
I can record the sounds..."new player" and so on with my microphone.

[Stephen]

I'm not sure to be honest. What sounds do other games have in their lobbies? I don't really play online games much so I don't know.

Only one person has replied to the poll, do I take it there is not much interest in having game lobby sounds? Any comments from anyone else?

Here is a list of messages that can be sent from the lobby or in-game. These are the sorts of things we might want to add sounds for...

"<N> has connected."
"<N> has disconnected."
"<N> is now observing this game."
"<N> has joined the game."
"<N> is no longer observing this game."
"<N> has left the game."

"<N> is ready to start."
"<N> is no longer ready to start."
"<N> set <Option> to <Setting>." (e.g. "Stephen set Gems Required to 4")
"This quest requires at least <N> players"
"Cannot start game if all players are on the same team"

"<N> is the winner!"
"All players lose!" (happens when time runs out)
"<N> quit the game."
"<N> has been eliminated. <N> players are left."

[Ushiri]

"<N> has connected."
"<N> has disconnected."
"<N> is now observing this game."
These are the only three I think is usefull.
I mean sounds to use when Knights lobby is
minimized in windows...So you know when more people adds up :)

[Moo]

A chat sound could be useful too.
The popup on someone connecting (or sound when they are added) is good for when you are lurking waiting for someone to connect, but if more than one person is lurking, you need to keep looking at the window to see if anyone said anything.

[Ushiri]

A chat sound could be useful too.
The popup on someone connecting (or sound when they are added) is good for when you are lurking waiting for someone to connect, but if more than one person is lurking, you need to keep looking at the window to see if anyone said anything.

I agree with you Moo.... A connected and disconnected sound + chatsound  ( more like a blipsound, nothing special..just so you get the notation.
So this is needed:
1. connect sound
2. disconnect sound
3. new chat message sound

[Stephen]

OK, sounds like we have some agreement here. :)

A simple beep sound should be easy enough to do. I will look into it.

[Ushiri]

" OK, sounds like we have some agreement here. :) "
HAHA...I didn´t see that coming

[Moo]

In windows, the sound from the game doesn't play (only sometimes?) when the window isn't activated.. This may be a "feature" of SDL, but if it can't be fixed, sounds in the lobby won't be much use...

[K9]

Wow, wondering how did I miss this, then I realized year of messages, still I thought I caught up on them. 

Truly, simple sound configuration, let user play their own sound file, wav, mp3 for any given messages, I love all the ideas about trigger, mainly to avoid having to constantly peak at screen awaiting first connection, and accidentally missing someone.

[Stephen]

Yes, this would be a good feature to add. It seems like we have the specification nailed down quite well (i.e. what sounds to play and when) and it would not be too hard to code.

The issue mentioned by Moo (when SDL won't play any sounds when the window is minimized) is a bit of a problem though.

I created a Trac ticket (#146) so it's on the to-do list at least...