- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Searching Custom Games
Customgames searching would work basically the same as matchmaking. First you would choose a gametype for your playlist. Then you could select a sub-branch gametype like Slayer: Elimination or CTF: One Flag. You could also type in a search bar the specific name of the sub-branch gametype if it is a edited game type like Infection: Fat Kid. When your search is complete a list of hosts will come up and you can choose which host to play with. You can change how many search results per page from 15 to down to 10 or up to 30. The search results that pop up will be from hosts who have open parties. There will be a number of the total customgames population, and numbers showing how many are hosting and how many are searching.
This annoyed me.
Name searched would often yield useless, because of the fact that there isn't just one gametype "Fat Kid" (or of any other name for that matter). The sub-branch search also wouldn't be totally useful, because there will be hundreds of gametypes that you might not like.
Here's how I believe it should work.
You can chose from a list of maps, from a list of gametypes, modify a few rules to any of the gametype as if you were actually making your own (you aren't, though) and then select 'Search'. By doing this, you are giving whatever server would be used to maintain the list of Custom Games a lot of criteria to search for in the current matches without presenting the user with a huge amount of options. The would pick multiple maps to ensure that they won't be given just one map, but also won't be presented of hundreds of different maps that no one likes. Same for the gametype.
When you change the rules for the custom gametype, you are changing the acceptable settings for all gametypes that are returned. If you change the Player Color property to Pink, you will only see a list of games where your player model is Pink. This way, people can avoid gametypes with rules that just irritate them. By default, every rule is set to Any, which would mean that any property is acceptable.
Also (as an ammendment to the second section) people should be required to vote on the game's end.
Great idea for an implementation in my opinion, however.