I have three requests for changes to be made to greatly improve the experience regarding quick hosting multiplayer. 1) please permanently save the hosting info, so we don't have to enter the server name and password every single time we create a game. 2) The ability to change the ai settings once the server has been created, and not have to quit and start again anytime an ai change is required (to better match ai performance when Changing cars or tracks etc.) 3) The ability to skip sessions. So you don't have to wait for practice or quali to run down. Have it so can vote to skip like other games have. I know all of these faults have carried over from pcars, so I don't know if the dev team have the ability to get that deep into engine changes to make these fixes? Would be great if they could. They are the main things that still hold back the multiplayer experience.
I like number 1 and 2 but 3 not so much, i think people should respect the server rules. If someone wants to get another couple of practise laps in to get warmed up more then he should be allowed to do that. Unless you mean that ALL drivers should have to click skip before it actually skips. I know i'd hate to get my practise cut short because of impatient people.
Like other games, it would be a vote to skip. I only race with a couple friends in a private lobby filled with ai, so we'd really like to have this functionality.
As I mostly race with the same group of friends, it would be great to have the admin vote to move/restart sessions etc, especially on your own DS
i mean it would be fine if they added that option but again i wouldn't like it if it was something that was out of my my control. If you and your friends all agree to skip thats fine of course but if you create a public lobby where its you, you friends, me and a bunch other people then i wouldnt like it if you and your friends could mess with my racing. All drivers within a given lobby should have to agree on the skip.
Or above a certain percentage then. We never race publicly, but for your use case scenario then a democratic vote should suffice. I think the majority of online play with this title is private league situations, so I assume that most guys racing together will be likely to agree on skipping a session or not.
Honestly i wouldnt like that, gamers are impatient and again i dont want my racing in other peoples hands. If the host doesnt want practise or wants shorter practise then he should make a new lobby. Same thing with someone who doesnt like the server settings, find a different lobby or make your own. When im looking for a lobby i look at more than just what cars are eligible, i pay attention to the server rules and make sure i accept them before i join. I dont know about majority being private, the lobbies with the most drivers are almost always open lobbies.
Private lobbies are not visible in the Lobby screen. For example: Sunday night had 460+ active players, but only a fraction of them in public lobbies.
Oh i didnt know that, interesting. My point about the skipping still stand though. The private lobbies would obviously all be united but i race in open lobbies and i dont want other people to get to decide if i get to practise or not. If the server is set up to allow 10 minute practise and i join with 6 minutes left i expct to get to practise for 6 minutes.
I agree with all of your points, especially being able to change opponent settings in lobby and being able to save server settings/presets. It's really frustrating to join a server and then have to change all the settings as they are copied. The only other thing I would like is more host control. Voting to kick people rarely works and people sometimes join a server post race and launch before the host can change settings (again highlighting the impatience others mentioned). Personally I would like the option to remove people from the server if they are intentionally causing trouble, sometimes groups even come on together and hijack the server.
If you ask me, I would state that I have come to the conclusion during the pandemic, that open public lobbies in multiplayer are a source of trouble... not worth the investment in time and resources. The better experience definately comes from closed communities, be it purely private or via Racedepartment and similar plattforms like this forum. To just open a MP lobbie and expect anything apart from trouble is an illusion. The last time that was working was 20 Years ago with titles like Grand Prix Legends or Viper Racing
I distinctly remember joining open lobbies in GPL where everyone had 50+ ms ping. Few people survived t1 of Monza even then...
