Friends-only tables?

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DanielVanciae

What I would like most is the option to challenge friends directly, or at least to make tables friends-only (the option already exists to limit spectators to friends, so adding the latter option does not seem too difficult).  I find it tiresome to have to keep typing "Friends only, please," and kicking people, and I doubt that the other players enjoy being kicked.

It is, of course, possible that most of the community may actually think that even having this option is undesirable, as competitive, rated play would seem to mean that players should be willing to play anyone close enough to their own rating.  My personal preference is for a friendly game and a pleasant chat, and not to care too much about ratings except possibly as an opportunity to learn from better players, but others almost certainly disagree.  If the reason this option hasn't been implemented is that ShuffleIT doesn't actually consider it desirable, please let me know.  I do very much appreciate their willingness to listen to user requests and suggestions.

WhiteRabbit1981

I would like the option "friends only", but only for practice games.
In the past, i suggested that you can name your tables (like "Fun4Friends" or "AllCards+BlackMarket") and to make them private. But having a "friends only" table seems to be an even better idea - no need to communicate a password anymore :-)


Cave-O-Sapien


blamelewis


7string

Absolutely!  I totally agree with this.  I should be able to quickly and easily create a game for family and friends only.  It is extremely annoying to start creating a table only to have people start joining it before I am even ready to play, and when I really am setting it up just to play with a friend or family member.

The combination of lack of this ability with no lobbies (plus poor AI for bots, and lack of campaigns to practice in) has me playing less and less of Dominion online.  I personally don't really care much for playing random strangers.  For all the problems with Goko, I could at least browse through their lobbies, and often eventually find someone I knew or had played with before.  For me this was a far better experience than the random matching process.

tufftaeh

Have you tried to set "Min relative rating" and "Max relative rating" both to zero in the "Advanced Options" after creating a new table? For me, that works fine and only my friends can join as players.

DanielVanciae


Thank you!  That does seem to work, and I certainly never would have guessed that it would.  Of course, *inviting* your friends is still a problem, but that's a lot less annoying than having to kick people repeatedly.  Thank you again

Feaelin

I think this is still a needed feature. Setting the relative ratings to zero doesn't appear to fully prevent from non-friends from joining a table. Also, it feels a bit obfuscated for that to be the mechanism for preventing non-friends from joining.

I'd like to see a "Only friends can play at this table" option someday.

Paqi

I'm pretty shocked that this isn't a feature. I came here assuming it was, and was about to ask if I could set up custom card sets for private games.

Ingix

While the exact feature isn't implemented, it's still relatively easy to do in practice.

If you add a bot to your table at the beginning, you will not be disturbed by anybody who isn't looking for you. Once all players are there as spectators, the bot can be kicked and specactors can join as players.

Mic Qsenoch

Quote from: Ingix on 22 March 2020, 12:04:01 AM
While the exact feature isn't implemented, it's still relatively easy to do in practice.

If you add a bot to your table at the beginning, you will not be disturbed by anybody who isn't looking for you. Once all players are there as spectators, the bot can be kicked and specactors can join as players.

You should be able to prevent non-friends from joining as spectators. That feature isn't available at all.

And even better would be the ability to have a table password or the like (invites) to restrict the joining further.

blamelewis

I think the need for a straightforward "friends only" table solution has been thrown into sharp relief as many people are using the game socially to "gather" with friends in these lockdown times...

While there are workarounds such as adding bots they are *complicated* and a big impediment to using Dominion in this social way.

So, Stef - a request that a "friends only" toggle for a new table be added as a priority - and my continued thanks for all your hard work on the platform.

Best
Tim

Highwayman27

I'm glad to see this is already a suggestion, but I wanted to explain why this is almost a necessary feature from the other side of the problem since I haven't seen it here.  I have a few friends that have accounts on here, but I mostly use this site to play with random people because I think that's more fun than playing with bots, and I'm sure others do the same.  I think it's great to use the site to play with friends, how else are you going to play with people you don't live near?  Or right now it's great for playing with friends while social distancing.  I don't want to get in the way of that.  However, with no indicator that a table is being set up for a specific group I just have to keep jumping into tables and asking if they're open, getting kicked out (sometimes with rather rude commentary), rinse, and repeat.  I've spent an hour just trying to find a table that's not waiting for friends.  I don't think the feature needs to actually prevent random people from joining, there just needs to be a spot in the table list that indicates whether a table is "private" or "open."  I don't think anyone is trying to bother you when you're setting up a table for you and your friends, we just can't tell whether we'll be welcome until we try to join, so if we want to get a game in we have to try to join.

Ingix

Thanks for your commentary and the insight into what you do and why.

But if you just want to play with random strangers at a given point in time, why don't you use the automatch function that has been provided just for that purpose?


dmyze

Just another vote for this.  My wife and I do zoom+dominon games with friends due to the covid restrictions.  I just quickly kick any random person out that joins, but I'd rather not have to do that.

Highwayman27

Quote from: Ingix on 13 April 2020, 10:02:42 AM
Thanks for your commentary and the insight into what you do and why.

But if you just want to play with random strangers at a given point in time, why don't you use the automatch function that has been provided just for that purpose?
Good question, initially the answer was because I didn't know what the automatch function was. I've now done a bit with the autoplay function but I seem to have better games from finding a table, not sure why that is. I also find sometimes when I go through tables people have sets of cards that they've put together that play well together rather than the crapshoot that is random kingdoms. The other issue with autoplay is it only allows for 2 or 3 player games and I like to be able to play with a higher player count.

myourshaw

Yet another vote for a "friends-only" table option. This should be a high priority. Lack of this feature is by far the most annoying weakness of the site. As others have pointed out, social isolation due to COVID-19 has moved many groups of friendly game players to online platforms. We should have an easy and obvious choice of playing only with our own group or inviting others.

kieranmillar

Here's an alternate approach. I think maybe on the New Table tab it could have a new third option:
New Public Table
New Private Table
Load Old Game

So making a table split into two. Making a public table the same as now. Making a private table asks you to set a password that anyone entering the table needs to supply to join. Then you tell your friends the password. The table is listed on the tables screen with a padlock icon.

This is how the Worms game series did it in Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party and it was very effective, although it also had a public IRC chat channel in the lobby ingame so people could talk to each other and organise games. This was back in the days of before automatch features when organising was the only option.

DRogall

Yes! Friends only signage please.

Kit75

Same issue here - I play with friends on Whatsapp video call, and I keep having strangers join who I need to kick out of the table.

Harry.Potter

I too am astonished by the lack of a private table option and came here looking for a solution. It is annoying to have to constantly kick random people from the table, and I'm sure it is even more annoying for the people getting kicked.

AdamH

Years ago I complained about this and was told that the workaround was to set spectators to friends only, fill your table with bots until your friends arrive at the table, then kick the bots and have your friends sit down at the table.

This workaround doesn't actually work for many reasons, but the devs don't care. It's impossible for me to playtest designed kingdoms with human opponents without risking someone else seeing the kingdom who I don't want to see it.

There is no way to restrict who sits down at your table other than to put a bot in all the seats and block everyone.

dane

On a somewhat related note I'd like to see an option like 'prefer friends' (and possibly even a 'wait for friends' option) available in Automatch so that if a friend also happened to be attempting an automatch at the same time, we'd get matched.

When I first started using Dominion Online, I accepted numerous Friend requests from strangers that I'd enjoyed playing against.  Eventually I realised this was a completely pointless exercise, given that I use automatch to find opponents.

Alas I have no real friends using Dominion Online even though I have quite a few that I have played against ftf.  I can only assume that for them a game of Dominion isn't complete unless they get to waste time shuffling the deck every turn or two (or even multiple times in a turn with some engines). ☹