Spectator Slots

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Originally Posted by ORYLY

Someone resurrect the suggestion thread for spectator slots.

I've posted about this before, but I feel that with the introduction of ladder servers, the spectator slot thing is worthy of its own thread.


Basically, servers would have 3 types of slots:

Type 1
x number of player-only slots
pretty self explanatory
people in here play the game

Type 2
y number of "benchwarmer" slots
separate bench slots for each team
people can join in the game even when start tournament is on (mostly useful in scrims)
people in a benchwarmer spot can teamchat with the players on their corresponding team (ex. red benchwarmer can teamchat with red players)
PRO- can give advice to players
CON- can be abused by spying on the enemy team (planes alive, powerups held, etc.)

Type 3
z number of spectator-only slots
people can't vote and are encouraged to talk in teamchat with other spectators

When you join a server, you are automatically put into a spectator slot (if they are none available, then you can autojoin). From there you can press "t" and choose to go into a player slot or benchwarmer slot (tourney must be off in order to get from spectator to either a player or a benchwarmer slot).

An idle player would go to spectator, and then get kicked from the server after a specific amount of time.
An idle benchwarmer would get kicked from the server after a set amount of time.

The bench slots should be able to be disabled from the server configurator.


little edit that probably no one's going to read:

Originally Posted by nobodyhome

The downside is programming time, most definitely. From my experience coding the altitude ladder (which is an infinitely smaller project than altitude itself is) and in my real job, even the most minute of changes requires extensive thought and testing, and might break completely unrelated areas of the code if done improperly. I simply don't think it's worth karl and lam's time to spend time on a cosmetic change like this, relative to its value.

=/
Not sure how cosmetic this idea is relative to its value, though.

[Triped]

So, how would that work when you join a game? Fill player, than benchwarmer, than spectate? Would we have a third option in the choose team menu? Where would a player who goes idle go? Can the bench vote? Can the bench be disabled?

[hurripilot]

I'd say the default position for a player just joining would be a benchwarmer spot. Then, if that person just wants to watch, they can move to a spec-only spot. If they go afk while still in a benchwarmer spot, they are automatically moved to a spec-only spot after a given time. It might be nice to also include a vote command that would move an afk-er in a benchwarmer spot to a spec-only spot.

[Jacques Strap]

I think it would be cool to have a "coach" spot so that team members that aren't playing can give their team instructions without having to worry about crashing or letting something bad happen.

[Element]

Originally Posted by Jacques Strap

I think it would be cool to have a "coach" spot so that team members that aren't playing can give their team instructions without having to worry about crashing or letting something bad happen.

yea, i agree, something like that would be useful.

[hurripilot]

Eh, there are always programs like Skype and Vent that are free and allow every player of a team to communicate with each other. If you need that level of communication, there they are. I don't see a coach spot being that useful over all.