Common Bugs in Strategy mode.

[Zero Angel]

There are two common bugs that I can think of that happen often in large strat games in 1.3.6.2 and they are as follows:

Players unable to drop command from the Lobby
It will often happen that players who enter a game lobby will be automatically assigned command, and will be unable to drop it via the 'drop command' button. The workaround is to jump to the other team (who we assume already has a commander). When this happens, sometimes another player will be automatically assigned command and be unable to drop it as well, they will also have to jump on the other team. This will occur until another player takes command of the team that is lacking the commander. The shuffling of players to different teams in this way often triggers the next bug.

Hidden players in the Lobby
When any given team has currently has more than 5 players in the lobby, players that join the 6th slot of the team will be hidden. Even if the 5+ team has players jump to the other team to bring it down to 5 or less, any players that were hidden due to the overflow of the team list will remain hidden. The workaround to this is for the hidden player to jump to the other team and then back to the original team he wants to be on. This is a common occurrence in an 8 player game (ie: due to the previously mentioned command bug), and is extremely common in 10 player games where players tend to get shuffled around pre-game when teams are arranged.

[NFuser]

The dude above speaks the truth.

[Cyber]

Huh nice, exactly that I wanted to report NOW.

[MrTwosheds]

What would you think if the solution to these bugs was to re-limit it back to 8 players?

[Cyber]

Imo no solution. Why should we get back to 4v4's ?

[MrTwosheds]

If a car was designed and built with only 4 seats, and then someone else alters it to have 5 it might cause some issues of comfort for the occupants. The solution to this issue may well be to either only have 4 seats or to buy a different car entirely.
I am not a programmer, just a tester, but I can see that making radical alterations to software is no simple task. Extending the player capacity to 5 per team was basically done just to see what happened, the bugs you describe are what happened. It is possible that some of them could be dealt with but further alterations will almost certainly create even more problems.
Our capacity to test such changes before release, is very limited.

[squirrelof09]

10 player strats were possible in earlier patches. There wasn't a problem giving/taking command UNLESS that team had five or more people already on it.

In this case, give/take command doesn't work period. New bug/glitch.

[MrTwosheds]

No. Same issue, really couldn't say If its changed or not, without having a 10 player test. (ducks to avoid flock of pigs)

[Zax]

Thought we reported and fixed this one :/

[MrTwosheds]

Reporting something, does not mean that it gets fixed, fixing something does not mean that it worked. Whatever was done was not tested with the number of players required to find out.

[Zero Angel]

What would you think if the solution to these bugs was to re-limit it back to 8 players?

Somehow I think that that's not the *only* solution. Just one of the less desirable ones.

[Col Klink]

What would you think if the solution to these bugs was to re-limit it back to 8 players?

Somehow I think that that's not the *only* solution. Just one of the less desirable ones.

Setting the limit to an odd number would unbalance the game play right? Otherwise would it not be necesary to kick the odd player out? Question: In strat is the host automatically assigned as the team commander? Also, if a player is on dialup is it better for the host to be on broadband then the other way around? Thanks.

[MrTwosheds]

Somehow I think that that's not the *only* solution. Just one of the less desirable ones.

I am not a programmer, I don't know. GSH may be able to do something else, but I am guessing that it might involve some serious amount re-coding, bz2 was built as an 8 player game, that basic structure would not be an easy thing to alter.
You can cut a car in half, fix in a whole new row of seating and weld it back together again, but afterwards it might not be a car you would actually want to drive.

[Zero Angel]

Setting the limit to an odd number would unbalance the game play right? Otherwise would it not be necesary to kick the odd player out? Question: In strat is the host automatically assigned as the team commander? Also, if a player is on dialup is it better for the host to be on broadband then the other way around? Thanks.

1) Having an odd number of players will often unbalance the game. 2v3 can be balanced, for example if 2 of the strongest players are on one team. Or if it's 2 vet vs 2 vets and 1 noob (ie: S, A+ vs A+, A, C+). Most of the time, commanders prefer for the game to have an even number of players, especially if the commanders are using the number-based picking system instead of teams being decided by the host.

2) More players seem to increase the frequency that the command bug triggers. So the host, when he first starts the game up will usually be able to drop command (because all the players havent yet joined)

3) Ideally, the host should have a very fast, stable connection. The host's connection is more important than the players'. A European host thats hosting a 10 player game full of mostly americans will usually result in a laggy game.

[Cyber]

Setting the limit to an odd number would unbalance the game play right? Otherwise would it not be necesary to kick the odd player out? Question: In strat is the host automatically assigned as the team commander? Also, if a player is on dialup is it better for the host to be on broadband then the other way around? Thanks.

1) Having an odd number of players will often unbalance the game. 2v3 can be balanced, for example if 2 of the strongest players are on one team. Or if it's 2 vet vs 2 vets and 1 noob (ie: S, A+ vs A+, A, C+). Most of the time, commanders prefer for the game to have an even number of players, especially if the commanders are using the number-based picking system instead of teams being decided by the host.

2) More players seem to increase the frequency that the command bug triggers. So the host, when he first starts the game up will usually be able to drop command (because all the players havent yet joined)

3) Ideally, the host should have a very fast, stable connection. The host's connection is more important than the players'. A European host thats hosting a 10 player game full of mostly americans will usually result in a laggy game.

Yeah, we also can handle to drop the command trough going in the other team, but it would be comfortable when the Give Cmd button would work in 5v5-teams too