Some points and questions have been raised, here are some answers:
"Observer maps exist in steam workshop."
Yes, we know that. "Reason #10" is all about those so-called "Oberserver Maps" that make hidden HQ's and remove the Fog-of-War for particular slots. Here are the problems with trying to hack an observer mode out of map scripts:
- Since mappers cannot manipulate the UI, other than by completely removing it, there is no way to even make a simple button to switch who you are following during the game. Janne has used some crazy hacks, like, "Call in a KV-8 to the HQ of the player you want to follow" ... so you unlock your imaginary commanders with your imaginary infinite resources and you call in a KV-8 to the enemy HQ and suddenly, that players reources are being "cloned" and displayed as your own resources! Like I said, janne is a fucking wizard. But that method is just clunky as fuck, and I would be embarrassed to do that during high profile events like this upcoming Alienware Arena Cup. A level of professionalism is required to entice sponsors to fund events for this game.
- Even w the cloning tricks, you can only follow one player at a time, so there is no way to display both players' resources, and no way in hell to display both players' armies via their unit shields, or show both players commanders and cooldowns simultaneously.
- There is no way to add a spectator to 4v4 maps, because all of the slots are full.
- It adds another step for tournament organizers. Even though steam workshop is super easy and downloading a map pack is also super easy, it still adds another step to the tournament process and it will cause massive delays and huge confusion. Trust me, you don't want anything that causes more delays when you are trying to get a bunch of rounds in on tourney days. "Does he have the special observer map version of Semoskiy Winter? Are you sure? Do we have anybody here that speaks Korean?" Multiply that times 64, or 128, and add about 20 foreign languages. Any small extra step can become a huge nightmare for organizers.
"How many extra slots should there be and should it be invite-only?"
At this stage of the game, I'd say between 4-8 extra slots per map should do the trick. I understand that one of the big barriers in the way is the "join game UI." Well hey you gotta break it to fix it.
Players or casters should be invited to the game lobby just like they are to normal games, and a host should control whether or not they are granted "observer privileges." I didn't go into the tech very much because so many games have these options that Relic just needs to look at a few of them to see how it's done and then do it in whatever way is easiest for them.
I really appreciate the support guys! You've been overwhelmingly positive and that's fantastic
. Keep the /signed posts coming and I love to see other "observer" UI proposals.
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