Avatar selection.

posted on May 15th, 2010, 11:34 pm

Pretty simple, people cant do anything till everyone picks thera avatar, this gives people time to look at what each avatar does, without giving somone a time advantage.

posted on May 15th, 2010, 11:41 pm

The Avatars really haven't changed much in a year and a half.  I mean, if you've looked over the avatars in game one, do you need to look over them on game five, or game ten to know what they are?

posted on May 15th, 2010, 11:43 pm

Would be useful for the newbs that haven't got it memorized yet, though.

posted on May 15th, 2010, 11:54 pm

The descriptions are in the guide . A substitute, but still functional.

Not sure if I like the idea or not, could definitely get frustrating 

posted on May 15th, 2010, 11:56 pm

Not everyone knows about the guide when they first start playing.

A good compromise would be to make the tooltips appear instantly over the minimap like they could be set to in stock. Wouldn't get frustrating, but you wouldn't lose as much time.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 12:07 am

Indeed true - that would probably be the most logical thing to do Tyler, although I think holding the cursor over them isn't too much extra effort, is it? 

posted on May 16th, 2010, 12:13 am

If people are just playing around and teaming up against the AI, then it doesn't really matter how long they look at the avatar screen.  But if someone is playing head to head in competitive multiplayer, then it's a safe bet they have a good idea what the bonuses are.  Most people play the AI for a while anyway, and it's just a few short games before you know what the avatars do.  Also, it should really only take you a few seconds to look over them before making a decision if you've forgotten.

An issue arises from larger games if you have to wait on the one guy who can't (or won't for whatever reason) make up his mind.  If there's a bit of a time critical element, then they might be persuaded to read faster.  Or just try one out and remember for next game.  You can even see what your avatar does after you've selected so you'll know for next time.  

posted on May 16th, 2010, 1:23 am

There have been several games where my ally didn't respond because he had his game minimized and didn't know the game had started. This seems more fair to me at least.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 2:14 am

Well, you have to click launch to acknowledge that you're ready to play, yes?  At that point, people shouldn't be spending time updating their facebook page, in my opinion.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 2:21 am

I think it would help to keep someone from getting a head start, but it isn't a big difference, and I don't think its possible.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 7:25 am

I dont know if this is possible but maybe the devs could make the tooltips of the avatars readable on the xxx is yy% ready / xxx is unresponsive screen at the start of a game.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 9:09 am

I don't think thats a good idea. chosing the avatar is not much different from chosing which vessel to build, and we cant freeze the game every time someone constructs a yards. If people are experienced in Fleet Operations and make their choices fast, then thats a good thing for them. Avatars are static each game, and you only have to decide between few options (2 at the moment), therefore it shouldn't be too difficult to decide which avatar you want to play with before starting the game.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 9:25 am

problem here is optec, you can abort the build of a ship, and your not forced to use it the entire game.
but by making 1 wrong click u are forced to play this avatar and we all know it can be a gamebreaking choice. If a new player comes there, he has to read first and then make the choice and this would give him the few secs to do that. Otherwise the new guy has a disadvantage from start alr, which seems quite unfair to me. Maybe there should be a max limit of time to choose an avatar, so noone can do facebook crap while he should pick an avatar.

posted on May 16th, 2010, 9:29 am

thats a point. i will think about that

posted on May 16th, 2010, 11:00 am

also another idea to save people time: you know the screen you see when the game is loading, where there are little tips at the top of the screen, maybe you could put an image of the expanded avatar tooltips there.