"Random except XYZ" faction choice in MP default e

Multiplayer Scenarios / Campaigns · Post by **Rhuvaen** » October 6th, 2006, 8:56 am

Many MP players like the "Random" faction selection. Most players also have one faction which they enjoy playing least, be it for gameplay reasons or whatever. How about granting them a random choice excepting one faction?

So there'd be:
- Random
- Random except Rebels
- Random except Loyalists
- Random except Knalgans
- Random except Northerners
- Random except Undead
- Random except Drakes

EDIT: might want to call it "Any except ..." for UI purposes.

It would still be random enough, and the other team would know what factions not to expect. Or does it defeat the purpose of random too much for a player to be able to exclude a faction? What do you think?

(p.s. I'm gonna edit my default era no matter what

)
EDIT2: I just see that RANDOM is not a list of factions which can be edited, but a hard-coded function selecting any of the non-random functions. So yeah, this would need a patch...

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » October 6th, 2006, 10:08 am

I think adding these "Random except.." would make faction list too long.

Multiplayer Scenarios / Campaigns · Post by **Rhuvaen** » October 6th, 2006, 10:33 am

Tomsik wrote:I think adding these "Random except.." would make faction list too long.

Too long for what? It's already too long!

You don't have to scroll down to the "Any except <XYZ>" options. Just take your pick from the top, just like you would now.

Sorry, no cookie.

Post by **irrevenant** » October 6th, 2006, 10:34 am

Tomsik wrote:I think adding these "Random except.." would make faction list too long.

Many players also have one or two least favourite factions. Once you have "Any except Drakes or Undead" etc. etc. it gets ludicrously long.

Were this feature to be included it would make far more sense to replace the dropdown with a series of checkboxes, IMO.

Multiplayer Scenarios / Campaigns · Post by **Rhuvaen** » October 6th, 2006, 11:21 am

irrevenant wrote:Many players also have one or two least favourite factions.

Yes, once you go down that road, people might ask for more.

irrevenant wrote:Were this feature to be included it would make far more sense to replace the dropdown with a series of checkboxes, IMO.

But the info needs to be displayed to other players, too, in the set-up window (otherwise you could just select random, but check all but your chosen faction), which currently uses a string.

Haibane · Post by **Haibane** » October 6th, 2006, 1:34 pm

Rhuvaen wrote: otherwise you could just select random, but check all but your chosen faction

Nothing wrong about it. Why don't give chance to someone who wants play undeads without handicap of fire and impact recruitment of enemy.
It doesn't give advantage, it just removes disadvantage. Useful specially for beginners.

Post by **Viliam** » October 6th, 2006, 2:05 pm

I would prefer if the "Random" choice would open a new window with list of all factions, and checkboxes near them. By default, all factions are marked. Player can unmark any of them, and click "OK". When starting game, one of the marked factions is randomly selected.

PingPangQui · Post by **PingPangQui** » October 6th, 2006, 2:14 pm

This applies to what Haibane said.

Why not give an option "show factions" at the menu where one selects the map settings. If not taged choise of factions are not shown.

+ good for beginners
- the one who creates the match can't change faction when "show factions" isn't taged

P.S.: Villiams idea isn't bad too, but the match creater could get a slight advantage towards others - not to much but still ...

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 6th, 2006, 3:05 pm

pwnzoring idea. Lets do that even for any excepot A1 A2 A3...

I would be generally playing random or _any except (any except loyalists)_

And really, i would loved the idea, but it needs to be done with additional screen or list, because it cannot be made with checkboxes, as it would cause ugly things on screen in usermade eras. Imagine all possible random combinations for some of defences, where you have N>10 factions.

Post by **Kestenvarn** » October 6th, 2006, 3:08 pm

Checkboxes to completely replace the dropdown list.

If you want a specific faction, you check only one. If you want randomly chosen between a certain amount, you check several. Simple.

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 6th, 2006, 3:26 pm

But man! Dont you see what i just said? Imagine era hacing 20 factions - game would act completely out of control, resulting and ugly or even not working UI.

Post by **Maeglin Dubh** » October 6th, 2006, 3:54 pm

They're proposing this for default, not for UMC's. I'm still not clear on if it can be done to one without the UI patch affecting the other, but I'll let one of the brainiacs expound on that issue.

I can just imagine the checkboxlist for DotG....

PingPangQui · Post by **PingPangQui** » October 6th, 2006, 4:55 pm

Does actually anyone read what I wrote?

PingPangQui wrote:(...)
Why not give an option "show factions" at the menu where one selects the map settings. If not taged choise of factions are not shown. (...)

That would solve the problem with the number of checkboxes (only one it would be).

Post by jb » October 6th, 2006, 5:43 pm

Haibane wrote:

Rhuvaen wrote:
otherwise you could just select random, but check all but your chosen faction

Nothing wrong about it. Why don't give chance to someone who wants play undeads without handicap of fire and impact recruitment of enemy.
It doesn't give advantage, it just removes disadvantage. Useful specially for beginners.

So you want to be able to choose your own faction, without others knowing what you choose? That's not a terrible idea. Why shouldn't you be able to choose your faction in secret?

PingPangQui · Post by **PingPangQui** » October 6th, 2006, 8:36 pm

My speaking.

Having an addional check box "show factions" at the "map-setting-diaologe" instead of X checkboxes in the next dialoge of the MP-setup would it make a lot less messy, IMO.