TL;DR The ability to link two parties together so there can be up to 8 people in a 'party', where they all type into one party chat, join one queue and aren’t always on the same team would be very helpful and beneficial!
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I’ve been playing in parties on Island for a long time, and in this time I’ve noticed a few major issues. The main one being that there aren’t enough spaces. This was especially highlighted the other night as myself and a few friends were trying to play together in Dynaball. However, this was not possible using the base party system, as there were 5 of us.
It ended up with the 5 of us being split across two parties. In order to get into the same game the two leaders were /pm-img each other trying to coordinate and figure out whether or not we were in the same queue. A number of times we lost each other because by the time we realised we were not, in fact, in the same queue: the period to cancel it had already ended. Sometimes the parties were not in the same team, and this was fun as it allowed us to play against each other.
But, it wasn’t as good as it could have been. The main issues being losing each other in queues, and having conversations with each other publicly that could be better fit for party chat. These need a solution, and a few were proposed by @SonicPandora274b a while ago in this thread. However, we built on this whilst playing against each other the other night.
How it would work
In my opinion, the best way to explain the system is with an example:
In this scenario, we've noted Party A as being the 'Lead' Party, which, essentially means that their leader (maxi) is the one with the power to queue.
Some key points to understand:
Hopefully this is helpful, and thanks to everyone mentioned for the help!
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I’ve been playing in parties on Island for a long time, and in this time I’ve noticed a few major issues. The main one being that there aren’t enough spaces. This was especially highlighted the other night as myself and a few friends were trying to play together in Dynaball. However, this was not possible using the base party system, as there were 5 of us.
It ended up with the 5 of us being split across two parties. In order to get into the same game the two leaders were /pm-img each other trying to coordinate and figure out whether or not we were in the same queue. A number of times we lost each other because by the time we realised we were not, in fact, in the same queue: the period to cancel it had already ended. Sometimes the parties were not in the same team, and this was fun as it allowed us to play against each other.
But, it wasn’t as good as it could have been. The main issues being losing each other in queues, and having conversations with each other publicly that could be better fit for party chat. These need a solution, and a few were proposed by @SonicPandora274b a while ago in this thread. However, we built on this whilst playing against each other the other night.
How it would work
In my opinion, the best way to explain the system is with an example:
| Party A - 'Lead' Party | Party B - 'Chained' Party |
| [Leader] maxibob12_dow | [Leader] MrLift |
| JTF1 | DivineFTL |
| SonicPandora | |
Some key points to understand:
- Basically all party commands like kick and leader function like they normally would be, in unlinked parties.
- To chain them together, maxi would invite the leader of Party B using a command such as /party link MrLift to make them the 'Chained' Party, essentially the ones that follow along. This would pop a message up on MrLift's screen much like the "you've been invited to so and so's party!" one. To unlink the party, either leader would have to do /party unlink.
- As for party chat, these would also be linked together. If a player from Party B types in this chat, Party A would also receive the message.
- To relieve confusion of who is in which party, players in the opposite party to you would have a chain icon along with their names, kind of like disguise.
- To simplify code (and perhaps make games a little more exciting and balanced), what team the players are in is not linked. So, each party could face each other occasionally in games like Dynaball and of course would always face each other in Sky Battle and Battle Box.
- The party GUI and the sidebar would need to be partially redesigned to accommodate this, however I believe making them more like their plobby equivalents would fix this.
- I'm not saying this system is without its flaws, and it could potentially be abused and exploited. To solve this, one solution could be only making leading either Party A or B open to people with either GCR or +, but there's probably a better solution.
Hopefully this is helpful, and thanks to everyone mentioned for the help!
