October Discussion of the Month: Battle.Net Wishlist

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As you might have noticed October is here. That means the next discussion of the month is here. This month, Karune is asking for our thoughts on the current Battle.Net system and ways to improve it. Blizzard is also taking feature suggestions.

Incase you want to talk about Battle.Net on Battle.Net here is the official thread
http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general&t=41975&p=1&#post41975

Of course you can leave your suggestions here and one of the higher-ups will compile a list and send it to Blizzard. Either way your voice is heard so get to brainstorming.

 

I hope Battle Net gets integrated voice chat since it is so helpfull in team games.

Also I hate having to type in system commands (/msg) to send messages. I think a true friends list button interface is necessary. Also it should be integrated with X-Fire in the same way some games are integrated with Gamespy

 

The oringal was a very good system and helped many of us easily find and play matchs with friends or other players from around the world.

An ability to see the map before joining a game (while in the main lobby). Also another interesting ability would be to allow us to make our own tournaments from time to time on a special server.

Among these i highly recommend that battle.net could be included with some form of a user commentary function where players could upload commentaries of matchs (that reminds me an observer function should also be included in multiplay) that they have observed and post them directly on to battle.net.

note: I know the thing about the replay commentaries may be alittle complex for a multiplayer service but it would add much more content to battle.net and may be a rather interesting thing to see happen.

 

The rumors are just paranoid people. It would not be economical viable for Blizzard to impose a fee because they would lose more money from people not buying the game. The cost to run those servers is low enough that they can make enough money from game sales to support it. Besides RPGs like Diablo 2 use more server power so it would be more likely for D3 to be pay to play than SC2 since RTS games are almost completely client side

 

I really like the friend tab in WCIII, it made it so much easier to find out about my friends. However, I do wish they kept the feature from D2 that lets you add an account and it follows all characters in that account. Also, I would like a separate tab for friends and one for others. That way i can see if someone for a rematch is on but not have it bother me in game displaying messages I don't care about.

 

* What did you love about the original Battle.net?

I guess that depends on what you mean by the original Bnet. I never played WC2 over the internet since it got SC at the same time and I never felt there was a point so I never saw the original Bnet. However, I did play SC on Bnet, as well as WC3 and D1 & D2. Overall, the thing I liked most was the ease at which Bnet was navigatable.

In SC, all one had to do was go to the find game section, select your filter and off you were. If you were looking for a UMS game, there was no fuss. If you wanted TvB it as simple. Another feature I liked were the built in chat rooms. It made it easy to arrange things with friends or even with strangers.

In WC3 I liked the automatic skill matching system for the normal game. The profile stuff was alright to. The thing I most like about it though was the completely seperate section for custom games. To be honest, I didn't like the normal game of WC3 as much as I liked SC but the custom games in WC3 were great. I loved alot of the classic UMS games from SC but there were so many more things that you could do with WC3's editor that you couldn't wiht SC's.

* How has Battle.net played a role in your online multiplayer experience?

To me, Bnet raised the bar on all the other services. So many games have very generic and bland multiplary services. They are alright. A list of servers and some filters and maybe a favorites list is all you really need but compared to all the extra stuff that Bnet offered it just seems lacking. Bnet just gives a more fullfilling gaming experience.

* What features would you like to see in StarCraft IIs Battle.net?

There are plenty of very basic things that could be added. It would be difficult for me to list or even think of them all so I'll leave that to others. There is one specific area that I want improvement on. That is the area of custom/UMS games.

The biggest thing I would like to be able to do is have very indepth and very customizable filters. This is difficult since the content is user generated but I think it is one of the areas that has a great deal of room for improvement. In WC3 for example, there are some custom games that I don't like or that I am tired of, namely DOTA. If I had a way to filter out all the DOTA maps in WC3, that alone would make me feel that Bnet had been greatly improved. Filtering out something like DOTA would not ba as simple as selecting a item from a drop down menu saying it, though that would be nice. To do it, I think you'd have to set up a system to allow a user to customize a large number of filters. For example, there should be filters to select out specific maps, or classes of maps. As in filtering all maps with certain key words in their file names would be a nice way of doing this. Another way would be to filter out specific authors. To me, the ability to filter out specific maps is more important than the ability to specify specific maps to include in the list. This is simply because, there are maps that I almost never like to play but there are many more maps that I do like to play and if I am feeling in the mood to play one type of map but can't find it and see something else I like alot, I am not usually disappointed.

Another thing I would like to see is the ability to see what maps are currently being played. This is would be helpful for many reasons. First, alot of the time, a single person may host a map repeatedly over several hours. If I for some reason miss the cycle of the game being played. Say, I have to leave for a while, the game ends and a new game begins before I return, it would be nice to check on that game from time to time and see if I can catch the next cycle. There are also more general purposes for being able to see what games are being played. It may be just to see if a certain game I like is being played very much so I can know whether to expect it to be hosted again any time soon, or there may be one of dozens of other possible reasons why I'd like to see a list of games currently being played.

So to summarize

1: I'd like the filtration system for custom games vastly improved. Increase the depth and customizability of the filters and specifically make it easy to filter out certain maps.

2. Allow users to view a list of games currently being played . There are a number of reasons why this would be helpful.


* Additional Feedback you would like to give

None

 

the current bnet is good but maybe some improvements could be helpful. Maybe make it so that custom games have there own set of wins and losses. such as risk or diplo. but the voice chat would be good. and yeah maybe integrating it with xfire would be userfriendly. but overall bnet was a good system. so keep it the way it is with maybe a few changes here and there.

 

* What features would you like to see in StarCraft IIs Battle.net?

I would like to be able to add a description to a game- not part of the name, but viewable when it is selected.
That way, the host can put the more notable stuff in the main title, and details, rules, etc, that won't fit/aren't critical, in the the description.

Game Title: 3v3 No Mercy!
Description: 3v3 On the sweetest map ever! May do 2v2 if we don't get 6.
...


--I would like to see a "history" list of games played. This list should include all of the information that would be available before a game as well as information on how players ended it. For example, I played a game with a bunch of friends a while ago, but died early on, Thulium's really good, so he's been holding the other two off for quite a while:

Game Title: 3v3 No Mercy!
Description: 3v3 On the sweetest map ever! May do 2v2 if we don't get 6.
Game Type: Top vs Bottom
Status: Active
Host: 10-Neon
Map: Nova Platform
Players:
10-Neon (Defeated)
69-Thulium (In Game)
11-Sodium (In Game)
17-Chlorine (In Game)
Duration: 18:24 (Active)

I'd prefer to see just a list of game titles, and be able to click on them to expand the list fully, over having a list of lists.


--Map preview viewable from the game list.

 

* What features would you like to see in StarCraft IIs Battle.net?

Well, i think battle.net is pretty good as it is, but there are some minor things I want added. First of all, the ability to search for games while still in chat. This isn't in SC1 or WC3 but it is in D2. It just simplifies things a bit.

 

The main thing I loved about Battlenet is that it is wicked fast. You can connect online, settle into several lobbies and join (and start) several games all pretty damn quick- probably all less than 2 minutes (short games you just want to check out and leave).
Compared to other games, just about everyone can con easily. If not the bad connector won't be able to join a game and will never hold up the rest of the gang.

 

* Additional Feedback you would like to give

I never used battle.net enough to be able to comment on needed new features, however when I did use it the good features were very fast access and no monthly charges. If charges were introduced basic access should still remain free to preserve the community

 

As of now, Battle.net if well designed. The latest update was about a year ago, adding the friends option. I think that was very smart. The create and join game should stay as well as the channel button.

Improve:
1) When somebody whispers to you, and you forget who, it's very annoying. Add a talk to last person who talked to you feature. Like: /T P Hi
T=talk P= previous

2) Of course, more friends. I hate it how when you need to add a friend in game, but the list is full. You press /f l but the list doesn't go up from about 1-15. Plus with people chatting. You should put like a feature that remembers a name for later use. like /S N Darktemplar_L
S=store N=Name

end of discussion for me.

 

Well I think that the old battle-net is cool cos it is simple. Just get in, select a category, and play.

I wanna keep it that way, simple. Intrincated crap usually ends up sucking.
The only improvement should be made for replays. At the time of a replay the player should have more info to order the replays, like number of players, game type, map, etc. All the rest is unnecesary.

Voice? Thats gonna take a lot of the connection, besides most people dont share a common language. Only game language like "go zerg expa". Things so short that need no voice chat.

 

As of now, i play starcraft multiplayer as my only gaming options. It is my favorite muliplay as it is easy to use, and as mentioned before, very fast. Out of all the games i have ever played it is the best. The filtering system is very easy to use, i like how you could join channels to chat with. Only thing i did not like is that to type to a specific friend you have to type /f (then their name). Most of the time i just typed in /f m because i am rather lazy. If you could make it easier, mayb assign friends numbers, so you can type in /f 4 , or something like that to talk to a specific person. Just a idea, and that is mostly for ingame play. I really like the idea of a voice chat system. That would really help alot in multiplayer missions, and would make it pretty kool and much faster. Now i know that this is just said to be false, but i would like to make this said to blizzard. If the their is a fee to online starcraft 2, i wont play online, but rather i would continue to play online starcraft 1 online. I use to play World of Warcraft, but i quit because i didnt want to keep on paying the monthly fee. So please, if at all possible, make it free. But other then that not much else i would like to make said. Great Job Blizzard! you have made me very happy. =)

 

Battle.net is functioning pretty well as of now. The only complaints I have is that of hackers. I'd like some better way to catch hackers and punishing them.

 

* What did you love about the original Battle.net?

-Simple and friendly user interface
-Filtering of servers by game type
-Chat and messaging ability

* How has Battle.net played a role in your online multiplayer experience?

-I have exclusively used Battle.net for playing the original Starcraft game as well as it's expansion for online play

* What features would you like to see in StarCraft IIs Battle.net?

-Improved chat lobby list (lobby name/description/active users)
-Ability to create permanent channel (if too much load/administration is needed, perhaps only clans/websites/supporters etc can be allowed permanent custom chat channel... request form?)
-Improved latency and ping information
-More in depth game filters (game type/not full/not empty/max players/host ping/text field for specific map)
-More information on games while in game browser ('Join' section) (number of players already joined and max players (in format such as "5/8"), host ping, maybe even list of all players in the game, elapsed time since game was created by host)
-Continuous lobby chat (when you play a game and come back to chat lobby the chat history is continuous)
-Improved buddy list with more features as well as improvements to options for customizing profile
-More in depth player stat information, ability to choose to keep stats and which kind of stats are viewable to public
-No additional cost other than purchase of game in ordered to use Battle.net

 

1) in w3 .. if u were to type in a game name wrong (or join a game that doesnt' exist anymore) you basically get "stuck" for 10-20 seconds till b.net reports "game cannot be found". I'd like a quick "out" button that can cancel this b.net function instead of waiting for it to search the game out.

2) Loading times : It would be nice if we could see the progress of the OTHER players loading, instead of the "all-or-nothing" approach. Sometimes i might be able to fit in a small break to the washroom if it appears the load will be long or not. I dont' see a chat system during the load screen (wouldn't hurt though)

3) UMS : I understand taht b.net allows people to leave games during the countdown .. but it shoudl also give the host of the game some extra seconds to "unstart" the game if a someone leaves at "3" of the 5 second countdown so he doenst' have to rehost it.

4)Woudln't mind a bigger friendslist available. At first 25 (w3) seems a lot..but after a few years it fills up fast.

 

* What did you love about the original Battle.net?
It was free and there were always many games on and it was userfriendly

* What features would you like to see in StarCraft IIs Battle.net?
voice chat
choosable colors
people with much lag will automaticale change to a lower resoultion(make the game in 2 graphical quality levels)
antihack
a moderator for the forums
loading bars for all players
a cancel button if someone leaves
players getting rplaced by AI if they leave

 

Question: If a player leaves the game while the countdown is started there is'nt much time for the host to cancel the countdown.
Answer: Extend the countdown when a player leaves. Or, cancel the countdown automatically.

Question: When joining a game that no longer exists you will get stuck for 5-15sec where you can do nothing but wait for the Bnet to check the game.
Answer: Give an option to cancel this check, hitting the ESC button is one solution.

Question: There are alot of Custom Maps out there. It's hard to sort them all out and find what you want.
Answer: Create a filter for custom maps. A filter could work like this; When you create a custom map in the World Editor you can chose to put it in a sertain premade category, for example: Tower Defense.

Question: I meet alot of nice people when I play, and I also have alot of friends, my friends list gets big and messy.
Answer: Make an extended friends list. One that is called Friends and one that is called Aqcuainted.
Make an option to put notes on your friends.

Question: My friend just entered a game. I want to join the same game but I usualy don't have time to enter the name of the game and then join before it gets full.
Answer: Give the ability to easy join the same game as your friends.

Question: When im in the "Game/Server Room" looking for what games to join. I dont know if a friend is writing to me, I can't see if they came online or what they are writing.
Answer: Make a small chat window in the "Game Room" where private messages can show up. Maybe also show the chat from the chat channel your in.

Question: In the loading screen you can't do much then just sit and wait for the game to start.
Answer: Put in some nice features like chatting while loading. Make people able to see who has finished loading and who's not.

Question: When I play I dont always have time to write to people in my team.
Answer: Add Voice Chat.


Deleted posts. Please read the forum rules and do not double post. Or triple.

 

Also, if the game would to change the players resolution and graphics it will take some time to reconfigure it all, and most likley force others to wait for his computer. Wich could cuse him to lose his connection.