Possible 2 create private rm or kick or...from 11-15 XBMC?

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:42 am

Sorry if it has been possted already, but I was wondering on the 11-15 release of xbmc if you have all the functionalities of the U.I that you have running Kai from PC? Example kicking someone or creating a private room requiring password. I have no problem hosting a game via xbmc to kai, the problem I have is that I lose some of the features that Kai allows running from P.C. Diagnostics, kicking, creating private room so on.
If so could someone shed some light on this for me please.
Peace
Sorry if its been posted already Laughing

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:48 am

Also how to you set arena status via xmbc or can you?

I

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:36 am

Hosting status is set for you automatically when you Host, but there was a bug which I only managed to fix in the early hours of this morning - i.e. CVS 17th November. Would have like to have addressed this earlier but the Kai outages affected my ability to debug.

At the moment, the way it works with hosting is that you remain hosting until you change rooms. When you click Host, it will automatically host in a private arena - I know this isn't good enough so I hope to introduce more sophisticated options for hosting games, either today or tomorrow.

I've thought about Kicking, Banning and Disconnecting; discussed it with TheDaddy. And we agree that from a console perspective considering there is no IRC-like function, it only makes sense for me to implement Banning another player.

OK which is better, hosting in a private room or in the main arena? From a network traffic and gameplayer experience, TheDaddy tells me hosting in a private arena is the better option. However we both understand the convenience of 'parking' in a main arena and hosting or playing in that arena. We're not sure whether we should encourage players to choose one or the other; for the moment (that is, until today or tomorrow), it is pretty clear that XBMC encourages private arenas; but like I say this will change.

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:55 am

thanks runtime, i much appreciate (like many people) the job of you and XBMC team.
So much new kai feature last time Wink

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:06 pm

i'm starting to play more games online and finding the experience using xbmc is getting better and better, we're still not quite there yet (i'll be satisfied when we have private arena chat between players, not limited to just friends/contacts). in the meantime, there are lots of things we can do to improve the experience.

Kai Regular Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 163

If Kai, is set to Hosting, you can still join games (Correct me if i am wrong)... so why not jsut set it so that xbmc is set to always be in hosting mode automatically... that way they could host either in the main room or in private rooms... Just my thought... Not sure if this is possible... but its an idea...

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:33 pm

i had that same question, but obviously there is a reason for having a 'not-hosting' status, and according to TheDaddy that is so that Kai can route traffic more efficiently.

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:45 pm

runtime wrote:

OK which is better, hosting in a private room or in the main arena? From a network traffic and gameplayer experience, TheDaddy tells me hosting in a private arena is the better option. However we both understand the convenience of 'parking' in a main arena and hosting or playing in that arena. We're not sure whether we should encourage players to choose one or the other; for the moment (that is, until today or tomorrow), it is pretty clear that XBMC encourages private arenas; but like I say this will change.

When it comes down to playing a game using xbmc as the kai client, then the main arena is so much more convenient. There's no way people can keep quitting back to the dashboard to change between private arenas until they find a game that they like. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if people used more descriptive names for their arenas that suggested the game type and level, and probably their location too, but that just isn't going to happen.
Obviously when using the pc client you can switch between arenas while you have the game's server browser open on the xbox, so you can tell what type of game is being played before settling in an arena.
Basically i think hosting in the main game arena should be encouraged. It'd be interesting to hear what TD has to say about this with regard to network bandwidth/lag.

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:16 pm

This exactly the kind of feedback I/we need. TD and I couldn't decide what to do so I figured I'd leave the option to you guys.

I guess private arenas only work if they are easy to setup and you have a bunch of friends who like to hang out. It doesn't preclude anyone from joining if you don't password it, but I guess the feature is better to have than to leave out.

Agree that 'parking' is the most convenient particularly for XBOX clients; but it'll be interesting to see how Kai handles ever increasing traffic in popular main arenas, and how if ever voice chat will ever be possible in large public spaces.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:22 am

New hosting options now in the latest CVS (November 18th); will require PM2 skin to be updated by Chokemaniac - right now his attention seems to be focused on playing NFSU2 Wink

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 6:31 pm

Wow - imagine that! A software dev for gaming console apps playing games on his console? Who does he think he is??

As far as hosting I have to agree with the previous poster. From the standpoint of having to switch between private arenas to find a game you want to join and having to reboot the box every time you decide to change arenas would get annoying. The bandwith issues definitely exist when you have 200 people parked in one arena, but it's much easier to find an active game.

For me it would be a toss up - I'd honestly make it so people could choose to host in the current arena or create a private one just as easily. Perhaps even have a field in the hosting status dialog box to host in the current arena or create a private one....

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 7:29 pm

its done, as of the wee hours of today - all in the CVS, including a slew of fixes Smile

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 7:43 pm

runtime wrote:

This exactly the kind of feedback I/we need. TD and I couldn't decide what to do so I figured I'd leave the option to you guys.

I guess private arenas only work if they are easy to setup and you have a bunch of friends who like to hang out. It doesn't preclude anyone from joining if you don't password it, but I guess the feature is better to have than to leave out.

Agree that 'parking' is the most convenient particularly for XBOX clients; but it'll be interesting to see how Kai handles ever increasing traffic in popular main arenas, and how if ever voice chat will ever be possible in large public spaces.

Must say, I used the voice chat today with someone from USA in xbmc and it was great, didn't think it would be so easy, got a little pop-up saying they'd enabled voice chat, so I did and I was talking away easily. No lag whatsoever either, I was even using wireless - for me voice chat is the icing on the cake, good job.

Regarding the hosting issues- Personally for every game EXCEPT halo 2 i just stay in the main arena, for Halo 2 i try a sub arena because otherwise lag is unbearable!