So I emailed Valve about this and thought I'd let you guys know of my "solution" to the Lobby System.
Firstly, I agree that the lobby system is a good addition but I don't agree that it is needed. Anyway, here is what I propose: Members of Steam Groups are currently able to see servers from the groups they are members of. Now, the problem with the Lobby system is that it puts you in a server regardless of your latency to the server. I suggest that players who want to create a server, can open the Steam Group Server List, click on a server that's empty and then click on Create Lobby. The Lobby System then assigns this server and locks it to the current Lobby created by the player. From here on, you select the difficulty and campaign to play, wait for players to join and then when you click START GAME, the Lobby sends the server some info to change the settings of the server to that specified in the Lobby BEFORE the players actually connect to the server. Once the settings have been confirmed, players connect to the server and enjoy their game. With this system, players will need to specify what is an acceptable latency they want to be able to play with. If this range meets the latency of the server created by the lobby, they can connect, else, the system will keep searching until a server has been found within the latency range specified . Now, the reason I think the Lobby system is NOT necessary: I was told that the Lobby system was implemented because with the old server browser people would join a server where the game is halfway through. Or they'd leave in the middle of the campaign. Well, people do that anyway. People come and go as we play the campaigns with no real affect on the game. And besides, what is the Steam Group Server List other if it's not a Server Browser? The only difference that I can see is that the Steam Groups Server List is a server browser that only shows servers of the Steam Groups you belong to. Please share your thoughts. Stephan Botha L4DMods.com _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
