Multiplayer documentation - two queries

[Simons Mith]

I'm now very close to finishing my rewrite of the Wesnoth manual. Two questions pertaining to the multiplayer game arise, so I'm crossposting them here as well as in the manual redraft thread:

1.) Shall I document the multiplayer game lobby? It is described in good detail on the Wesnoth wiki, and I was planning to refer readers to that. OTOH it might be seen a legitimate part of the game functionality, so maybe I should specifically cover it within the game manual. Opinions?

2.) In the multiplayer preferences, I don't understand what the 'Chat Lines' slider is for. Anyone care to explain?

[tsr]

1) I think a short overview is good to have in the manual since you might want to read up in offline mode.
2) it is the number of visible chat-lines displayed from the top-left corner of the game-window

/tsr

[Wintermute]

1) The multiplayer lobby will undergo massive changes in the not-to-distant future, so documenting things extensively in the manual is not a good idea, IMHO. What I think would be prudent is, as tsr suggest, a summary of how to get on the server and create and join games (maybe a paragraph or two worth of 'critical' info pertaining to multiplayer games, like how to tell who is on your team), and then direct readers to the MP Tutorial, and to the Code of Conduct for the MP server. Those pages can be kept up to date (and need some updating actually...) more easily than the manual.

[MCP]

What is critical to game play is how to handle when a person is 'not responding'.

Bring up the command prompt by typing colon ':'
Then control [side number] [user name]

:control 3 MCP

would give me control of side 3.

The user previously on side three would now become an observer capable of rejoining the game if this person later responds. Otherwise chances are this person has lost connection with the wesnoth server and will attempt to rejoin the server later.