multiplayer friends extra features

[max_torch]

Sometimes I like to play certain MP scenarios/types/eras with certain people only. Some people like certain scenarios/gametypes/eras, and then they see that one of their friends who knows how to play a particular scenario/gametype/era well is online then they probably would like to take the opportunity to play a particular game with him.

Problem: Sometimes however with so many friends in the list and the fact that a lot of people disappear and then reappear in wesnoth MP for long and erratic periods there is a tendency to forget when and why one added someone to his friends list and what games one likes to play with certain friends. Especially with certain UMC creations that are not yet popular or are played only by a few and you need to remember who plays that particular UMC.


Here are some possible enhancements to improve this aspect of MP experience:

1.Labels - The idea is that there would be an option to associate labels (these will be private labels only existing in your own computer) with the friends you have listed in your preferences.
For example i have a friend named 'wesnothcitizen' and i will put a label beside his name "SXRPG and Conquest buddy". Or another guy named "Vampiremaster" with a label "guy who always teaches me stuff".
*names are not real user names

2. Friend groups - Another way is to have the option to group your friends into categories whose header is something that you define. For example when I open my friends list there are 3 boxes named "ladder friends, SXRPG friends, Conquest friends" with the corresponding friend names assigned to the boxes. And you would have the option to add or remove categories.

3. Friend History - When you add someone as a friend you get the option to save history(stored only in your computer) of certain stats such as: games played together, times defeated, times lost to, friend since, etc.. It will also serve to rekindle memories of that great game you had with this guy, etc..

All the above data would be stored only in your own computer for you to see and edit.

It could be one or a combination of the aforementioned features that can enhance MP and add more social dynamics and community aspect and on the whole help to improve quality of the MP experience.
So what do you guys think?

[Ravana]

Good idea, deserves attention.
So far I have used just another cfg file for this.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

In my opinion, multiplayer is where the game needs the most work. It's just not fluid enough.

[UK1]

I think the labels idea certainly shows merit. However, is it worth taking the attention of the Devs off of developing the game itself to do something that I currently do in wordpad? Just saying.

[max_torch]

I think the labels idea certainly shows merit. However, is it worth taking the attention of the Devs off of developing the game itself to do something that I currently do in wordpad? Just saying.

Hmm, for all we know, maybe this isnt really so hard to code, but we really have to ask a developer' regarding the difficulty of implementation. And I do think that it would be better to have it in the game rather than in wordpad, perhaps close to the same reason that it is nicer to have a campaign completed symbol in the image of the campaign rather than just listing the campaigns you have finished in wordpad. It's just nicer to have it in the game.

[iceiceice]

I just looked very briefly at the source code, it looks like wesnoth already stores "notes" associated to every friend in the preferences file. Is there not some way to use this for labels / groups already? It might be an undocumented feature of :friend or something.

https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/blob ... s.cpp#L230

Update:
It's just a new feature in 1.11. Apparently it was added 10 months ago in 1.11.5 by uakfdotb: https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/comm ... b6de66f4d7

but it didn't get a changelog entry I guess, or any documentation. I'm going to put a note on the wiki.

[max_torch]

i looked at the code. Im not an expert in C++, but I did see as what iceice said that there are notes associated with each friend. So I think one thing we can do is put an interface option that allows you to store a string in the notes value and then have it displayed on the interface in the multiplayer lobby/friends list beside the nick, in perhaps a different color.

What about the friend history thing I mentioned, does anyone think that would be useful? You would know who you have played with most, least, for how long, etc..
Scenario: You have too many friends in your list but you don't know who to remove, but then you look at the friends you have played the least with in the history so you can easily decide to remove them from your list.

[iceiceice]

max_torch:

I think one issue with (3) is that many wesnoth players use multiple nicks and we have no way / desire to track these identities, so the kinds of statistics you are talking about would be less useful. However, you are certainly welcome to expand upon the idea / make a feature request at bugs.wesnoth.org. Maybe its more useful than I imagine; I don't really use the friends feature myself, I find I can keep track of who I know without it.

[max_torch]

tbh, I was just throwing the idea out there. If this idea generates a good response only then will I feel inclined to really make a feature request for it.