quote: players exit without any reason, or even fail to load at all. |
Adressing the actual problem (more stable engine/game/settings etc) is kind of huge, slow, open-ended task. But players never getting ingame is indeed problem for balance.
Maybe on option is to have some system where players have to "validate" that they (their PC) are suitable for online play. Like a pre-flight checklist.
It is not just new players but sometimes old players also fail to get ingame because of new computer or game updates or re-installs,...
You are only allowed to spectate until you have validated. A validation is valid for some time, like 48 hours or so.
Ways to become and stay validated:
1) Join running match and spectate for 1 minute.
or
2) Complete a tiny test- mission. (The goal is to walk Commander 5 meters and plop factory. That is all.)
If you/your PC can not do that, then it is sadly also not possible to play online.
also:
3) Completing a match refreshes your validation.
I do not like it that much, it is maybe too strict etc. But there is enough downtime between matches to start the test-misson which only takes 1-2 minutes. Also think of the time that you save by not having to restart so often because of players who did not get ingame.
From technical side, I do not know how excactly it would work:
There is already level-system, there is already way to track what battles/missions player has played, there is already hosts with minimum requirements, it seems possible.
Before there was the problem that some players used non-zeroK-lobby clients which could not play missions with hacktricks, but now that problem is gone.