Can we have a game lobby please!!

[zoutzakje]

I believe that most people who think it takes to much time and trouble to figure out how to play AI war with other players, won't really be interested in the game itself anyways, since the game itself is a lot more complicated to figure out. Finding people here on the forum to play with and setting up Hamachi worked out just fine for me and it took me like 1/100 of the time it took me to figure out how the game actually works. So I think it's fine the way it is

[Draco18s]

I mentioned having YOUR ip address displayed in the lobby for ease-of-discovery, which at the time would have been real easy: ping whatismyip.net which would reply back with ONLY the text of your ip address.

Sadly that url is no longer valid.

(Hmm, quick google search brings up:
http://whatsmyip.net/
http://www.ipchicken.com/
and
http://ifconfig.me/
as all pretty basic no-nonsense sites that could be easily parsed for the required information, the first one even has IPv6!)

[Chthon]

For the record, a game lobby in the case of Arcen Games could be as simple as an IRC chat with user list with some added functionality.

For example you can add an icon to users who are starting games to let others know there is a game starting now.  You can also have a separate icon for games that are loaded but waiting for you specifically.  Finally giving a right click to join feature with hidden IP and port (your client would query theirs) would alleviate trust issues when players don't know each other.

This could also double as a main chat channel in game that can be toggled on and off as needed.

Finally, it would be nice to open a game to spectators so if you ask for advice, they could come look at what's going on currently in your game.  Need for keeping them 100% updated isn't necessary, simply giving them a series of snapshots every few seconds should be enough for them to get the idea.  However that's a completely new feature request, and might not show up immediately.

This would constitute a game lobby in the form of an extended IRC like you were planning, and would help people easily meet others who play and find others to play with.  It would also allow people to turn it off if they desire privacy.

[keith.lamothe]

Finally, it would be nice to open a game to spectators so if you ask for advice, they could come look at what's going on currently in your game.  Need for keeping them 100% updated isn't necessary, simply giving them a series of snapshots every few seconds should be enough for them to get the idea.  However that's a completely new feature request, and might not show up immediately.

There's already the "Helper" role in the game, which you can add someone as mid-game, and basically gives them observer status.  You can also grant team control of units to let them actually do something in the game if you like

[chemical_art]

Unfortunately i find the issue of simply connecting into the game lobby to begin. with another player to best difficult that I've not had the opportunity to use the helper method

[Chthon]

Finally, it would be nice to open a game to spectators so if you ask for advice, they could come look at what's going on currently in your game.  Need for keeping them 100% updated isn't necessary, simply giving them a series of snapshots every few seconds should be enough for them to get the idea.  However that's a completely new feature request, and might not show up immediately.

There's already the "Helper" role in the game, which you can add someone as mid-game, and basically gives them observer status.  You can also grant team control of units to let them actually do something in the game if you like

Can you set the helper role after the start?  If not then this is something that perhaps should be included, as doing this is what I was talking about.

[keith.lamothe]

Can you set the helper role after the start?

Yep, that's what I mean by "which you can add someone as mid-game"

[Zeyi]

I believe that most people who think it takes to much time and trouble to figure out how to play AI war with other players, won't really be interested in the game itself anyways, since the game itself is a lot more complicated to figure out. Finding people here on the forum to play with and setting up Hamachi worked out just fine for me and it took me like 1/100 of the time it took me to figure out how the game actually works. So I think it's fine the way it is

I can't agree more with this.

AIwar is not the kind of game that requires a lobby, and if seeking out people to play with, and setting up a game is too difficult then I suspect the game would be too.