#More prep time after game is found

233 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

warm pelican
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I stand up and walk around in between games. While it's usually nice that the game starts so quickly once a match is found, it would be nice to have a little bit more time rather than having to drop what I'm doing instantly and sit down once a game is found. It could still be a short amount of time, say 15-20 seconds. Just as long as it's more than the 3-5 seconds we currently have. Also, if I'm not back in time, that could be the difference between opponents scoring a goal or not because goals can be scored in 2 seconds.

Maybe this time could be filled with:
-flashy opening scene showing players and their leagues
-players ready prompt. All players accept the match or say they're ready and then it starts just as fast as it does now.

Edit:
TLDR/summary
Most agreed upon change of discussion is a ready prompt at the beginning of the game where you can skate freely after you hit ready. There is only a 10 second window for this ready prompt. If the time expires, the game moves to 3 second countdown as usual. If all players accept at the start, then it will move to the 3 second countdown as well. The ready prompt should be designed to accommodate both sides of the issue. If all players are ready, go. If not all players are ready, you just lose 10 seconds, no biggie.

Pros
-A little bit of extra time to do things outside of the game instead of having to rush to the slapshot tab

Cons
-Time spent waiting will add up over time in a game where you typically wait a short amount of time and it lasts only 5? minutes

Relevant info
-total wait time I timed once is 9 seconds from game found to game start

My summary of thoughts (maybe I'm a little bit biased)
this change is asking for more wait time, which is a bit absurd, "You want to wait longer for a game?". I need a little bit longer. 20 seconds would be perfect for me. Don't accommodate players who are afk for a full minute. I definitely agree there. I also believe 10 seconds is negligible compared to some queues

lilac sonnet
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Considering that it’s pretty easy to find games when players are active, I’d just say queue when you’re ready. But the opening scenes do sound cool

marble crag
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It would be really nice if the start was delayed proportional to how long you had to wait

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kinda nice to be able to move around a bit while waiting 5 min

stable wolf
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i sit in 20 minute queues the last thing i want to do is wait another 30 seconds when i find a game

elder moon
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fr

warm pelican
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How about a 10 second countdown?
It's currently a 3 second countdown once everyone has loaded the game. I timed it from the buzzer sound to game start and it only took 9 seconds total. Barely enough time to walk across the room, sit down and be ready for the game to start. There are a lot of players that are afk at the start of games probably because of the short countdown.

elder moon
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i think if you really care all that much abt the one goal that might happen youll just chill at ur desk lol

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I enjoy that it gets right into gameplay rather thna having a super long countdown for ppl who arent ready

warm pelican
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I also enjoy how quickly it gets into gameplay, but sometimes when I'm in the middle of something, it takes me a little more than 10 seconds to get back. I don't think 10 seconds is a "super long countdown". Surely there's a sweet spot we can all agree on.

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I think there would need to be a small change to the countdown though, 10 seconds of countdown would feel really long. So a very short opening might be necessary

elder moon
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5

young hatch
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If you want to walk around and do small tasks, why not just queue after? If 1 goal in an arcade hockey game means that much to you, surely you would prioritize being ready when you queue up.

elder moon
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what im sayin

young hatch
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I do like the idea of a check-in/players ready prompt. But coming from a small region where we're potentially waiting 10+ minutes per game already, this would be frustrating to miss the check in and delay a game even further. Would much rather play and have 1 person miss the first 10-15 seconds than not get into a match at all

stable wolf
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don’t be in the middle of something

elder moon
elder moon
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essay?

warm pelican
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Okay maybe I have the solution for both worlds. Every player has a ready prompt at the start that triggers the countdown when everyone is ready. If someone isn't ready, the countdown starts in 10 seconds anyway. This would give me the 19 seconds instead of only 9 seconds that I am asking for.

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yes in the middle of typing, curious what you think

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that's a bit condescending though. I want to find a solution good for everyone, no need to be like that

elder moon
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im a jerk and i hate change muhahahhahahahahaha

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on a real note most people would not like this change i think

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at least most people at a highish level

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when you have 8k games adding an extra 10 seconds to each one adds up especially when its not actual play time

warm pelican
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It is better to think of things in terms of percentage. If you're willing to sit in queue for 5 minutes, 10 seconds is only 1/30 of that time. So raising the wait time by 3.33% is pretty negligible. The whole "10 seconds adds up" logic falls apart when you use percentages. And this game compares quite well in terms of wait time to other games. Overwatch used to have 8 minute queues that I actually liked because I could do different things for a bit. Pubg has a decent queue, followed by 1 minute prep time, followed by another minute or so of plane riding and dropping. And the worst part is, if you die first in pubg, you immediately have to sit in queue and wait time again. So in pubg if you hotdrop, your playtime to queue/wait time percentage is maybe 40-50% on average. Better or worse depending on how good you are at staying alive. slapshot probably has like 90-95% playtime over wait time. So I'd say slapshot players have it pretty good compared to other games. I think 10 seconds is pretty reasonable.

elder moon
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id rather get in a few more games weekly than sit in a lobby waiting for someone who decided not to be ready

warm pelican
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I respect that opinion. It is nice if you're ready at the computer and the game starts very quickly, but I think it's negligible and there's a sweet spot of wait time we can add. And it's not even adding it if everyone is there to ready up. Players are afk for a sort period at the start of the game all the time. And I think they'd appreciate the ready screen.

warm pelican
# elder moon 5

I actually agree with this. Honestly a lot of the time I'm only 2 seconds late after the game starts lol. So it's a good compromise from my +10 seconds to your just +2 seconds

warm pelican
# stable wolf don’t be in the middle of something

This is also just asking me not to be productive, and not a solution to my problem. I want to be productive while in queue, but I choose not to be productive because I know I don't have time to even finish a thought or message when the slapshot buzzer rings. Like it's such a short time, you alt tab and the game is already starting.

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"Don't queue if you're not ready to play" is also hard if you're playing with friends. It's not worth taking a break to do the things I want to do.

stable wolf
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i sat in a 30 minute queue just to not find a game with 240 people on

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the last thing i want is to wait another minute once we find a game cause people want to sit and wait

warm pelican
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^I'm proposing just 10 seconds, not another minute. Also again think in terms of percentages. one minute of wait time is 3.33% of a 30 minute queue, which is negligible. Sounds like you're willing to sit through a 30 minute queue but not 1 minute of prep time.

elder moon
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idk i just sit at my pc in free skate

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or like watching yt

elder moon
warm pelican
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5-10%

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adding 10 seconds is about 1% maybe

elder moon
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yea but the point is long term it wastes a lot of time for people who arent ready

warm pelican
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just have to consider the full duration of wait time and playtime

elder moon
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theres no reason to queue if you arent ready to play

warm pelican
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I told you my reason. My friends want to queue, and I want to stand up sometimes. Not all the time, just sometimes. And sometimes I don't make it back in time, just like a lot of people

elder moon
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then just take the goal lol

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its a niche problem, no reason to inconvenience nearly everyone

warm pelican
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1% less playtime isn't an inconvenience

elder moon
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it is

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you just arent at a point to understand it

warm pelican
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I do understand it, I just think in percentages, but I don't think anyone else does

elder moon
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for most people around my skill level thats 13 hours wasted waiting

warm pelican
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13 hours of 1300 hours, it's negligible

elder moon
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most people reach around 5k games at like 600 hours

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either way if you care about that goal youll sit at your pc and wait for queue to pop

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its a rare problem and the solution is stop caring

warm pelican
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yeah I don't care that much, mainly don't want to ruin the game for my teammates

elder moon
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most ppl are toxic anyways

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the majority of nice people will understand

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id rather deal with someone being a little late every few games than wait longer after the queue pops

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also the little wait is just like unappealing if that makes sense, I feel like I would find myself wanting to just end on a game because the wait is annoying me

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but im also spending like 10 minutes in queue so I just want to play

warm pelican
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I agree 10 seconds of wait time would be boring. It needs a quick opening screen. Plenty of games have these openings where they show off everyone's league and such

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And I think that's appealing to some

elder moon
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yea but its not those games, its not a shooter. slap takes usually around 6 minutes per game so having a preview gets very repetitve

warm pelican
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true

elder moon
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seeing the same animation over and over and over and over and theres no way to control it is not very fun lol

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cannot imagine having to sit through it a couple thousand times

warm pelican
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hearing the slapshot buzzer thousands of times is already a bit much lol

elder moon
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I turned it off so

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I like music most of the time and sometimes I have audio on for stick tapping

warm pelican
warm pelican
elder moon
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well idk but usually I dont get pressed over one mishap

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goals get scored it is what it is

warm pelican
# elder moon its a rare problem and the solution is stop caring

I wouldn't call it rare when probably half of the games someone is afk at the start. I might actually record this number as I play next time.
I'm sure it sounds like I'm making it a big deal, but I acknowledge it doesn't matter that much. Maybe 1 in 50 games it'll cost a goal for me personally. Not a big deal.

elder moon
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yea i think it might be more prevelant in lower ranks or more populated servers as well

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most west guys ik are active or we can jsut 2v3 defense for a second

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the majority of quick goals i encounter are 3v3

stable wolf
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i just don’t understand queueing when ur not ready to play

warm pelican
# stable wolf i just don’t understand queueing when ur not ready to play

If I was playing by myself, I would only queue when I'm ready, like you're saying. But because I play with friends, I don't want to make us stop queuing for the small things I want to do.

At the end of the day, you don't have to understand the problem though, but just know that it is present. All the afk people you see at the start of games are likely doing something similar to me. And I think you could accommodate these people and myself with even just 5 more seconds of wait time. I bet very few people would notice if about 5 seconds were added to the loading screen time (rather than the countdown)

primal lava
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it makes sense@warm pelican
They could add a system where when the game is found ppl have 10 seconds to press ready, if they pressed the game starts before the 10 seconds have passes, and if they didn't press (at least 1 person in the lobby) the game waits 10 seconds to start.

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what you are saying makes sense. waiting 10 seconds its very little time, and unreasonable to complain.
People say they wait 30mins in a queue to play and then when the game is found (when they are on yt or smth) the game just starts in less than 3 secs.
Imagine you play on controller, you would have to Alt-tab back to Slapshot; Pick the controller and start playing. All this in less than 3 seconds

stable wolf
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just stay on the game or when u hear the horn click back in?

primal lava
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and wait 10secs to start the game :))

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Do you wait, the 30 minutes that you said, looking at your character in the lobby? Or do you go to practice mode every time you have to wait to queue? Do you think most people do that?
When thinking about game changes we should think about the entire player base, not only what suits us

stable wolf
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i sit on my phone

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or talk to the people im in vc with

elder moon
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^

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watch youtube, draw, do homework, write emails/check emails, research random stuff, go through new music, aimlabs, and just in general mess with stuff on my pc

primal lava
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thanks for the reply @elder moon

elder moon
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but yea im sure most people dont get up in between games for extended periods of time

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otherwise id be dealing with afk teammates more than every 20th game

primal lava
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@stable wolf I think ppl do a variety of things, not only be on the phone or talk to people in vc. As Puffro said, he does a lot of things while queueing, and to stop doing those things and hope back into the game in less 3 seconds is asking for people to be in such a hurry just to play the game.

elder moon
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okay well tbf I just alt tab and play lol

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leave my roller plugged in off to the side and then when i hear the horn i alt tab and grab it

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then i just spin till the puck drops lol

primal lava
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This does not work as me, a player, see a considerably amount of people being AFK for less than 10 seconds at the start of the game

stable wolf
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it doesnt take that long

primal lava
stable wolf
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and at most people will be afk for a second as the puck drops

elder moon
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im gonna be honest the only afk ppl I run into consistently are gold and below

primal lava
stable wolf
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if ur bad

primal lava
stable wolf
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then i got 5 minutes to score 6 instead of 5

primal lava
elder moon
primal lava
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bruh

stable wolf
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more goals for me i gotta hit 17k

primal lava
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that's not a solution to the problem smh

elder moon
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if you stay afk thats your fault not the game for not giving enough time

stable wolf
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it is if ur me

primal lava
stable wolf
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kinda serious

image.png
elder moon
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either way if you dont want to get scored on you will be active

primal lava
stable wolf
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never thought much of it so it doesnt matter

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plus when people go afk they are usually gone for atleast a minute of the game

primal lava
# stable wolf kinda serious

I meant, I can't tell you're serious about not adding 10 secs wait time because you bLue need to reach a certain goal record lol

I saw you in the leaderboard before :))

primal lava
primal lava
elder moon
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yea idk its a niche issue, cant really expect other people to wait longer because you arent ready. The majority of players are on time so why should we accomodate for the people creating their own issue

stable wolf
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thats what ive seen

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people being afk for much longer than 10 seconds

primal lava
primal lava
elder moon
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yea eu is prolly different then lol

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I see the same thing on west and central. once every like 20 gsmes someone is afk for a minute or so

stable wolf
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id say for me ive had 1/40 games start with an afk kid and i can confidently say 98% of the time hes gone for longer than 10 second

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now thats gonna be different for everyone but thats my take

elder moon
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  • most people can identify afk teammates and just know to play passive from the start
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obviously if in those 3 seconds they arent spinning or moving you can assume they are afk so just play back a lil

stable wolf
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and in higher levels theres usually someone that will drop back to net anyway

elder moon
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ye

stable wolf
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just to counter faceoff goals

elder moon
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most faceoff goals wouldve just happened either way

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its soooo rare for a goal to be caused by someone being afk for me

primal lava
elder moon
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its not like people are saying its not enough time for me to alt tab, or that the start is too jarring. there is plenty of time but if you are choosing to be away from your pc in between then yes it is a self inflicted issue

primal lava
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bro, ofc going away from the pc is too much (for this game), but people having other tabs opened is completely reasonable.
There is not "plenty of time", from when you hear the buzz and you gotta be 100% ready! If you're in the position to fight for the puck at the start you're kinda fucked, unless you're prepared.
I think this can be a issue now, because there's not a lot of players playing, so the queue times can be too long, and when the match is found, it catches the players unexpectedly. If the matches were found in a consistent fast way, the players would not queue unless 100% ready for a match

elder moon
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no one has come in here to say they dont have time to alt tab

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its been the exact opposite

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the truth of the matter is that if you arent able to get ready in the 10 seconds providing another 10 wont do much to solve the issue

primal lava
primal lava
elder moon
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it does matter because its the difference between being ready but theres just literally not enough time and being completely away from your pc

primal lava
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the game has like 3 seconds "wait" time

elder moon
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loading screen after horn

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its 6 seconds + the 3 + however long it takes for the 6th person to join

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do you know what parkinsons law is

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cuz to me that sounds liek the issue

primal lava
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Why should we care about what people do when they're waiting for a game?? If they stand up to go somewhere or if they go on youtube, why does it matter? It can all be fixed by adding more time...

primal lava
elder moon
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the point is theyre still going to try and stretch the time so they can do more of wtv they were doing before. 10 seconds is a lot of time to sit down alt tab and pick up a controller

primal lava
elder moon
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its basically the idea that people will wait last minute to get to doing a task

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i can lay on my bed and have enough time to get up to my pc to play

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It doesnt seem like an amount of time issue rather its an issue with time managment

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a lot of people underestimate how long it will take to do something

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if you start getting ready as soon as you hear the horn theres no issue but I think the people having trouble being late are underestimating how long it will take them to get ready to play

primal lava
elder moon
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theres a horn before the menu

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and then theres a whistle at 3 seconds

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gotta go make sure this isnt a fever dream, checking clips lol

primal lava
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how many sounds u heard in the clip?

elder moon
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mine has a horn lol

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idk why your doesnt

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maybe it got remove or something but its always had a horn as long as ive played

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it was the marine ferry horn

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as soon as it said connecting it would play

primal lava
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maybe cuz I connected to a match right after I clicked quick play. but tbh i dont remember a horn

elder moon
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@tidal knoll theres a horn right

primal lava
elder moon
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from the horn

primal lava
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horn? stare

elder moon
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yes there is a horn I swear

primal lava
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lemme try again lol

elder moon
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@stable wolf comfirm this please

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im a schizo

stable wolf
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the horn

elder moon
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i swear theres always the marine ferry horn when you connect but maybe it was removed recently

primal lava
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maybe i turned off lol

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anyways, it's up to @tidal knoll to add more time or not erveonW

warm pelican
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I didn't expect this to be such a hot topic lol. I know it sounds absurd on one side "You want longer queues???". But yeah that's exactly it. Not asking for that much longer though, that's the compromise. I'm going to actually read all this discussion though lol. Maybe I'll edit the main post to summarize

warm pelican
# stable wolf plus when people go afk they are usually gone for atleast a minute of the game

Here is more context. I'd rather not bring up specifics of what I want to be able to do while queuing, but it seems necessary since you're still not sure why I would be afk for 2 seconds of the game, and not 1 full minute. I am mostly prepared to walk back to my computer, but the time is so short that if I have to do anything other than walk, I actually can't make it back sometimes, so I am 2 seconds late, enough for a goal.

I eat food, I open my fridge to drink something, I send messages to friends sometimes. These specific activities are ones where I don't have enough time to be ready. One time I was looking at my screen and the game had started while I'm putting the cap back on my drink and placing it back in the fridge. And then my friends say: "Oh grey is afk". I snack a lot, that's my lifestyle. But I also have this problem with sending messages. I am at the computer already, and alt tabbing is very fast, but 9 full seconds is not enough time to finish a thought sometimes. There should be a little bit more time so we can finish our thoughts. And since I mentioned my snacking, I've deadlifted 3x my bodyweight before, so don't judge my health.

Now that's some of the stuff I do. I wonder what all the other afk people are doing, but I'm not going to blame them for wanting to do something while queuing. If a significant portion of the population is afk, it's a problem, whether you understand their choices or not. Don't blame the user.

warm pelican
elder moon
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i dont think deadlift is a great metric of health but i trust u cuz ur pfp is ripped

warm pelican
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haha ty

elder moon
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also i just dont finish my thoughts and then i score and finish it lol

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i legit just alt tab right away and im never late unless i unplug my controller on accident

warm pelican
elder moon
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oh yea tennis seems like a good metric for health lol

warm pelican
elder moon
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yea lol

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is what it is, I usually just let it keep the typing thing, if they want to comment on it ill tell them i was playing a game and loaded but its never a real issue for me

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its kinda all just prioritization, id rather be ready to play when i queue so i dont really do a ton in between games that will take time

warm pelican
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That's acceptable to want it to be that way, but the question remains, what does the whole community want. I still think it's a minor issue. The amount of discussion in here makes it sound big but, but I acknowledge it's a small issue. I'll probably reiterate that a few more times lol

warm pelican
elder moon
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yea again my interpretation is that most people would rather not have extra time, I honestly am fine with a poll for this

warm pelican
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Some people will take a little bit longer, but it's not going to be drastic. And the most they can take is 10 seconds if we get the ready prompt.

elder moon
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most fair way imo

warm pelican
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A poll would be good. Do the devs ever respond here? Who makes that decision?

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to keep it as is or add a 10 second ready prompt

elder moon
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yea erv

warm pelican
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I think a flashy opening scene is a bit too much to ask

elder moon
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yea I think it would be too much

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the games arent 30 minutes to an hour so it would get annoying super fast

warm pelican
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Yeah, definitely different from a lot of competitive games

elder moon
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mhm

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lwk just make it like a {player name} is loading...

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id rather have that than a timer if its implemented

warm pelican
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waiting 10 seconds once it shows you on the ice would feel awkward

elder moon
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itd be better than a timer lol

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at least you can do something

warm pelican
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ah yeah. Like if players haven't loaded in it lets you move. That I am okay with. But being stuck on the timer is what I'm referring to. 10 seconds instead of 3 seconds would be awkward the way it's implemented now

elder moon
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oh yea like if this is added, id like the time before to be time you can move and hit the puck and stuff. and then the vote for skip to game is just moving or something

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and then still 3 seconds like every faceoff

warm pelican
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That sounds good. Once you accept the ready prompt you get to skate freely, bully your opponents whether they're ready or not lol

elder moon
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first step should be poll tho fs

warm pelican
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Also I see this thread kind of is a poll already. 8 nos and 4 yeses lol. But I think it needs to be done with the proposed changes we're coming up with rather than the initial idea.

elder moon
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i will accept defeat if most people vote for it

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yea theres a poll channel

warm pelican
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okay. lmk if I need to do anything or erv will summarize what he read, idk how it fully works

elder moon
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erv will handle it if he thinks its worth it lol

warm pelican
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okay cool. I'll stop typing hopefully soon then

elder moon
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theres a lot so he will likely skim through and skip over the stuff blue said and then let us know

warm pelican
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Yeah I didn't expect this much. I will summarize my OP as best I can with pro's cons, feel free to message me if you think I missed anything

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I made a quick edit to my OP. hit character limit lol. Tell me if I am missing anything

marble crag
marble crag