Remove Spec Cheating: Implement Team Spec

[wild forum]

Cross posting from Github, as Discord seems to be more active in discussing features and changes.
https://github.com/beyond-all-reason/Beyond-All-Reason/issues/5142
Description

Implement a feature that locks certain spectators to one team or the other, and make locked or unlocked spectators visible to players in the game.
Why?

I play in a clan. We enjoy playing together, but because of timezones, etc, we tend to join and leave at different times. This means people joining a lobby mid-game or even right after a game starts. Many of us like to spectate our players so we can provide critique after the game, and to give us something to do while waiting for the next game to start.

Lately however, we have been accused of "spec cheating". There is currently no way in game to prove that a player isn't spec cheating, other than by not spectating at all. I propose a feature that would allow spectating players to lock themself to either team, and force them to use that teams view. They would appear on the players list as Team 1 or Team Spectators. Normal neutral spectators would also be available.

[onyx zodiac]

I don’t think anyone would have an issue because of this except maybe modoption clutter, so I think this remains a PRs welcome situation.

[minor sierra]

Think this gives an unfair advantage to one team. Having an extra player helping direct your team is very strong when the other team doesn't have one.
Similar to parties and vc cooperation, but I don't think it should be official

[worn lotus]

You can already do this with normal spec, except here you could also spec cheat in theory

[willow solstice]

Just make a setting in the lobby for spectator delay

so they dont see up to date happenings

[pearl sluice]

the problem with spectator delay is that there is still information like oh they have a cloaked eco line here --->

even with a delay this is not good. having the option to view after the game is over with is still nice to see what did happen. but even on a 30 min delay you could see potentially viable targets. but no one really wants to see a 30 min delay that would be just like watching the game afterwards

in the past 2 weeks ive seen a large number of spec cheaters detect my cloaked units "gremlins" with out the use of a detection device and with out proximity decloaking or combat decloaking.

this has also been a problem with arti firing in to my units with no radar no vision and a jammer on a unit. when reviewing my games I have seen that there were no vision like another stealth unit giving vision or any radar vision on my units.

there was a party member of one of these players on several occasions in spectator mode in a way of " oh im just coaching them on what to do". This is not ok for any OpenSkill type game. it invalidates the "skill" portion of OpenSkill.

If any game that has OpenSkill enabled it should have spectators turned off.

[empty fox]

Pls, make sure to report those cases. The moderation team will review them and act accordingly.

[solar cave]

surely you watched the replays and confirmed your suspicions before reasoning it out to be spec cheaters that caused you to lose? should be straightforward to report then. In another thread you were blaming custom widgets for your gremlins being detected, which one was it?

[void talon]

I think this is a good addition.

I do want to say that a delay or disabling observers in ranked mm would be really bad for the enjoyment of the game.

A lot of people play in discord together and they want to play the interesting matches (noone cares for unranked). Some people in the group might not want to play for a round but still be part of the experience.

I think whatever 5os someone gains from coaching is just not worth giving up that social aspect.

I think this single team spectating option would be really nice for ranked mm as well. (I.e. the ability for "coaches" to queue up with or join a friends game to watch.)

People would screen share anyway so live advice is always possible.

[novel cape]

If someone is cheating what are they going to gain? Some self worth at best and some OS rating that is untrue. It doesn’t scale. If you try that shit in a live tournament where there is potentially money and prizes at stake you would get yeeted and banned pretty quick.