Empires Lobby

Honestly, i don't think making people automatically connect to a lobby server was a good idea.

Sure it sounds good for us to pass the time, but in all honesty having not played empires in a while, had no idea why i was instantly connected to a random server which i didnt even know was a waiting lobby because nobody ever reads chat.

But thats not my biggest issue. I feel as if this server will keep people on for a bit and they will disconnect. Havent you noticed that usually on saturday mornings there is usually lowpop gameplay going on. But now i kind of feel like without people sticking around in normal servers and people being distracted by a "lobby" they dont even know as a lobby keeps people around without thinking that this is what empires is.

Sadly ive met people who think that that is the case.
I wanna hear your thoughts on this.

 

So, I think its made to help player count. By having it autoconnect to a lobby it might promote people to stick around vs the bots for a little bit longer in the hopes that it would promote games. The point of the lobby IS the promotion of low pop gameplay, and then when it fills up enough it switches over to an ACTUAL server for continued gameplay. If you connect to the lobby after it has switched players over to another server, it auto redirects to said server.

With the current system, people shouldn't switch off the lobby. You should stay on the lobby to keep these low pop games going instead of having 3 people Afking on one server and then 4 on the lobby. Stay on the lobby and a vote will come up to switch eventually.

 

I think a better idea would be to go for a commander map or atleast rotate a few infantry maps, just so the wait is not as bland.

I usually play out one game with the bots and then im out. But before on normal servers goofing around with the cv was fun enough for me and long enough to keep me around for longer.

Not sure how ready bots are for those maps though, but they can be ready for any other inf map i presume.