Re: [Rails-devel] Autosave/load revisited

[Erik V. <eri...@xs...>]

Thanks for your feedback.  That's exactly what I need.

> * Popup appears under the active window (why?)

It shouldn't, and I can't remember seeing that happening.  I'm trying to get
the active window always on top, no clue why that doesn't work for you.

> * Not evident enough whose turn it is (would it be possible to change the
background color of the interface or something more noticeable like that
when it is my turn?

I have also been thinking about ways to make that better stand out, such as
displaying the current player name somewhere in a highlighted format (but
where?). 

> * I don't see the advantage of restricting player moves to the local
player. When we play a live game online, often one player executes several
SR actions when players are doing rote actions like floating new companies.

At least it shows who's turn it is....   

It shouldn't be too difficult to make this restriction optional, but then
the previous issue must be fixed first.  Also, *all* instances must then be
polling all the time, not just those that don't have the turn; not sure if
that couldn't cause clashes.

> * Any reason to restrict the polling interval to every 10 seconds?  Could
it be allowed to be done every second?

That's pretty often...   I suppose it could, but I don't know if file
contention couldn't become a problem then.

> * Why do the complex actions cause errors?  Is it because player input is
needed outside of the normal turns?  If any player could enter commands for
all players, would that fix it?

I'm not sure, but your suggestion could well be (part of) the problem. These
special actions are executed by special code, and I think not all of that
already follows the rules yet.

> For reference, I have played a few live games using Rails/Dropbox and it
already flows pretty smoothly without the Autosave feature.  We use voice
chat.  During the private auction and SRs, we typically have had one player
enter commands and the others tell him what to do.  Once we get to a complex
decision or an OR, we have that player save it and "transfer control" to the
active player.  This speeds things up quite a bit over what I would assume
the current version of Autosave/load.

> I think that removing the restriction on the active player would make this
feature into something I would use on a regular basis.

OK, thanks for your input. I'll consider it.

Erik.