Right now, being able to just go to condos and game worlds through the main menu doesn’t really give a lot of reasons to go the plaza, condo lobby, and game world ports, so I tried to come up with a couple ways to give more reason to go to those places without removing all of the features of the main menu.
Game World Ports Suggestion
Instead of using the main menu game world buttons to go to public games, you would just use them to find/host friends only or password protected games. Then, the game world ports would be used for queuing up for public games.
Condo Lobby Suggestion
Instead of having multiple condo lobbies in each plaza server, the condo lobby would be moved to its own server like the game world ports (or they could both possibly be in the same server). You would be able to go to the condo lobby server by going through the elevators in the Plaza, or clicking “Find Other Condos” in the main menu (this could replace the condo server browser).
Here’s a poll so you can vote on which of these suggestions you liked, if any:
I really like the sound of this idea I had a while ago, but then of course the main menu is extremely convenient and a lot of people aren’t going to want to give that up. Load times (however short they get) can be an issue for some people too.
instead of the condo thing being on a separate server, i rather it just detect any public condos and show them on every single plaza server in the condo area, there are enough condo doors for the highest amount of people in public condos i have seen, if more people than there are condo doors then put on a waiting list to take the next free condo door slot, but i doubt that many people will be hosting public condos at once
I think having the gameworld ports in the actual lobby and having them all connected in a universal queue would be nice. Then you would be able to do stuff in the plaza while you wait
I’m really not in favour of Suggestion #1. On the surface, it seems like a nice way to bring people together in the Gameworld Ports, but not being able to join lobbies has several issues.
For one, there would no longer be a way to play public matches on a map that you want. When I want to play Minigolf with randos, I’d rather play Kingdom over Sweet Tooth for example. With your suggestion, I’d have to rely on chance to play the map I want, instead of just making my own or waiting till one pops up.
As @Thomas pointed out, loading times can be a bit of an issue for some people. They aren’t very long for the Ports but I can see it being a deterrent for those with slower computers.
And one final point: There would no longer be a way to guarantee that the server you end up in has low ping. Since the Gameworld Ports are global, you could end up joining a group from across the world. And if you want to simply try again, now you’ll have to wait in queue and find a new group.
I would love to get more people into the Gameworld Ports but it shouldn’t come from taking away conveniences. Perhaps the Gameworld Ports button should be enlarged or given its own square in the main menu? I know that some people tend to miss the fact that the ‘Join Matchmaking’ button is even there, so maybe it could work.
Definitely in favour of this general concept, but the most important thing is (As M2TheT said) we shouldn’t incentivize the plaza through making the game less convenient.
I think connectivity between the 3 major parts of Tower Unite (Plaza, Condo, Game Worlds) is currently the game’s biggest issue, mainly because it has no easy or planned fix. Having a loading screen between the plaza, condo, game worlds, or anywhere is inherently hurtful to that connectivity no matter their length.
I’ve thought about it a lot, but haven’t posted anything because I don’t have any specific solutions. I would say a good place to start is making sure there are no features exclusive to the menu or plaza, anything you can access via the menu should be accessible without it, and vice versa.
Although doing this directly isn’t perfect (I don’t think just being able to join hosted games through game worlds is exactly the solution, as it sort of defeats its intended purpose), that key idea seems vital.
People should not be forced to play the Plaza, they should choose it over the menu because it has more inherent benefits. Having any game-play exclusive to the menu is in direct competition with that.
Somebody in game worlds shouldn’t be unable to find a game to play, even though there are dozens of hosted ones running. It’s just a matter of finding a way to merge the systems.
