Internal Playtest – Spectator Mode and System Pre-Loading! – 3/13

• New “spectate” option in the lobby browser. So you can join to play or spectate
• System pre-loading is back in!
• Streaming economy is now seen.
  • Metal income
  • Energy income
  • Efficiency
  • Unit count – covers buildings and units
  • “Army Metal” – overall metal cost of buildings and units
• More stuff is coming, like notifications, clicking on units, and the like.

That's really nice looking.
I like the idea of the total metal usage too, not a particularly useful statistic for a spectator, but a neat touch.

It's actually a very useful statistic. Helps give spectators an idea of the scale of the two armies. Sure, one army may have 100 units and the other has 30. But if one side has ants and the other side has Levelers? That's a MAJOR difference.

That stat allows players to better judge the quality of the two armies, rather than just the unit count.

*excited, throaty yell*

THIS IS AWESOME.

In addition to what Brian said, it also helps spectators determine how MUCH of each player's metal income is actually being spent.

I have been down on the mex count in games before, but since I spent all of my metal, I would end up out-doing my opponent.

The metal Spending graph in PA Stats is actually the one I consider the most useful.

I've been thinking about using the in-game browser to automatically show pa stats charts when you press a hotkey. That would be really nice for casters during some downtime in a game.

That's a good point.
Although it also takes structures into account, so if the guy that has the ants also has much more defensive structures, the difference may seem negligible or even in the ant guy's favour. Unless highlighting certain units changes the number to the additive amount of metal composing that army, which very well may end up being the case.

But hey, what do I know? As far as multiplayer goes I'm still pretty bad (and as such can't wait to use spectating as a sort of watch and learn function) so maybe I'm just coming off as a super nub .

The "Unit Count" is both buildings and units.

The "Army Metal" also covers both units and buildings.

I... I know...?

Will it be possible to see what just one player can see? The "V" checkbox is missing from the new UI. I'd like a solo button.

In the video they didn't indicate how it will be done now, but it still will be possible. That wouldn't be something they would remove.

Either the UI hasn't been added in, or we just click on their name or something.

Pretty sure someone said that about the kicking feature, the planet preloading in the lobby, and visual loading indicators.

Nope.

Except those features were tied into a completely overhauled lobby. Pre-loading a lobby that is subject to changes on the fly... big change.

This is not a complete overhaul but some additions. There likely isn't any reason for that feature to be taken away from this (comparatively) minor addition.

AMAZING.

Now, for a tutorial on how all this works.....

I know its a little early to give feedback on spectator view stuff. but.

I really like what PA stats does to show the outcome of the game.

an example is the units available list.


I also like the Starcraft 2 Units lost bar graphs to show case who lost more units or resources in an attack. or if the players are trading even in engagements. \\

When I get home I'll add to this. Not saying you guys need to add all this stuff to make a successful Spectator UI, but it would be cool to have. and maybe give you ideas on better spectator ui options.

In our next post, we'll be requesting a drop down menu with direct feed to PA Stats or just a direct feed to the stats.

Just GIVE IT TO US NOW.

It will be less painful later.

Will there be a way to select multiple players still, i.e. two allied players that aren't using share army?

I'm guessing it'll function just like it previously did – but minus the checkboxes. Unselected teams will probably be faded out and you click on 'em to toggle on and off. This is better as we don't have that ugly checkbox and we have a much larger clickable area – something far too many UIs lack.

That's what I'd suspect from looking at the UI, but I tend to take things literally, and that was not how Sorian described it ("clicking [...] switches your view to them" implies that if the default 'all' view is on, selecting a player will disable vision from other players). This is why I'm looking for clarification from Sorian.