VR Lobby

[HagarTheHorrible]

I appreciate it's not priority although if you muck around in a dedicated VR game lobby it's going to go way up your priority list, but we could really do with a dedicated VR game Lobby.  I don't mean just a TS type chat lobby, but a virtual hang out, avatars and all. 

 

I've just been fooling around in Echo Arena, and it's been really good fun, and that's just hanging out and mucking around in the lobby, grabbing stuff, throwing it around and chatting with complete strangers. something I've never felt overly comfortable with when just chatting, or mostly listening in, on TS.

 

Flight sims are complex and challenging to learn, anything that can help with that has got to be good for the game and the genre. Social VR is potentially going to be a massive boost, we really need to get people more comfortable with playing the game online, getting over that hurdle, and I think a VR Lobby , with avatars, mucking around, it doesn't even need to be directly flight sim themed, just a fun place to chill and team up could be just the ticket.  Try the Echo Arena lobby and see what I mean.

 

I think that being able to see someone, even if they are themed as a robot, makes socializing that much easier.  I've been more sociable in 10 minutes in VR multiplayer games, where i can see who I'm talking too, than in 10 years of playing flight sims.

 

So, it might seem a completely absurd priority, but if we really want the social online playing of IL2 (and we really really do, even if you don't realize it yet) then it's got to happen and in the IL2 game environment. We need to make hanging out in the IL2 multiplayer lobby as rewarding and compelling as stopping by and posting in the forums, even if you don't go on to jump onto a server.

 

So, Jason, I know it's a small team, resources are tight and it might seem to be an odd priority, especially given it's still early days for VR,   BUT, even if it's just a very basic, bare bones test bed it's got to be worth a try to enliven and enrich this knowledgeable, helpful and passionate community and kickstart then into being less forumee and more chattee, where it matters, prior to jumping onto a server to play and learn with friends.  It might, for a while, even be an IL2 USP.

Edited July 27, 2017 by HagarTheHorrible

[dburne]

Excellent Idea!

 

I would think that feature will eventually be forthcoming at least in Oculus Home.

I know with the new version 1.17 software that is in the public test channel currently they have added support for third party software to be displayed in Oculus Home so they can be launched from within VR in the Oculus environment. So here pretty soon we should be able to launch BoS with our headsets on from within the virtual environment.

 

Will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next several months...

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

I think it is way too soon for this type of thing.

 

Let them focus on a lobby for all first (hyperlobby like replacement which isn't even on the road map) rather than something that would take a significant amount of time for VR only users.

[BeastyBaiter]

A simple global chat bar in the main MP page would be nice, anything beyond that seems unimportant by comparison.

[HagarTheHorrible]

A simple global chat bar in the main MP page would be nice, anything beyond that seems unimportant by comparison.

 

 

Have you tried Echo Arena ?  Even if it's not your thing it's worth just having a look at the lobby to see what I mean.  It's a fun place to hang out while resting between games or just to hang out and goof around.  I'm not suggesting it's perfect or even a perfect match for IL2 but there is something about it that encourages social play and interaction that you don't get with just a simple typed "Wasup ?"  or even a disembodied voice coming at you from the other side of the void.  I think that having something to break the ice, in this case small toys to play around with is actually very clever even if playing the game, Echo Arena, can be quite challenging.

 

 If there was to be an IL2 VR lobby, along the lines of Echo Arena, what would it look like, what toys or games might be played ?  Maybe, like Echo Arena, a console/room to customize your avatar, that becomes more adaptable as you gain time and experience, presumably pilot themed.  How about a rear gunner turret toy ?  Slide into a floating turret canopy, grab the controls and try and shoot down toy planes, fun but maybe also educational and relevant.  Maybe a couple of remote control aircraft, grab the controllers and buzz around the room ? All just silly distractions, but possibly instructive but at the same time helping people to relax and interact.

 

Instead of hanging out in the forums, make the multiplayer game lobby just as much fun and just as compelling to hang around in.  it would be one enormous step to getting people playing multiplayer.  What might be really cool would be the option to go from the main lobby into a side room, that just happens to be a particular server, see who's playing on that server and if they're in game their avatar might be sitting in a sim cockpit, with a screen in front, ( the act of jumping into a free sim cockpit in a server lobby represents you, or them, joining a game ) you could look over their shoulder to view the action.