FG 8 -- Random Discussion thread

[Blackfoot]

We really need an option to allow sign ups after the game is 'full' I tried an experiment today with leaving the total spaces blank.. but that didn't seem to help.. a full game is still a full game.. there's no way to allow for waitlist reservations without upping the total number of spaces.

[damned]

The Adventurers League Online GMs have done that. They have increased the number of spaces and written in the description that the game is limited to 7 players. If any of the 7 do not show then you will take players from the wait list in order. If you do this you will also need to communicate that to the players up front and also tell them what time you will swap players in. You dont want a player arriving exactly on time and finding their spot is gone.

[Blackfoot]

Generally speaking, players who arrive 'exactly on time' are actually late... at least as far as PFS games go. Assuming that they have their characters in and pregame info all straightened out.. it's less of a big deal... but arriving at the last minute with no prep or email responses is a bad thing.

[ffujita]

Here is how I described it with 15 slots: "Tickets 1-7 are guaranteed a seat if they arrive on time. Tickets 8-15 are alternates in order of ticket number. Alternates will be seated five minutes after the event starts."

[Blackfoot]

That seems like a great 'stop gap' answer... ideally it would be better (and I realize that the software for the website has limitations) if there was some way to actually set up and assign people a waitlist, with a given order.
#1 on waitlist..
#2... and so forth.
Obviously a lot of this can be handled through emails and comments on the page.. it just would be a bit more slick/professional looking if it were a built in function. Again, I realize that there are limitations to what actually can be added to the functionality on the site.

[Trenloe]

A fully featured waitlist functionality would be great. But this would require a significant change to the Event Manager code (it's not just a case of adding a new "waitlist" status, there would need to be significant changes to the underlying code to allow approval, rejection, etc., etc.) - something that we would have to roll manually in to each new release. It's not a simple process and is prone to future code breaking what we've worked hard to do. It's like keeping an extension up to date, but 10 times worse as there is no "extension" like functionality, we have to manually roll our changes into the base code each time.

It would be best if the base product could do some form of waitlist functionality. We'll reach out to the developer/s to see if they're interested in adding in waitlist functionality. Obviously this won't happen for FG Con 8.

[Blackfoot]

It does kinda seem like the functionality would be useful to anyone who is using their ticket/reservation code.

[damned]

Generally speaking, players who arrive 'exactly on time' are actually late... at least as far as PFS games go. Assuming that they have their characters in and pregame info all straightened out.. it's less of a big deal... but arriving at the last minute with no prep or email responses is a bad thing.

So this will vary from game to game and if that is the case for your game then its important to set and communicate that expectation. Especially with the sting in the tail
Often when Im running a game I arrive only just in time to open the game at start time simply because of real life commitments.
In your PFS games you do have a lot to get thru and a set time in which to do it and there is a transfer of characters so it would be important to be early.

At this stage Im thinking the best waitlist option would be a second set of tickets called Wait List. It will track them in order however in most wait lists for online games most of the players on that list probably wont have turned up so you might be grabbing the person that is there as opposed to the first in the list. But having that wait list ticket would encourage them to show. You also wouldnt put a cut off time in the wait list.

It would show like this. You would accept those with normal tickets up to the normal ticket limit and leave the wait list tickets pending perhaps?

[Blackfoot]

That looks like a pretty nice solution. Getting on a bit late to add/change it for this go round but it seems like a good idea for next time.

[Blackfoot]

Hrm. OK.. so the one problem with the extra ticket solution. I don't see a way to change their ticket once you move them from 'Waiting List' to 'Standard'. Is that possible somehow? If so.. that solution would be really very cool.