Hey all my fellow Warlighters. I've just thought of an idea, but I want your opinions before I put it on Uservoice.

Who here has tried to join a game that was almost full, and missed their joining opportunity because of that annoying window popping up asking you to choose an alternate color. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one this has happened too.

My idea is simple. Under the "Settings" tab, there can be a setting where you can choose another color as your second choice, and another as your third, and so forth.

For example, say your color is red, and your second color is blue. You join a game with somebody who has the color red, and you then automatically join the game with the color blue.No annoying pop-up window or anything like that. But say there is somebody who has red, and another person who has blue. Well, that's where your third color comes in. Say your third color is orange. You automatically join the game as an orange player. This could be repeated with all 24 colors.

What do you guys think?

Sounds like a lot more work to Miyagi

It already exists: https://warlight.uservoice.com/forums/77051-warlight-features/suggestions/2382010-secondary-colors

Also, I'm not sure it would solve the problem you're facing most of the time.

Think about it this way: If we assume that the other player who took the last spot didn't get his color as well (which is true 95% of the time in a big FFA), and assuming that you both pick your color at about the same speed, then he'd still get that last spot before you even if you had this feature.

This is because he'd be able to skip the color selection screen too. And if he clicked Join Game before you, he'd get the last spot.

Yeah, I thought that might be a problem, and you just confirmed that. Thanks a ton for the feedback!

The solution would probably for you to be accepted in the gaem with 1 of 2 options:
1- you would be atributed a random color
2-you would be accepted until you picked a color (like when you are invited to a game and several players have the same color

but fizzer, say its in something else, like a 1v1, or 2v2, where someone else has the same color, then this would be very helpful, because there is a good chance someone else joinings color isnt taken

I think you have the same chance on being the one who misses out on a game by having to switch colors as you have on being the one who gets to join the game instead.

That being said, i wouldn't mind this being introduced(not worth a vote though) to keep people from trying to join as fast as they can without even checking the settings.
(and i don't see the harm in automating things)

I would prefer the option to "empty" your color-choice, so you can(must) choose a color whenever you join a game, just because.
(plus it could be handy if you see the colors of other players and don't want to be hard/easy distinguishable from other players.

Is this even the best way to solve the problem? Wouldn't it be easier to have the server consider you "joined" as soon as you click the button? That'd prevent having to make 24 choices (as Paperhat's suggestion would require) and it would work equally for everyone (you click first == you're in the game, irrespective of anything related to colours).

That does cause another problem: people joining a game (but not picking a colour) being able to stall it, theoretically indefinitely. However, the host can always kick people who only "semi-joined" to troll. Also, the "start game" button (which, if memory serves, currently even works for games with open slots remaining) could forcibly assign a random colour to players who are too lazy to actually pick one.

If anybody sees a problem with this suggestion, please let me know! If not I'll put it as a reply to the UserVoice Fizzer linked.

I would suggest that, if all open seats are filled, auto-start is enabled and one player is still picking his color, that player has ~15 seconds to choose and then the game auto-starts.