Context
Currently in Harbor Havoc we use Reserved servers for tiered “skill lobbies” (e.g. Level 10+, 50+, etc.).
(This keeps matches fun for higher level users while reducing pain for new users.)
Problem
The problem we face is when a user tries to join their friend who is in a reserved server, they are met with this error code:
This immensely hurts our game’s reach in two major ways:
- Users assume the game their friend is on is broken and don’t join (loss of referral traffic).
- Users work around the problem by joining the game via the play button to then be teleported in with their friend (this get’s marked as unintentional co-play and is not counted towards the algorithm’s co-play metric).
Proposed Solution
Below is a solution that would alleviate both issues for us (this is just one idea, I’m open to any solution that solves the issue).
Whenever a user joins their friend who is in a reserved server:
- Put them into a public server with their
player.FollowUserIdset to the followed friend’s User Id.
(This would allow us to manually teleport them into the server with their friend). - Once the user has been teleported to their friend, count the subsequent play session as “intentional co-play” for the algorithm.
A similar request has been raised here, but this thread does not address any sort of solution for the algorithm’s new co-play metric.