Hello I can understand using steam lobbies as it is the easier option to use for getting multiplayer ready but was a little disappointed . Not because of the quality of the course , again it is a great learning resource but I will explain why .
The reasons being that granted not everyone will know how to get steam lobbies working and for them this part of the course will be invaluable but there are already lots of resources , forum posts , example projects, code examples, YouTube videos etc that anyone can find and learn how to do it even without the course .
Howether compare that to steam servers and getting servers and sessions to show up on the steam server browser is a complete nightmare . There is hardly any information on it and is probably the number one thing people struggle to do .
Now onto my issues with lobbies . As far as I know it Unfortunately it has 2 massive downsides Which is why a lot of people don’t use it and opt for the server approach.
- host advantage
- host migration
Nearly all multiplayer games nowadays will likely be player vs player of some sort and likely to be competitive . Granted here we are making a cooperative puzzle platformer so host advantage isn’t really an issue but let’s say we are making a fast paced competitive shooter game e.g. Csgo
Host advantage can have a massive impact on the game and fairness and user experience . I shot that player first but because I have higher ping and he is the host I actually die and he lives .
And as far as I know (from looking everywhere) there is no functionality on the steam api or unreal to do host migration .
If the host of the lobby session disconnects (game crashes , sudden loss of power etc etc) or even intentionally disconnects (I’m loosing I leave game on purpose so it doesn’t count as a loss) then all players will instantly be disconnected which again results in a very poor user experience .
So just wondering if you will be addressing any of these issues in this section or on this course ??
and hoping even more you will cover servers and getting servers listed as this is hard to do and has little documentation or resources available .
Thanks