Observers and coach mode

Observers who watch a skirmish or network game without playing, what a player given the whole map sees, and what coach mode lets a defeated player keep.

Added in 0.2.0Changed in 0.2.0

A client seats an observer by listing the seat under [IsSpectator] in the launch file. The observer watches from the first frame and never plays. The menu lobbies cannot seat an observer.

Each observer still gets a house. The house uses the country the launch file gives the seat, so the sidebar art and the EVA voice follow that country. It starts defeated and receives no start position, construction vehicle or starting units. The observer’s view opens on the start position of a randomly chosen playing house, or on the center of the map when no house has one.

An observer’s house holds no alliances. The launch file’s alliance entries for the seat are ignored, and so are other seats’ entries that name it. No house can ally with it during play, and it cannot ally with another house.

Because the house starts defeated, it never counts among the houses or people still playing when the game decides whether the match is over. It cannot surrender.

An observer does not appear on the score screen, in the radar pane’s name and kill list, or in the statistics report.

An observer’s house is still an observer after a saved game is loaded. A launch file that resumes a network game’s save must mark the same seats as watching, or the game refuses to load the save.

The whole map

An observer is given the whole map, and so is a defeated player in a match without coach mode. Both see the match the same way:

Subject	What is shown
Shroud and fog	Every cell is revealed and unfogged, and the fogged stand-ins for structures are discarded. Neither regrowth pass covers the map again, and neither does Reshroud map or its team mission.
Radar	The pane stays up whatever the power and ion storm tests say, and it shows the whole map.
Hidden objects	A cloaked object is drawn shadowy and can be selected. Cloaked and underground objects are plotted on the radar. None of them raises a detection event.
Decorations	Every house’s objects show cargo pips, rank insignia and the healer’s cross. A selected structure that generates power shows its house’s power output and drain, and a selected factory shows the cameo of what it is building. A tooltip names an object by its type, not as an enemy.
Disguises	They hold, as they do for every player except the owner.
Chat	Messages can go to everyone. An observer can also message the other observers. A team or private message cannot be opened (in-game chat).

An observer owns nothing, and a defeated player’s forces are destroyed at defeat. Clicking an object therefore only selects it for viewing and gives no order.

What an observer hears

EVA speaks most lines only to the house they concern: money, silos, power, a lost unit or structure, a harvester or base under attack, a superweapon, the sidebar, and the house’s own defeat or victory. An observer owns nothing and is never given a verdict, so it hears none of these lines.

Lines spoken to everyone still reach an observer. These include another player’s defeat, a missile launch, an approaching ion storm, and anything a scenario scripts. The text messages that announce a defeat or a departure appear as they do for every player.

Radar events follow the same rule: the only ones an observer sees are those a scenario scripts.

The sidebar stays up, with nothing on either strip. Its credit readout shows how long the match has run instead of money. The time counts real seconds while the game is not paused, and reads Time:MM:SS, or Time:HH:MM:SS once the match has run an hour. The readout plays no CreditTicks sound.

Coach mode

CoachMode=yes in the launch file’s [Settings] section decides what a defeated player keeps. Only the launch file can turn it on; the menu lobbies have no such option.

Without coach mode, a defeated player is given the whole map, as an observer is, and can only send messages to everyone.

With coach mode, defeat leaves the player’s view and chat as they were:

Nothing is revealed at defeat. The fog stays drawn, the regrowth passes keep running, and the player goes on seeing what their allies reveal under AllyReveal=yes.
The radar goes down with the player’s radar structure, unless the map gives everyone radar. An ion storm still takes it down.
Hidden enemy objects and enemy decorations stay hidden.
Team and private messages stay open, so the player can keep talking to their allies.

With or without coach mode, a defeated player keeps their row on the score screen, in the radar pane’s name list and in the statistics report.

When the match ends

A match with at least one person playing ends when only one side is left, or when no person is left playing. A house whose country sets MultiplayPassive=yes, such as Neutral, does not count as a side.

A match in which every person watches ends only when an enemy of a surviving house is defeated and only one side is left. Losing an allied house to a scripted event does not end the match, and a match whose houses are all on one side from the start never ends. An observer leaves such a match through the menu.

Seating

Any number of people may watch, as long as somebody plays; a computer player counts. The game refuses a launch file in which every person watches and no computer plays.

One person may play alone beside observers. With no opponent, that match ends when the player is defeated.

When an observer leaves, the departure is announced as any other player’s is. The observer’s house has nothing to hand to the computer.

Filter keys

5 of 5

Key	Description	Value	When omitted
`MultiplayPassive`HouseType	Keeps the country's computer houses from building or choosing attacks and, in skirmish and multiplayer games, takes its houses out of the contest.	boolean	`no`
`ShroudGrow`global rules	Whether the shroud creeps back over terrain that nothing is watching.	boolean	`no`
`ShroudRate`global rules	Game minutes between shroud regrowth passes.	floating point	`4`
`FogRate`global rules	Game minutes between fog of war regrowth passes.	floating point	`.05`
`CreditTicks`global rules	The two sounds the credit readout plays as it counts, the first while it rises and the second while it falls.	list of sounds	`(empty)`

History

Added0.2.0In development
Watch a multiplayer match as an observer
Changed0.2.0In development
Leave observers the whole map on Reshroud
Changed0.2.0In development
End a team skirmish when only allies remain
Changed0.2.0In development
Message your team, or the other observers, and choose who a line reaches