r4303 - can change player colour without a password

[jamespetts]

Testing the latest Simutrans stable release in a network game, I set up a new player and attempted to change its colour. I had forgotten, however, that I had failed to switch to that player. I was able to change the player colour of another player (marked as "spectator" on Timothy's Pak128.Britain server) even though that player was locked and I had not entered its password. I assume that this is not intended?

[Dwachs]

The player color change is not communicated over network, too. So there is room for improvement.

[prissi]

This is intended so everyone can play in his favourite color. But I am open to discussion.

[jamespetts]

My view is that it would be preferable if each client had the same colour experience as each other client, as players can use the player colour for branding or identification. Players should thus be able to change their own colour but not other players'.

[sdog]

i'm with prissi here, let the players choose the colour of all players locally. So all players can decide to play in the colour they are used to, or like the most, (and colour the competitors in ugly pink).

Player colour is just a interface element, and has no game relevant effect. No one would think of making a font size or station name format depending on the player who runs the company.

[jamespetts]

Does this mean, though, that the player colour is not saved between sessions in network games? (I didn't get a chance to test with the one that I played, since I went bust: urban 'bus networks are not profitable in Standard, it seems).

[Ashley]

I agree that this should be a local preference, not a server-side one.

[sdog]

colour seemed random to me after re-joining a game (in early january).

this would be nice if it was addressed, so the colour preference is saved locally.

[Dwachs]

colors should be saved locally during save & reload, upon joining you get the color settings from the server though.

[jamespetts]

colors should be saved locally during save & reload, upon joining you get the color settings from the server though.

This seems undesirable. Should player colour not reflect reality in which transport companies are free to brand themselves generally? I think that it would be much more satisfying if one could use the player colour to project one's brand image on the Simutrans world, and if the player colour was persistent (one will quickly tire of re-setting the player colours every time that one logs on, so the original intention of having player colours customised locally will also fail if these settings do not persist).

[paco_m]

Imho the player colour is part of its identity like the company name and should be shared and unique in a network game.
We had already the case that somebody in our game spoke about the brown player and the other replied "there is no brown player" also it was not very satisfying when a player tried to change his second colour from pink to something else to avoid pink bridges and the others had to reply "i still see it in pink"