Generic Lobby improvements

[nicolodavis]

Ideas for improvement:

• Poll for changes to state so that refreshes are not required. (done in lobby auto refresh + leave game ready to play #510)
• Option to automatically remove room if all users leave the room (made the default behaviour in server: add new API endpoints 'list' and 'leave' #276)
• Add optional unique name check
• Add optional limit for rooms (will disable 'create room' button if rooms number reached limit)
• Provide ability to customize ui when waiting for an API call (i.e. loading state)
• Rename gameInstances to rooms (easier to understand). (done in More refactoring for lobby #406 and then re-renamed to matches in Fix #703 - Use the term "match" in the API and Lobby #704)
• Show leave button even if the game is ready to play. (done in lobby auto refresh + leave game ready to play #510)

EDIT: Design document by @flamecoals: link

[vdfdev]

Why don't we use websockets instead of polling?

[lehaSVV2009]

Why don't we use websockets instead of polling?

I think, websocket is better. Polling is just simpler to implement and no need changes on backend

[blunket]

IMO polling is better for this, sockets are overkill when it's just a lobby and doesn't need to be real time

[nicolodavis]

I think polling is better for the current feature set. We could add websockets when we have a chat room etc.

[lehaSVV2009]

btw, I also thought that lobby API might be improved a bit as well. To smth like that:

GET /games
GET /games/my-game/rooms
POST /games/my-game/rooms
POST /games/my-game/rooms/123/join
POST /games/my-game/rooms/123/leave
DELETE /games/my-game/rooms/123

[vdfdev]

One use case I want to bring to everybody's attention... My project will have several games, and I want people to choose the game after creating the lobby. And after a game is done, I want people to be able to play another game with the same people.

Is it ok if we key only by lobby id instead of both game and id? I can work on this latter

[blunket]

@flamecoals What do you mean? Multiple lobbies? Couldn't you just filter which games to display however you like? Or do you mean the games will be hosted on many different game servers too, or something like that?

Right now players choose the game to play IN the lobby, they don't create lobbies.

[nicolodavis]

Yes, I'm envisioning just one global lobby, and you can create games inside that lobby (each game can be a different kind). Players then join the game you created in order to play.

[vdfdev]

@blunket I meant one global lobby like Nicolo said. Basically a "room" persisting across matches too, of different types of games.

Use case:

• My friend Joe and I want to play some games, but we dont know exactly which game
• I create a game in the lobby for us, and I invite Joe
• We agree in playing Chess inside that game
• After the chess match is done, we go back to the same lobby and agree in playing tic tac toe

and so on

[blunket]

I see, I think you mean sort of like a party system? That'd be cool.