Welcome to Voobly!

Original Link: http://www.voobly.com/forum/thread/182042

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We'll be releasing the update over the next couple hours, during release spectator mode won't work properly for those players using different versions of the client.



List of major changes in the update:

◾Late join has been added, users can become spectators after the game has been launched. By default, late join will only work when there is at least one spectator at launch. This is to avoid the caching and some tiny overhead when spectator server is enabled when it's not needed. If you have a modern computer you can always the spectator server by clicking "always start spectator server" in spectator settings.

◾Players can make themselves spectators without the host (right click and check the spectator box). Host can disallow this in spectator settings.

◾New in-game chat system for spectators showing chat messages from all players not just host's team. Prior to this update it would use the chat messages in the replay, unfortunately that only shows chat messages from host point of view. The in-game chat for spectators was completely redone.

◾Unit Spy changes: ◾On/Unexplored will no longer will show buildings from previous ages. The unit flashing issue should also be fixed.

◾On/Explored is now the default Unit-Spy mode. I've also clarified the wording to make it clear that there is more than just 1 mode.

◾If you ignore someone in Voobly client, you will no longer see spectator chat from them.

◾Auto-mute now works when someone floods the spectator chat

◾If players join as spectator is enabled, the max players in game room limit isn't checked

◾Host game time is now show along with local time in F11 text for all the spectators. This is mostly useful when late joining to see how far ahead the host is. If the host resigns, the host time will be simulated to move forward as to not ruin the surprise w/ a long spectator delay.
spec11.png

◾Spectate delay is no longer "seconds" rather in game time units. We've also fixes a problem where if the game was paused, the spectators would catch up to the host. Now each client will stay spectate delay period behind host.

◾Customizable spectator chat colors... I created a mod for light blue at http://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/204/Blue-Spectator-Chat .

◾Efficiency improvement: NAT no longer connects spectators to players. You will notice the connecting icon when switching from spec to non-spec. This will remove any possibility of lag for games from large # of spectators as users no longer need to maintain ~100 spectator connections when they aren't used!

Screenshot of the new spectator UI:

http://www.voobly.com/forum/thread/182042
(Click on the link to see the screenshots!)