[Request] Flash Taskbar Icon On Player Join (MP)

[Shinjar]

Flashing the jk2mv taskbar icon (or equivalent on other OS's besides Windows) when a player joins the server. Perhaps conditional on number of players already on the server (only flash if under 2 or 3 connected players for example, or could be decided by user) and should probably be optional for the user in settings.

I'm suggesting this because I think a relatively small feature like this could breathe some life back into jk2 multiplayer. I know there may not be that much appetite to do this but I at least want to highlight it's possible upsides...

Reason 1: It would encourage the more "activist" type players in the community to idle on empty servers more. At the moment there's not much point in idling on an empty server because you could easily miss players joining as, naturally, they get impatient and leave due to you being idle (minimised & waiting while doing other things on your computer).

Introducing this feature would give us more reason to actually get on the game and idle because we're assured a "desktop type notification" when someone joins.

You might argue and say "do we really want to encourage people to idle in the game?" The answer to that is surely yes. It'll give people as much reason as possible to get in the game rather than just looking at an empty server list and thinking "ah never mind, I can't be bothered sitting on a server for nothing. I won't even know if someone connects unless I'm checking constantly".

Reason 2: Following from reason 1, this means we'll have less people leaving a server due to idlers as the idler is more likely to un-minimise jk2mv once they see the flashing jk2mv taskbar icon, thus fostering more activity.

The joinee is happy because the idler isn't idling any more and the idler is happy because they've achieved their goal of passively getting someone on the server. Pretty straightforward and low effort from the players point of view.

I'm really not sure how much of a pain this would be to code so of course a judgement will need to be made there. Again, I'm just throwing the idea out here to highlight the upsides it could bring. A small feature like this could really increase the longevity of the game imo. Whether it's worthwhile coding is something I hope will be fully considered by yourselves.

Thanks for reading. :)

[ouned]

I like the idea
there is already code for flashing the taskbar in jk2mv so it's like only a few lines of code.

Are you planning to implement it yourself?

[Shinjar]

Glad you like the idea Ouned. :)

Unfortunately the most I can contribute here is the idea suggestion & request itself. I'm just hoping the reasons I outlined for implementing it are persuasive enough for one of you programming masters to dedicate a little time towards it.

I really do think implementing a small feature like this would modernise jk2. I'm sure we're all familiar by now with the idea that jk2 is essentially a virtual chat program. Well one of the most essential features of a chat program is it's notification settings, otherwise you'd never check it half as much. I think if we had some options in jk2 that kinda nudge the user while the game is minimised then it would have a positive effect in terms of server activity.

Options like flashing the taskbar on "chat activity", "private message", "new player connects" or a mixture of all three would be the most ideal endpoint in my mind. If you have a look at discord's notification settings for example, the way it's laid out and the many different options it allows user to make, something like that for jk2mv would be amazing.

Of course I realise all that would probably be a lot of work so I think flashing the taskbar icon on "new player connects" would be a good starting point and probably have the most noticeable impact activity wise. Not saying it'd be an immediate activity boost of course but over the long term it might at least nudge the communities behaviour in a certain (more active) direction.