Suggestion for a team selection plugin-

/captain -- Volunteer for captain (same as now)
/team Marine/Alien -- Whichever captain executes it gets the first pick
/pick [namefragment] -- Used by a captain to make their pick

The picks get sorted out into two displays with the captain's name on top:

Code:

captain1 [Aliens]                 captain2 [Marines]
                                    *now picking*
Moon                                Gilligan
Entwistle                           Mary Ann
Townshend                           the Professor
Daltry                              the Skipper

this would be a result of

captain1: /captain
captain2: /captain
captain1: /team Alien
captain1: /pick Moon
captain2: /pick Gill
captain2: /pick Mary
captain1: /pick Ent
captain2: /pick Prof
captain1: /pick Town
captain2: /pick Skip
captain1: /pick Daltry

The main goal is to speed up the team selection process without relying on the standard voice/text chat channels that are often cluttered up with unhelpful chatter while teams are being picked.

A problem that might come up would be picks leaving or getting slotkicked and dealing with how the lost pick is reimbursed. The way I've seen it handled in games is the captain who has lost a player is given an immediate compensatory pick upon losing said player. This works fine but I'm not sure if it's possible to program it into a plugin.

Other random things:

Occasionally I see a problem pop up in captains games in regards to starting res and res recovery. In tournament mode, the starting res grace period is completely ignored and if a player gets slotkicked their res will be lost and the resource managment plugin thingy doesn't award the lost res to the replacement. This loss of starting res can be a pretty big handicap to the alien team and the only current workaround is to make sure that any players in jeapordy of getting kicked spend their res as quickly as possible. It is possible to assign ?'s to these kinds of roles but when the server is full of registered players it becomes more of a problem to determine if a player might be slotkicked. Overall, it's not a huge problem but it has been a hindrance at times for teams I've been on.

The number one issue I've seen in captains games can't be solved by any plugin, though. All too often I see people volunteer to captain who aren't ready to accept the burden of actually being a captain. These people usually just want to be in charge of picking a team or else just want to play a captains game when no one else is willing to step forward and captain. The problem is that being a captain entails a certain commitment to making sure the game progresses in a quick and efficient manner.

A captain should realize that they will be expected to put forth a basic strategy for both marine and alien rounds, and that they will need to be the deciding voice on any suggestions offered from their team. Being wishy-washy and letting the planning stage go off on random tangents that are completely unnecessary towards being able to type in "ready" only serves to waste everyones time.

It is also important for a captain to understand how to use the /note plugin, as it is a great aid for keeping track of everyones role. By making sure that each player has an order displayed on their screen, you alleviate the need to constantly go back and explain what each member will be doing.

Everyone playing in a captains game should also realize that the game will get started faster if they are all paying attention and are focused on the task at hand. Having two or three players chatting about random, non-game realated topics while the captain is trying to make picks or communicate a strategy can really bog down the process. Often the players who complain about the time spent waiting around in captains games are the ones who slow it down the most by cluttering up the voice and text chat while the captains are trying to do their job.

I think that captains games would be much more enjoyable for all participants if we all just tried to work together as a community. Come on guys, let's do it!