I have noticed on demo/mcs/ when somebody who is trying to join and there name is not added, server gets a _has joined colony/ has left colony- allthougth this gives indication of a unknown player joining, it normally means a player leaves/server closes etc. so that messages,fourms,emails get checked for join game requests. This can cause some confusion/aborted starts/timed out etc.
Was wondering if during the unknown/not added player joining, the server could display name of player attempting to play- this would allow for games between known players, if they join unexpectedly, to have there name added (if desired so)..
Agree that games should/would be organised previously, but its not uncommon to just load up, search and see a sim up with players you know..
Also (lol) as the Mars sims series features world wide international crews, timezones of players are all over the place (try working out tz from New zealand to UK to Central USA to Central Europe on the fly). As Geoff Cartwright said, we need some sort of timezone converter either on the fourum or seperate software. Be nice to see some "clocks" on hyperkat forum showing time through out the world yes but sep software would do..