Enable and configure Lobby settings
Overview
After you have connected your game to the Lobby service, you can enable and start configuring settings for your game lobby in the AccelByte Gaming Services (AGS) Admin Portal.
This How-to walks you through enabling or disabling your game lobby and setting up the backend services that manage player connections in your game.
Prerequisite
You have access to the AGS Admin Portal.
Access Lobby settings
To access and configure the settings for your game lobby, log in to the AGS Admin Portal. Then, in your game namespace, go to Multiplayer > Lobby Configuration. You will see the Lobby Configuration page.
On top of the page, the Lobby Concurrent User box shows the number of active users in the lobby within the last minute. This value is refreshed once every minute.
Enable or disable your game lobby
Turn on or off the Enable/Disable Lobby toggle to enable or disable your game lobby for maintenance or other purposes. When your game lobby is disabled, players that are currently active in the lobby will be forced out and all players will be unable to enter until the lobby is re-enabled.
Configure your game lobby settings
In the Configuration section, you can configure your game lobby as follows:
General
- Keep Player's Activity: turn on this option to store your players' activities after they disconnect from the lobby. This option is disabled by default, which means that your players' activities are reset after they disconnect from the lobby.
- Cancel Match on Disconnect: enable this option to automatically cancel match tickets sent by players when they disconnect from the lobby. The maximum time you can set is 2,147,483,647 seconds. This option is enabled by default.
- Ready Consent Timeout (Sec): set how much time in seconds will be given to players to confirm their readiness to start a game.
- Max Players in Lobby: set the maximum number of players that are allowed to join and be in the lobby simultaneously. Use the -1 value to allow unlimited players in your lobby. The maximum number of players you can allow in the lobby is 2,147,483,647.
- Max Friend Limit: set the maximum number of friends a player can have in a lobby.
- Max Server Waiting Time: set how much time in seconds before a request-response is activated in case the server needs more time to start up.
Party Configurations
- Max. Party Member: set how many members from one party can join the lobby simultaneously.
- Auto Kick on Disconnect: turn on this option to automatically kick party members from the lobby when they are disconnected. This option is disabled by default.
Chat Rate Limit
The following settings work together to determine how many chat requests can be sent by a single player within a period of time before their requests are blocked.
- Chat: Turn on this option to enable the Chat feature in your game lobby. This option is enabled by default.
- Chat Rate Limit Duration (ms): set the time window (in milliseconds) in which a certain amount of chat requests is allowed to be sent by a single player in the lobby.
- Chat Rate Limit Burst: set the maximum number of chat requests that a single player in the lobby is allowed to send within the time window set in the Chat Rate Limit Duration (ms) option.
When combined, these two settings determine a rate of chat requests per unit of time. For example, if the Chat Rate Duration Limit is set to 2,000 milliseconds and the Chat Rate Burst Limit is set to 3, then three requests per 2,000 milliseconds is the maximum rate of requests that can be sent to the Lobby service. This means that requests made at a rate of more than three per 1,000 milliseconds will be blocked.
Entitlement Check
Turn on the Entitlement check on connect toggle to trigger user eligibility checks on players when they attempt to connect to the lobby. The check determines whether a player has purchased the game or has the appropriate entitlements before they are granted access to the lobby. This applies to players who may have accessed a Client ID and a Client Secret without purchasing.
When you turn on this option, the "Enable Entitlement Check" pop-up appears. Click the Select Item dropdown and select the game in which you want to enable entitlement checks. Then, select Yes. In the Entitlement Check section, you will see the games in which you have enabled the check.
Lobby Service Rate Limit
These settings work together to determine how many requests a player can make to the Lobby service before their requests are blocked.
- Duration Limit (ms): set the time window (in milliseconds) in which a certain amount of requests can made by a single player to the Lobby service before their requests are blocked.
- Burst Limit: determines the number of requests that can be made to the Lobby service, within a given time window. This setting works with the Duration Limit setting.
When combined, these two settings determine a rate of requests per unit of time. For example, if the Duration Limit is set to 1,000 milliseconds and the Burst Limit is set to 3, then three requests per 1,000 milliseconds is the maximum rate of requests that can be sent to the Lobby service. This means that requests made at a rate of more than three per 1,000 milliseconds will be blocked.
What's next?
The AGS Lobby service provides continuous connection between your game and players by using The WebSocket Protocol. Learn how to use this protocol to configure the lobby service. See the Lobby using Websockets article.