Question

So I’m working with multiplayer for the first time and I’m confused about the whole minplayer/maxplayer options. When I set minplayer=2 and maxplayer=4 and test the code, it connects 2 players just fine, but jumps directly into the game scene without waiting for players 3-4. How do I keep the code from progressing to the main game scene before all the slots are filled? The code works fine if I set minPlayers=maxPlayers. I know match.expectedPlayerCount==0 is supposed to fire once minPlayers is satisfied, but it isn’t waiting at all for additional players to join. What am I missing here?

GKMatchRequest * matchRequest = [[[GKMatchRequest alloc] init] autorelease];
matchRequest.minPlayers = 2;
matchRequest.maxPlayers = 4;

gameCenterManager.matchController = [[GKMatchmakerViewController alloc] initWithMatchRequest:matchRequest];
gameCenterManager.matchController.matchmakerDelegate = self;

AppDelegate * delegate = (AppDelegate *) [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate;
[delegate.viewController presentViewController:gameCenterManager.matchController animated:YES completion:nil];

Find Match Code

-(void)matchmakerViewController:(GKMatchmakerViewController *)viewController didFindMatch:(GKMatch *)match
{
    TXGameCenterManager *gameCenterManager = [TXGameCenterManager sharedTXGameCenterManager];
    gameCenterManager.multiplayerMatch = match;
    // The delegate of the match is HelloWorldLayer
    gameCenterManager.multiplayerMatch.delegate = self;
    AppDelegate * delegate = (AppDelegate *) [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate;                
    [delegate.viewController dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:NO];


    if( match.expectedPlayerCount==0 )
    {
        // Launching the game without waiting for connection change messages
        NSLog(@"Begin game without waiting for match connection change messages");
        // Determine the host, local or remote
        NSArray * playerIds = match.playerIDs;
        NSLog(@"Number of players: %d", [playerIds count]);
        NSLog(@"ID of player: %@", [playerIds lastObject]);
        NSLog(@"I got the player ids");
        [GKPlayer loadPlayersForIdentifiers:playerIds withCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *players, NSError * error)
         {

//bunch of code that gets player aliases and set host player

//start match
[self schedule: @selector(StartMultiplayerGame) interval:5.];
}

ChangeState code

-(void)match:(GKMatch *)match player:(NSString *)playerID didChangeState:(GKPlayerConnectionState)state
{

    NSArray * playerIds = [NSArray arrayWithObject:playerID];

    switch (state)
    {
    case GKPlayerStateConnected:
        // handle a new player connection.
        NSLog(@"Player connected!");

    [GKPlayer loadPlayersForIdentifiers:playerIds withCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *players, NSError * error)
     {
         //bunch of code that gets player aliases and set host player


            if (match.expectedPlayerCount==0)
            {
//start match
            [self schedule: @selector(StartMultiplayerGame) interval:5.];
            }

}];

    break;
case GKPlayerStateDisconnected:
    // a player just disconnected.
    NSLog(@"Player disconnected!");
    break;

}


-(void)StartMultiplayerGame
{

  [[CCDirector sharedDirector] replaceScene:[HelloWorldLayer node]];   
}

Answer 1

 if (match.expectedPlayerCount==0)
 {
      //start match
      [self schedule: @selector(StartMultiplayerGame) interval:5.];
 }

You said it yourself, if minPlayers players have joined (which is 2 in your case) then expectedPlayerCount is 0. So as soon as 2 players have joined, you’re starting the game. This is not Game Center’s fault.

You could wait for a longer amount of time once expectedPlayerCount is 0 to allow other players to join.

Your code also does not consider that a second player might join, then leave again. So in that case you would be starting the game with just one player.