Friends and Invites

Friends and Invites

5th Echelon Enhanced has real friend lists: you add friends, they accept, and you can block people. Your friends follow you to every server of your network.

Adding a friend

1. In the game, press F5 and open Find players.
2. Type part of their name and press Search (or leave it empty to see everyone online).
3. Press Add friend.
4. They get a notice (<you> wants to be friends. Press F5 to answer.) and accept it in their Friends tab.

You both need to be on the same server to find each other in Find players. Once you're friends, it doesn't matter: friends follow you between the servers of a network.

New friends show in the game's own friend list without restarting the game. Your friends see you online as soon as you're signed in.

If your game drops or you restart it, friends see only the lobby your game is in now: lobbies the old game made or joined are cleaned up when the server lets its old connection go, about a minute later.

Inviting a friend into your match

1. Host a lobby or a private match in the game, as usual.
2. Invite your friend: from the overlay (Friends › Invite) or from the game's own friend list.
3. They get a notice in the corner, press F5 and Accept (within 30 seconds), and go straight into your match.

Private matches (co-op and Spies vs Mercs) stay private: only invited players get in, and they're never offered to strangers through Find Teammate or Quick Match.

Tip: Join invites automatically (Settings › Game) accepts invites as soon as they arrive.

"Couldn't invite <name>"

Host or join a match first, then try again. Invites need a lobby or match to invite into.

Invites that never arrive

• Are you on the same server? Matches, parties and invites stay on one server. A friend on another server of the network shows under On other servers in the overlay, and in the launcher's Friends card with Join: one of you switches to the other's server.
• On friends-only servers (all community servers), only friends can invite you. Add each other first.
• An invite lasts 30 seconds. Send another.
• Has one of you blocked the other? Blocks stop invites both ways.

More in Troubleshooting.

Joining a friend

From 0.4.6, Join beside a friend takes you into their game without waiting for an invite. It's in the overlay (Friends and Find players) and on the launcher's Friends card, and the launcher starts the game first if it isn't running.

• Where it takes you: your friend's party, or the public match they're in (a quick match or a public lobby), whoever hosts it.
• Private matches still need an invite, a friend's too, and so does a party its host made invite-only. Join isn't offered there: the host chose who comes in.
• A match that has started can't be joined until it's over: the host's game turns joiners away mid-match. Once someone has been turned away, Join isn't offered there for a while, and the launcher says the match has started.
• Through a friend in someone else's game: in a public match, always; in a party, only when its host is that friend's friend too.
• No server can pull you anywhere: your game takes this kind of invite without a click only for the friend you pressed Join on, in the last 5 minutes, once. Any other invite waits for your click (or auto-join, if you turned it on).
• Your server needs 0.4.6. On an older one, Join isn't shown.

Who can invite you

Each server decides who is on the game's friend list:

The server's mode	The game's friend list	Who can invite you
Friends only (all community servers)	Only your friends	Only your friends
Everyone (a server's default, unless its operator chose friends only; the Linux installer chooses friends only)	Every player on the server	Anyone you haven't blocked

The launcher marks friends-only servers with a Friends only badge.

Blocking

Block (in Friends, Find players or a friend request) does all of this:

• ends any friendship or request between you, and removes their invites and notices;
• hides each of you from the other: friend lists, searches, and who's online;
• stops invites either way.

They aren't told. Their friend requests look sent, but never arrive. Unblock in the Friends tab's Blocked list.

Friends on other servers

A network's servers share friendships and blocks: be friends on one, and you're friends on all of them, with the same names. But matches stay on one server, so to play together you need to be on the same one:

• In the launcher, the Friends card lists each friend playing elsewhere as On <server> with Join. It moves you to their server, signed in with your identity. Quit the game first.
• In the overlay, the Friends tab lists them under On other servers.

It can take about a minute and a half for a friend to show up on another server after they start playing.

Only friends see where you play, never someone you've blocked.

Names that look like a friend's

Within a network, each name belongs to one player. But on a server outside your network, someone else can have your friend's name. The overlay remembers your friends' identities from every server, and warns you: Not your friend <name> from <server>, in search results, friend requests and invites.

Limits

To keep public servers free of spam, a player can send 20 invites a minute and have 5 waiting from different players at once; a new invite from someone replaces their older one. Friend changes and searches are rate limited too: if you see Too many …; try again in a minute, wait a minute.

The details, for server operators too: docs/friends.md.