Good info, Linker_Split.
Three very important things to implement (IMHO):
- option to decide the number of players to seat in tables (example: I have ten 10-seat tables, so 100 players, but I have only 50 registered, and I'm expecting other 50 players, so I want to seat them in all the tables; is it possible to seat the TD to seat 5 players per table?)
This is a fundamental difference in the way the software attempts to seat and balance players. The TD wants to fill up tables as much as possible, so it goes for filling up tables and not spreading out players. In your example, it would (as I'm sure you know) fill 5 tables with the 50 players.
I did allow for a different balancing algorithm, so this could be done of course, but it's not a simple change. In implementing something like this, programmers tend to extend specific cases to generalities. So your specific example of seating 50 players at 10 tables by placing 5 players at each table would be extended to "spread players out to all tables". This works OK for seating 50 players at 10 tables, but what if in your 100-player tournament only 20 people show up? You might in reality wait until more players arrive but the software still has to handle this case. Do you really want to place 2 people at each table? Maybe you do, maybe you don't, I honestly don't know, but the algorithm needs to know. Anyway, something I have to think about long and hard.
- redraw by chipcount (example: I've updated the player's chipcount, so I want to seat them in a way to balance chips per table; is it possible to have this done by TD?)
Similar answer to above. It would have to be a different seating algorithm. But yes, could be done.
If I recall correctly, this one is a bit more difficult than it seems. Putting players into equal buckets is not a simple problem, particularly when chip counts can be vary wildly. And likely with an emphasis on also putting the same number of people at each table (or into each bucket).
- option to show chipcount on the tables tab
Yes, could definitely be added. FYI, it's an option with the
<seatingchart> layout token. Not that that helps you.
I've added all of this to my "to-do" list and will investigate more once 3.3 is released.