Unity Authoritative matches via lua server

Runtime Framework
,
1

Hi Everyone!

I am trying to write a Lua dedicated server in which players register their name and cards deck id and try to start the match passing these data aside with a random seed and a Boolean to determine which player goes first in the match.

I decided to send the name and deck id in the meta data to the server

I noticed that meta data gets passed in join attempt function while I need the data in match join function so I cached the data. the problem is if the name and deck id are the same in both clients, the match starts, however if I changed any of them the match does not start.
also number of presences is always 1 not 2

here is my code to look into

local matchMetadata = {}

function M.match_join_attempt(context, dispatcher, tick, state, presence, metadata)
	local acceptuser = true
	if (state.host == nil) then
		state.host = presence.user_id
	end

	if	(matchMetadata.metadata == nil) then
		matchMetadata.metadata = {}
	end

	matchMetadata.metadata[presence.user_id] = metadata;
	nk.logger_error("metadata: " .. nk.json_encode(metadata))

	return state, acceptuser
end

function M.match_join(context, dispatcher, tick, state, presences)
	for _, presence in ipairs(presences) do
		state.presences[presence.session_id] = presence
		nk.logger_error("passed: " .. presence.session_id)
		
	end

	for _, presence in ipairs(state.presences) do
		nk.logger_error("cached: " .. presence.session_id)

	end

	-- Broadcast if number of presense > 1
	nk.logger_error("pres: " .. pres)
	nk.logger_error("Number of presences: " .. #presences)
	nk.logger_error("Number of cached presences: " .. #state.presences)


	pres = pres + 1
	if (pres> 1) then
		for _, presence in ipairs(presences) do
			nk.logger_error("Presence: " .. nk.json_encode(presence))
			nk.logger_error("State: " .. nk.json_encode(state))
			nk.logger_error("context: " .. nk.json_encode(context))

			local metadata = {}
			for _, other_presence in pairs(state.presences) do
				if other_presence.session_id ~= presence.session_id then
					metadata = matchMetadata.metadata[other_presence.user_id]
					nk.logger_error("metadata: " .. nk.json_encode(metadata))
					break
				end
			end

			dispatcher.broadcast_message(OP_STARTGAME, nk.json_encode({
				["IsMyTurn"] = state.presences[presence.session_id] == presence,
				["RandomSeed"] =  math.random(1, 1000000), -- generate random int
				["OtherPlayerName"] = metadata["PlayerName"] ,-- I want to access meta data player name filed
				["OtherPlayerImage"] = metadata["PlayerImage"] -- I want to access meta data player name filed
			
			}))

		end
	end

	return state
end