BETA: Fast turn based

[sourisdudesert]

From years now, BGA is supporting 2 modes: realtime and turn-based.

Realtime is good because it is really like a real boardgame. Turn-based is also cool because you are not really stressed with a timer and can take your time for each move.

However, the drawback of turn-based is that a single game may takes weeks - and sometimes months - to be played. The fastest available speed on BGA is 4 moves / day (ie: 6 hours per moves), and even at this speed a single game may be veeeeeery long.

We didn't want to propose higher speed: it makes no sense to play a 8 moves / day turn based game because it means that you have 3 hours / move. Even boardgamers must sleep sometimes...

However, we wanted to proposed something between realtime and turn-based. Something that would allow turn-based player to make sure a game will not last more than 2-3 days, with the comfort of a turn-based game. So we are happy to launch the BETA of the Fast Turn Based feature.

Fast turn based introduces 3 new speeds for turn-based: 8 moves / day, 12 moves / day and 24 moves / day. But the most important thing is that you can define, for each tables some Playing Hours. Playing hours is a 12 hours slot, for example "10:00 to 22:00". During Playing hours, everything is like a normal Turn-based game. In the contrary, outside Playing hours, during the "night", the clock is not decreasing. Note that you can of course play during the night if you want, but all clocks are "freezed" during this period.

Consequently, playing a Fast Turn based 12 moves / day (10:00 => 22:00) means that you have +1 hour additional thinking time at each move, and that the clock freezes between 22:00 and 10:00.

Of course, all these times are always displayed in your local time.

Note: this new feature is also particularly appropriate for turn-based tournaments, as in a tournament you expect each match to be played in a short time.

This feature is now in BETA: please do not hesitate to post your feedback here: do you like it or not? Do you see some bugs? Do you have some suggestions?

Thanks for your help building a (hopefully) great new mode for BGA

[RicardoRix]

That sounds great.

Blitz chess deals with this situation very well I find with an increment.
So say the setting is say 2 days + 4 hours per move. After each move 4 hours is added to your clock, and you can sleep for 10 hours no problem.

[augustjologs]

How would this work for players living in different time zones? For example, one player is in America, another in Asia, and another in Europe, so they would have different sleeping times. Are their respective clocks 'frozen' when it's sleeping time in their location or is the clock only 'frozen' during the host/table creator's 'sleeping time'?

Is this basically like, the host establishes playing time, say from 10am to 10pm (his local time), during which each player has, say, 1 hour per turn to make a move. Then after 10pm, the game sorts of gets 'paused', to resume again the following day at 10am?

[CB Droege]

With people being spread so wide across time zones. It seems like this would only work if each player got to pick their own sleep time...

[sourisdudesert]

How would this work for players living in different time zones? For example, one player is in America, another in Asia, and another in Europe, so they would have different sleeping times.

With people being spread so wide across time zones. It seems like this would only work if each player got to pick their own sleep time...

This is simple: as table creator, YOU choose the playing hours, and all the players who join the table must play with the same.

Obviously, to provide a "fast turn based" mode, we cannot make players with very different "sleeping time" play together. This feature has been designed so that players with compatible "sleeping times" can recognize themselves and play together.

Is this basically like, the host establishes playing time, say from 10am to 10pm (his local time), during which each player has, say, 1 hour per turn to make a move. Then after 10pm, the game sorts of gets 'paused', to resume again the following day at 10am?

That's it. Except that the game is not "frozen": you CAN play. But the clock is frozen.

[asd123321]

Certain games need some alterations to be reasonable in turn based games. This could be optional and needs to be indicated if it is in effect or could be. Lords of Xidit needs the round ends to have all resources the player has, shown so it doesn't take forever. Was this implemented?

[Gandon]

Certain games need some alterations to be reasonable in turn based games. This could be optional and needs to be indicated if it is in effect or could be. Lords of Xidit needs the round ends to have all resources the player has, shown so it doesn't take forever. Was this implemented?

Agreed! It's SUCH a waste of time in turn-based Lords of Xidit. I know it's the rule but the time lost seems so extreme compared to the tiny bit of strategy gained. It's especially useless on the final round when there is no more use for resources.

[Gandon]

...However, the drawback of turn-based is that a single game may takes weeks - and sometimes months - to be played. The fastest available speed on BGA is 4 moves / day (ie: 6 hours per moves), and even at this speed a single game may be veeeeeery long....

Personally I don't consider it a drawback at all. When I sign up for a turn-based game, I know I'm in for a long game. That's the point. Each turn itself has to be interesting or it's not worth playing turn-based. For example, I would never play Hearts turn-based because each turn by itself is pretty uninteresting, and the game requires a lot of turns to complete. Strategic games like Through the Ages or Puerto Rico have much more interesting turns and I don't really care how long the game takes to complete. I also like light games turn-based if they don't take too many turns to complete - such as The Builders: Middle Ages or The Battle for Hill 218.

...Fast turn based introduces 3 new speeds for turn-based: 8 moves / day, 12 moves / day and 24 moves / day. But the most important thing is that you can define, for each tables some Playing Hours. Playing hours is a 12 hours slot, for example "10:00 to 22:00". During Playing hours, everything is like a normal Turn-based game. In the contrary, outside Playing hours, during the "night", the clock is not decreasing. Note that you can of course play during the night if you want, but all clocks are "freezed" during this period.

Consequently, playing a Fast Turn based 12 moves / day (10:00 => 22:00) means that you have +1 hour additional thinking time at each move, and that the clock freezes between 22:00 and 10:00.

Of course, all these times are always displayed in your local time.

Note: this new feature is also particularly appropriate for turn-based tournaments, as in a tournament you expect each match to be played in a short time.

This actually sounds great for tournaments. I'd love to participate in tournaments, but I'm scared I'll time out all my games and put my reputation through the cellar because I can't log on to the site all the time. If I knew before a tournament started that I didn't need to be logged in at certain times, that would alleviate a lot of that fear.

Cheers!

[augustjologs]

Is the playing duration fixed at 12 hours or can the host select other slot length? For example, if I want to set the game to be played on evenings only (my local time), say, from 6pm to 12 midnight (6 hrs only) can I do that?

[sourisdudesert]

Is the playing duration fixed at 12 hours or can the host select other slot length? For example, if I want to set the game to be played on evenings only (my local time), say, from 6pm to 12 midnight (6 hrs only) can I do that?

Hi,

You can only use 12 hours slots at now. If the feature is successful, we may add some additional modes.