Request for 'blitz' mode.

[Stuff by Bez]

I like playing turnbased so I can fit games into my life.

But when playing realtime, I want to play QUICKLY!

The current time options don't seem like enough.

I would suggest a 'blitz' mode that is maybe 40% of the time allowance of 'fast'.

To ensure that people know the game, maybe restricted to players of 100ELO, or people who have played at least one game already.

I want blitz mode to just automatically kick someone out when they go overtime, but treat that as a game loss, not a Karma violation.

I think this is a fun way to play games that would specially excite players of perfect information games like Silo, Redstone, Quoridor.

[HanabiGrandMaster]

Yes! I want this too!

In general, when people run out of time, they still get 20s to make their move, because kicking them out of the game requires a 20s waiting period. Running out of time should be a loss for them.

I play hanabi mostly, and it is vexing that "fast" mode is ~13s per move, with ~100s at the start. A game takes ~80 moves; and can be completed in 10 minutes. Just like in chess, a 3:00 + 0:02 seems like a good blitz time for this game.

[cigma]

Why don't you make a suggestion here https://boardgamearena.com/bugs (and preferably add the link in this thread), so others can vote for it?

[Jest Phulin]

While I see the appeal of a faster game mode, (and this has been a recurring request), there are issues with this suggestion as presented.

Clock management is a feature external to the game, and all games follow the same rules: A set amount of time is given at the beginning, a set amount is added at each turn, to a maximum of another set amount. If a player's clock goes negative, any other player has the option to expel that player, with a resultant loss in karma and adjusting ELO to the amount of game actually played. It doesn't matter if it is fast real-time, 1 move per 2 days turn-based, or anywhere in between; the only variables are how much the set times are. Even fast turn-based follows this, it just doesn't reduce the clock during certain times.

Yeah, I'm sure you know this already, just want to be clear on it.

BGA staff have long stated that they want games to end by the rules of the game, not the rules of the site. This is why expelling a person for timing out is an option, never automatic. Changing the clock behavior for one mode, but not others, would cause issues.

Additionally, the question must be asked of how multi-player games are handled. Simply stating that the player timing out comes in last doesn't cover what happens to the other players. Are they treated as tying, with 100% ELO awarded? Or are they only awarded partial ELO, based on game progression?

[HanabiGrandMaster]

I've made a suggestion. Link is here:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=87619

In general, I would like to suggest that the website's statistics are used. I'm sure that there are:
Blitz games (the top ~5% fastest games);
Fast games (the top ~20% fastest games, minus the blitz games)
Normal games (the bulk of the games ~65%);
Slow games (the slowest ~15% of the games)
Turn based games

In my personal experience, I like to play fast and find it frustrating that "fast mode" is ~3x slower than I want to play.

I respect that BGA staff want the games to end by rules; not by time/disconnect, but I don't see why that argument should be blocking a Blitz mode. People can opt in/out for Blitz. No-one will be forced to play that mode, since it will not replace fast mode. Even so, after implementing a Blitz mode the staff can evaluate after ~6 months and see if there are significantly more disconnects with Blitz games, than with other games.

[ChiefPointThief]

Question for people in favor of this. Is there particular games that you want to play at a faster speed or do you want to play all games super fast?

In 99 you have a 2 min clock and it only takes 1 sec to take your turn. For the most part people play at reasonable speeds but when the game is slow it kills it for me. This would be great for games like that.

Even for games that are typically slow this could be a good option. I played a game of terra mystica which usually last around 75-105 min. Someone threatened to quit because they said something urgent came up and suddenly what was a really sluggish game turned into lightning speed. That is a thinking game and shouldn’t be the norm but it was refreshing to play at that speed and would be nice if that were an option (even though I know majority of players wouldn’t try a blitz option for that game)

[Ragnarok1er]

Came on the forum to ask for this exact feature. I’m currently playing a lot of Akropolis and I’m incredibly bored waiting a full minute for people to choose a single tile and place it while I make all my moves in 5 or 10 seconds. It’s not normal that all my games on the site are slower than the physical games I play with friends (who aren’t particularly fast either)

Please give us a real FAST mode, the current one is painfully slow.