Another newbie question about the clock

[detlefchef11]

Hey all, I just read the rules regarding the clock and I'm still a little confused. In fact, I'm in a 3 player game that is set for 3 moves/24 hours and I'm a bit puzzled because the game will be 48 hours old pretty soon and I've only had one opportunity to take 1 turn thus far. As it happens, it took me several hours to take it because it became my turn shortly after I went to sleep and I took it shortly after I awoke. So, I think I used about 7 hours on the clock.

The rules mention something about 8 hours being added to each person's clock at the beginning of their turn in a game like this, but how do you run out of time? Do you start with an amount that you dip into every time it's your turn, that gets however much added to it based on the turn frequency setting?. In other words, if you routinely take more than, in this case, 8 hours to make your turn, you'll eventually deplete your initial cache of time? And, does that cache build up if you typically don't use the 8 hours you get added each turn?

One of the players in this game, it turns out, has a very poor rating because they've gotten a lot of time penalties and I just want to figure out how that works.

[nik592]

The best way to understand it is to look at the game speed on the table screen. So from your game, you can click the BGA logo in the top left. Then under the Table Configuration section, it will detail the speed. In your case, it's "+8h00 per turn (maximum 24h00)". So every time you take a move, you get 8 hours added to your clock, but it caps out at 24 hours. You also start with the maximum time (again, 24 hours in this case). It varies a bit for each speed, so if you're not sure you can check there.

So yes, if you routinely go over 8 hours in taking your turns, you'll eventually go negative, depending how quickly you eat into that 24 hour buffer you start with. If you take 20 hours each for your first two turns, you'll be in negative at that point, but if you're taking 9 hours per turn, you might get through the game without going negative (depending on the game).

[Jellby]

With 3 moves per day, you get 24/3 = 8 hours per turn, which are typically added to your clock at the beginning of each turn. There's also (for this speed setting) a cap of 48 hours, so your time is never more than that. Your clock ticks whenever it is your turn, or you must take a decision (e.g. reacting to someone else's move if the game allows it).

If you take 12 hours to make a move, you have 48-12 = 36 hours left. Your next turn you'll have 36+8 = 44 hours. If you make this next move immediately, you'll still have 44 hours. For the next turn you'll have 44+8 = 52, but capped to 48 hours again.

[detlefchef11]

Thanks, that makes sense

[cigma]

With 3 moves per day, you get 24/3 = 8 hours per turn, which are typically added to your clock at the beginning of each turn. There's also (for this speed setting) a cap of 48 hours

I think the cap is always three times of the regular time, so the cap would be (8x3=) 24 hours in this game, as nik592 said?

[nik592]

It seems to vary. It's a max of 24 hours for both 3 and 4 turns per day, so for the 4 turns per day setting it's 4x, but for all other turn-based speeds it seems to be 3x, except the Fast speeds, which are all max of 12 hours.

[Jellby]

Yeah, I wrote 48 hours just from defective short-term memory

[detlefchef11]

Okay, so the person with the bad reputation is on red. I spoke to the other person at the table because I'm not sure about the protocol and how quick one should be to enforce it. They said we should give them a day, which it's been. I honestly wish it was like Steam where they just get booted automatically rather than leave it up to the opponents to be the enforcer. It seems kinda rude to kick someone out of a game even though it appears it will hardly be the first time for them.

[nik592]

There are occasionally good reasons for people being late with their turns, although I still get annoyed by it in turn-based play, especially if they don't bother to explain. If you feel people should be auto-kicked on running over time, then just do it, that's up to you. But sometimes I figure I'd rather be playing a game, so a game waiting for someone to play is better than no game at all (unless of course it's a game where you can expect to get a new game pretty quickly). The other point is, if their reputation is bad, I'd also feel less inclined to give them a pass. Personally, I kick people after they've been AWOL for a few days - I have plenty of games going on, so often times I don't even notice I'm still waiting for that other game to continue.

[Meeplelowda]

I honestly wish it was like Steam where they just get booted automatically rather than leave it up to the opponents to be the enforcer.

I prefer it the way it is. It's left up to the individual player whether they want to win on time. I like that you have to own it and not pretend you didn't want to win that way, but you have no choice because the system just did it.