Improved Timer System for play-by-mail games.

[megamoon24]

I tried participating in 2 Boop tournaments. I thought I had 4 days to make a turn - nope, 4 days total.
So when my opponent & my's schedule dont quite align, many hours are burned. I ended up losing on time.

My second tournament, I think the game might end because we're often playing synchronously, but I'm uncertain. "4 days total" is a silly time restriction.
For longer games, there should be a "you have X days to make a move" - just like the usual game timer which is several minutes.

Maybe this is something the Boop developer should have programmed but I think it could make sense to implement as a site-wide feature for all games that want to do longer games + tournaments.

[dizzymisslizzy17]

The creator of the tournament determines how much time each player has. This is something you can see when you register for a tournament.

[Jellby]

"4 days total" is a silly time restriction.

Why is it silly? It is arbitrary, as any other time restriction. If it doesn't fit your schedule, don't register the tournament.

[pahakuukkeli]

4 days per move would lead to tournaments that potentially last for years. I'd imagine the number games where someone is timed out would radically increase.

[nik592]

The creator of the tournament determines how much time each player has. This is something you can see when you register for a tournament.

Sort of true, but not as true as you may think. Tournament creators only get to set the maximum length of the game, which is then divided equally among the number of players.

I tried participating in 2 Boop tournaments. I thought I had 4 days to make a turn - nope, 4 days total.
So when my opponent & my's schedule dont quite align, many hours are burned. I ended up losing on time.

I can only see one boop tournament you were in recently where you had time penalties and bootings, and it actually limits time to 30 hours per player. I don't usually play games with playing hours set, but that also seems to come into play here - that is, 12 hours per day, across a maximum of 5 days gives 60 hours of playable time, hence each of the (2) players gets 30 hours each.

In any case, the creators are limited in the maximum times they can choose - I asked about it once as I got kicked from a game that I was actively playing, in the last few turns with a minimal time overage (like 2h or something). That tournament had a max time per game of 15 days, and the creator told me their only option to extend it would have been to increase to 30 days per game which would have potentially blown out the tournament time to double, and I understood why they wouldn't want that.

This is a known issue with tournaments, and has been discussed several times in the tournament forum. I think there's also some bugs/suggestions raised for other ways of managing, but nothing is really happening (which is at the discretion of BGA, who admittedly do have a lot of things to juggle, not just how tournaments work). So basically, check your tournaments carefully, make sure you think the time limit (and playing hours if applicable) suit you, and only sign up if you feel confident about finishing the game in the time given (tournaments are always fixed time limits, there is no other option available for creators on that either). Otherwise, I'd suggest avoiding tournaments.

[megamoon24]

Jellby, it's silly because your time burns down when you're not playing, so you're forced to adjust your schedule for the tournament and effectively play synchronously. So you're going to lose 8 hours minimum every day, if you sleep. It feels like it would be better to say "find a time to play your game, and just play a game with normal time controls". This is how * does it - you schedule a tournament start time, everyone has to be there and you have a bunch of regularly timed games occurring simultaneously.

nik592, the 12 hours per day thing I wasn't aware of, on how that restricts to 12 hours a day.

I think I will just avoid tournaments for the future, after I finish this 2nd one I'm in.

*moderator edit: please do not name other gaming sites

[Jellby]

Jellby, it's silly because your time burns down when you're not playing

That happens always, even for normal turn-based games. If you have 8 hours per move, your time burns down when you're sleeping too. The only difference is that with normal games you get extra time per move, and for tournaments, or at least some of them, you don't. Even when there are playing hours, it means the time burns down only during those hours, but there's no relationship at all with whether or not you are awake or playing. How do you expect the system to know that you are playing or sleeping?

[sesc]

It sounds a bit like you may want to play real-time tournaments instead of turn-based ones. There you have a specific start time and all games are played after that time.

[megamoon24]

Yes thank you, I'll look for that.
I found a good timer system in a Nine Men's Morris game:
[quoteTurn-based • 2 moves per day
+12h00 per turn (maximum 36h00)][/quote]
Now I know what to look for - this kind of system & real time.