Currently the timer is a joke

[RoyalRook]

I don't know if the BGA timer works better for other games, but it is not working for TM. Some of the decision are automatic, which means you get your full timer back way faster if you have blue card actions. For TM you should implement a total timer say 30 or 40 minutes with an additional second kick back after each action. If they run out during a game, they are risking to be kicked out and lose the match. They total game time spent would be way lower. And it gave the player a chance to spend more time during crucial moments, if someone is inactive like none moving mouse, then they can be kicked per prompt.

[MasterMystery]

i know of no game where the timers are global on BGA

[NegPrimer]

Yeah I'm not sure where you're coming up with the global timer idea, but you're right that the timer is a joke.

Currently every game I've played, my opponents take on average TWICE as long to make their decisions as I do, yet the timer shows they have as much if not more time remaining. It gets reset constantly throughout the process, rather than just as one lump at the start. My game last night with 2 opponents, I was regularly going for over 5 minutes without making a decision. I finally decided it wasn't worth it and quit after 1 hour and barely anything done.

You should get a lump of time at the beginning of your turn, and that's it. Fast games should be FAST, with no way to cheat the timer into giving you 5+ minutes every turn.

[RoyalRook]

Totally man, imagine I spent 5 minutes on a decision, then AI Central, add an animal; then think for another 3~5 minutes, then quick action action...full timer again, it's just ridiculous. Imagine blitz chess timer act this way, the match would go on forever and no one is stressed. Spread the word, educate people on this huge flaw so we can see some change.

[Nico76]

This timer is a big problem, I was against an oponent that sometime spend 5 to 10 minutes before I can play!!!
In fact, he was on the way to win, so I want to give him the victory; but even at turn 11 I can't give up. The game told me that we have not past 50% of the game length...
I was lucky, my oponent spend so much time, that at some time I have been able to kick him for overtime. (not proud about that, but he does't even answer my "have fun and enjoy the game". )

[ShngKnight]

It is very frustrating with the timer. It feels like some players are exploiting the way the clock resets and taking 5 plus minutes every turn. It takes me less time to play the actual game (including setup and clean up) than it takes to play on here. I had a game take over THREE HOURS. Please look into this. If nothing else give us a little more time each turn and get rid of the reset feature.

[Anouchavan]

Do you know the meme "that's not how we do things here?".

[Grizzly Bear]

I understand the frustration when an opponent is going slow and then can easily get their timer back up with a few quick actions only to run the clock down again, but I don't think a fixed amount of time (either per game or per generation) is a good idea in TM. Different strategies would have an advantage if we did this. E.g. A strategy that involves holding on to and playing a smaller number of expensive cards will use less time versus a strategy that involves drawing lots of cards, playing cards that give discounts and playing lots of cheap cards. The choice of timer shouldn't give an advantage to certain strategies over others.

A global timer works in chess because both players will have the same number of actions.

I'm not sure I can think of a better way to implement a timer for TM than the one we currently have.

[RoyalRook]

@Grizzly Bear, you will get a second or two back with each action like chess. So it doesn't matter if you have more actions, and those actions take much less to consider than a huge move from a "big" action. Do you really need to think on taking another animal? I don't think so, right? I had a game last night, the guy literally grieving the table by taking super slow turns, and there is nothing we can do about it, completely destroyed the experience, and since it was an arena match we were kinda trapped for the moment.

P.S. a side note for the admins and devs, a global timer was implemented in the steam TM app with no timer kick back after each move, and it had been working like a charm, with most top players play with 30 mins bliz or 45 mins standard match for any player counts.

[lemonacid]

I assumed this was just aa bug in my game, but apparently it happens a lot. Usually I just play terraforming turn-based because it is so long, and there the timer seems to work normally, as it is supposed to, gives you a certain amount of new time at the beginning of the game. But in this live game I played my opponent was over time and then in the middle of his moves started getting new time so that he ended with nearly +1 min at the end of his turn despite playing super slow and going into over time. How the heck is that possible? Why aren't the developers fixing this?