Need extra time at the end to convert seeds

[LGWboss]

I got kicked off the game while converting seeds at the end. Ridiculous

[FrankJones]

Hi LGWboss,

As a veteran player, I will say a few things that may seem contradictory:

1) That's just brutal that you were expelled from a game like that. You're a relatively new player to the game, and you gave a beginner-level Elo. You're probably still learning the game.

2) I would never expel you in that situation.

3) You were losing by a lot when you were expelled. That's why I said it seemed brutal for you to be expelled. You were literally about to play your final seed. The game was going to end anyway in 15 seconds. Kicking you while you were down seems really harsh and unfair.

...............

that being said,

4) Until you are more familiar with the game, I suggest avoiding "fast real-time." The time bank for this setting is very short. A maximum of 2:27 is hardly enough time for some situations in a game in which we can do "anytime" actions of sprout or seed conversions, leaf conversions, events, etc. There also is no guarantee you will actually have 2:44 of clock going into your final move. As a new player, your turns might be taking more than the increment timer of 29 seconds, which would slowly decrease your 2:27 time bank.

5) There are possible ways to avoid this. On your final main action, before ending that turn, you could have used some time (if you weren't already close to running out of time) to convert some of those seeds before ending that turn. Then, you would get a new turn for the "end of game" conversions, at which point you could have converted the remaining seeds.

Of course, if you were already running low on time at the end of your final main action, this likely would not have helped. A water action can take a lot of clock when you're new to the game.

You had 5 seeds to create and use. 2:27 should be enough time for that. You also get a 20-second countdown warning before you can be expelled. With those clock settings, you have plenty of time to convert and use 5 seeds - IF you started the turn with the full 2:27 time bank. Most likely, you didn't, because the fast setting has such a low time bank and time increment per turn.

I strongly suggest not playing this game fast real-time. It's possible to have a lot more seeds to convert and use. I've seen 15 or 20 in one turn. If you weren't able to convert and use 5 seeds, you'll sometimes find yourself in a far more frustrating situation where you need to convert a lot more seeds.

If you still want to play fast-turn based, try playing a few solo games, which allows you as much time as you need. Use it to practice rapidly converting leaves and sprouts into seeds and then using the seeds to convert them into points. This will give you practice and muscle memory for fast conversions of these seeds. I could probably do 15 seeds in one time bank of 2:27, but I'm a veteran player.

Developers do not often read these forums. I suggest you post a suggestion in the bug/suggestion forum for Earth. This is not the only game that sometimes need more clock for specific things. Terraforming Mars players often struggle to pick their starting cards on the first turn when playing fast turn0-based.

It is difficult for developers to deal with this. I don't think BGA's settings allow for developers to create extra time for the first or last turn for specific games. But maybe there are other things that can be done. For example, allowing multiple leaves to be converted to seeds in one action instead of one at a time.