Having a terrible time starting games...

[Rooster6975]

Hello,

New premium member. I found all of my friends and want to start a game of Carcasonne with them. I select Play Now from the menu (beside the Cloud), then pick my 4 friends. The UI says, "Choose any game below to start playing with 4 friends". That works, I pick the PLAY NOW on Carcasonne. The game comes up with the setup screen. I turn some expansions off, some on, and then I change the game from REAL TIME to "No Time Limit". I can't have a countdown because we usually take 3 or 4 days to complete a game. As soon as I change it to No Time Limit, all of my friends are erased and it just comes up saying "FREE - A player is required".

Why does it do that? I can't figure out how to start a game with No Time Limit and with my pre-selected group of friends.

Thanks.

[Rooster6975]

This can't be right. I have now sent out 11 invitations to the same group of friends. The ONLY way I have found to start a NO TIME LIMIT game is to ignore the list of friends at the top, click on PLAY NOW on the Carcasonne icon, and then change the option to NO TIME LIMIT. That erases any friends which were in my list, and opens it up to random players. Any friends who were in that list now get an invitation mail they can't use as that game will never start. Then as fast as I can, I use the INVITE FRIENDS button and send invitations one at a time to my friends until the 5 spots are taken. I am racing against random joiners. Once the 5 spots are filled, then I send a mail via Outlook informing my friends that they can delete all invitations but the very last one they received, and we should be good to go.

Is that the only way to start a NO TIME LIMIT game?

[Rooster6975]

Ah, it wasn't the only way. Thank goodness, I was starting to worry about what other UI choices were made. On the home page, you have to have it set to TURN BASED before you do anything, then it will allow for No Time Limit games without wreaking havoc. Still, it is an odd choice to allow a member to start a game with Friends, and then have that list of Friends wiped out by changing it to No Time Limit all the while putting up a big banner saying you should only use that option with Friends. Wouldn't it make more sense to just put up the banner without wiping the list (and opening up the table to random internet players) as every person selected was from my friend's list?

At any rate, glad it was just me.