Slow down timer depending on number of active players

[PnavE_81]

I tried to look if this suggestion has been made before, but could find it. So here it goes:

In some games multiple players can be active at the same times. Al their timers than start counting down at the same time. For example in a 7 player game of 7 wonders, where one player has made their move, all other 6 players are counting down. So effectively every second, 6 "timerseconds" are wasted.
I suggest to have the speed of the countdown timer to be based on the number of players that are currently thinking about their move. So if 6 players are active, have the timer slow down by a factor 6, or if 3 are active by a factor of 3. In a turn by turn game, there is always 1 player active, so the timer would always decrease by a factor of 1, so effectively there wouldn't be a change for these kind of games.

Currently in multiplayer games like 7 wonders, it can be that all players are out of time, while the total game time is still on time. A player can easily profit of this by ejecting a player who was out of time, while the player themselve is also out of time. With the suggested change, it is harder to get out of time, while the total game time is still guaranteed.

If you agree please upvote this suggestion. If you disagree, I would really like to know why.
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35831

[Jest Phulin]

Why should the number of other players who need to make a move affect how fast each individual player can think and act? In games with simultaneous play, the actions of one player do not affect the actions of another player on that turn.

[MoiMagnus]

That's not the current philosophy of timers.

Current timers are more like chess clocks, it's about how much time you make to take your turn.
The timer you're suggesting is to focus on how much other peoples are waiting for you (so the more peoples are waiting for you the quicker your timer should go down).

I don't think you're suggestion is actually adequate to solve the problem you're trying to solve. The problem you're trying to solve is that currently when peoples are kicked out for time issue, it's totally unfair when the person kicked out is not the lowest in time. If you change the clock, so that it is slower under some circumstances, peoples will then ask to significantly reduce the total time of the clock because you slowed down the game too much, and you will end up with a similar situation. Some solutions to this problem are:
(1) Automatically kicking out anybody that goes into negative time, so that this situation never happens.
(2) Only allowing to kick out the person which is the lowest in time.
(3) Make it that when someone is kicked out, everybody lower than them on time is also kicked out.

[Sam7000]

Related to this suggestion: In general, for practically all multiplayer games (3 or more) you need to increase the amount of time allocated for "Real-time Normal" and especially "Real-time Slow" speeds. Both the total time and the incremental seconds per move. With current time limits most of the fun of playing games is gone because instead of concentrating on the game, you are constantly worried about running out of time and getting time penalties. Speed daemons can always select the "Real-time Fast" option to reduce the chance of playing those who have selected the "Real-time Slow" or "Normal" speeds. I've noticed this issue in almost every multiplayer game I've played here. That's why I've mostly stopped playing multiplayer games on this website.