Board Game Arena

It's already been mentioned, but information that was once public SHOULD NOT be hidden in turn-based. For example, your opponent's hut and civ cards in Stone Age, or VPs in Puerto Rico. You can keep track of this information in real-time, and this information is essential for strategic play. In turn-based, there is no way to remember this information unless you take notes (no way I'm going to do that, I'm here to have fun, not work).

Nice work for implementing turn-based gaming, but it's not going to be a serious turn-based site unless you can fix the hidden information problem.

How about automating moves when it's common knowledge that one player has exactly one choice of move to make? I know this has been done in 6 nimmt, and could probably shave a lot of time off of turn-based games in other situations. It might be a problem in realtime (suddenly changing the interface might trip players up), but it turn-based it should work well.

Examples I'm thinking of:

• Stone Age: if a "dice roll" civ card is picked, the last player must take the last die.
• Caylus: a player with no more workers, or no deniers left, has no option except to pass.
• Coloretto: if there is one row left and it's full, the last player must take it.

... and probably a lot of other games. (There are probably many games with "pass-only" scenarios alone.)

arcweldx wrote:It's already been mentioned, but information that was once public SHOULD NOT be hidden in turn-based. For example, your opponent's hut and civ cards in Stone Age, or VPs in Puerto Rico. You can keep track of this information in real-time, and this information is essential for strategic play. In turn-based, there is no way to remember this information unless you take notes (no way I'm going to do that, I'm here to have fun, not work).

Nice work for implementing turn-based gaming, but it's not going to be a serious turn-based site unless you can fix the hidden information problem.

I'd argue almost the opposite. The once-public, but currently hidden, elements are often meant to be hidden in the actual game, so an imperfect memory would make you lose precise information, and be left to figure some of it out based on general trends. (Also, in Stone Age, the civ cards aren't entirely public, since it's possible to draw the top civ card of a deck. Revealing every card would then be a bug.)

In turn-based mode, we can still get around this from the "replay from this point" function in the sidebar. Maybe there should be an easier way to replay from the beginning that doesn't involve opening the entire sidebar? That would give us a general idea of how the game went, while it is still tough to pick out every move.

groupscheme wrote:I'd argue almost the opposite. The once-public, but currently hidden, elements are often meant to be hidden in the actual game, so an imperfect memory would make you lose precise information, and be left to figure some of it out based on general trends. (Also, in Stone Age, the civ cards aren't entirely public, since it's possible to draw the top civ card of a deck. Revealing every card would then be a bug.)

Obviously, information that's always been hidden shouldn't be revealed, only public information. In Stone Age, the civ and hut cards that people buy from the display are public.

Now, some games make public information subsequently hidden. That introduces a memory component to game play - in order to play well, you need to remember (even if only vaguely) information that was once public but is now hidden. Fine, no argument there. But once you stretch an hour-long game into a weeks-long game, and you're also playing the same game at 10 or 20 different tables, memory becomes impossible (unless you take notes on each game or use extraordinary mnemonic techniques - which most people would probably find tedious, not enjoyable). Being able to keep track of information is an important part of competitive play. When you make public information hidden in turn-based, you're essentially removing the ability to keep track of information. That takes away much of the strategy in many games. Turn-based shouldn't be a less satisfying gaming experience than real-time.

Does anyone know why Time Masters doesn't seem to be available in turn based mode?

arcweldx wrote: Now, some games make public information subsequently hidden. That introduces a memory component to game play - in order to play well, you need to remember (even if only vaguely) information that was once public but is now hidden. Fine, no argument there. But once you stretch an hour-long game into a weeks-long game, and you're also playing the same game at 10 or 20 different tables, memory becomes impossible (unless you take notes on each game or use extraordinary mnemonic techniques - which most people would probably find tedious, not enjoyable). Being able to keep track of information is an important part of competitive play. When you make public information hidden in turn-based, you're essentially removing the ability to keep track of information. That takes away much of the strategy in many games. Turn-based shouldn't be a less satisfying gaming experience than real-time.

I totally agree with this. I've been playing turn-based for two years so this is something I'm pretty familiar with. Turn-based has the unfortunate situation of having huge breaks between turns, and playing several games at once, and simply cannot be treated the same way as real time. Because it's not live. Rules were written for f2f play.

I call this memory issue a compromise, but one I think needs to be made. While I don't like anything being different from the original game, there are just things that are impossible to remember in a turn-based situation, at least for us normal mortals. Now, I feel pretty strongly that nothing should be shown unless it really needs to be. i.e. definitely stick only to things which were done openly to start with. (Like the case of the freebie card in Stone Age, don't show that extra card, no.) I know some people who have gotten pretty lazy about wanting everything shown.

I don't think the replay is a viable option. I sure as heck don't want to run a replay of something every time my turn comes up. Yeah, I want to know what happened since my last turn, but I don't want to run the entire thing so I can remember what happened. That would be far, far worse than writing stuff down, IMO.

I do realize this causes a programming issue, because it's basically going to make each game work in two different ways. I could certainly understand if this takes a lot of time to do. (And probably is even a hassle on a new game.)

When i start a turn-based game and nobody joins; how long will it take before this game is removed?
Same question but now say 1 person has joined and i'm waiting for more.

After a few weeks playing turn-based games i discovered that by now it is possible to play 40 games instead of the 10 before.
Great job!!!
But maybe there is a place where i can find this updated info?

Is there a way to block particular players from joining Turn-Based games that you start?

If I create a turn-based game and "Save a place" for a player, does that player get booted if I start the game before they confirm participation?
Or will the game start and let them confirm and play when it is their turn.
I know this player will confirm but I could get things going without more waiting.

Are you meaning they have not "Joined" the game yet? Because I think turn-based games confirm as soon as you join. So this seems to be implying you friend has not joined yet. I don't have a definitive answer but my guess is that won't work.

Is there a way to see how a game ended without replaying the whole thing from the beginning?