Running Out Of Time

[fawls13]

I was recently on vacation. During one week I had very limited access to the internet and had two games kick me off for running out of time. During this past week I had access to the internet and logged in at least every two days. I got home tonight (Sunday, 08/21/16) and checked my e:mail to find a warning on Friday (08/19/16) that I was running out of time, followed by another (sent the same day, 08/19/16) that I had run out of time. I had logged in at least on Thursday the 18th, possibly on that Friday the 19th.
Why did the game not alert me when I logged in on Thursday...if I was running out of time on Friday then surely on Thursday it should have notified me I had a move to make while I was logged in?
Two weeks prior to that I was on vacation without any internet and I believe a similar thing happened based on e:mails I received from the site, but I cannot be certain because I did not log in during that week (had I been able to log in the game might have popped up to have me make a move). In all three cases it was Puerto Rico.

That said, there is another piece to my post and it is this: what are Time Jokers and how do I use them? I suspect they might have saved me from any issues.

[Liallan]

I was recently on vacation. During one week I had very limited access to the internet and had two games kick me off for running out of time.

The game shouldn't kick you out for being away for one week. I would assume the other players skipped your turn. If you completely run out of time and no turn is being taken, it seems to take about 2 months for the game to disappear. Did you notify them you'd be on vacation so they wouldn't skip your turn? (Although you'll still have an over-time penalty.)

Why did the game not alert me when I logged in on Thursday...if I was running out of time on Friday then surely on Thursday it should have notified me I had a move to make while I was logged in?

If I'm understanding you correctly, it should have notified you that you had a move to make. I can only think of one possible exception. If you were doing a 2 turns per day game, which gives you 12 hours, and you had already used up most of your think time (start time), then a turn came up late Thursday or early Friday, the 12 hours ran out, and what little of start time also ran out. Otherwise, that sounds weird. Even a 2 turn a day game gives you 3 days of start time, so I don't see how you can not be on turn Thursday but run out of time on Friday, except under that one circumstance.

[fawls13]

Liallan,

What you say seems to make sense in my situation. I know I have signed onto games where it is 2 moves a day. I thought that was a suggestion (as at Yucata.de), not required. I usually can do two or more moves a day but not always. I especially think that is the cause of my 'issue' because I am currently in a game where if I make a move early in the day and nothing more until late that night or early again the next day I have a warning or am showing red, negative hours/minutes. I assume this was a game I signed onto for two moves a day because I know I recently joined one that did say two moves and I'm pretty sure it's this one (though I can't see where it tells now that the game is in progress.

I'll have to watch out for joining two move a day games since right now that isn't always happening with my schedule. Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond/explain. I think you nailed it...we can close the thread!


I just wish I had known before my Puerto Rico ELO took a 200 point hit and dropped me way below 'Good Player' territory. I suppose that could be used as motivation...

[Liallan]

Liallan,

What you say seems to make sense in my situation. I know I have signed onto games where it is 2 moves a day. I thought that was a suggestion (as at Yucata.de), not required.

Ah, no. It's all automatic here and it doesn't know how to deal with schedule issues. I'm leary of 2 turns per day in case I get one where the player before me takes their turn right as I'm going to bed. And on Yucata, it's an unenforced request, not a suggestion. But since it's mere humans judging it, there's a bit more leeway for those time differences and such.

[fawls13]

Yes. The time zone differences definitely do not help.

[sourisdudesert]

The time difference is the reason we don't propose faster mode than "2 moves per day". You can do 2 moves per day with almost anyone in the world with no problem (the worst case : one move on the morning, one on the evening).

Note that if you want to disable time limit, there is an option to play without time limit, but this is not recommended as players may think forever.

[Leaderofthecats]

Being timed out on a game of can't stop just now because the time ran down by two days suddenly and now the poxy thing isn't adding any extra time when I have a move. The gane was started just under three days ago and I have had numerous moves in that time.

[dudi2]

Being timed out on a game of can't stop just now because the time ran down by two days suddenly and now the poxy thing isn't adding any extra time when I have a move. The gane was started just under three days ago and I have had numerous moves in that time.

Tournament games like your game https://de.boardgamearena.com/#!table?table=24932615 have a fixed total time per player. This is the time available to you for all your moves of the whole game. There is no time added per move to that time.

Match startet: 30.10.2016 at 01:45
Your opponent used only a small amount of time to react to your moves.
You used about 3.6 days, available were 3.5 days per player.

So it is not a bug!

[Leaderofthecats]

Yes sorry I hunted down this topic to say that. I did not realise the game was a tournament game, so didn't know that was the problem when I posted before.