Board Game Arena

HI,
I was playing a game with no interaction outside of the score (geek out masters), and I though about having players take turns at the same time. This could work too in Yahtzee.

So firstly, what is done actually is the following:
- Player A plays his turn
- Player A score some points
- Player B plays his turn (knowing what did player A)
- Player B score some points

Here is now the improvement which could be done in some games:
- Player A and Player B can plays their turn. Only timer of player A decrease.
- If player B finish his turn first, still nothing happen. Just the turn is stocked
- When player A finish his turn, his turn is revelead to all players. Timer of A stop decreasing
- If player B didn't finish his turn, his timer will start to decrease. And he need to play (and A got the possibility to play his next turn)
- When player B finish his turn, or if it was already finished, his turn is revealed, and his timer stop decreasing
- ...

The main point is that it's optional. If you believe what others do should matter, you just have to not play, and let the other finish his turn.
I believe in many games of that type, during the first 80%, it's rare that you want to wait for the other player to play.
On the other hand, during the last 20%, it's not.

It work in real time and turn based.
Furthermore, in game like Carcassonne, it could goes one step further where you have the ability to pre-play your next turn. If that turn is legal, it plays immediately, if it isn't, it's cancelled and it's your turn.

It look totally counter intuitive for new players, but if done correctly, that could make some games more popular (like yahtzee 6 players in real time ).

This is already implemented in Barenpark. And as I understand it, it is a developer's nightmare. Due to how the underlying platform works, it needs to be done for each game, and can't be a site-wide blanket addition.

But it is a nice feature.

@op Taking turns means you can work out how you might play tactically towards the end of a game of yahtzee to try and sneak a win. Early game it doesn't matter but end game it can make a difference.

I thought bga was aiming to recreate board games online. In real life you would pass the dice from player to player and take turns. You lose some of the social interaction trying to have parallel plays. You might as well just make it solo with a daily leaderboard for high scores if you don't want to interact with other players and see how they do each turn.

Seeing up pre plays is interesting but overall bad idea as I find quite often I will change my play based on what just happened from previous players. Having the move already committed could be detrimental.

Are people really so impatient that can't wait for other people to take their turns?

@jest phulin I'm intrigued for someone who's only played 5 games recently you sure post a lot in the forums. Are you a mod or bga employee or something?

KenFin1 wrote: ↑26 April 2023, 09:00 @jest phulin I'm intrigued for someone who's only played 5 games recently you sure post a lot in the forums. Are you a mod or bga employee or something?

I am not nor ever have been with BGA. I'm just a long-time user who thinks I have some possibly useful information.

Jest Phulin wrote: ↑26 April 2023, 02:44 And as I understand it, it is a developer's nightmare.

Yep.

Tisaac is an avid BGA developer. He's the guy who posted just above mine, confirming that it's a nightmare.

It really is a nightmare. I'm a developer, too. The closest I've done is allowing people to take actions all at the same time and get realtime feedback on those actions, but not display them until everyone is done. It's a bug-prone process because no single player actually has the current set of data.

ETA: I've also introduced user preferences that basically allow taking your turn in advance. In some games, like Astra and Space Station Phoenix, you can give instructions regarding which bonuses you want to take under which situations. It does speed gameplay, but it quickly grows complicated, both for the developer and the player.