Board Game Arena

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, but it isn't exactly a bug, so much as a potential flaw in the implementation that should perhaps be rethought. So I thought I'd bring it up here...

I was just in a game where my opponent made a huge strategic error, allowing me to completely flip the game around and put him in check (with checkmate in 2 moves - or is it "hivemate?").

My opponent responding by offering me a draw. Seeing as I was about to win, I of course rejected the offer. Then he made the offer again. And again.

I realized that whenever he makes the offer, the timer swaps to me - so he could potentially keep spamming the offer, hoping I either lose out on time, or get so frustrated at the spam that I walk away (and again, lose on time).

I feel this should be changed, in two ways.

A) Limit the number of times a draw can be offered per turn (perhaps this is already implemented, I guess there's no way for me to know, since I've never offered draws).
B) Don't swap the timer when a draw is offered - keep the clock ticking on the player whose turn it is. Of course, to prevent abuse from the other player (by refusing to answer), the offer of a draw should be rescindable at any time before the offer is accepted or rejected.

This has been discussed at ​ https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... w&start=10 ,

though that should've been here, rather than in Discussions. ​ Also note the link at the end of that thread.

The timer should swap to the other player. It is their time that they should use to decide whether to accept a draw. But you should not be able to offer a draw twice in the same position. I doubt BGA will care to change anything though…

Offering a draw should not affect the timer at all, the losing player shouldn't be able to use this for time manipulation, whether to stall or gain more thinking time. The draw offer should just be a non-time affecting offer that stays up until accepted, rejected, or rescinded.

This is highly abusable. If your opponent offers a draw there is zero incentive to accept quickly unless they are actually winning (in which case they are probably not offering a draw anyway). You just wait and let their clock tick down. When someone offers a draw the clock should swap to the opponent. The opponent then has to use their time to decide whether to accept the draw or pass the move back to the opponent. If you don’t want a draw you can immediately decline and not lose any time.

suprisefish wrote: ↑26 September 2023, 12:48 This is highly abusable. If your opponent offers a draw there is zero incentive to accept quickly unless they are actually winning (in which case they are probably not offering a draw anyway). You just wait and let their clock tick down. When someone offers a draw the clock should swap to the opponent. The opponent then has to use their time to decide whether to accept the draw or pass the move back to the opponent. If you don’t want a draw you can immediately decline and not lose any time.

They can end their turn and the clock goes back to you. There should be no issue there, they were already on that clock for playing before, they shouldn't be able to use the offer draw button to create free time.

The real problem is no limit on the number of draw offers per turn.
I'd rather opt to limit it once per then and then create auto refuse checkbox, but seems the developer is not maintaining the game.
Good luck with finding someone to take over.

ufm wrote: ↑26 September 2023, 14:45 The real problem is no limit on the number of draw offers per turn.
I'd rather opt to limit it once per then and then create auto refuse checkbox

Out of curiosity, why the auto-refuse checkbox in addition to the limit?

I suffered this acts in a few games and it's frustrating.
It's a pity that there is not a solution for that.
Thanks for do this bug visible to all.