Help. How do I play Arena time-based in my time zone?

[aonline]

I sign up for turn-based arena games, I am non-premium, and sometimes (not rarely) I get paired up with very different time zones which now has resulted in 1 kick and 1 late. How can I prevent this? I am hoping maybe there is a setting I do not know about because right now it seems I cant prevent a random pairing with a conflicting time zone if I want to play Arena in turn-base. I am at the mercy of the other player while I am sleeping or working. Even at 2 moves per day going overtime can happen.

[Gulchen]

My impression is that Arena allows only ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ one real-time time control ​ and ​ one turn-based time control ​ ​ ​ .
If so, then Arena does not allow one to set Playing Hours. ​ Arena mode also does not allow
any more filtering of opponents than by when one starts/ends one's arena-mode table waits.

This leaves, look for games that last fewer turns, so that your time-bank might be enough.

[aonline]

hmmm, I am not sure what you mean by enough because even at 2 moves per day, if opponent takes their turn when I am sleeping or working, it starts depleting my thinking time. Even if I get to it before it runs out, I am still severely low on time for the next moves (which are probably going to happen when I once again go to sleep or I am working). There is no way to control this because Arena just pairs me with whomever, I haven't seen other posts talk about this so I figured maybe somebody can help me with whatever setting I need to find (closest I can see is playing with people who speak my language which...still leaves several countries in different zones)

re Arena not allowing setting paying hours, how come I see sleeping hours on my Arena games? I am not premium and anyways the sleeping hours (moon icon, frozen timer) contradict with mine, so they must be set by my opponent. While they get 12h frozen timer at night, mine starts ticking once they take their move in their am (my pm). In theory we both have 12 hours for our turns, but in reality the timer does not stop late at night when I am unavailable.

I am by no means knowledgeable in the ways of BGA, I stick to a pretty common path of just joining real-time tables, but lately because of my current life, I much prefer time-base setups where interruptions wont mess up my games. This is why this is the first time I've had issues with the time-zone business.

[Gulchen]

For example, at 2 moves per day, if the time-bank is 48 hours and each of your moves takes between
15 and 16 hours on your clock, then you will get approximately 10 of your turns before you time out.
If the time-bank is instead 72 hours, then that 10 becomes 17.

I certainly could be wrong regarding Playing Hours and arena, but: ​ Do you have a table-number for an arena game where you see sleeping hours?

[aonline]

This is a recent one for example, playing hours is 3am to 3pm (my time).

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=557189077

It was a 24 moves/day game, I've since changed the setting to only allow for only 2 moves/day games.

[Gulchen]

OK, I'm surprised.

However, if what I remember of Fast Turn-Based is correct, then you need at least
4 or 8 - I forget which - moves per day to enable the selection of playing hours.

[aonline]

I'll keep an eye on that, if that is the case then I should be ok if I keep the preference at 2 moves/day. Thanks for your time!

[Jellby]

I suggest you forget about time zones. A flag in a user's profile does not mean they're in that country. A country does not necessarily mean a single (or even close!) time zone. A time zone does not dictate when players are active, sleeping, working, etc.

So if you're worried about when players make their moves, you should be concerned about game speed and playing hours. Forget time zones.

[nik592]

OK, I'm surprised.

However, if what I remember of Fast Turn-Based is correct, then you need at least 4 or 8 - I forget which - moves per day to enable the selection of playing hours.

8 turns or more per day gets you playing hours.

I think the issue the user is getting here is that when you use the new lobby (game page) and select to be "flexible" on table speed, BGA uses a very wide definition on flexible, and people end up unexpectedly at these tables for 24 turns per day. You're either better off sticking to strict table speeds in the new lobbies, or go to the old lobby and set your preferences for table speed under the cog for each game (in automatic search, or Arena mode). I believe the preferences established there are respected if you search for games from the old lobby, but not in the new. And the new is just not finely controlled enough for people to actually get what they want when it comes to table speed (and maybe other preferences).

[JohnnyCyclops]

“Old lobby” is the Play Now link in the menu bar on most pages. Go there and click the game’s settings (cog) icon to change preferences for game speed. You can reduce right down to just one move per day or every other day. You will need to set this speed preference for EACH game, there does not seem to be a global setting. For games faster than six moves per day you can also select preferences for the hours of play.

FINALLY and most important, those settings only apply when joining a game via the Play Now page NOT via the individual game’s own page. Same is true for settings for the opponents skill level (for Arena that means Bronze, Silver, Gold etc. not their ELO).