Board Game Arena

Like the title, I just played a game and went over time on my last turn. I was expecting to have 20 seconds to finish my last move but I was expelled before the 20 seconds were up and lost the game. This was very frustrating and I just want to understand how this is possible?

dtien wrote: ↑16 December 2024, 20:25 Like the title, I just played a game and went over time on my last turn. I was expecting to have 20 seconds to finish my last move but I was expelled before the 20 seconds were up and lost the game. This was very frustrating and I just want to understand how this is possible?

Not the first time, but the cool down time for expelling decreases if a player keeps going negative. I'll edit this post if I can quickly find a link to the site update that implemented this. I have to search for it again every time this comes up.

Found it:
Review this release note and the thread it links to regarding abuse of the undo move feature in some games which was addressed by adding a sliding adjustment that decreases the time it takes to expel you:

Release 1st September 2022 220901-1000
delay to expel player now decreases from 20s to 0s, if this is still the turn of the overtime player (see viewtopic.php?t=26701 )

Here's a more detailed description of the fix from that thread:

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑31 August 2022, 14:55 Fix we found:

First expel warning is 20 seconds. Second is 10s. Then 5s, 2s, 1s, and finally no warning at all (immediate expulsion).

Each time the turn of the player is really finished (= another player must play), this goes back to 20s.

Thus, any player who tries to build a "loop" will finally be expelled.

Does this situation apply to your game? I'm not saying you were necessarily intentionally doing it out of spite, but the decrease occurs without regard to intent.

Just don't count on those 20 seconds. When your over time, you're over time, you don't have 20 more seconds.

Ahhhh ok this is helpful, understood.

There seems to be a strong sentiment on bga that if you go overtime you lose the game and any extra time granted by the other player is charity and graciousness. That's interesting to me especially with longer games where the variation in game length between a fast game and a normal game can be quite large but one long turn on a fast game will cost you the game.

dtien wrote: ↑16 December 2024, 22:14 There seems to be a strong sentiment on bga that if you go overtime you lose the game and any extra time granted by the other player is charity and graciousness.

Given that you're aware of it, the question is what are you going to do with that information? I'm slow to boot people. Sometimes I just convert to a turn-based game (which you can do unilaterally in a two-player game when someone times out). But even I have my limits and will boot someone occasionally, especially if they've been obnoxious in chat.

Your options are 1) play only the slowest real-time speed there is, even if it takes longer to be matched in a game, 2) if that's not slow enough, only play turn-based, or 3) only play with people you know won't boot you.

I think there should be the concept of time jokers for live games. I think 15-20 seconds is reasonable for a time joker and you get a limited supply per a year. One long turn for a live game does not mean you are less skillful than your opponent in my opinion.

dtien wrote: ↑16 December 2024, 22:14 There seems to be a strong sentiment on bga that if you go overtime you lose the game and any extra time granted by the other player is charity and graciousness.

Yes there is, because its general competitive gaming etiquette. Clocking is a perfectly legitimate way to win a game. So not taking that opportunity is exactly equivalent to pointing out you just placed your king where you can be mated in 1 move and allowing you to take the move back - it *is* charity and graciousness.
The reason people show that grace is for the same reasons they do in real games and because many don't like the way the system handles timing out in multiplayer games. If you are not comfortable with competitive games BGA allows you to set up friendly games without the timer.

dtien wrote: ↑17 December 2024, 17:19 One long turn for a live game does not mean you are less skillful than your opponent in my opinion.

When part of the skill is being able to make your moves in time, it does. Or at least, as much as one blunder means you're less skilful than your opponent.

dtien wrote: ↑17 December 2024, 17:19 I think there should be the concept of time jokers for live games. I think 15-20 seconds is reasonable for a time joker and you get a limited supply per a year. One long turn for a live game does not mean you are less skillful than your opponent in my opinion.

You have it.
You start with a time budget which is about three times the expected time per move. You can replenish this time bank moving faster than the
expected time per move.

dtien wrote: ↑17 December 2024, 17:19 I think there should be the concept of time jokers for live games. I think 15-20 seconds is reasonable for a time joker and you get a limited supply per a year. One long turn for a live game does not mean you are less skillful than your opponent in my opinion.

Well, that's an interesting idea, but what happens when you run out of your yearly supply of these real-time jokers? I'd be concerned that some players would just create an alt account to use for the rest of the year. In any event wouldn't it be unfair if I'm playing you and I still have some of these jokers left, but you've already used your supply, so in effect I get longer time than you in the game we are playing?

Here's a different proposal, to create a fourth real-time game speed that would have a large bank but short per-turn additions: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=144459 (currently 7 upvotes).