Board Game Arena

In games like Catan after doing an action you have 3 seconds (timer visible on the action buttons) to cancel or it does it automatically.
I'm wondering how do I do that in my own game? Do I implement it from scratch in javascript or is there a built-in utility for this behavior? Code examples welcome.

There is a built-in option in addActionButton, search autoclick in the wiki doc

Don't use them. Absolutely no need to intentionally put the user into this position. Either confirm or don't.

RicardoRix wrote: ↑29 October 2025, 10:27 Don't use them. Absolutely no need to intentionally put the user into this position. Either confirm or don't.

I don't like this feature either but I understand that some user love the countdown option. I would put this behind a user preference, so every player can choose it for themselves.

I add this feature in all of my games where players need to confirm an action and provide a user preference to set a timer, have it manually of disable confirmation at all.

Since I had done it before the BGA framework got the option I have a custom JS-Class to deal with it. But you should check out the BGA one first.
Here is the link to the docs: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Game_ ... #Title_bar

Another vote for the "don't use them" campaign. There's a nice-to-have if someone wants the option, but they slow down the game.

They encourage users to simply ignore the game and await the timeout rather than clicking the button. Other players are invoncenienced over the wait. It's not unreasonable to ask you to interact while it's your turn. Hitting a confirm button is simply part of taking the turn.

It has a very good use, for actions where you have no choice.
Like not having enough money to buy anything.
Rather than slowing the game, figure it out, post a message in the action bar.
Have the ‘Done’ button count down and click.

No, 2 wrongs don't make a right. The UI is not meant to play the game for you. If you have no money and have to pass, that is still up to the player to realise that situation and end their turn.

The only plausible reason that I've heard is to stop mobile phone users with accidental clicks. Even so, I don't know why a simple confirm button is not enough in this case. And absolutely the count down timer should not be the default option.

Further reading:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16770

I'm glad to see this conversation is still ongoing in a productive way. Now that countdown timers have been officially accepted and incorporated into the framework, it is even more of an impetus on developers to consider the many kinds of people who use BGA when designing interfaces.

Countdown timers enabled by default are an accessibility nightmare. For some people, especially those new to BGA or new to a particular game, 15 seconds (or shorter!) is not long enough to evaluate the game state they are being asked to confirm, realize something is wrong, switch focus to the action bar to identify and click the undo button. For some people, the sudden presence and pressure of this timer induces panic. I've certainly experienced this when trying new games, and needlessly restarted my turn because I didn't expect that pressure while I was trying to understand an unfamiliar game state. Learning a new game on BGA should not be an experience that induces panic.

All that said, I have come around to the position of wanting to support players who find these counters useful and have been making them available as a non-default option in my implementations.

RicardoRix wrote: ↑30 October 2025, 10:25 Further reading:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16770

Wow that is 5 years old thread! Re-reading my old post - it is exactly what I would have said now!