Board Game Arena

Hi
In one game of Terraforming mars, I am constantly exceeding the time limit. The game itself is not more tan 4 turns per day but more or less every time it is my turn, I've exceeded the time limit.
Can someone explain this to me?
This happened today as well, where I updated all my boards at around 3PM, and 5 PM I had a game which the time was -9 hours on, which is impossible since I updated all games just 2 hours prior to that.
I'm in Europe, while one of the players is in Japan. Is this the reason? In any case, this seems a bit bad strategy since I can get a penalty even though I'm not exceeding the time limit.
Is there any setting that can prevent this, or is this just by design when there are multiple time zones for the players in the game?

Frippowitz wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 16:09 Hi
In one game of Terraforming mars, I am constantly exceeding the time limit. The game itself is not more tan 4 turns per day but more or less every time it is my turn, I've exceeded the time limit.

You have no ongoing games of Terraforming Mars that are 4 turns per day. I see some 1s, a 2, and a 24, but no 4. I suppose the 1s and 2 technically fall under "not more than 4" though that would be a strange way to describe it when you could just say the number.

Frippowitz wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 16:09 Can someone explain this to me?
This happened today as well, where I updated all my boards at around 3PM, and 5 PM I had a game which the time was -9 hours on, which is impossible since I updated all games just 2 hours prior to that.

How is it impossible? One obvious possibility is that you were still 7 hours over time after you made your moves.

Frippowitz wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 16:09 I'm in Europe, while one of the players is in Japan. Is this the reason? In any case, this seems a bit bad strategy since I can get a penalty even though I'm not exceeding the time limit.
Is there any setting that can prevent this, or is this just by design when there are multiple time zones for the players in the game?

I don't know how you think time zones work, but time does not magically fly faster in one time zone of the world relative to the other. You didn't really explain what you were thinking at all there, it just reads as though you're saying them being in a different time zone will just cause your clock to arbitrarily say "out of time" for no other reason. There are things to keep an eye on with respect to time zones, and if you don't address them time issues can appear, but not like magic. They don't just pop up out of nowhere; time does actually have to pass.

You have a 24 moves per day game ongoing here: https://boardgamearena.com/6/terraformi ... =841422167

This game only gives you 30 minutes back on your clock every time you make a move.

Edit: The play hours are also during your night time.

Frippowitz wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 16:09 Hi
In one game of Terraforming mars, I am constantly exceeding the time limit. The game itself is not more tan 4 turns per day but more or less every time it is my turn, I've exceeded the time limit.
Can someone explain this to me?
This happened today as well, where I updated all my boards at around 3PM, and 5 PM I had a game which the time was -9 hours on, which is impossible since I updated all games just 2 hours prior to that.
I'm in Europe, while one of the players is in Japan. Is this the reason? In any case, this seems a bit bad strategy since I can get a penalty even though I'm not exceeding the time limit.
Is there any setting that can prevent this, or is this just by design when there are multiple time zones for the players in the game?

I'm almost certain you are talking about this game. If you scroll to the very bottom and look at the options, you will see it is 24 moves/day and most importantly, it has what looks like completely inappropriate playing hours for you. I'm guessing it says something like 11pm to 11am in your timezone. That means that those are the only times when clocks count down, and you are likely sleeping during that time. Each move you make will only add 30 minutes back to your clock, so you really want to be available to play during those playing hours.

Do you join games by using the "Play now" link at the top of the page, or do you go to the Terraforming Mars page directly and find games there? If you do it from the game page, make sure you do not set your playing speed to be "flexible" because BGA will happily place you into these games where you will inevitably run out of time. Here's a bug complaining about this issue, but it doesn't seem like something BGA is too concerned about.

Ok. My bad. I see now that I've missed that it was 24 moves/day (I thought it was 4). That explains it all.
Thanks.

Shivaware wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:35 If you do it from the game page, make sure you do not set your playing speed to be "flexible" because BGA will happily place you into these games where you will inevitably run out of time. Here's a bug complaining about this issue, but it doesn't seem like something BGA is too concerned about.

This is the most incomprehensible thing BGA did in the name of a purportedly more "user-friendly" UI that is completely the opposite of user-friendly and predictably so.