Bad way of handeling out of time

[DaAce]

I think the way running out of time is currently handled is unfair.

I understand the basic system: if a player runs out of time, the other players can choose to kick them and end the game. I don't have a problem with that.

For example, BGA push notifications don't always work properly for me, so sometimes I don't even know that it's my turn. Adding up to this sometimes life simply gets in the way and you can't get online for a day because of situations.

I recently played a game where I wasn't able to get online and ended up at around -6 hours. The other player chose not to kick me and continued playing.
Over the next four days, I played all my turns well within the time limit and worked my way back to around -2 hours. My opponent apparently thought he was winning, so there was no reason for him to kick me.
Then, as soon as it became clear that he was probably going to lose, he used the kick option four days later.
He even admit he did that. That doesn't seem fair to me.
At that point, the kick option isn't really being used to deal with an inactive player anymore. It's being used as a way to avoid losing a game.

I had another similar situation at the same time. I couldn't get online and ended up at -3 hours in another game. Another player in that game was also out of time at around -2 hours.
The 3rd players chose to kick me instead of him.
As a result, I lost reputation and rating, while the other player gained reputation and rating, despite both of us being out of time.

I also think the reputation system makes this problem worse.

Because reputation is capped at 100, there is very little benefit from consistently being a reliable player. You can play hundreds or even thousands of games without running out of time, patiently wait when other players are out of time, and always finish your games.
But if you're playing 5 to 10 turn-based games and something happens in real life that prevents you from logging in for one day, several games can run out of time at once and your reputation can suddenly take a massive hit.

[nik592]

If you're not expecting to login multiple times per day, then I would probably say you shouldn't be selecting 24 turns/day games. At 3 players, assuming everyone keeps time, you'd expect to be making about 8 turns per day (at 4p, this will be 6, but certainly both more than one). If you expect there will be days where you can't login at all, then choose a slower speed. Also, you may have checked, but ensure the playing hours also suit you, as otherwise you may find your clock ticks while you sleep and your opponents don't play when you are awake, so you can't really get enough turns in.

I am online probably at least 3-4 times daily, possibly more, and I don't play anything higher than 4 turns/day (mostly because playing hours generally don't align very well for me from what I've seen). I do occasionally have a day where I'm busy and can't play and it's a pretty rare thing that I time out in those games.

[RazorOz]

Sounds like you almost certainly could have used a time joker to save you in your scenario.

The alternative is to stop entering games with such a fast clock. It sounds like you are unable to login on a number of days, if that's the case you probably shouldn't join anything faster than 1-2 turns a day max. I looked at the last games you were timed out in, the last two were 24 turns a day games, you simply never should have entered these in the first place with what you're saying. Because I rarely time players out, but I can tell you how it feels on the other side, that it's incredibly frustrating to have someone join your turn based game who simply never had any intention of playing to the stated speed in the first place, if you know it's likely you're going to have days you can't login, 24 turns a day games are not for you.

[RazorOz]

I actually think 24 turns per day games are mostly traps anyway. Like I play fast enough that I could play one on my time schedule, however I still avoid them, because what happens in my experience is there's always at least 1 player in them who has paid no attention to the game speed, so it's meaningless, you are then left with a game that will never play to the stated speed, or you will have to time someone within a few turns, which then at most games voids the result entirely, thus I simply wouldn't bother most of the time for multi-player.

[tarongot]

I actually think 24 turns per day games are mostly traps anyway. Like I play fast enough that I could play one on my time schedule, however I still avoid them, because what happens in my experience is there's always at least 1 player in them who has paid no attention to the game speed, so it's meaningless, you are then left with a game that will never play to the stated speed, or you will have to time someone within a few turns, which then at most games voids the result entirely, thus I simply wouldn't bother most of the time for multi-player.

I was concerned about that too, so even that I can meet that speed I avoided it. Part of that was also that I believed that it will be very hard to find people for that speed. From my experience most of BGA people want play at 1 move per day speed . But recently I started playing very log game, probably longest on BGA, and anything other then that speed is not acceptable. Even with people that can meet this speed (with occasional minor timeout), game takes 2 weeks. Scary to think how long it would take on 1 per day speed. 2 YEARS? And I was positively surprised that there are actually people that can play like this and some of games even ended properly. Many of course didn't, and 1 was taken hostage by abusers of Time Jokers feature, but there is room to play like this.

Biggest trap in that type of play is in my opinion width of time window. It is too wide. I think if that window was narrower more people could meet that speed. Best case would be that players could set it, and at much higher speed. Some could have wider window with less speed, some could have only few hours window with real time speed, to play very long game in sessions of few hours each day. Something for everyone.

But that just dreams

[RobertBr]

But recently I started playing very log game, probably longest on BGA, and anything other then that speed is not acceptable. Even with people that can meet this speed (with occasional minor timeout), game takes 2 weeks. Scary to think how long it would take on 1 per day speed. 2 YEARS?

Its best to name the game when you say 'longest', 'most complicated' etc because most players who believe that about the game they play are wrong (often dramatically wrong). I play one of the longer games on BGA (Unconditional Surrender) and that is commonly played on 1/day timings by players, the timing does not prevent you playing more moves, and frequently does take 6 to 12 months to complete a game.

[tbhp]

Because reputation is capped at 100, there is very little benefit from consistently being a reliable player. You can play hundreds or even thousands of games without running out of time, patiently wait when other players are out of time, and always finish your games.
But if you're playing 5 to 10 turn-based games and something happens in real life that prevents you from logging in for one day, several games can run out of time at once and your reputation can suddenly take a massive hit.

If they just uncapped it that would benefit the people who play a lot of games.

You make a good point about how it's currently not working as they probably intended. Maybe some kind of percentage would work better. But some types of offenses should remain more visible than others.

Ideally, going out of time should result in both a penalty for the out of time player and a penalty as well as a loss for the kicker (since they are essentially leaving the game). But there's still a long road till we get there.

[tarongot]

Its best to name the game when you say 'longest', 'most complicated' etc because most players who believe that about the game they play are wrong (often dramatically wrong). I play one of the longer games on BGA (Unconditional Surrender) and that is commonly played on 1/day timings by players, the timing does not prevent you playing more moves, and frequently does take 6 to 12 months to complete a game.

Game I mean is also played with 1 move per day, and even slower, I just don't get that.
I don't know Unconditional Surrender game, BGA page sais it is 15 mins game. Game I meant is Twilight Imperium, BGA page says its 4 hours game, In reality, real time match takes 6-10 hours. That what I meant by longest.

[RobertBr]

Game I mean is also played with 1 move per day, and even slower, I just don't get that.
I don't know Unconditional Surrender game, BGA page sais it is 15 mins game. Game I meant is Twilight Imperium, BGA page says its 4 hours game, In reality, real time match takes 6-10 hours. That what I meant by longest.

That is an example of why you should specify the game and how your ignorance of other games can make you comically wrong. Twilight Imperium is a 6-8 hour game (I've played several times in real life) but Unconditional Surrender is a roughly 50 hour game, so 5 to 10 times longer, making TI not even remotely close to the longest game. You probably have not played larger hex and counter wargames and if you were not aware any were on BGA it is not surprising you thought TI was the longest game.

[tarongot]

Game I mean is also played with 1 move per day, and even slower, I just don't get that.
I don't know Unconditional Surrender game, BGA page sais it is 15 mins game. Game I meant is Twilight Imperium, BGA page says its 4 hours game, In reality, real time match takes 6-10 hours. That what I meant by longest.

That is an example of why you should specify the game and how your ignorance of other games can make you comically wrong. Twilight Imperium is a 6-8 hour game (I've played several times in real life) but Unconditional Surrender is a roughly 50 hour game, so 5 to 10 times longer, making TI not even remotely close to the longest game. You probably have not played larger hex and counter wargames and if you were not aware any were on BGA it is not surprising you thought TI was the longest game.

Thanks for your aggressive and unnecessary comment that has no merit in it at all. Good to know that you can't trust what is said on BGA page, and if you say truth, that kind a game is no playable on BGA at all. So I can cross it from my list. "Thank you". I wonder how long it takes to play with 1 move per day, but I don't want answer from you at all. Good bye.