There should be a way in the multiplayer game where you could kick your opponent if he goes afk for too long, I'm playing a game and the guy just went afk cause he was losing in the hopes I'd resign the match, and there's nothing I can do about it... this should be fixed
I believe there is a thread about adding a turn time limit, don't know what the status on it is though.
They did do something about this. Matches have a timer. Just tab out for a few minutes and check back from time to time.
Nim, he is speaking of the beginning of any match. Being able to kick someone after three minutes of inactivity, as opposed to waiting 20 minutes, would be very nice.
I've never had to wait the full twenty minutes, they always time out before then. Even if I did, plenty of games take twenty minutes or more, just web browse while you wait.
I think a 20 minute timer is a fairly flawed system given the pace and style of the MP setup. A per-turn time of 3 minutes is more than enough. I've had a situation where I've left my computer for what I thought would be a couple of minutes, real life got in the way and I didn't make it back quickly. I'd much rather have been booted after 3 minutes than have sat there running down the 20. If there really is something mystical about the 20 minutes, have a checkbox for that system and if both players have it checked they use that instead of a per-turn timer.
Apologies for the multi-post, but I'd also like to point out that the per-turn timer that removes the 20 minute timer altogether would resolve those who grief the 20 minute timer on purpose. This is a good thing for Blue Manchu because it takes away the human resources involved in following up stalling reports. If certain people are determined to grief the timer a warning or ban won't stop them, they'll just come back with a fresh account, a fresh proxy. Cutting off the ability to grief without detriment to the game is a win.
removing 20 min timer would just make grieving more annoying. Edit: Harder to do and hence less common, but also much more annoying as griefers could keep on going for hours. But well, better to have both. As long as time for single turn is long enough.
How would they keep on going for hours within a system where the game is forfeit if the per-turn timer is used up?
Wait until there's 5 secs left on the clock, press pass, repeat until opponent surrenders. Not as easy, but much more fun. Bound to get some nasty comments out of the opponents, which to my understanding is main point in griefing.
In that scenario what is stopping the non-griefer going to victory location and passing back/winning after a few turns? Edit: With a 3 minute timer, you've saved 5 minutes of griefing in a worst case scenario.
Assuming turn timer is something reasonable, like 2 or 3 minutes, it'll still take long long time. Best case scenario would be 6 turns, but could easily be tripled by just playing normal moves.
oh, and 3 minutes for full round would be way too less. It would be for single action (I'd prefer 2 mins, but less than that would force some people to make rushed decisions)
Playing normal moves isn't griefing though, as the other party has the chance to improve or win. I'm willing to be wrong, but I'm not even sure many/any of those types of griefers exist, ones that create a deck to move around and sit there at the computer watching the timer. I would class griefing solely as stalling or making use of exploits. There isn't a perfect solution (that I can think of) but taking away the ability to effectively stall is going to drastically reduce the number of greifers. The fact that it's currently so easy is part of the problem. Just getting up and doing something else is a lot more attractive than sitting there watching the clock every turn.
I must confess, there was one time I started looking for a game but I suddenly had to leave. When I came back later some poor person had waited the whole 20 min for the game to end, needless to say i felt pretty bad about it.
I assume you thought you would be back very quickly which is why you didnt cancel match finding. regardless this isn't about the one timers since everyone can make the odd mistake. this is about people who either do this on a regular basis as an MO or are just very childish and vindictive and when things dont go their way early on in the match just stop playing hoping the opponent resigns. in short - I dont think you need to feel bad for an honest mistake..
There was a time when the cancel function would still dump me into matches unkowingly. I haven't had it happen since the latest release, so I hope it has been fixed, but it was a little disconcerting to cancel a match search, go to the kitchen, come back with a drink and see a guy waiting for me to make a move.
It is frustrating when some one goes AFK. I've picked this game up recently (played about 8 hours so far) and went up against a guy who took 5 minutes in the first round to do nothing. I think a turn timer of 3 minutes would be good. Do some times need time to think about the turn. Here is the fight where this happens, the AFK moments have been sped up but you can see the game timers.
If we go to a turn timer it'd be great if your opponent could pause your clock. Actually, it'd be great if your opponent could pause your clock even with the current timers. You can do it in chess with a physical clock -- why not have the functionality here? Use cases would include "crap, I have a phone call I need to talk, be back in 5, if you don't mind" and casual games played with friends. The timer is useful when playing against strangers but doesn't really add much outside of that situation, so it should be possible to pause it or turn it off (obviously, not for yourself, so players would need to agree to stop each other's timers).
