Simultaneous play

[kerog]

So it looks to me like a game with simultaneous play rewards being the last to end the turn. Your opponent then has a small window of time in which to log in or face an effective enemy double-turn.

[SnotlinG]

Yes, the freeze-time is dependent on the games normal turn-time, so if you play a game with long turns the freezetime will be a bit longer, but yes this is something that needs to be discussed/considered.
Maybe the freeze-time needs to be adjusted or maybe we need to come up with a better solution in case this turns out to be a big problem.

[smursh]

It might b e a good option not to show who has finished their turn. This way you don't know if you are last to end your turn. With the lag before the next turn starts, you won't automatically know when that will be.

[kerog]

Nah, it's just broken. Won't be playing any more of those. Had a 1-on-1, the other player didn't take his turn for days (extra time from the crash). So there was no way for me to anticipate when he might log in and be prepared. Ended up losing a two cities on a small map from the double turn. Not fun.

[smursh]

I see your point, and tend to agree. I might play a non-ladder game this way, but laddeer games are out since everyone will just wait till the last moment to move. Games will just drag.

[SnotlinG]

For now we have increased the freeze-time a few hours, to see if this will help with the issue.

[kerog]

How about this as a potential solution: have turns start at a set time, determined by the game creator. That would avoid the time-zone issue.

[SnotlinG]

Yes we now have a few interesting ideas/suggestions, will discuss with piranha and see how we can improve the simultaneous version. Keep the ideas coming

[magian]

Does the freeze time only apply to the last player to finish? If not, then it probably should. In the case of teams it should apply to that player's team-mates as well.

[SnotlinG]

Simultanous games works like this:
As long as there is still one player who hasnt ended the turn, you can still move your units etc, same as if it really was your turn. This is what we call "Active turn". As soon as the last player hits end turn, the game is changed into freeze mode, and this applies to all players. During freezemode you can only do actions as if you where in observermode, like setting paths etc. Freezemode the counts down a few hours (depends a bit on the games turntime, but normally its 3-6 hours freeze). When the freezetime ends, a new real turn in started for all players again...

But individual freezetimes actually sounds like a nice idea, this would then encourage players to hit end turn as soon as possible, so their own personal freezetime starts to countdown even before all other players are done with the turn.