Thanks for the reply.

I'd like to point out that increasing boot timers does not necessarily equal slowing down games. As well, once a game gets down to 3 players I don't care how long the game has been going I don't want someone else booted, hence leaving booting in the hands of the players. You don't need to manually check games when auto-boot is turned off, it tells you how long a game has been on pause from the game screen. Why does it really matter if they have set their status to vacation (if a premium member) or if they didn't set it to vacation and they're not booted?

The only case I see for boots is in A> keeping a tournament moving or B> The player has quit the site.

i started a lightning game with 10 min limit. phpete6 is at 36 minutes!! the other player already gave up... what is happennig with boot intervals??

http://www.wargear.net/games/view/16941

For the record i am not in favor of changing the boot times. so I put forth this suggestion. have a vote to cancel auto boot, similar to the vote to terminate game option.

M57 wrote: 

By the way, I am a more active player on weekends, not weekdays. So this day of rest thing runs counter to my preferences..

This is true for me too.  If there is a day of rest, it should be configurable.  Some people might have a particularly busy day during the week and have trouble finding time to play on (e.g.) Wednesdays.

Personally, I think the 'day of rest' is a bit clumsy sort of solution.  Better to extend boot times in general, or only require a vote of 50%+1 of the remaining teams/players or something.

Ozyman wrote:

M57 wrote: 

By the way, I am a more active player on weekends, not weekdays. So this day of rest thing runs counter to my preferences..

This is true for me too.  If there is a day of rest, it should be configurable.  Some people might have a particularly busy day during the week and have trouble finding time to play on (e.g.) Wednesdays.

That's true.  I'm much more active on the weekends.  Last semester, I had clinic on Wednesdays until 8pm!

Please see my post about "The Risky Plan" as I believe it takes care of that issue.
I really think we need to have Nudges!!

RiskyBack wrote: Please see my post about "The Risky Plan" as I believe it takes care of that issue.
I really think we need to have Nudges!!

..and wedgies if you really need to get someones attention.

I love that idea! Instead of Nudges, they are Wedgies and the first one that is sent is "Wedgie", the second is a "Elastic Creaking Wedgie" and the third is "Atomic Wedgie" and then you are booted after 12 hours from the last Wedgie sent and only 1 wedgie can be sent in 24 hours and it is 48 hours before the first can be sent. That is increasing boot time to 5 days, allowing the players in the game the choice of booting and giving the player lots of opportunities to play the turn.
It's also funny and may get people to remember because of that.

..although I was thinking you could still leave the option for a gentle nudge too.

RiskyBack wrote: I love that idea! Instead of Nudges, they are Wedgies and the first one that is sent is "Wedgie", the second is a "Elastic Creaking Wedgie" and the third is "Atomic Wedgie" and then you are booted after 12 hours from the last Wedgie sent and only 1 wedgie can be sent in 24 hours and it is 48 hours before the first can be sent. That is increasing boot time to 5 days, allowing the players in the game the choice of booting and giving the player lots of opportunities to play the turn.
It's also funny and may get people to remember because of that.

At the Create Game page, in the Game Speed or Additional Options section, there could be a "Wedgies Enabled" button.

But seriously, I still don't understand why there isn't a 12 and/or 24 hour Game Speed option.  It just seems weird to go from 10 minutes to 2 days.  From "lightning" to "normal"?  Where's the in-between?  If I was here "In the beginning", I would have lobbied hard for that.

Less seriously.. How about a "Fast" Game Speed with optional 6 - 12 - 24 hour incremental Wedgies?

M57 wrote:

But seriously, I still don't understand why there isn't a 12 and/or 24 hour Game Speed option.

 

There was 12 hour, and it sucked, it's a horrible time period that pretty much ensures boots since most people sleep and may not check WG within the 4ish hours of that sleeping period.

Yertle wrote:

There was 12 hour, and it sucked, it's a horrible time period that pretty much ensures boots since most people sleep and may not check WG within the 4ish hours of that sleeping period.

Ok -- 24?   ...or 12  -- and each wedgie costs the slow player a bonus army!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

How about a 24 hour timer... if we don't have this conversation at least every 24 hours the entire site gets booted and everyone goes home.

IRoll11s wrote: Jabbascript Error: Your mind powers will not work on me boy.

Jabbascript Error: Your mind powers will not work on me, boy.

It's an important distinction; I think.

Yertle wrote:

There was 12 hour, and it sucked, it's a horrible time period that pretty much ensures boots since most people sleep and may not check WG within the 4ish hours of that sleeping period.

I don't understand -- Where does the 4 come from?  You have 12 hours to make a move, right?

You get up in the morning, you make your move.  You get home from work, you make your move.  Ok, I can see how the cycle could get thrown off balance because of the play of others, but make it 18 or 24 hours and it might make a huge difference.

For those of you that have 50+ boards open, yeah it might be a problem, but I like to keep mine down in the 10-20 range. and 2-days is agonizingly slow.  I'm an old man and as it is I can barely remember what I had for breakfast let alone what my strategy was on the game I haven't taken a move on in 2 weeks.  Yeah, yeah -  I get it.  This is risk by mail - But come on!?  From 10 minutes to 2 days?  That's 2880 minutes.  If you live east of the Mississippi, that's time enough for me to drive over and roll the dice in your living room.

I wonder that part of the problem is the site is so new that folks are still figuring out the rules and settling into their routines, ..not to mention that the ratio of newbies to experienced players is still quite high.

12 may have been a bad number, but the general idea is still valid IMO.  I just hope you're not throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Wed-gies!   Wed-gies!   Wed-gies!  Wed-gies!

M57, I understand that some people have the ability to check all the time - however, some of us may occassionally go to bed in a place where we can't take our turns before-hand, or first thing in the morning. I don't like to scare away people who aren't as hard-core as that.

I like when games move fast, I love it in fact, but games move fast because of the people who are playing, not because of the boot-times. Having a faster boot time doesn't mean I'll take turns faster - it just means I'll be booted more often.

My theory has always been, if I want more turns to play when I log in, then I join more games. I don't like moving a game along by booting someone out of it, I'm here to have fun. If Gimli wants to hold a game up by going for 18 hours before he takes his turn (okay it's only at 15 right now) then I'd rather wait for him.

Andernut wrote: M57, I understand that some people have the ability to check all the time - however, some of us may occassionally go to bed in a place where we can't take our turns before-hand, or first thing in the morning. I don't like to scare away people who aren't as hard-core as that.

I like when games move fast, I love it in fact, but games move fast because of the people who are playing, not because of the boot-times. Having a faster boot time doesn't mean I'll take turns faster - it just means I'll be booted more often.

My theory has always been, if I want more turns to play when I log in, then I join more games. I don't like moving a game along by booting someone out of it, I'm here to have fun. If Gimli wants to hold a game up by going for 18 hours before he takes his turn (okay it's only at 15 right now) then I'd rather wait for him.

I understand that you don't mind waiting 48 hours because you can fill in the time doing other things - like making moves in other games, but we could take this logic to extremes and go from offering a 10 minute lightning clock to a one-week "normal" clock.. Just get yourself in a hundred games and you'll always be busy..

I'm just suggesting that there isn't a "middle ground" clock.  If you can't handle it, don't sign-up for a 24 hour move clock.. You could even put a warning sign next to the join button:

"Don't join this game unless you are a hard-core WarGear playing nut-case."

What's wrong with 

10 minutes = Lightning

1 day = Fast (Warning Danger! Danger!)

2 days = Normal

5 days = might as well use snail mail.

I don't really have an opinion here, but why not settle on some middle ground,

10 minutes - akin to real time
1 day - for hard-core addict
3 days - standard (no weekend boots)
1 week - like playing, but not addicted

I wouldn't join any 1 day boot games (not that I don't log-on every 6 hours, sometimes for 6 hours at a time), but purely for fear that I might go 24 hours without logging in.

There is an interesting idea brought on by M57:

M57 wrote:

I'm an old man and as it is I can barely remember what I had for breakfast let alone what my strategy was on the game I haven't taken a move on in 2 weeks.

Is it possible to have a notes to self section underneath a board to keep track of strategy/key events?

(Sorry again for a badly formatted post - got trapped in boxes and don't want to mess with html)