There should be a quicker lightning round!  vs.  Waiting 30 minutes for other player to get booted.  If a player has not placed his reserves within 5 minutes skip him, if a player wastes 15 minutes, no benefit of the doubt, boot him!

Yep that's come up before... although previously I tried to reduce confusion byy just having two boot types.

Although if there is enough support I could adjust the lightning mode boot time downwards, maybe 10 minutes as a compromise to start with?

I think maybe that should be set by the creator. If you're in more than one lightning game, you may spend half your timer on another move.

I have now gotten two boots. Here is the scenario. Beginning board layout favors me, got a win for sure with in 2 moves. Then opp. waits 14 and a half minutes, makes a move, his turn again, 14 minutes then makes a move, 14 minutes then makes a move. And on and on till I have to go. I title the game QUICK PLAYER ONLY! but that's the easiest way to overcome a loss. Waste the other guys time and hope he gets booted.

Can't really disagree with you. My 2 boots have also come in lightning games where the pace isn't as quick as I'd like. But that's the danger. At this point I don't ever begin a lightning game if I don't have at LEAST 1 hour to spend at the computer. Are you advocating for shortening the time limit to less than 15 minutes? I think that can get into pretty dangerous territory in terms of not having enough time to make a move unless you're staring at wargear.net and refreshing constantly.

Potentially having more options at the shorter timescales? 5 / 10 / 15 mins?

tom wrote: Potentially having more options at the shorter timescales? 5 / 10 / 15 mins?

If so, I almost recommend there being a Setting for those before they are displayed (or could do this for all Lightning games).  A new person joining and getting booted in 5 minutes may not be the best idea, so forcing them to find the setting and change it may give a bit safe guard against this.

I feel a little uncomfortable about being able to customise the boot timer on a lightning game though. I think we all settled on 2 days/15 minutes for simplicity and consistency and not sure if we should take going against that decision so lightly.

I agree with asm -- I think that more timer options would be a bad idea. Thus the question is: should lightning games have 5, 10, or 15 minute turn time limits?

Pick only one.

Yertle wrote:

tom wrote: Potentially having more options at the shorter timescales? 5 / 10 / 15 mins?

If so, I almost recommend there being a Setting for those before they are displayed (or could do this for all Lightning games).  A new person joining and getting booted in 5 minutes may not be the best idea, so forcing them to find the setting and change it may give a bit safe guard against this.

That's a good idea... I know we standardised on 15 mins but the predominant feedback has been that this is too long, I don't think anyone has complained about it being too short so far?

Maybe 10 mins would be a good next step to see how that works for everyone?

Maybe 3 modes, Sprint, Jog, and Walk. Sprint games are Lightning with a boot of 10 minutes, Jog would be changeable from 20 minutes to an hour, and Walk, which would be 12 hours to 5 days or something... You could indicate which kind with an odometer icon with different colored needles pointing from 0-180 degrees, red, yellow green...

Edward Nygma wrote: Jog would be changeable from 20 minutes to an hour

I like the general idea of the odometer icon and so forth, but this particular timing is the worst of all possible worlds. You can't finish a game in one sitting, but if you go anywhere you'll get booted.

I think a move from 15 to 10 minutes for lightning games might make sense. 15 actually is a bit long, both of my boots were in lightning games where I went to do something else 'until it was my turn' and forgot to come back in time.

Part of my issue is that the timer still runs while you're taking your turn, I've had it skip me mid-turn before. Is there a way to stop the timer for a minute after the last attack/transfer, but resumes after a minute of inactivity?

If you want a pause feature, then maybe do something like what the online poker sites do. your first "pause" could be 1 minute. then if you pause again in the same game you only have 45 seconds and so on.

i don't know about that, cus some boards really require you to study a bit before moving, maybe not 15min worth, but studying and then moving could take a good 10 min if you're not sitting on it (take maze for instance).

Edward Nygma wrote: Part of my issue is that the timer still runs while you're taking your turn, I've had it skip me mid-turn before. Is there a way to stop the timer for a minute after the last attack/transfer, but resumes after a minute of inactivity?

I was trying to think if that would work the other day.  Like a must have 30 seconds of inactivity before Skip/Boot, with a max of 1-2 additional minutes perhaps?  I think I like the idea, but could it be abused and then does it make sense (since after the 1-2 minutes they would be skipped anyhow)?

The idea is that if you take 10 minutes studying a board, and it's been your turn for 4 minutes already from taking another turn, then once you start your turn, as long as you continue, the clock stops ticking, but after 1 minute from your last move, the clock starts again until you make another attack/place/fortify.

But if it's thought of like Speed Chess (or whatever it's called with the timer :P, I've never played it), then the clock doesn't stop when it's your turn, it's running when it's your turn (right?). So Lightning games aren't that you get 15 minutes to start your turn, they are that you get 15 minutes to complete your turn.
Again, not that I'm necessarily against the idea of a "safe guard" or some leniency for player's making their turn, it's just what is Lightning games supposed to be, 15 minutes to start or to complete?

I understand the idea, but in speed chess you usually aren't playing multiple games... and when you are, the timer doesn't start until you get to the board.

Well, if we want to introduce something like timed chess, then we should allot each player an amount of time that they can use for the entire game. That way you have to weigh the time you spend on all of your turns very carefully, as extra time spent in the beginning of the game will mean less time at the end. Thoughts?