Works for me - I'd rather see Direct Boot at 3x and minimum 5 days though.

10 days in a 2day boot time seems excessive if the host isn't paying attention.

I think 2-player games could do with a default/minimum 2-day vote-to-boot time.

On a side-note, the sooner this is implemented the better.  I'm not in many games atm... 3?  But 2 of them I haven't had a first turn in because someone joined the site, joined the game the same day, and haven't returned to the site since.

Unless I'm missing the direct-boot option, all I can see is vote to boot.

Seriously, why is the 2x or 3x the boot time required? Can't we just say the number of days rather than having to do math?

RiskyBack wrote: Seriously, why is the 2x or 3x the boot time required? Can't we just say the number of days rather than having to do math?

Because it scales with the options - but if the math is too hard for you.

1 day x2=2days  x3=3days

2day x2=4days x3=6days

5day x2=10days x3=15days

Unless you're implying that we should do away with vote to boot times, and go with a hard-line direct-boot after 5 days option showing up.  Which kind of makes sense since nobody ever really gets booted by voting unless Ruthlezz shows up. :P

Actually that is rather a good point Risky! Forget variable boot times altogether as they don't really provide much tangible benefit and are confusing to pretty much everyone it seems, especially newbies.

So for Public games, we could have fixed boot times:

After 2 days - players can Vote to boot
After 3 days - game host can direct boot
After 5 days - any player can direct boot

This gives time for people to skip a weekend for example without needing to take vacation.

If AutoBoot or Autoskip are turned on then they act on 2 days except for Premium players who get 4 days.

I like that idea except that I would say that if Autoskip is turned on it will only autoskip you twice and the 3rd time around it's an autoboot. That way no game (aside from Vacation time set which I assume will override this) will be skiping for anymore than 2 weeks which in my opinion means you've either decided you don't like the site (I fling dung in your general direction) or that you don't want to play in that game (I can understand this but think it's a bad way to live you life.....avoidance only creates more problems).

I would also like a nudge option and I don't want it 1 every 24 hours. I wanna be able to spam these people if they don't take their turns. I have some suggestions for Nudge messages:

1. Hey, maybe you missed it, but it's your turn
2. Seriously, it's your turn
3. This isn't funny anymore, it's still your turn
4. Why are you avoiding me? It's your turn
5. Just because you have something to do doesn't mean that we do...that's rude
6. I'm starting to take this personally....Just go!
7. I'm a little drunk right now but I still think it's your turn
8. That's it, I'm leaving you!
9. I didn't mean that last message. Sorry, just take your turn
10. Don't you love me anymore

Sorry, after a little bit I started to channel a psycho ex's text messages but I think you get my point. Of course, she ended up sleeping with one of my friends so messages like this may just make people go to Conquer Club because my friend was decidedly inferior to me in every way.

I'm RiskyBack and sometimes I just type things that I think are funny

OK well till we iron this out I have amended the boot options a little.

Host boot at 3x boot time
Direct player boot at 5x boot time

i.e. no more protection for premium members for manual booting (still there for auto booting / skipping).

RiskyBack wrote: I like that idea except that I would say that if Autoskip is turned on it will only autoskip you twice and the 3rd time around it's an autoboot. That way no game (aside from Vacation time set which I assume will override this) will be skiping for anymore than 2 weeks which in my opinion means you've either decided you don't like the site (I fling dung in your general direction) or that you don't want to play in that game (I can understand this but think it's a bad way to live you life.....avoidance only creates more problems).

This sounds remarkably like my earlier suggestion that you called me a jerk for. Jerk.

I still think 5x boot time is silly when it comes to anything more than a 1day boot game. Some people have joined games I'm in the same day they joined the site - and haven't logged in since the game started. at 6 and 7 days each game but it's a 2 day boot so that means 10 days until someone is bootable by non-host players.

Vote-to-boot never does anything in bigger games :/

I don't care what gets done but I just had to wait 18 days to direct boot someone. I have a feeling it is gonna be the same since one of the other guys hasnt logged in in ten days. I am losing my mind, is there anyway to end the game w/o being the host or having a vote?

tom wrote: Actually that is rather a good point Risky! Forget variable boot times altogether as they don't really provide much tangible benefit and are confusing to pretty much everyone it seems, especially newbies.

So for Public games, we could have fixed boot times:

After 2 days - players can Vote to boot
After 3 days - game host can direct boot
After 5 days - any player can direct boot

This gives time for people to skip a weekend for example without needing to take vacation.

If AutoBoot or Autoskip are turned on then they act on 2 days except for Premium players who get 4 days.

I like this suggestion so far.....and I am just not sucking up to the Site Admin

i personally think the boot times are fine it is more that you have to pay attention of the boot time before you join. i am in a couple of games that I'm itching to boot some people... but there are players out there who will only check once a week or longer (i get jittery after about an hour) and i don't think that they should be booted if that's the time they want to commit to playing a game.

that's why i love the auto boot, if and when the tournaments are implemented i think that the tournament host should be able to have auto boot for tournament games. that is one think i have a problem with when playing on the Fish. you always have to keep checking your tournaments to keep it moving, and with auto boot that will take care of that, but again the player must be aware of the boot time when they join.

i may have missed it but how many times can someone get auto skipped before they are booted?

Direct boot at 5 times is a great idea. I just used it to get 2 games moving after 11 days inactivity.

Thanks tom for your active development!

I still personally feel that the 3x 5x options are the wrong way to go, that autoskip is light years superior to autoboot, that autoboot should be X number of skips in a row, and that autoskip time should be autoskip time regardless of host, premium, or whatever. Of course I just spent 44 hours straight in a car driving across the entire continental US, so my brain is not functioning normally.

P.S. Oklahoma, I love you but you are by far the most boring state in the entire country.

IRoll11s wrote: I still personally feel that the 3x 5x options are the wrong way to go, that autoskip is light years superior to autoboot, that autoboot should be X number of skips in a row, and that autoskip time should be autoskip time regardless of host, premium, or whatever. Of course I just spent 44 hours straight in a car driving across the entire continental US, so my brain is not functioning normally.

P.S. Oklahoma, I love you but you are by far the most boring state in the entire country.

I agree with all of this, though, I'd rather have the boot come after some number of skips in a game, not necessarily skips in a row.

Cramchakle wrote:

IRoll11s wrote: I still personally feel that the 3x 5x options are the wrong way to go, that autoskip is light years superior to autoboot, that autoboot should be X number of skips in a row, and that autoskip time should be autoskip time regardless of host, premium, or whatever. 

I agree with all of this, though, I'd rather have the boot come after some number of skips in a game, not necessarily skips in a row.

I'm starting to come round to this idea. Thinking through specifics:

- All games have a boot time of 2 days (probably need to rebrand this 'turn limit'
- After 2 days player gets their turn autoskipped
- if player gets to 2 days turn time again (i.e. reaches turn limit consecutively) this time they get autobooted.

I think the autoboot should only happen if the last player's turn was autoskipped, it's a bit more user-friendly that way. It effectively gives players 4 days + the time taken for the other players to take a turn before you are automatically booted. Vacations to work as before of course.

Benefits:

- No dead games in queue as Autoboot + Autoskip will eventually finish all inactive games
- Gives people a second chance if they accidentally miss the 2 day turn time window
- No need for manual booting (host / direct / vote) as autoskip + autoboot would take care of all situations.

Also another idea - shoot me down if you hate this... for Premium members when their turn autoskips their units are randomly placed on their territories. For Standard members their units are dropped (i.e. don't get placed so they are lost for this turn).

I think this is a very clear, logical system.

But it would also be nice to have a few options for the "turn limit". Maybe 1 day, 2 days, and 4 days, corresponding to fast, medium, and slow games? You could also eventually work in something like "lightning matches" with really short turn limits when the site starts heating up.

tom wrote:

Also another idea - shoot me down if you hate this... for Premium members when their turn autoskips their units are randomly placed on their territories. For Standard members their units are dropped (i.e. don't get placed so they are lost for this turn).

I do not like paid features directly* affecting the outcome of games. I would avoid this wherever possible.

*While providing a list of board statistics can certainly influence the game -- in the right hands, its nothing like having the game put armies into play for you.

I think Private games should be allowed to set their own boot times still (or to disallow Boots and if they hit the 60 day range then just terminate the game).

I agree with Cram as well. I'd say just throw out all armies when Auto-Skipped.

I really like this last approach best... but would also like to still have the option to set that turn limit to make fast games. Also have to agree with Cram, can't have paid options impacting games like that.