AFK timer is broken for Turn-based games

AFK-ers are the blight of the game, I think we can all agree with that. :angry:
The 48h ingame time limit to push people into AI is fine for real-time games, but is utterly broken in turn-based ones. In the standard format (8h jumps, 24h deadline) an AFK player holds up the game for six days, during which game progress agonizes forward a mere two days. So basically, nothing is happening for an entire week, making others lose interest as well, them becoming the next one to slow the whole thing down. My last two games we were able to complete 400 ticks in 40 days, which seems to be very typical for the random ones.

I’m also participating in “Little Boxes”, a 16-player game, that started aug 12th, and is currently on tick 224. A little math reveals we are on a pathetic 8.29 tick per day, in a game which was only available to find through forum and google+, so less chance of casuals strolling in and going AFK right away.

On the flipside, I jumped into a game with 24h jumps and 12h deadlines, and some poor soul got eliminated the first day. None of this seems to work as intended.

I ask the AFK-timer be changed to actual time as opposed to ingame time, and perhaps that the AFK deadline be a config option during game creation, just like the turn deadline.

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Yes I agree, I think the AFK for TBG should be a flat 72 hours regardless of the turn deadline.

However, having said that, when you join a 48h deadline game there really should be no expectation that the game would run any faster. The turn jumps ahead when everybody is ready only as a convenience.

In my view its not rude or inconveniencing other players to let that timer run down as you wait for trade or diplomacy from the other players. You chose the slowest possible game because you only want to look in on it a few times a week.

Kicking players sooner will not necessarily make these games run faster.!

While I agree that maximizing time available is part of the strategy for a turn based game, it happens frequently that in a standard turn based game a player will only submit a turn once every 2 or 3 days. Since each turn only jumps forward 8 ticks, the game takes 3 times as long since the partially AFK player misses the 24 hour deadline a majority of the time, but not enough to be booted. This becomes obnoxious, especially when the victory is clear but players choose not to concede, but rather drag it out for several more days.

I know that in custom games you can reduce the time between turn submissions, which would counter this problem. But I was wondering if it would be possible to have a maximum number of missed turns before being kicked for being AFK too much.

I should probably add that I’m more used to the real time games, but cannot play them right now due to time. So, I’m not maybe as patient as i should be…