The game needs a feature to kick players who are not actively playing. It’s a huge waste of time for other players to play a map with 0 chance of victory because of several players doing nothing.
I’d suggest that if a player hasn’t built or moved a unit in 12 hours, send an e-mail warning. After 24 hours, kick them.
Give an incentive for new players to join active games with open seats, such as bonus hero coins at game end and/or valour points when joining. The valour points can be traded as the player needs for gold or mana to make up for their forces being behind from former-player neglect.
Also need to add how frustrating it is for active players to need to stretch out a won game because of a stale player letting zombies walk over their towns to create graveyards that need burning before the game can end.
You may want to check that assumption against game 6257813679505408. The active players all eventually quit because at least 1/2 of the player seats were doing nothing. I don’t think even the game creator was playing.
Game 5184047964749824 is now past 24 hours of run time and 1 of the 6 players has done absolutely nothing.
The zombies around the absent player are now unstoppable on their way to capturing a mana pool and then, very likely, ultimately turning every town in the area - with full populations - into graveyards for the rest of us to deal with.
This isn’t a case of a new player stumbling around, learning the game while trying their best. This is a stale seat, making the game more difficult for the other players, while denying someone who might actually like to play.
Frankly, waiting 48 hours to kick an absent player is too long. The damage to the game is already long done by then. Especially in the starting hours of a new game. After 48 hours, even if a new player joins, the position will not be salvageable.
As I experiment with BotI, this issue is likely the most pressing that prevents it from earning a serious player base. If a single person can claim a seat and then AFK for over 48 hours while other players do their best to play, frustration will take over and no one will stay with the game for long. Fewer will pay money for a “lifetime” membership.
I know it can be frustrating, but playing with rando’s on the internet is always going to have dropouts and be annoying. Just wait till somebody starts casting spells randomly all over the place.
I like to think of those dropouts as part of the challenge. A king unwilling or unable to marshal his forces to meet the growing menace.
I’ll return you to my original suggestion. Warning after 12 hours. Kick after 24. Make it up-front clear when a player clicks the “join” button that this is what the game is going to expect, automatically.
BotI has potential, I think. I hope you return to it for improvements, eventually, Combative, PvP games are a pound-for-a-penny. Everyone and their sister has one and being different is nearly impossible. But good, co-operative multiplayer games are rare. I think BotI is your winner, if you shine it up more.
@UrsusZoikosToad This is probably the most common ask on here. Basically the issue is that there will always be AFKs in any public game, and no arbitrary timing cut-off really solves the problem. Even a twelve-hour AFK in most nightmare maps can be insurmountable for the living team.
As Jay says, they’re sort of a part of the challenge for public games. I suggest bringing a few core units for your neighboring races to any public game, just to make sure you’re able to keep their kingdom in line with one hand if they don’t show up.
If you’d like to take a run at a couple of pub games with at least one guaranteed veteran, I’ve got some time before the holidays. Just gimme a shout (@mention me) with the game link.
I’m convinced this is the #1 issue in this game. I’m presently in day 8 of a 6 player map. It should have been finished long ago, but a single absent player has meant a total mess on one side of the map that only a few players can reach. The “game” has been reduced to administrating the marching of armies across the map. It’s just boring, tedious work now.
I’m not sure of a perfect solution, but improvements need to happen. I would start by reducing the auto-kick timer from 48 to 24 hours, especially in the opening of a new game.
Other options might be looking at carrots instead of sticks. For example, a payment of gold, available each 24 hours, for at least checking in.
Finally, if a player is eliminated, their resources should be distributed to the remaining players.
Being afk from the start still not the worst. we have started a full game, 5 of 6 collected a lot of camps for about 1-1,5 days, then 2 of them five left. Now zombies comeing, and we can’t even train units, or capture the camps. Zombies closing to the undefended pools on the other corner of the map, and it’s impossible to collect a usable army. If we could have their extra high ammount of mana and gold at least we could use it for make army and use skills
The forum’s probably dead, but I also want to agree that players should be kicked after 24 hours of inactivity, and their resources/units/settlements distributed among other players. Having AFKs in PvP games is fine because getting them on the enemy team balances out the times you get them on your team. Having AFKs in co-op games is a straight-up handicap and can make things an unnecessary drag. It’s especially bad with Blight which takes place in real-time across several days unlike, say, a one-hour board game where people can just up and quit.
