I've done this thread before, but I feel it's justified to have another go at it and see if more people can give me a bit of feedback.
The current PvP Timer system is incredibly flawed and is the leading cause of minor desyncs in the PvP system.
With a couple changes, this could probably decrease the level of frustration around desyncs greatly.
The problem is this:
There are currently 2 different timers.
The green one displays when it's your turn. It lasts for 60 seconds or less, then makes you automatically end your turn.
The yellow one displays on your opponent's turn. It lasts for 60 seconds, then turns into a 10 second red timer. After that timer runs out, the computer takes over on your computer.
The issues arise when you have bad connections, or prolong your turn too much. Since it takes several seconds for the information from your turn to be sent to your opponent, it sometimes arrives after that yellow/red timer runs out, even though you still completed your turn.
Bam, desync. Your opponent is playing the AI, but you remain connected for a short amount of time.
This can be easily fixed with this proposed system:
Yellow Timer: Your opponent's turn.
Run for 60 seconds.
If 60 seconds run out, display the following message:
Waiting for your opponent...
Stand-by like this.
Green Timer: Your own turn.
Run for 60 seconds.
When timer runs out, display this message:
(!) Please complete your turn, or you run the risk of losing.
At that moment, you go into "Unresponsive mode".
When this happens, the yellow screen message changes from
Waiting for your opponent...
to
Your opponent is not responding. Disconnect? (AI will take over). [YES]
If you click the [YES] button, you will disconnect from the PvP game and the AI will take over on your screen. This gives you full control over the moment when the 2 of you disconnect from each other, which means that your opponent has plenty of time to
not desync.
You can also choose to wait and see if your opponent responds! (This means you can effectively "Pause" the game if one of you needs to leave for a moment!)
If you choose to let the AI take over, the fact that you disconnected gets sent to your unresponsive opponent.
They will get sent to the "You Lost" Screen, with a message saying "You have lost the game for remaining unresponsive in the middle of a match. Score and electrum will be deducted accordingly."
This severs the connection completely, one player plays the AI and the other loses the match. This prevents issues regarding PvPvE games that happen now because of the time-out system.
So? What do you think? Would you be for or against such a system? (I personally think it's an improvement in every way.)
