Ask a simple question, get a simple answer

[itsnick]

I've been playing for quite a while now, but this has never happened before:

I was playing a PVP game, and had finished my turn. My opponent was taking a while to play, the timer got into the red, then suddenly I got the message: "Your connection to the server is not responding, you will lose this match in..." then it counted down about 6 seconds and BANG, I lost.

I hadn't had connection issues either before or after this game, and haven't in the past. I was winning by quite a margin, so I'm wondering if my connection really did drop off, or is it possible that my opponent somehow pulled a swifty? Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

[Jangoo]

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

[yee]

How does the spin choose which cards are available to be won?

You can win only the cards, that were in the deck you played against.
You can't win nymphs from spinns, even if they were in the deck (you get relic instead).

[spiritkirinblade]

I was wondering what "Quanta Index" was?

[killybob]

quanta index was a study carried out by scaredgirl. it was an experiment where she tried to find out the best amount of pillars/pendulums for the perfect quanta distribution. here's a link: http://elementswiki.co.cc/articles/empirical-evidence-to-support-qi/ (http://elementswiki.co.cc/articles/empirical-evidence-to-support-qi/). this is usually a vital tool for good deck builders, although as jmtd stated it is not always the best guideline concerning some decks.

[spiritkirinblade]

quanta index was a study carried out by scaredgirl. it was an experiment where she tried to find out the best amount of pillars/pendulums for the perfect quanta distribution. here's a link: http://elementswiki.co.cc/articles/empirical-evidence-to-support-qi/ (http://elementswiki.co.cc/articles/empirical-evidence-to-support-qi/). this is usually a vital tool for good deck builders, although as jmtd stated it is not always the best guideline concerning some decks.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[killybob]

quanta index was a study carried out by scaredgirl. it was an experiment where she tried to find out the best amount of pillars/pendulums for the perfect quanta distribution. here's a link: http://elementswiki.co.cc/articles/empirical-evidence-to-support-qi/ (http://elementswiki.co.cc/articles/empirical-evidence-to-support-qi/). this is usually a vital tool for good deck builders, although as jmtd stated it is not always the best guideline concerning some decks.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

your welcome

[itsnick]

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not getting it.

Surely Elements is played online in the sense that both players must connect?

Anyway the example I described is the first time in the 6500-odd games I've played that I've ever gotten that particular message. I've played plenty of PVP games during which I got the message 'your opponent is not responding...the computer will take over' (or words similar), after which the game went on as if I was playing an AI. When I get that message I assume it's my opponent's 'fault' i.e. their connection has dropped out or they've left the game intentionally.

[killybob]

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not getting it.

Surely Elements is played online in the sense that both players must connect?

Anyway the example I described is the first time in the 6500-odd games I've played that I've ever gotten that particular message. I've played plenty of PVP games during which I got the message 'your opponent is not responding...the computer will take over' (or words similar), after which the game went on as if I was playing an AI. When I get that message I assume it's my opponent's 'fault' i.e. their connection has dropped out or they've left the game intentionally.

i imagine that when your computer said that your opponent was not responding he lost the game. if your computer loses connection you lose because you cannot take any more actions and thus your time runs out (if you quit the the game it informs your opponent, not causes the timer to go all the way into the red). it's inevitable and unfortunate. if you find it a really bad problem i would suggest making a topic on the "suggestions and feedback" section to make clear that it should be fixed.

[siriosirio]

am i the only that think that the  gain in this game is a little to slow?

[Jangoo]

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not getting it.

Surely Elements is played online in the sense that both players must connect?

Anyway the example I described is the first time in the 6500-odd games I've played that I've ever gotten that particular message. I've played plenty of PVP games during which I got the message 'your opponent is not responding...the computer will take over' (or words similar), after which the game went on as if I was playing an AI. When I get that message I assume it's my opponent's 'fault' i.e. their connection has dropped out or they've left the game intentionally.

i imagine that when your computer said that your opponent was not responding he lost the game. if your computer loses connection you lose because you cannot take any more actions and thus your time runs out (if you quit the the game it informs your opponent, not causes the timer to go all the way into the red). it's inevitable and unfortunate. if you find it a really bad problem i would suggest making a topic on the "suggestions and feedback" section to make clear that it should be fixed.

Yes, sort of.
Elements surely is played online and both PvPers must connect but there doesn't seem to be a continuous
check on whether the connection is still stable on both sides. It's done whenever you press "end turn".
In the meantime your offline game keeps going. I am not an IT-pro but what happened is probably something like:

You press "end turn"
-> your (offline) computer continues with the programmed (offline) routine of starting your opponents count-down cause it should be his turn
-> your computer attempts over and over to send the package online which will then be submitted to your opponent
-> your computer fails to do that in time because your connection was/is lost
(by now your "opponents" counter is down to some 10secs on your offline screen)
-> the server finally resolves that your connection was lost and feeds back this info to you
(perhaps it's not even the server but also your offline program which, of course, knows by now that it couldn't submit the package)
-> you get the message "your connection was lost you will lose in ... "

What your opponent saw during the whole time was his opponents (your) counter going into the red because
his computer never received the package from you. For him, you never even finished your turn.

I guess this could be overcome by "stopping" the game right when you click "end turn" and perform a check
whether everybodys connection is still stable. You would get an info such as "attempting to send turn-info ... connecting ... connecting ... connecting ..."
However, losing the connection is not supposed to be the normal case so in any regular bug-free game it makes
for a much more fluent gameplay if such a checkpoint is not installed.

[itsnick]

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Yes ... Elements works on your computer and not online, so even if your connection
is lost you will always have the impression that it is the other players "fault".
You got dropped.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not getting it.

Surely Elements is played online in the sense that both players must connect?

Anyway the example I described is the first time in the 6500-odd games I've played that I've ever gotten that particular message. I've played plenty of PVP games during which I got the message 'your opponent is not responding...the computer will take over' (or words similar), after which the game went on as if I was playing an AI. When I get that message I assume it's my opponent's 'fault' i.e. their connection has dropped out or they've left the game intentionally.

i imagine that when your computer said that your opponent was not responding he lost the game. if your computer loses connection you lose because you cannot take any more actions and thus your time runs out (if you quit the the game it informs your opponent, not causes the timer to go all the way into the red). it's inevitable and unfortunate. if you find it a really bad problem i would suggest making a topic on the "suggestions and feedback" section to make clear that it should be fixed.

Yes, sort of.
Elements surely is played online and both PvPers must connect but there doesn't seem to be a continuous
check on whether the connection is still stable on both sides. It's done whenever you press "end turn".
In the meantime your offline game keeps going. I am not an IT-pro but what happened is probably something like:

You press "end turn"
-> your (offline) computer continues with the programmed (offline) routine of starting your opponents count-down cause it should be his turn
-> your computer attempts over and over to send the package online which will then be submitted to your opponent
-> your computer fails to do that in time because your connection was/is lost
(by now your "opponents" counter is down to some 10secs on your offline screen)
-> the server finally resolves that your connection was lost and feeds back this info to you
(perhaps it's not even the server but also your offline program which, of course, knows by now that it couldn't submit the package)
-> you get the message "your connection was lost you will lose in ... "

What your opponent saw during the whole time was his opponents (your) counter going into the red because
his computer never received the package from you. For him, you never even finished your turn.

I guess this could be overcome by "stopping" the game right when you click "end turn" and perform a check
whether everybodys connection is still stable. You would get an info such as "attempting to send turn-info ... connecting ... connecting ... connecting ..."
However, losing the connection is not supposed to be the normal case so in any regular bug-free game it makes
for a much more fluent gameplay if such a checkpoint is not installed.

Yeah that makes sense. It is annoying because there should be a way to suspend, or draw, games in such a situation. Maybe that's asking too much of the whole set-up.

Thanks for the further explanation. Maybe I should just count myself very lucky that t's never happened before