Announcement The Smogtours Timer

[Tony]

The TD team has been getting a lot of questions regarding the Smogtours timer at the event of a disconnection. Ever since we were first able to start recreating matches we've been meaning to implement a disconnection timer as well, but the coding involved isn't easy and still being worked on by Zarel.

What I mean by a disconnection timer is a separate timer consisting of 300 total seconds that starts running whenever someone disconnects during a match. This means a player has a total of 5 minutes to reconnect throughout a match. However, because that feature hasn't been implemented yet, the Smogtours moderators have been applying this method manually by turning off the timer as soon as a disconnection happens and by keeping track of the time the player has been disconnected from the server. Hopefully the automated version of this system is implemented soon, but until then this is how we're going about it and why we've been turning off the timer manually.

In summary, these are the important things to note regarding the Smogtours timer as things stand currently:

• The timer will not be turned off, unless a disconnection happens.
• If a player disconnects from the server, a moderator will stop the timer and keep track of the total disconnected time.
• If the total disconnected time surpasses 300 seconds, a moderator will turn the timer back on regardless of the player having reconnected or not.
• If a player disconnects from the server with a high timer and doesn't reconnect within the total 300 seconds, the match will be recreated.
• If a player disconnects from the server with a low timer and doesn't reconnect within the total 300 seconds, the player loses the match via timeout.

We won't reveal what constitutes a 'high' and a 'low' timer in order to minimize the opportunity to abuse disconnections. In the rare event that no Smogtours moderators are online during an official tournament game and a disconnection loss happens, please highlight the Tournament Directors and Smogtours mods (@Tournament Director and @Smogtours Mod) in the Tournaments server on Discord, and we'll evaluate and possibly recreate the match as soon as possible, as explained in this thread.

As soon as the disconnection timer is implemented, we'll be sure to update you all in this thread. :pray:

EDIT: Please read the post below!

 

[Tony]

The TD team has been getting a lot of questions regarding the Smogtours timer at the event of a disconnection. Ever since we were first able to start recreating matches we've been meaning to implement a disconnection timer as well, but the coding involved isn't easy and still being worked on by Zarel.

What I mean by a disconnection timer is a separate timer consisting of 300 total seconds that starts running whenever someone disconnects during a match. This means a player has a total of 5 minutes to reconnect throughout a match.

It's time...

Alongside the regular 5 minute timer you're all used to we'll now have a separate disconnection timer of 5 total minutes as well. The 'total' in 5 total minutes refers to the fact that the disconnection timer does not replenish like the regular timer does. Should you disconnect during your match, then the regular timer will stop going down and the disconnection timer will kick in instead. The disconnection timer automatically keeps track of how long a disconnection lasts and switches back to the regular timer once the player reconnects to the server, regardless of it being one lengthy disconnection or multiple shorter ones. Once the disconnection timer expires the match ends and the tournament directors/hosts will determine whether a recreation or timeout result is appropriate. In order to minimize the opportunity of abusing disconnections, we won't reveal the exact criteria for a recreation to the public.

In summary, these are the important things to note regarding the Smogtours timer following the update:

• The regular timer still works like it always has, starting at 300 seconds.
• Once a disconnection occurs, the regular timer will be paused and the newly implemented disconnection timer will kick in.
• The disconnection timer lasts for 5 total minutes.
• If a player disconnects from the server and doesn't reconnect before the disconnection timer expires, the tournament directors/hosts will determine whether a recreation or timeout result is appropriate.

Additionally, the new timer mechanics will also be implemented on the PS! main server for challenged matches (not the ladder!), for which PS! staff will make a separate announcement as well.

The TD team would like to give a huge thank you to Zarel and HoeenHero for their coding efforts and for putting up with our nitpicking!