Approved Timer losses for severe inactivity in formats with Your Time

[Larry]

Give people a timer loss if they don't pick a move 3 turns in a row. (3 being an arbitrary number here but I feel like lead + turn 1 & 2 should be fine, could maybe even make it 2 instead of 3)

With current timer implementation, I could queue a bo3 VGC game and then leave my computer. The sim will autoselect something for me whenever I run out of time but never hand me a timer loss. That bo3 is then going to take about 15 minutes.

I don't have the kind of time to be waiting for people for 15 minutes when they're just afk from the start of the battle and never click a move, just for the sim to wait a full minute every turn and then autoselect something. I get that's how it works on cart, but I think it's beyond stupid for people to have to wait for a battle to end against someone who isn't even at his computer for a full 15 minutes (that's about the time you lose if you queued bo3 against an opponent who isn't even there) because current timer rules refuse to hand someone a loss for just never clicking a move.

if we're gonna time people out after 150 seconds on every other ladder then surely we can time people out in less than 900 seconds on the vgc ladder

 

[DaWoblefet]

The difficulty as always with timer decisions is balancing player convenience with how harsh we punish inactivity. Your suggestion of limiting to 3 turns is quite harsh as it is - that's only 135 seconds, less than the 180 seconds (2 min 30 sec) of other ladders. It also assumes that a player might not actually legitimately time out 3 turns in a row due to overthinking a move, connection lag, or any other number of legitimate reasons. We certainly wouldn't want to make it non-consecutive turns, for example, especially not across games.

As someone who actually ladders, I sympathize with this though. The problem only really occurs on lower ladder, and although it typically is a free win (since the game autoselects the first option available, it's very easy to win games quickly), unlike regular players going AFK, it's difficult to start another set and play that at the same time, because you still have to actually select your moves in the set where the opponent is AFK.

I will approve this, with this implementation: if the opponent times out 4 consecutive turns in a row (not including Team Preview, which has a special adjustment of its timer), they lose the game (and the set in best-of-3). 4 turns is 180 seconds, which matches our current implementation with other ladders.

 

[Larry]

The difficulty as always with timer decisions is balancing player convenience with how harsh we punish inactivity. Your suggestion of limiting to 3 turns is quite harsh as it is - that's only 135 seconds, less than the 180 seconds (2 min 30 sec) of other ladders. It also assumes that a player might not actually legitimately time out 3 turns in a row due to overthinking a move, connection lag, or any other number of legitimate reasons. We certainly wouldn't want to make it non-consecutive turns, for example, especially not across games.

As someone who actually ladders, I sympathize with this though. The problem only really occurs on lower ladder, and although it typically is a free win (since the game autoselects the first option available, it's very easy to win games quickly), unlike regular players going AFK, it's difficult to start another set and play that at the same time, because you still have to actually select your moves in the set where the opponent is AFK.

I will approve this, with this implementation: if the opponent times out 4 consecutive turns in a row (not including Team Preview, which has a special adjustment of its timer), they lose the game (and the set in best-of-3). 4 turns is 180 seconds, which matches our current implementation with other ladders.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I agree with not letting the simulator hand you a timer loss with less than 150 seconds of consecutive inactivity.

However, you have 90 seconds at lead and 55 for every turn after that, not 45. I assume this is supposed to be 45 but the simulator gives you 10 seconds refund every turn which actually puts you at 55. (Don't quote me on the reasoning, all I know is i have 55 seconds to select my moves) Thus:
90+55=145 +55=200
55+55=110 +55=165

Whether you include the lead turn or not, the 150 second threshold is always reached in 3 turns, not in 2 or 4. So, personally, I'm in favour of making it a loss in 3 consecutive turns of no button clicked.

if thats not on the table I'll take 4 turns though, anythings better than the status quo. Thanks!