[teal]

Is this really that big a problem? Ruatha, you were saying it was only this game (NCG:3) which seemed a little bit slow. I would guess that >90% of games with 20 people in them go at an average speed of one turn every 48 hours or longer. With 20 people in a game the odds of someone having some real life thing to deal with in any given 48 hour period approach a near certainty.

That said it is a good idea to see if it is only certain persons who consistently submit turns late.

I suggest the following (implemented in other Online games I have played in):

When setting up the game say that the *deadline* will be every 48 hours. Then allow a *grace* period of an additional 12 hours (all numbers are just examples) before processing the turn. Record each time a player misses the *deadline* without prior notice (players who go on vacation and give notice before hand should be exempt as they have made a good faith effort to notify everyone of their absence). Then players are notified ahead of time about what the expected deadlines are and there is a way of measuring who is actually late, as opposed to merely taking the allowed time to play their turn.

Not every player lives on their computer and can reasonably play a turn every 24 hours. People who take what was specifically stated before hand as the time to play their turn should not be punished.

By shifting to a deadline then grace system you also have the advantage of avoiding the (1st three players are consistently the same problem with a system which relies on the order in which players submit their turn). You can simply record everyone who submits their turn within the deadline as getting +1 "consistent" points and missing a deadline will get you -2 points. You can then set up a system where anyone who has submitted more than 10 turns and has a negative score will not be allowed into games you create. Also any player who drops without stating a valid reason to the host should get -100 points (or more).

My two cents. Mostly borrowed from the system implemented in the Online system for playing the board game Diplomacy, which I used to play quite a bit.