How about an option to have a Camp start at a variety of different times? A midnight start is a tough one for an old man who usually falls asleep with the kids.

btw, i think a ten pop Comm unit should be able to take over the last 13% of a mine and have enough to repair it...

for that to work, you'd have to have enough willing players to play at the same speed in the same timezone...

you see, the start may be midnight for you, but it'd be noon for someone in Macao.

we have players all over the world and making a bunch of different times to start may make people less likely to join a game just because of the time it starts.

having 1 universal start time is the best way you can do it. besides, no one expects you to play at 0hr if it's too late for you... the way the system is made, you play whenever during that turn, and if you can log on at the same time(s) every day, you'll be good. now that there's no 2-turn starts, no one can get THAT big of a jump on ya just because they started 1st.

i would effectively lost a half turn if i move at noon, i just think the East coast of the US probably has enough members to join a 'day game'. It's not like i'm in Alaska asking....

I think you're looking at it wrong... you may start 12hr late but if you kept logging on at noon, you can't lose anything else. also if you happened to get up earlier, you could still take your turn earlier than noon too... if your last turn was at noon, you can take your next anytime after 6AM the next day.

but I'm still playing a move behind, it could mean missing the Gempond to someone once every 5 campaigns or so...

The way the Camps start now, it's 5A GMT.
That's midnight in New York, noon in China,
a convenient start for Hawaii, and the US west coast.
If the game was set to midnight GMT, that would be 7P New York, 3P California, but midnight in Europe.
A 5P Eastern start (10P GMT) gives a midday westUS start, 10P Europe, and 1A in Moscow, where they really need something to do after the restaurants close.
I think it's a more convenient time to start the Camps, at least as an option..

hey, Req COULD have made it start Midnight in Australia... that'd be 9AM EST, right? but then also 6AM PST, so west coast US people better be earlybirds...

I just think if we start throwing in too many options, you make it even harder to get games started.

We hove below 300 active players and of those, you have to assume no more than a 3rd play at the same speed you do, so that's like less than 100 players who would join a game at your speed... and how many of these players are not just 1-time players that never come back? so let's say that you have about 50 people who MAY consider joining a game at the speed you wanna play... how many of them have the camp slot open? then after filtering out those people who already maxed out their camps, you wanna introduce varying timezones... well if you have a choice, you're NOT gonna join a game that starts at a time that you dun like. that's an obvious disadvantage when there are other options before you.

so now at this rate, you'll be struggling to even fill a 10 kings game.

maybe a more reasonable starting time would actually increase the number of overall players??

Well the rest of the world also feels that we exist.

But maybe it could be a default option when creating games, turn time. If you don't like the game setup then you don't join (eg. turns x day, Fog/no Fog, etc.)

Perhaps having a host able to set start times would work? I'd only give that option to members though.

i really think i'm not the only one put off by the crazy start time. I'm not saying the game should be America-centric, that's why i suggested GMT as a base for start, not during New Zealand rush hour.
And, Mog, i would be a member if you guys would let me pay you. the site accepts only PayPal, and the Pal and i are fighting. I asked Req for a mailing address and never got a response.
But thanks for bringing it up....

Perhaps the games could start as soon as the last player joins ,this would make it random for everyone !!

Then I will join last to control the start time, and the more that think like that the less game start.

you can only do that on password protected games or someone would jump in b4 you !!

you missed his point, harold...

let's see we're doing 10 kings... the host creates it... what's going to make people 2-9 even join it if they have an advantage by being #10? they'll wait for it to get to 9/10 and THEN join... 'cept if everyone starts thinking this way, the game will never get to 9/10.

Dear DocFeudal,
Yes, it is hard to pay Requiem for membership except by PayPal. Might I suggest that you ask a friend who has an account to help? If that isn't possible, I'd be willing to broker the transaction, you send me $20, I PayPal Req $20, everybody's happy. He doesn't accept checks because he's in Australia and it costs him as much as a membership just to process the darn things. Hope that helps.

As to the topic of the thread, ultimately the game's playability isn't going to get markedly better if we have different start times. It might be good for some, who knows. Worth suggesting anyway. The last player to join used to be the one who started the game but now everyone has to wait for a set time, much more fair.

@ Crazy ... thanks!

Last night, i couldn't stay up until midnight to make my moves in Camp 462, a 2X/day Camp. I made them @ 5:40A today. My next move is now pushed back to 3P, instead of Noon. By making my move 5.5 hours past midnight, i lost 3 hours today.

that's because you made your turn 5+ hours late... do you expect to NOT lose time on a late turn?

wanna know when I take my turns? between 8-9AM and 8-9PM EST. I can't realistically take them at midnight and noon... I'm never home at noon! but I'm on a cycle that works for me and don't see it as a time loss. I've been doing just fine in camps so long as I dun miss any of my turns.

no, i don't expect to be docked 3 hours. If my turns are Mid+ Noon, they should at least stay that way