Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 21:48:49 +0100 From: Tournament Headquarters(by way of Robert F. Heeter) Subject: W2WT: Rules Tutorial #5 - Time Limits and Vacations Greetings Warlords! We've been a bit busy at HQ lately and we had some minor changes to make in this Tutorial, so it was delayed a little. Tutorial #6 will be sent later this weekend. Tutorial #7 is still being worked on and Tutorial #8 contains the rules on ending the game. Round A begins in less than 4 weeks! The Round A scenario is built upon the Practice Round scenario, but the map will be much more exciting and the allies will be balanced more fairly... More on all that in a future message! *********************************************************************** Rules Tutorial #5: Time Limits, Timeouts, Vacations and Absences *********************************************************************** [ Note - some of these rules are still being adjusted. Comments are welcome! ] The basic rule to remember is to try to take your turn within 48 hours of the time it is sent to you. Because the Remailer sends out a notice each time the gamefile moves, you know when the previous player receives it, and you can usually expect to get it yourself 1 or 2 days later, so you can be prepared. You also get a copy of the actual gamefiles sent to the other players, so you can keep an eye on the state of the game, catch possible mistakes (and cheaters), and plan your move in advance. If you've planned ahead, you will have a good idea what you intend to do when the gamefile actually reaches you, and since you know when it's coming, you can save some time in your schedule for making your move! We recommend: * Check your email as often as you can to keep track of the game. Twice a day is ideal, but every other day will do. * As the other players take their turns, you get copies of their gamefile and turn report. Look at the gamefile after the other players move, to plan your strategy for your next move, check battle results, and look for mistakes/cheating. That way when the gamefile gets to you, you don't need to spend so much time on your own move. This helps make the 2-day turnaround easier to deal with. * After receiving their gamefiles, you can also peek ahead at your opponents' upcoming turns to see what is in their stacks, what new units are being built, where they are vectoring their production, and where previously vectored units will arrive in the future. Often you can "pre-plan" your attacks and defenses against everyone except the player moving right before you. The 2-day turnaround rule is pretty good at keeping games moving at a reasonably fast, but sustainable pace. Everyone gets a day of rest on Saturdays (if they wish), because Saturdays are completely ignored by the Remailer. A gamefile sent on Wednesday is due on Friday, but one sent on Thursday is due on Sunday, not Saturday. And a game sent on Saturday is due on Tuesday, as though it had been sent on Sunday. In playtesting we found that this worked fairly well, as long as everyone paid attention to their email and kept in mind that these were Tournament games that deserved to be taken seriously. A 4-player, 20-turn game with the Tournament time limits takes about 4 months to complete. (80 moves in 120 days.) But what happens if you have a crisis, get busy at work, or simply forget to check email for a couple of days? What if you don't finish a move in 2 days? Don't go and suspend the game - that's the Moderator's job only, and you'll get called for a rules error if you suspend a game without authorization. Instead, have no fear! The Tournament rules provide four different ways to stay in the game despite the occasional real-life interference: (1) For major holidays affecting about half the players or more, we'll simply declare the tournament to be in "holiday mode", and no time limits will be enforced. This will probably occur over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend (4 days in late November) and around Christmas and New Years. (2) For small problems that come up suddenly and last only a day or two, you can simply rely on the Remailer to automatically use up one of your "timeouts". Currently we give each player four timeouts per game; we may give more depending on how things go. So on average you get an extra day once every five moves. When a timeout is triggered, the Remailer sends out an announcement and deducts the timeout from your supply. If a timeout is used up due to someone else's mistake or error, just appeal to your Moderator and it will be restored. Do not change the timeout settings yourself; that's the moderator's job. (3) If you know in advance that you will be away from the game for more than a few days, you can take a "vacation". A vacation must be announced in advance, so we know when you are leaving and when you'll be back. During a "vacation", the game will be suspended when it reaches your turn, for up to two weeks. Once the vacation time is up, you either start using timeouts, or go into an "additional absence", which is explained below. Please do not use up a vacation unless you must - if all four players take maximum vacations in a given game, it delays the entire tournament by two months! (4) "Additional Absences:" You can take additional absences of up two 2 weeks, in addition to the allowed 2 weeks vacation, if you announce the absence before you leave, but in this case the game must continue. Your turn will simply be skipped by the next player. In this case it's your responsibility to position your forces for defense (and live with the damage afterwards!). After your declared absence ends, you start using up timeouts, unless you announce during the week that you wish to renew the absence. In particular, if you run out of timeouts and can't finish a move in time, you must announce an absence and have your turn skipped, or else we will use the Lost Player rules. Managing your time wisely is essential in the Warlords tournament (just as it is for Warlords in the real world!). If you run out of timeouts and miss a turn without announcing an absence, you will be skipped once (you'll be put in a "Limited Static Defense" where your troops are sent to their nearest city for defense), and then when your turn comes around again you forfeit the game and are out of the tournament. We don't think that will happen unless a player really gives up and disappears, but it's possible for it to happen if a player goes on vacation without being polite enough to tell everyone first. Just remember that there are over a hundred other players who are relying on you to do your part to keep the tournament moving and to make it a fair competition. If something comes up in your life, we're completely sympathetic - as many of you already know - but we need to hear from you in order to give you the benefit of the doubt. If you're going to be away for a while, you have to remember to show the same consideration to the others in your game that you would show to your co-workers or your teammates. As long as you keep us informed, we'll apply the rules above and keep you in the Tournament. Only if you don't keep us informed will we be forced to drop you from the Tournament. If there is a problem inside the game itself, such as a rules dispute, a battle-odds confusion, or a problem with the army set or scenario, then the Moderator may suspend the game while sorting things out. In these cases, timeouts that were used by mistake will be restored by request. Summary: There are really only three things to remember - (1) Pay attention to the game and know when to expect your turn. (2) Take the game seriously and take your turn within the 2-day limit as often as possible. It's more fun for everyone that way! (3) Show consideration for the other players and let us know if you aren't going to be able to move in time, so that we can use the rules above to keep you in the game, rather than kicking you out of the game! -- Headquarters P.S. If you know you will be taking a vacation longer than two weeks, and you let us know several weeks in advance, we will try to arrange things so you don't have your turn skipped at all. But it will help if you build some goodwill by making the rest of your moves extra quickly first!