[TWG Discussion] Phase Lengths

[dAnceguy117]

I left the poll options ambiguous on purpose. I just want to get a rough impression of where everyone stands.

We just played a game with 96-hour day phases, 24-hour twilight phases, and 48-hour night phases.

Long day phases give busy players more time to participate instead of having to be glued to a computer screen for hours at a time. Short day phases spur players to act quickly.

Long twilight/night phases give everyone more time to think things through. Short twilight/night phases keep a more consistent flow, where everyone is used to checking the game thread regularly and submitting new posts.

Phase lengths are game-dependent for sure, but a general idea of which direction we should go could help hosts design games better suited for our community.

What do you all think?

[YoshL]

poll doesn't exist first of all caught you too early

[dAnceguy117]

bastard

[Xiz]

I feel as though an average day length should not exceed 24 - 72 hours depending greatly on participants in the group.

The more forcing players to not talk really kills game moods. I'm not speaking just about the previous game, but games in general.

[dAnceguy117]

Originally Posted by KgZ

96/24/48

just a quick heads up: most games won't have designated twilight phases. most cycle only between night/day.

[dAnceguy117]

I like long phases personally. we already play LTWG once in a while. forum games are very different, and I like it that way.


really think we should go with whatever more people would prefer, though.

[mellonxcollie]

I prefer medium-length phases. I think 24 hr days/24 hr nights is good. Then again, it all depends on what type of game you want to play. I've also played "real time" TWG with 12 hr day/night phases and that was really fun and quick, but everyone needs to be free and active for that sort of thing to work.

Either way, if you are going to have long phases, there needs to be SOMETHING to do during them. Night talking needs to be allowed if the night phase is longer than 24-hrs. I am never signing up for a game that doesn't fit that requirement again!

[dAnceguy117]

I'm gonna be pretty damn happy if there's a clear consensus here

[Tps222]

I'd like progressively shorter phases in a game.

IE Day 1 is 72 hours, Day 3 is 48 hours, Day 5 is 24 hours.

It makes those late game activity dives less prevalent, and provides hope and excitement for people who get mercilessly murdered early on.

[dAnceguy117]

Originally Posted by Tps222

I'd like progressively shorter phases in a game.

IE Day 1 is 72 hours, Day 3 is 48 hours, Day 5 is 24 hours.

It makes those late game activity dives less prevalent, and provides hope and excitement for people who get mercilessly murdered early on.

BDN suggested that too. I'm a fan

[Charu]

I much prefer shorter.

I like the hybrid idea of long first then short. This would definitely help make end game be way more active.

[Vendetta21]

Originally Posted by Tps222

I'd like progressively shorter phases in a game.

IE Day 1 is 72 hours, Day 3 is 48 hours, Day 5 is 24 hours.

It makes those late game activity dives less prevalent, and provides hope and excitement for people who get mercilessly murdered early on.

holy shit thats awesome

[mellonxcollie]

Originally Posted by Tps222

I'd like progressively shorter phases in a game.

IE Day 1 is 72 hours, Day 3 is 48 hours, Day 5 is 24 hours.

It makes those late game activity dives less prevalent, and provides hope and excitement for people who get mercilessly murdered early on.

This is a really good idea, and I wouldn't mind playing long phases at all in a setup like this.

[Brilliant Dynamite Neon]

the idea I suggested specifically was Player-Pool-Dependent deadlines for Days. I'd say something around N/3 is right, where N is the number of players alive at Day start. 15 players = 5 day deadline, 10 players = 3 day deadline (from 3.33), etc. Only thing is there should be a minimum deadline of at least 2 days.

[DarkManticoreX2]

Originally Posted by Tps222

I'd like progressively shorter phases in a game.

IE Day 1 is 72 hours, Day 3 is 48 hours, Day 5 is 24 hours.

It makes those late game activity dives less prevalent, and provides hope and excitement for people who get mercilessly murdered early on.

the icon on my post agrees with this

[Brilliant Dynamite Neon]

Originally Posted by Xiz

The more forcing players to not talk really kills game moods. I'm not speaking just about the previous game, but games in general.

I agree that OC games are better but I appear to be surrounded by naysayers. That's not the point, thouh. I think OC ggames would have problems as well.

The main issue I think is that we are playing based on a stale, impatient meta that doesnt encourage well thought out decisions. People don't post for the sake of generating content, they post because the threat of a deadline looms over their heads. This isn't good play, especially when blatant lurking and eleventh-hour shots in the dark are tolerated. It gives wolves plenty of places to hide and significant license to con and misdirect.

one must also remember that, with a few exceptions, we are no longer responsibility-starved teenagers that can afford to spend all day playing forum games. We need a little more ti me to contribute.

Player-Pool Dependent Deadlines make sense in a number of ways:
● The more players that there are in the game the more reads you have to make, and Day 0/1 activities are both working with an information deficit and set the tone for the rest of the game, so it makes sense to make that the longest.
● progressively tightening deadlines add a fitting sense of urgency to later day phases.
● lack of contribution will be conspicuous early on
● later days do not need as much time since people usually come into them with an agenda anyways and a lot of things have been said already.

But we can do all the deadline tweaking in the world and it won't do us a bit of good if we don't shift our playing, and start using the time we have wisely. So, if you want something like this, I can think of some advice right away:
● use the long first day to cover as many bases and get as many reads as possible.
● ditch the mentality of "I can't be a key player because I'm vanilla human"
● start voting for / lynching lurkers

[dAnceguy117]

things change over time if humans want to win badly enough. I think. haha

[Afrobean]

Variable phase lengths make sense as a "go-to" option, but Rule 0 shouldn't be forgotten here. The host can run the game in whatever way they think is best. If a host wants 6-day-long phases, that's up to them. If players don't like it, don't choose to play that host's game.

I'd also like to echo what Raeko said: if there are long phases, players MUST have SOMETHING to do. I'd go even further and say that a night phase doesn't ever need to be 48 hours, even if night-talking is allowed.

[dAnceguy117]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

Variable phase lengths make sense as a "go-to" option, but Rule 0 shouldn't be forgotten here. The host can run the game in whatever way they think is best. If a host wants 6-day-long phases, that's up to them. If players don't like it, don't choose to play that host's game.

and on that note, the host signup process could probably use a revamp.