I'm in favour of adding the full phase length for any downtime over 15mins.

I'm in full support of this.

The exact same situation happened to me a while ago. I ended up giving my pw to a roommate, who was going to be up all night working on a paper. Otherwise, I would have NMR'd in about 4 games.

Signed.

(no downtime with a bunch of redundant servers and databases would be best - too costy, though)

This does seem to be the best answer. But, I think the server has to be down for a certain amount of time before this would kick in. For instance, if it were down for 15 minutes, it doesn't make sense to add 2 or 3 days to the game time. Maybe if it were down for an hour or more.

jimgov +1

how do you keep the redundant server uptodate? is that not a whole extra bunch of database queries? (or do you just have everything processed twice - once in the php scritp here and once sent to a second server for processing? (that would be an interesting little task...)

The problem is either way there'll be criticism, either from people who miss a turn because of unfortunately timed downtime or from people frustrated by constant phase extensions, I've had complaints from both and it's hard to satisfy everyone

e.g. for the downtime earlier it was out for about an hour and four hours were added onto games (and games with phases shorter than 4 hours should've been paused in the process), it'd be safer to add a full phase length on but other will post their annoyance with that too.

I can see how it's safer to err on the side of adding too much time though, but it's hard to find a balance. If the server is inaccessible for 15 minutes someone might've been unlucky and gone to bed at just the wrong time, but adding 10 hours or so for every 15 minute downtime would also be annoying for others

The fantastic part of the game is that people can Finalize and end their phase early. A game extended suffers minimally, especially while its players can end the phase as early as they want.

On the other side a game where someone is essentially forced into an NMR messes with the game on a whole different level. While extending a game makes it feel slower, it wont screw with the actual game play. NMRs suck, and are game-changers. When someone NMRs on their own it sucks, but its their own fault. When they NMR because of server downtime its avoidable. All it takes is a little more time.

I can see why there would be criticism against extending it, but I don't see how avoiding a little anguish over extended deadlines is even half as important as avoiding forcing NMRs. I suggested 12 hours as it should be enough to cover most people without seeming like a lifetime to those who would complain.

I don't think having people NMR can be outweighed by people being annoyed at the long phaselength- one delays the game, the other potentially breaks it and unfairly damages one person or another. Finalising is there for a reason, too.

Suggestions

1. Longer additions to phaselength
2. Operate a no-NMR system after downtimes, where if somebody misses a go after downtime, the game doesn't process
3. Log the people who attempt to access the site and extend their games only. Perhaps with a # hours or until 30 mins after <player> logs on (whichever is longer) method.
4. Allow people to have an emergency lengthening of phaselengths during downtime, so they can just find their games, and press a button to log it for extra time.

Setting up an emergency phaselength extension email account might be a good idea anyway, too. Similarly no-NMR might be a good option to add on games.

hm, I don't see extending 4 hours while having half an hour downtime as too well placed. If one adds hours to games, at least 12 seems fine for the sleeping issue. I wonder why you chosed 4 hours, somehow that just seems random.

The ready button could salvage most games in a way that they can process quicker. However, people are retards - most likely *one* player will not hit ready for whatever reason. All the time. It makes me go crazy.

@orathaic: by replicating. I never say, it is the most easy thing to manage a fail-safe system, I just say, that it would be most awesome if there wouldn't be any downtime anymore (or it kept to a minimum).