That *would* be a good feature. Would be very nice for gunboat and live games.
I will add this to the to do mod list.

I think it's a cool suggestion, but I wonder if it doesn't go against the spirit of the game a bit? Part of the point of dragging out a game (IRL for example) is to force people to stay on their game. If somebody is going to screw up their orders on the fifth phase where you make them do the same thing, imho you deserve the win.

@semck: 'part of the point of dragging out a game'. I think you lost me there.

@zultar: thanks!

To add, we could also do what many players do in face-to-face games - add default openings for each nation so that they get their 1901 builds.

I'm trying to think how this could be done, the fact that there is a change in unit position almost every turn makes this inherently difficult. Right now the only way I think this could be done quickly is if none of a players units moved positions, and if they didn't build/disband any units the turn before. Otherwise you're going to run into the site trying to populate moves that are invalid. I'll bounce it off Kestas sometime this week to see if he has a better way to set something like this up, but just from a code standpoint I'm not too optimistic.

It is a good idea though.

Orders are stored already. Just add a function that goes backwards and grabs the most recent set, and have a button with a reload symbol that locks them in through JavaScript.

What I'm saying is that for example, last turns orders are:

Fleet North Sea Move to Edi
Fleet English Channel Hold

then the next turn "Fleet North Sea Move to Edi" will be an invalid move, and would create an error. The same would be true if the Fleet in the English Channel was forced to retreat. It can be done as you said, but only if none of the persons units move the turn before.

@guak,

I guess you've never experienced the joy of staying up till 3 am at a f2f tournament because some doofus won't vote for the draw. What can I say? : )

Oh like a 'Diplicate' button. I'm down with that

Duplicate sorry lol

lol, I haven't. The friends I play f2f with usually end the game when we run out of beer

@jmo: I think the point of the feature would be precisely for when you want to do the exact same moves. Doing it automatically would probably not be reasonable to code. But adding a button that calls last phase's moves maybe is not that difficult?

While we're on the topic of new features, what do you guys think about adding a 'preview' feature, basically lets you see your units moves on the map when you enter the moves in the scroll boxes?

@jmo: if it reaches back for the prior turn's moves and they are no longer valid for repeat, then it shouldn't work and that's okay. If the status actually changed from the prior move, we're not in the situation OP described and the player actually should be minding shop.

@bo: I dislike the default openings idea. I don't think there is a set of neutral openings that would not favor certain powers. If people blow S01, the game should just be canceled.

I wouldn't be bothered by an auto-cancel either. Most countries have obvious moves and obvious builds, and while they aren't the only moves, they're the most neutral -

England goes to Norwegian/North, convoys to Norway.
France goes to MAO, Paris to Burgundy with support from Marseilles, go for Belgium/Spain/Portugal in the fall.
Germany holds in Munich, Berlin to Kiel, Kiel to Denmark, no bounce in Sweden (that's not neutral) and a move for Holland in the fall.
Italy convoys to Tunis, Venice holds.
Austria goes Vienna >> Budapest, Budapest >> Serbia, Trieste >> Albania, supports into Greece, no move on Galicia because bouncing would screw up the default order function.
Turkey goes Bulgaria, fleet to Constantinople (hitting Black Sea isn't neutral) en route to Aegean, Smyrna holds.
Russia goes for Rumania (not Black Sea, see above), Ukraine from Warsaw, St. Petersburg from Moscow, GoB from St. Petersburg, take Sweden and move to Finland.

Alter those however, but they're all common (I don't know which is most common). Builds wouldn't be accounted for because those would probably change based on whoever jumps at the opportunity to attack a CD power.

Auto-cancel would be just as good.

I don't get it, do you mean that every game should start like that ? or that those moves should be automatically made if a country NMR in 01?

If a player doesn't show at all. If the player shows but doesn't enter orders, it should be all holds. If the player is simply absent, those are default orders.

I think the only nation that actually takes on default orders in CD in face-to-face is Italy. Italy's moves are the only ones that are truly neutral.

It wouldn't be so difficult to code in a default move set for 1901.

Ha ok, then i like that idea but it would then be necessary to get rid of the information on the left that tells you if somebody showed up, no?

BTW what is it for this information about ready / save / no orders? I mean, why is it available to other players?

As far as implementation, I'd have to study the code a bit more, but I'm guessing it'd be somewhat simple. On an NMR, you call the defaultOrders function, and it also gets the phase as a parameter. If it's 1901 Spring it uses those. If it's 1901 Fall, etc.

I don't think a default set of orders for 1901 up through builds is undoable. After that, it's not feasible, though.

@Kallen: This is already coded on vDip, so maybe it will get implemented here too...

Why hasn't it been implemented here? If it's already on vDip I think it would make sense to have it at least as an option when creating games on webDip

guak: "lol, I haven't. The friends I play f2f with usually end the game when we run out of beer"

Before you go and buy beer for your next f2f game you should familiarize yourself with the concept of beer abundance. As far as being a successful Diplomacy player this is equally as important as understanding stalemates.

Oh pleeease could you make a 6 or/and 7 minutes phases???
Than we can easily play Modern Europe and America in live games. There is real need for that when you are moving 20 and more units.
PLEASE!!!

Also, it would be nice if there is an option where you can see all the games that you played against some particular player and a following statistics.
And you can give me some 10000000 euros while we are at it.

But regarding those phases, pleeease make them.

7 minute phases would be awesome.

@oscar: in my country we buy as much beer as we can find. It is not miscalculation, it is scarcity. Beer Scarcity is a sad, sad thing. End of the world kind of sad.

I third Nikola and Chaqa. 7minute phases would be epic.

Is this just a feature suggestion thread now? Isn't there a developer forum for that?

Except we actually might implement some of these changes. The developer forum is kind of like the suggestion box that only rarely gets emptied and we kind of have a good but sad laugh at the contents.

Can we get a #fuckghug button?

I just want the save/ready buttons to be closer. Bonus points if they overlap.

Idea: lets combine the save/ready buttons into a Google-style "I'm Feeling Lucky"

^Then lock orders in as all-holds until they push it at least once

7 minute phases would be awesome.

@2nd, we already have one. It's the little thing below my name that says "+1".

I thought that was the 2WL +1 Transfer Fund One-Button Interface

New suggestion - in Retreat phase, if a player has no place to retreat to, disband immediately, rather than have everyone have to wait for him to choose it.

I don't think 7 minute phases would be very difficult to add. What a great idea!

I see that the idea of new phase lenghts had good response. Pleeease make them, I want to play Modern and America in live gunboats, it will be great new thing!