I thought I would start a new thread for the POWER game, just to discuss ways to speed up the turn submissions. Not to taunt my opponents or rant on the NT split situation. Everyone who sends emails to my group’s yahoo page has expressed the same frustration that our opponents have expressed on the message board.
First I will be somewhat candid in stating that one of the FP players speaks seldom if at all, but does seem to coordinate with his nearest neighbor. Of the remaining players, 3 or 4 of us seem to be far more “vocal” than the other 5. It is too early to say how the former neutrals will be with communication, but past posts on the message board seem to indicate they both place their orders quickly.
Here are the problems I see with submitting turns in the current POWER format:
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Turn 0 pdf’s indicated the game would start in 2 weeks.
In reality the game started in 1 week. This is probably the easiest problem to solve. -
Neutral declarations actually held up turns.
Given the current NT flips, I think it now safe to discuss how the timing of their decisions may have affected everyone else.
While my allegiance objectively benefited from the NTs(DU/RH) declaring they would flip before the turn was run, this courtesy actually held up the game. The NTs declaration the flip to our opponents, stated 2 or 3 days before the turn deadline, caused my allegiance to take an extra 1 or 2 days to “re-adjust” our plans. The HA/CO were equally open/courteous about their decision to flip, and I wonder if this has not caused my opponent’s to take some extra time to “re-adjust” as well. -
Shadow turns.
My allegiance has run several shadow orders, and generally benefitted from this. However, on at least one turn when the shadow orders were submitted days in advance of the deadline, HQ still ran the turn on the last possible day. I suspect but do not know, that HQ waited for the deadline to pass before they “accepted” the shadow orders. Perhaps this is a standard HQ policy? -
Diplomacy with other nations.
Again, not wanting to raise the details of my particular diplomacy or any of the frustration on the other POWER thread, I would point out that in T3 of the POWER game I held back my orders until the last day, hoping to hear from another player who for whatever reason did not reply to me before the submission deadline.
So perhaps there are other problems out there that might be added to this list? Here are my proposed solutions to the 4 problems above.
Regarding problem #1, I think that the fix is for HQ to announce with the T0 pdfs, exatly when the turn submission is due. I assume that it is too time consuming to modify all 25 T0 pdfs.
Regarding problem #2, maybe future POWER games would better fit the 12 v 12 format.
Regarding problem #3, HQ could simply decline to accept shadow orders in POWER games. That would incentivise players to “find a way” to submit their own orders. However, that would not speed up any turn in which a player is “unable to find away” and then his nation is ss’d. If on the other hand HQ has a policy of waiting to accept shadow orders only after the submission deadline has passed, maybe HQ could alter the policy for the POWER format. If a shadow turn(s) are received, they will be accepted by HQ when the last set of orders from all currently-active nations has been received. The last set of orders received, even if it is a shadow set, would be subject to the fee I describe below.
Regarding problem #4, perhaps there should be an additional “fee” assigned each turn to whomever is the last player to submit orders. Here is an example:
The fee could kick in only if the 25th order was received after 24 hours HQ sending out the turn report, and the fee could become progressively larger as the week goes by. I opine that the fee would not have to be so large to be truely punitive nor financially lucrative to HQ, just large enough to give value to the principal of submitting turns quickly. In my wallet a fee that added $1 US/day after the first day would be my incentive to move quickly, and perhaps move even if I wanted to wait “one more day” to wait for incoming diplomacy. If I feel it is worth the cash to wait longer in order to communicate with other players, then I risk paying the fee.
If for example I wait in 3 consecutive turns for the same player who is uncommunicative, but who also gets his orders in before me (I would know this because in the preceding turns the fee would have been assigned to me instead of him), my wallet will tell me it is no longer feasible for me to wait for the other player to respond to my communication.
Likewise, if for several subsequent turns I am again the last player to submit orders, but lets say that I did submit my orders between 24 and 48 hours, then I am paying relatively little for my turn and the POWER format is still a faster and cheaper way to play the game.
Food for thought, as it appears this turn’s orders are again going to run somewhat late.
