on several different occasions now, i have seen a tournament listed on the games list that i decided to participate in and only got a single try because the player limit was hit by me or someone else joining after me.

on every occasion i was unaware that i was not going to get a second try because many hours were left in the tournament and in some cases i decided to start over because of an ineffective start only to be locked out. once i was locked out of a tournament with a 20 player limit that was only at 17 because two more joined while i did.

i am not really sure what the player limit exists, but my request is to have a time limit once the player limit is reached instead of immediately ending the tournament.

an example would be that the time left get reduced to one hour when the player limit is hit. i defer to decisions like if any new players can join or only the current ones can improve their score. the important part is that the last few players get more than a single try.

thanks for the consideration,

Lan

I think the way to avoid this is to make sure you use menu - quit game when you kill your ineffective start to ensure you are registered as one of the players. If you hit back or something else you appear to have disconnected and don't become part of the tournament.

I agree with Lan, the same thing's happened to me. Since it's a "player limit" not a "tries limit", a player should be able to re-try if they made the cut the first time around. *And*, once the limit is reached the game should close and drop off the board.

ok... it just happened to me again :(

i tried to enter tournament...
http://www.beatthegeek.com/games/TowerDefence/tournamentResults.asp?tournid=1434

and the first thing i did was try to figure out the spacing in the middle and what kind of maze i could put in there as the creeps just wandered toward the exit. clicking on menu and quit game, i suddenly found that i could not get back into the game because someone else started after i did and hit the max players locking me out.

i would honestly admit that i did not even look at the player limit and current players as i only saw it had two more days on it (i am sure that i am not alone.)

alchemist - i'm not sure what you are trying to tell me. i am hitting menu, quit game, being registered as one of the players, but then i can never try the board again as it is locked out for player cap.

simply put it is not fair for some players to get as many tries as they want while others get a single look at the board. it is also just frustrating to blindly "not be able to play" a board that you found interesting enough to compete on.

my plea once again is for anyone who "made the cut" as sierrajeff put it, be able to have a window of time to try the board more than once (an hour is my suggested minimum, but i am ok with more.) closing it and dropping it off of the board is fine with me as long as the participants can still play in the allowed extended time window (should still be able to view then launch from the my profile page.)

Lan

EDIT: make that twice today that i saw a board only once :(

Ya, i'm not sure the best solotuion for this... The game ends when a certain number of unique players have joined. If you happen to be the last player, you only get 1 try.

I'm open to suggestions.

the early bird catches the worm. most private t's don't have a player limit. and the official ones come again for sure. no big thing in my opinion.

it does get a bit annoying when your the last one in, and you spot a place or 2 where you can improve, and you dont get another try

Seems like the alternative, for level playing field results, is that each player in a player-limited game gets only one try.

another possibility is to start a clock of perhaps 2 hours, that starts when the last plyer joined. so it's open 2 hours more for those who already are participating. for programming, it must be solved that it doesnt interfere with an eventual additional timelimit... whatever ends first.

i agree with lordcrumb as it is what i was trying to suggest.

simply put...
- max players reached
- no new players can join
- "time left" reduced to 1 or 2 hours unless already lower than that (if already lower then just continue current time left.)
- players who have already joined can continue to play for the 1 or 2 hours

from a programming point of view perhaps a new hidden variable flag like "time_eligible" can be added to the tournament database where as joining a player limit tournament will flag you as yes/true. once the player limit is reached and the time left is adjusted, the "time_eligible" flag can be checked on the main games page for eligible tournaments (in addition to time left and level restriction.) only you know your code and the best way to do it, i am simply trying to help with an approach.

i unfortunately do not like sierrajeff's suggestion of everyone only getting one try as i am trying to encourage players to be able to play more not less

only my humble opinions,

Lan

Just happened to me again - Tourney 1500, more than a day left, I didn't even think to check the # of players (I never do, frankly); tried a different strategy, hated it and hit "quit" - and now can't re-play.

I'll see what I can do. I have quite a bit fo stuff on my plate right now so I'm not sure how soon I can get to this.

I think it's not needed to change this.
It's the same with a lot of suggestions to 'better' the game; They're only suggested because people forget to look at something, or remember something (press F for instance), etc.etc.
It's part of the game, get used to it.

PhaE - your response would be right if it said "tries limit". But it says "player limit".

Sparticus - nothing but praise and thanks for all you've done; at least for me these are just comments for improvement, not criticisms or demands for immediate action!

Why not add a timeout as soon as the max. number of players joined a turney. during that timeout only players that already joined the tournament can retry, everyone else can't.. Shouldnt be hard to implement in my opinion - of course i do not know how your db looks like :)