So one of the things that always bothered me about Neptune's Pride was the way it forced you to adjust your life schedule if you wanted to "play to win" most efficiently. I.E. Waking up at 1am to launch an attack at someone so they wouldn't see it coming; waking up at 3am to check that nobody had launched an attack at you overnight without an ability to respond.

I'd love to have a setting for games that allowed you to set a "dead time" where the game simply wouldn't progress so everyone involved could sleep easier (so to speak). Essentially the host would set this window during the game creation, which would be something like:

The game state advances normally from 8am through 11pm; from 11pm overnight to 8am, the game is frozen, but players are still allowed to make moves and change things that will not actually be implemented until 8am the next day.

In order to keep things interesting and true to the spirit of the game, this window would have a minimum play time (you couldn't just have the game play for only 2 hours a day, it would be a completely different game than it is now). I'd suggest a minimum time of 14 hours seems appropriate.

In addition, this would lengthen games due to the fact that there are many fewer hours per day that Neptunium is being created, so the game would need to scale the victory condition appropriately to prevent games from taking 14 days to finish instead of 10.

IMO the different timezones makes this feature useless. The morning for one player could be night for others, and vice versa. Personally, anticipating one's moves and react accordingly is always the best strat against surprise attacks.

mrhax wrote:IMO the different timezones makes this feature useless. The morning for one player could be night for others, and vice versa. Personally, anticipating one's moves and react accordingly is always the best strat against surprise attacks.

You don't think there are enough players in the major time zones that you couldn't find 7 other players with a similar work schedule?

Or even more specifically: my 5 friends and I are all in the same state/timezone, and this feature would work wonderfully for us.

I think it would be good if the creator could set it if they wanted to. I think making a mandatory freeze would not be reasonable because of time zones, but if there is a (let's say) EST time zone game, this freeze could be set by the game creator.

There is already a discussion about this topic: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=584

tortillion wrote:I think it would be good if the creator could set it if they wanted to. I think making a mandatory freeze would not be reasonable because of time zones, but if there is a (let's say) EST time zone game, this freeze could be set by the game creator.

That is what I was implying: that it be a selectable option in game creation (and not have it default to "on"). Maybe even make it for private games only if you don't want to change the way the "main" branch of the game plays.

This is a great idea! Although, I hope this is more down in the pipeline. I'm looking forward to less bugs and a "Ludicrous Speed One-Day" Mode.

I don't think I'll ever play "Daytime Mode" though. While I have made blunders by not checking my phone in the morning or night and missing the window for a crucial action, it is definitely part of the game.