admin
02-11-2008, 08:10 AM
Hi folks -
I know there have been a lot of complaints about the timer occasionally not working - either counting too slowly, or not finishing, or not starting, etc. Unfortunately I don't have a foolproof fix for this, largely because the timer relies on communication with our server to pull the number of remaining seconds, and 99.9% of these timer failures occur when there is a momentary glitch either with the server or with the player's internet connection, severing the connection between the timer and the server.
Of course, when a timer doesn't end the game at the appropriate time, it is possible for players to accrue very large - sometimes astronomical - scores. Obviously this isn't fair to the other players.
So I've implemented a time cut-off on the results page. If the results page isn't loaded for a particular game within a certain number of seconds after it should have completed, the final scores for that game will not be counted in the competition (you'll still see the results, though).
I realize this can be frustrating, especially when the timer quits out on you through no fault of your own, but I hope you understand that this is necessary to help keep things fair and competitive on the site. I've run some statistics and it looks like this will effect very few games - about 0.7% and 0.9% of all games played. If it happens to you, you will see a warning message at the top of your results page. You will not be penalized for this - your scores for that particular game will simply not be counted in the competition.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to post them here or contact me privately.
Thanks for playing!
Stephen
I know there have been a lot of complaints about the timer occasionally not working - either counting too slowly, or not finishing, or not starting, etc. Unfortunately I don't have a foolproof fix for this, largely because the timer relies on communication with our server to pull the number of remaining seconds, and 99.9% of these timer failures occur when there is a momentary glitch either with the server or with the player's internet connection, severing the connection between the timer and the server.
Of course, when a timer doesn't end the game at the appropriate time, it is possible for players to accrue very large - sometimes astronomical - scores. Obviously this isn't fair to the other players.
So I've implemented a time cut-off on the results page. If the results page isn't loaded for a particular game within a certain number of seconds after it should have completed, the final scores for that game will not be counted in the competition (you'll still see the results, though).
I realize this can be frustrating, especially when the timer quits out on you through no fault of your own, but I hope you understand that this is necessary to help keep things fair and competitive on the site. I've run some statistics and it looks like this will effect very few games - about 0.7% and 0.9% of all games played. If it happens to you, you will see a warning message at the top of your results page. You will not be penalized for this - your scores for that particular game will simply not be counted in the competition.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to post them here or contact me privately.
Thanks for playing!
Stephen