by SuicidalSnowman on Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:29 am
Yes it is a well documented and highly frowned upon strategy. Nearly all of the time, missing turns is not advantageous to a player, and the current rules work to discourage that.
However, every now and then, there is a time when it is advantageous to miss a turn. Generally, this is in a no spoils game.
Unfortunately, there is no other remedy for this situation. If you want to, post this in the C&A forum, where they will tell you to rate this person as you see fit. You will notice there is a "cheap tactics" and "deadbeat" tag available in the ratings.
More effectively, you can add this user to your ignore list, and you will never have to play with them again.
Now, as for your other complaint about being ignored. First of all, you posted this in the wrong forum. Suggestions and Bug Reports is usually used for Suggesting a new site feature or reporting a found bug. Notice you missed the whole "This will improve the site in the following way" part of the form. Posting a complaint about a strategy could go in General Discussion.
Additionally, posting a link to the game, or at least the game numbers, will always get your problem taken more seriously. From reading your complaint it appears that there are some inaccuracies in it anyways. Like Chuuuuuck pointed out, I am under the understanding that when someone misses a turn, you can move immediately. Maybe this has changed? I don't really know. The more important part is that with a game number or link, we could review the game, and even the players, and give you some more accurate help.
As for "in spite of the guy making us wait freaking twenty-four hours to play again" sometimes this is the case. The best remedy, as stated before, is to foe this person to avoid playing with them again. If you think they are doing it in a gross abuse of the game rules to hold you hostage, file a Cheating and Abuse Complaint, although I doubt this warrants that. You could also get Premium, it is awesome when you can just start a new game rather than get stuck waiting.
When you worry about "lets suppose the guy who missed turn gets to play before I log in again, he will get to attack me too," you need to stop playing Freestyle. This is the very nature of Freestyle! This is also the reason I, along with many other CCers, do not play Casual Freestyle games. Unless you are online 24/7, you end up missing out on chances like this. Play sequential, then you always know what order your turn comes in, and don't have to worry about this.
The final piece I am going to discuss is the whole issue of "this player missed a turn and it is a dis-advantage." I am not sure it even applies here, I think it just takes advantage of human nature. If he misses a turn, yes, like you said, next turn he can attack and then count on getting his bonus troops to reinforce. That is no different than him taking his turn, deploying, ending his turn, then deploying next turn, and only attacking with half his troops. K-dub makes a good point, if you are smart about it, you can turn this into an advantage for yourself.
As for the third player in the game, three player games are notoriously difficult for this reason. Rather than missing turn, he could also post in game chat "Please attack Radaga, he is obviously the strongest" and a some people will willy-nilly go and listen and you get screwed. I am in a 3 player game that has gone for 175 rounds because none of us can get ahead without the other two ganging up and slowing the third person down. While there are a few who really like them, three player games tend to be unpopular on this site.
So there you go. There are actually, as discussed, many ways to deal with this situation. Foe the person and you never have to play them again. Leave accurate ratings that reflect these "Cheap Tactics." Be smart about your own plays in the a three player, no spoils, freestyle game. Be smart about the type of games you join or start. Read the forum description and post in the appropriate forum. Provide the necessary information for other players to help you. Purchase a premium account (or enter one of the many free premium contests running in the forum, they are listed in the current newsletter!) and minimize the amount these players tie up your games. Be polite when requesting assistance from other users.
Do any one of these 7 or 8 suggestions, and I bet you will find many of your problems like this one mitigated.
