Conditional Moves in Vote Chess

There are definitely times that lag in Vote Games, and I am one of the people who DOES like to use conditional moves in Turn-Based games (some people really don't even like their opponent to use them).  However, I don't think that Conditional Moves and Vote Chess is a good fit.

Vote Games (unlike any of our other games) are on a very tightly kept schedule.  The move will be made at a specific time - not before, not after.  Anything like conditional moves, or submitting the move early based on whatever, just messes up the whole schedule.  Some people plan on these things happening at a certain time, and changing that alters the whole game.

Also, I've seen a lot of last minute rally crys in team notes and forums begging members to hurry up and join a certain game and vote for a certain move before it's too late.  If you had a system where the move was decided after one move got more than 50% of the total members, you still wouldn't be taking into account people who join the game during that move.

I've gotten into a couple games at 7-days per turn.  It takes a year to get out of the opening!!  I'll never play in a game like that any more cuz I know better now.  However, I can't stand the games at only 1-day per turn either.  It's way too fast for me, but some people love it.  My suggestion is:  If you don't like how slow a game is going, don't play any more games at that speed.

The fast games can't be slowed down by vacation time or anything, so the slow games shouldn't be sped up either.  Find a speed that you like and play games at that pace.  But whatever speed is set, should stay exactly that speed during the whole game.

That's what I tried to say, but not so eloquently....

Brrrrrilliant idea KC, love it.... you only accept conditional moves option for the games if you are up for it, up front... leaders of teams can always discuss and decide amongst themselves if they want to send/accept games with conditional moves or not, then both teams will be happy... 

Agreed that conditional moves are really only ideal for the super organised teams who have good control with their own voting systems... I know some teams don't play as teams and this would not suit them... but then again bad moves get passed all the time when you have teams not playing as teams anyway already :p

Meanwhile we will continue to watch grass not grow for half the time of most games :p

This arrangement I can get behind, but there are still some interface challenges.

I also still think that accelerated submission of moves that are basically decided would be a great addition as well.

Having accelerated submission of moves pushes that schedule of moves out of whack again, that William (Billium248) was so concerned about. Again, this would need to be an optional feature that both leaders can agree on before each game to have switched on or off before the game starts.. once it's on, it stays on... if you don't offer or accept it upfront then you can't later switch it on later in the game... Personally, I would love it. Sometimes, when there is still 35-45 hours remaining on the clock especially, and we know already exactly what we want to move. We have on average of 50 players in our vote chess games but the CALLED moves are based on the consensus of shared opinions of our top rated players... after all they do know best... we get a 'little' blind/drive by shooting voting occurring, but it is never enough to disrupt the flow of our games... we now drive bulletproof chess hummers :p

Yeah, if adherence to a fixed schedule is important for some then any feature that adds variability into the timing would have to be made an agreed upon condition of the game before it starts.  It's a good suggestion for both ideas.

Awesome Idea!!!  Everybody's Happy!!! 

Do staff ever comment in these site suggestion forums? How do we know they have even read this?

The intent is that they read everything in this forum topic.  If they haven't already I'm sure they will.

I might just send a ticket to be sure, to be sure!

It's more the other suggestion (custom made game and fun trophies) that I think can be more easily facilitated....

Would love this idea also to be realised as many teams do grow weary of waiting, and waiting and waiting...

And if both teams consenting to having conditional moves switched on for a particular game then both teams will know to be on standby for any sharp turn of moves...

It still would be a snail pace in comparison with the speed games we play, where you have 10 minutes only to move and then 10 minutes to exhale again before your turn comes around again...

In standard vote chess, even with conditional moves, you will have still 1,2,3 days to move... a lifetime!

For the good of all the other groups out there, I would prefer NOT to have conditional moves for vote chess. Even organized groups sometimes scramble at the last second to get the right move passed. Could you imagine the chaos if everyone voted the seemingly obvious move conditionally?

I also agree with Billium's issue of timing. Some of us play multiple games and we do need that inbetween break to focus on a different game. Having conditional moves denies the other team of this break as well as the extra time to plan for the next response.

Sora, I proposed later though that it is made an OPTION.... both team leaders have the choice at the beginning to discuss and agree whether to allow CONDITIONAL MOVES to be switched on or off for that particular game or not... this way everyone is happy...

Hm... okay. Have you worked out the details on how you want this to work? Say someone votes a blunder conditional move at the last second, will your team play this move on the next turn based on one vote?

I guess so...

that is no different to making a blunder move that is not conditional as far as I see.... a blunder is a blunder...

My motto is, "where there is a will, there is a way"...

what I have proposed is OPTIONAL, not forced... everyone is kept happy, and it can speed up so many games, for those who want that...

If you don't want conditional moves, you say no to it at the start of the game... this means your opponent can't have conditional moves...

I understand that part. I'm just wondering if you thought about the actual process of voting in detail. I don't see how anyone could want their games vulnerable to one or two people making premature moves and screwing up the game.

did you read all the comments Sora?

you can get premature moves that screw up the game WITHOUT conditional moves if you don't have a good voting system in place and an organised team... this suits only organised teams ;)

and once again, I emphasize it is optional.... if you don't like conditional moves you don't click it on.... simple! :)

Sigh.. this is why I don't think you've thought this through all the way.

Senario-

It is a critical position. There's 12 hours left. You're not really sure what to play but so far the team is for 52. a5. You call the move. Everyone votes. There is 90% a5 and 10% some other move. Things are going well. It seems you were able to agreed upon a move before time is up. However, one hour left. All of a sudden, a random person on the team votes 53.Qe7 as the conditional move if black replies 52...Kg1. 53.Qe7 is obviously a blunder. However, the team has not agreed on a reply for Kg1. In fact, they haven't even thought of this response because it's a stupid move. What do you do now? You either

A) call your team to vote prematurely on a conditional move in the next hour to override that one vote OR

B) pray that your opponent does not play Kg1 next move

If that person votes when there is 1 minute left, you won't even get a chance to do A).

This is a really good point -- can a single vote constitute consensus on a conditional move?  Perhaps you need it to be a certain percentage of the number of votes made for the last move that wasn't a conditional.

As I've been saying, there are some wrinkles to be worked out.