Time Controls

[Desechecs]

I have some thoughts regarding time controls. Chess may not be the best model for SC time controls. In chess you move one piece per turn and there are, in most games, 45 to 60 turns. SC is more analogous to Go (Baduck or Wei Chei). There are many moves and many pieces.

There are a number of different time control systems in Go. Go time controls gave me some ideas, but are not perfect either.

Something like this may work in SC.

The gamers set three amounts, let us call them A, B and C. They may be set to zero or any positive number. A is a bank of time and B is seconds per unit and C is seconds per turn. Each turn the player will be allotted the sum of B and C. The computer calculates how many units the player has and calculates B. C is a fixed additional amount per turn (to think strategically, purchase units, research, read reports, etc.). The amount of time you would have each turn would be the sum of B and C (it would vary from turn to turn). If you go over your allotted time for a given turn, you start to use up the amount in your time bank. If you use up your entire time bank and for any given turn your turn time allowance, the computer would terminate the turn where you were when time ran out. The time bank can be a lot of time 30 minutes or a small amount of time, it would be up to the players. Managing the time bank would become important just as in Chess. Getting in time trouble (i.e. burning your time bank) would be a strategic mistake.

This kind of time control is flexible, but has teeth. You could play blitz SC say 5 seconds per unit, one minute per turn and a 10 minute bank or you could play deliberate SC -- 15 seconds per unit, three minutes per turn and a bank of 30 minutes.

[SeaMonkey]

Superb logic, Desechecs....got any other ideas?