These seemed to be the default options applied:
i.imgur.com/jhgnq30.png

In my opinion, the best async solution would be to give the host the option to force-pass anyone who can't call, and default no time limit for calling in case a player can do so.

I'm not sure how much strategic impact this would have, but it would vastly improve the play experience for me since it might halve (or more?) the time required for an async game.

I've never heard of asynchronous mahjong yet. Does such a thing exist after all?
Anyway, with current setting the game is nearly unplayable in turn-based. It will take literally months to complete even an East round game.

@gilthe, thanks for replying with details! I did not realize you have no visibility about the turn-based setting.

Some games change the available options depending on other settings -- for example, when you create a Kingdomino table, the "Mighty Duel" option list is not even visible unless you choose exactly 2 players. There is no way to detect "this is a turn-based lobby"?

@gilthe

As for the actual setting, I think this has the potential to be the first async Riichi Mahjong implementation, at least that I know of. As such it probably won't be perfect, but I argue that making a playable async implementation AT ALL will be a big improvement given BGA's huge audience.

I can think of a few ways to allow this:

1. Option for a player to autopass if they can't call (this could be a player preference option in the hamburger menu, so people who usually play async can flip the switch).

2. Checkbox/button on the game screen to enable autopass, allowing a player to turn it on and off during the game. It would still have strategic impact, but would allow someone to fake the possibility of a call if they wanted -- some chance of mindgames.

3. (too complex to be worth it?) WIth either options 1 and 2, some additional granularity -- maybe 3 checkboxes for "always call ron", always call pow", "always call chi", which would override the autopass if enabled.

4. (probably too complex to be worth it) Option for a player to press a button which pops up a grid of tiles. The player can then toggle some of these tiles as the ones they would call, if legal. Basically a way to privately set your waits.

For anyone curious, this is what the UI looks like when the call limit is passed :P
i.imgur.com/gavCL3j.png

The discarded tile in question is the 5-pin (which I probably wouldn't want with my hand tbh), and it was discarded at around 10:18am today, which I will admit I did not wake up in time for at all.

At this point, I think my best option is to go for a closed hand and riichi, though now I'm curious about how well that would work in a turn-based session.

@gilthe after a little more playtesting, I would say that async play is virtually impossible without the no limit option. I'm in 4 async games, all of which have the 8s default, so no one is able to call. I have never been able to get a live game going to even test it, since there are only a few people willing to play and they're almost all async.

At this point I think defaulting to infinite timeout is the easier option, if there is no way on the dev side to say "Did the user configure the room as turn-based?" ala the Kingdomino option I mentioned earlier, and how it changes based on player count.

Basically, anyone willing to give the alpha test a shot probably won't know to avoid the 8s timeout, and then I'm afraid they'll get driven away after they realize the first try is unplayable.

It might be obvious, but I think some people are experimenting with the alpha without fully understanding the consequences (e.g. another player was asking me today about how calls work, since they didn't realize someone across the table could call their tile).

Thanks for your patience! I do not mean to complain too much and burn you out, but I do think a default of "no limit" would be the best workaround for now.

Once the module enters beta, there might be more realtime players available, but for now the player base is very limited.

Almost all mahjong clients/implementations support two QoL features:

1. autocalling tsumo/ron if possible.

2. never asking whether to claim a tile or not even if you can do (to hide hand information when you don't want to call).
this option resets after a hand is finished.


About call limit... For real time, 8s is not bad. Most mahjong implementations give 5~10s to DISCARD and it works well.
However I think turn-based should not introduce such a thing.


I think GTSchemer's 4th idea is the best if it can be worked on, but yeah, it's too complex.
Perhaps turn-based mahjong should stick with autopass?

'always call' option is not recommended for a few reasons.
As the developer said it is misleading for new players, and it might destroy your hand in certain condition, like when you have a 1-shanten hand which requires a specific call to tenpai but somehow you call wrong tiles due to the setting.

For example, when you have 23 combination and require 4 to create all simples yaku, if you turn on 'always call chi' then you might call 1 to forfeit all simple (and the entire hand possibly).

That's a fair point, always call would be bad other than tsumo/ron.

Also, creating turn-based system worths a try. Being first means a lot.
Heck, you may even implement 1 hand game for turn-based! (possibly as a training mode only option?)

Even in realtime 1 round game has own popularity (SEGA MJ supports 1 round mode) and it has different strategy from regular East Wind or a half game..