Author Topic: penalty timer  (Read 3137 times)

tandemrx

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penalty timer
« on: November 19, 2006, 09:24:17 PM »
O.K., a very minor feature request (for version 4  :)).

How about a "penalty timer".  Same as hand timer, but one you can set for a different time (say 5 minutes or 10 minutes) that would run in the background and then play a sound when the penalty time was over.  I would think the program would only need one, but maybe if one was running for one person, you could have a second start for someone else if necessary (I will never run tourneys that big!).

I actually haven't had a reason to penalize someone yet, but have a time penalty noted in my house rules, always figured I would just use my watch timer.  Have given a warning before.

And how convenient . . . the "P" hotkey isn't taken yet  ;D

TheCOG

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Re: penalty timer
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2006, 06:04:11 PM »
I think this would be a great idea.  Like you, we haven't yet had to impose a time-out, but we've come close, and having a button you push to keep track of the time (and an associated token to show who's on time-out, and how much time remains) would be a good addition for that inevitable day when we have a time-out imposed.

Cheers, Carl.

Corey Cooper

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Re: penalty timer
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2006, 06:42:29 PM »
Any particular reason the Hand Timer can't be used for this?  It works exactly as you describe (except for perhaps the ability to show who is on penalty), and you can open as many as you need.

tandemrx

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Re: penalty timer
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2006, 07:17:29 PM »
Actually, I wouldn't have a problem with that, except for 2 items.

1.  My default hand timer is 30 seconds (by the time it becomes and issue and I or someone calls "clock" and I turn around and get the timer started, I figure 30 seconds is enough - just my opinion).  So, since you can only imcrement the hand timer by 10 seconds at a time, to get to my rules designated minimum 5 minute penalty, it would take a while to increase from 30 seconds to 5 minutes (let alone 10 minutes for second offense).  If I could increment the minutes by +1 and +5, then maybe that would work.

2.  I don't mind the hand timer being always visible while it counts down, but for a penalty timer, I would want to be able to minimize it and just have it pop-up when the time is done - otherwise it takes up a bunch of realestate and covers important info for a big chunk of time..

I don't need to necessarily have it associated with a player, but if I was running a BIG tourney, that might be nice, just so I knew what table/person the penalty was on (I will never run one that big, unless someone cons me into helping with some charity thing).  Although, if the penalty timer was small and a name was associated with it, then there is the advantage of the shame factor for the person with the infraction (or maybe it calls attention to the person and that isn't good - I am sure that Matasow, or whatever his name is would just do it so his name would be displayed for everyone to see).

My 2 cents (not worth a ton since I have not yet had to apply a penalty and I don't do big tourneys).

Corey Cooper

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Re: penalty timer
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2006, 09:55:28 AM »
1. Adding a +1 minute button is easy
2. Making it "minimizable" is harder.  I think it might be a choice of "always on top, not minimizable" or "minimizable, not always on top".

I'll put something down on the to-do list.

tandemrx

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Re: penalty timer
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2006, 02:16:29 PM »
I do think that just adding the +1 minute would make it workable as a penalty timer.

It would be nice if we could resize the timer or choose its size in the preferences (maybe too hard to do).

That way, even if it was on top of the screen I would move it to an unused corner - right now it takes up about 1/6th of the screen, so it covers a bunch of info.

Again, though, this is a very minor feature request. 

Corey Cooper

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Re: penalty timer
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2006, 04:33:52 PM »
Yeah, this is one of those things that isn't hard to do, but will take some time.  It also falls into the category (as you noted) of not-often-used features, and thus usually gets a lower priority.