Do we still need min tact?

[Radunion]

This might be controversial for some managers who ride her forever, but I no longer see the point in min-tact. When the game started ages ago slow internet connections were still a thing and the min-tact reduced the disadvantages for managers with slow connections. Now updates are nearly instant and everybody has 20+ sec time to react to the race even without min-tact. In addition, it should be enough for the sprint to drag out something that takes less than a minute in real-time to 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes.

The main advantage would be shorter races that make it easier for existing players and new players to combine the game with having a life. 10 to 30 minutes might not sound much for some, but it is very much if you consider it per week or even per month. And let's face the truth, you have to spend a lot of time with the game to be successful here. I doubt this is a good thing if we plan to get more new players into the game. Every move to shorten races should help.

[Alkworld]

A few comments on this from the technical perspective:
- 30s tact can theoretically be anything from 25s to 35s (there's a randomizer when the calculation is actually done)
- with some processing time, loading time, 3s waiting time (imagine you clicked just before calculation, then need to wait another 3s), the time can be practically down to something like 20s
- on the PC with good connection not much of a problem, but on the phone (small screen, touchscreen), during sprint with different groups, this already now becomes a little stressful

Some ideas for the (more distant) future:
- flexible mintact (start and stop, e.g. mintact for important climbs, disabled again in downhill)
- flexible distance per calculation (e.g. 2km sectors for calculation instead of 1km, or shorter in races like the Belgian classics)

My opinion: I'm a friend of short mintacts in straightforward races, but in the end, especially when a lot happens, I need it, even when playing on the PC without being distracted.

[bergwerk cycling]

I think it's not a majority - but iam too for shorter races ... this flexibel thing could be a could solution too

[Pokemon Club]

If at least we could switch between mintact and 30 sec tact depending of where we are in the race, that can be a very good thing

[flockmastoR]

I already wrote a longish post when my computer just shut down and I lost all those. So once again and hopefully shorter:

1) Min-tact is still needed in deciding situations
1.1) Buidling sprint trains, check and recheck (different groups)
1.2) Within the final sprint (checking what happend, change following, sprint in different groups), also here the saving in time is minimal in comparison with the limitation you get when cutting the 50m to 30s. But could be argued that in a spirnt it has to be short time decisions
1.3) After siebs at hard climbs and paves, decide what rider to make pace, set in some tempo, figure out the guys to attack/follow after siebs

2) Playing from mobile
I know there are people playing from mobile and the scrolling stuff is much more limiting there. So in the deciding phase, 30s are way too short (for me when I am playing mobile occasionally), more info from people playing mobile regularly would be nice

3) I kind of like the idea of a flexible mintact. What I wouldn't like is to simulate more km at once. what would that mean then, does an attack there get you the double amount of gap as the peloton didn't react within 2km? What I see problematic in a flexible min-tact is to know when it is active or not. Are all of these min tact km then marked in the profile? Is this good to understand for new teams and old teams? Or will there be a fixed rule (prefered). But still if it is automatically introduced at siebable km, you still have the problem of odd/even km changes, meaning that the km before it will also be active, harder to know when it actually is active... But in this way it will only prolong the races and not shorten them (ok the alk proposal of simulating more than 1km would shorten them, but there are a lot of questions open about that too).

Bringing me to a more general thinking. Playing an online game means having fun time. Given all constraints (playing during working hours, having enough time for family and stuff) I take a critical view of the principle "shorter game duration brings more fun"

[Team stevens]

I agree with AAD, sprints will be difficult to manage, and people who play on mobile will be too disadvantaged.
on the other hand, I don't agree with simulating 2 km instead of 1... if you get hit by an attack without anyone riding (or someone with a weak tempo), what will happen? the loss of energy from 2 attacks or 1 attack + 1 red tempo ? and the gap...
I like the idea of variable min tact, next to the weather forecast, you can put an indication of the current min tact and the next change, or next to the page refresh

[Quick]

2) Playing from mobile
I know there are people playing from mobile and the scrolling stuff is much more limiting there. So in the deciding phase, 30s are way too short (for me when I am playing mobile occasionally), more info from people playing mobile regularly would be nice

Never used the PC since we made the switch to new design. Always on mobile. Was from the go better than puffin on mobile.

Is it perfect? Probably not. But 30s are enough at all times for me.