Problem: There are a number of problems that exist with timed games due to relative length of time that battles take. Even on fastest animation speed, without any time on orders or deployment, a single battle can take longer than most players complete their turn. A battle that occurs at the beginning of a turn can lock any units involved through the turn, eliminating any means of escaping more powerful AI-controlled units. Assaults on cities usually last until the end of the turn, and if the city changes hands, the new controlling party is unable to queue anything. Units that don't use up all of their movement before engaging in a battle virtually lose any remaining movement due to timer issues. Yet timers are important for maintaining the pace in games that can span hours. Many actions cannot be performed while it a battle is underway: moving a unit into terrain involved in the battle, for instance, or even queueing an extractor in terrain involved in the battle. The actual actions that cannot be performed due to these timer issues tend to be small and take little time to execute-- giving players the chance to perform them would not noticeably impact the pace of the game.



Solution: Give players a reserve of time that they can activate any time during which the game turn has not ended. While this extra set of time is positive and activated, the turn will not increment. This should be in the form of an extra timer that can be enabled and increased or decreased in game options. Typically, this time would be activated as a battle nears its end to minimize use. A per/turn increment might also be appropriate.



Rationale: Through access to this extra time, all of the problems described are solved. Yet because the banked time is scarce and players want to maintain it for an emergency, the pace of the game is not impacted, and players are encouraged to make any last minute actions as rapidly as possible.



EDIT: On reflection, no changes to UI need to occur. If the game is ready to proceed to next turn but any player with discretionary time remaining has not yet hit "next turn", simply decrement the player's discretionary time until it runs out or that player hits next turn.