Fixed Game Lengths

[Alastair]

I don't like the way the server runs its games till the goal is achieved. I feel If games ran for a fixed period things could work much better. Let me explain...

-Normal goal servers would operate for a fixed period of time. e.g the micro server for 1 hour etc. The winner and score would be decided from highest company value and highest performance rating.

-Citybuilders would also operate for a fixed period of time. e.g 5000 population goal would change to greatest population in 3 hours, and 7500 would change to 4 hours. You get the idea.

So what is wrong with the current system?
-In quiet periods, If you join a game, the only way to start a new game is to complete the goal yourself. This is all fine but since the server gives score depending on how quickly the goal is achieved its not really worth it.
-You never know when the next game is going to start, or how long the current game will go on.

What is better about this suggestion?
-Regular start and finish times. Everyone knows when the next games starting, and how long the current game will last for.

[YorVeX]

this would be quite a huge game changer, so probably nothing we would change on all servers tomorrow just because the idea sounds good right now.
but yes, your idea does sound good and you got some valid points there, it's at least worth to try it on on some servers and see how the community likes it.

however, note that some of your arguments would also be affected by the other idea to give scores (or "XP") on a quarterly base (originally brought up by AlexAlex on this thread). maybe we can combine those ideas and create some mixture of it.
would appreciate if you could also contribute to this other thread. with my work on the basic CityBuilder mechanics slowly reaching its end i will start to put those score topics into focus, so we got to get a more complete picture of our ideas soon.