Sudden Death mode?

[Stephen]

A problem that sometimes happens with Knights is that sometimes a game seems to reach a stalemate with no-one able to win. This seems to particularly affect multiplayer games with more than, say, 4 or 5 players.

I was thinking of changing the "time limit" option so that instead of just instantly ending the game when the time runs out, we could go into a sudden death mode instead. This would mean turning off knight respawning (so if you die you lose instantly, like a duel to the death quest), and also gradually increasing the zombie and vampire bat levels until the game ends.

Then we could set a default time limit of say 15 mins on all quests (or maybe a bit longer on the larger quests), this should mean that no quest can go on for too long without reaching some sort of conclusion. (Unless players choose to turn off the time limit of course, but then that is their problem :) )

Any thoughts? Has anyone here ran into the "stalemate" problem? Can you think of other ways it might be fixed?

[Rich]

a sudden death mode seems the perfect solution to me. either that, or you could slowly shut down the entry points one by one?

[Moo]

One option that I thought of a long time ago might help for this.. Instead of having a timelimit, each knight could have a certain number of lives.. Once he runs out, that's it, he's out. Last one alive wins.
This could either be a separate mode.. Deathmatch or whatever you want to call it. Or could just be added on to any other mode. This would mean you'd need to be more careful, which could make for an interesting change to the game.

[Ushiri]

OR....a sudden deathmode with 2 lifes where one hit kills.

Anyhow I think sudden deathmode seems fun to try.

[K9]

I know it's been awhile since you've put some time on this thought, but personally, I enjoy the element of stalemate, no matter how many players.. My brother and I were often stuck for hours unable to win but we just tough it out and keep trying until we mutually agreed on a temporary  "pee truce" (bathroom break).

In the case of current multi player games, may the strongest bladder win, and those that can't go on, simply exit the game... All is fair in love and Knights.  8)

As we experienced on recent 5 player games, the time limit feature does add quite an interesting new dynamic, encouraging everyone to step up their boldness in an effort for all or nothing.