There are certain situations in which autopass is not appropriate even though a player will want to pass 999 out of 1000 times. In particular, when a player is on the bar and has the opportunity to double, the theoretical possibility of a double means that the server must give him that opportunity even though he will almost never exercise it.
At present we have two choices in this situation -- "Roll dice" and "Offer double". If the double were not available, the server would roll the dice itself and determine whether autopass should apply. Since the double is available, however, the player must click on "Roll dice" and then submit.
Would it be difficult to add a "Pass double" button and program the server to treat this as a situation in which no double is available? In other words, after a player clicked "Pass double", the server would roll the dice internally, and if no move was possible, immediately pass the game back to the player's opponent.
I know the second click is not a big deal, but it would improve the smooth operation of the game interface to eliminate it when it is not necessary.
joshi tm: Well, I was tempted to suggest that, but I don't think autopass is appropriate where the player has a perfectly legal non-pass action available to him. I think it's just the price we pay for the cube.
joshi tm: I made a similar suggestion about a year ago. Rather than a "permanent setting", I suggested a check box on the specific game which allowed something like "ignore doubles at this time, and autopass until I am in a position to actually move a piece."
alanback: The thing that is so stooooooopid is that you have to roll the dice. The choices should be double and autoplay the turn. Then you wouldn't have to click twice. I know clicking twice is no big deal, but it's the dumb implementation that irritates so many players. Fixing that needs to be done.