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GunBound is a turn-based game, which means players take turns to act. Therefore, the order in which players act is of great importance.
Delay is a game mechanic in GunBound. This is used to determine the order in which players act. Think of delay as a measure of a player's speed; the less delay a player has, the faster and sooner they act.
Remember that your objective is still to cause damage to the enemy. Delay is a means of achieving that objective.
Theory
A player's delay can be thought of as a number, or an integer. And so each player has a number which changes throughout the game.
Game start
Each player's delay starts at 0 and increases as the game goes on. In the beginning, turn order is randomized, with the constraint that teams alternate. So a player from one team moves, then a player from the other, and so on...
For example, say you have a 2v2 game with players Alice and Bob versus Charlie and Diana (A, B, C, D). The turn order might get randomized as follows:
A 0 D 0 B 0 C 0
This is the turn list, which is shown in-game. The player's delay value is shown next to their name. They all start with 0. The player at the top of the list is the next player to act, and is highlighted.
Taking a turn
During a player's turn, they may take any number of actions within a time limit of 20 seconds. The last action a player takes is to shoot; when a player shoots, their turn ends and the final delay is calculated. See Controls for more on various player actions. (Note that a player can force the turn to end without shooting. This costs less delay than shooting.)
Each second on the timer adds to the delay by 10 (or 12 if Turtle is used). Generally delay occurs in increments of 10.
After the turn ends, the player's delay is calculated and the turn list is updated. Continuing our example, let's say player A completes an action which costs a total of 780 delay. Then player A would move to the bottom of the list, like this:
D 0 B 0 C 0 A 780
This can be thought of as a first-in-first-out queue, like the line-up at a store.
For purposes of demonstration, as an estimate of how much delay typical actions cost, a typical action costs around 800 or 1500 delay for a fast and slow action. Consuming an item may cause the action to cost significantly more delay.
Who is next?
If everyone took actions with the same delay, the order would be the same all the time, very predictable. However, players take actions with different delay. The order of movement changes frequently in a heated battle. Continuing with our example, let's say D takes a move with 940 delay. Then the turn list gets updated:
B 0 C 0 A 780 D 940
SO far so good. D took an action that was slower than A, so they move after A. Then, let's say B takes a faster action with delay 800. The turn list would become:
C 0 A 780 B 800 D 940
Notice that B cuts in front of D, because B has less delay than D. To finish this example we'll have C take a slow action with 1600 delay:
A 780 B 800 D 940 C 1600
Therefore, the GunBound turn list behaves like a priority queue.
Beyond the first turn
If we continue our example, it is A's turn to act again. The delay of the second action is simply added to their existing delay. For example, A takes an action with 760 delay. This gets added to their existing delay, so they now have 780 + 760 = 1540. result becomes:
B 800 D 940 A 1540 C 1600
Notice that A cut in front of C, because A still has less delay than C. It is possible for a player's turns to get "skipped" due to taking very slow actions. Still, there are good reasons why slow actions are taken, such as doing more damage to the enemy.
This rule is continuously applied throughout the game. This is all you need to know conceptually about delay, but things get more interesting from here on...
In practice
Conceptually, each player's delay increases throughout the game. In practice, the game does not show increasingly large numbers throughout the game.
The turn list: relative delay
This can be thought of as a blessing for the player -- would you want to do mental math to figure out where your next action would place you when the numbers are so large? Like this:
A 6850 B 7200 C 7730 D 8520
Instead, the game shows you something different. Suppose you are player B in the above example. Assuming your previous action cost 900 delay, you will see this:
A -350 B 900 C +530 D +1320
Now you might be confused, but this is unambiguously clear.
- Next to your own name, you will see the delay of your previous action.
- Next to everyone else's names, you will see the amount of delay they have relative to you.
This allows you to estimate your position in the turn list after your next action without doing so much mental math. You can use this information to help make decisions on what to do on your next turn.