Quite reliable to the minute. At times you get a "end of phase due now" but this state lasts for a few minutes.

It is quite accurate. You can check the source code, but if i remember rightly the number you see is the true number rounded down, so you always have *at least* that amount of time left. As it's in minutes, you could have up to 59 seconds more. Still, if you cut it that fine trying to trick someone you deserve what you get :P

yes, it is rounded down. "due now" can last from 0 seconds to 5 minutes, i think, so if you want to risk you can use this time for negotiating too :-)

I had a game stuck on "due now" on Facebook. This was a while ago so I'd assume the bug's been fixed.

It can take a little longer than what it says sometimes.

The processing code runs every 5 minutes so the Due Now period lasts anywhere from 0 - 4m59s.

How long does it take to roll over if everyone finalizes early? I'm actually waiting on that right now...

It'll always take a period of 0 - 4m59s after everyone finalizes or the game times out. It may be changed so that finalizing processes the game immidiately, but on such a resource limited environment as this we have to be careful about making changes that increase resource use

@kestas. I did not have the opportunity to browse the source code, but I assume the update of the situation is done via a call to a script with a cron call from the server.

Why would it take more resources to finalise the turn immediately? Effectively, the job of re-drawing maps etc, would still be done only once, plus you would distribute it over the time, rather than processing all the games at the same cron run...

...or maybe the update is managed differently than with a cron call?

Mac, I may be completely wrong, but I believe that every time the script runs it checks each game to see if it's ready to process.

Note: I have not checked my information very recently and it may be out of date.
That is certainly how it used to be dangermouse. It used to look through the entire database for any games ready to run, but then actually adjudicated them one at a time. By making the 7th person's finalization directly run the adjudication script, the games would cycle when needed, and that shouldn't require any extra resources?