How long am I to wait until I can force join inactive player in a tourny game? 1 direct boot period? 2? 3?

if i understand it properly, it happens when nudge would normally show up, so.. 30 minutes after the game started, if he hasn't been nudged. but i have noticed some slight inaccuracies to this and never bothered to figure out in more detail precisely how it works

Are you kidding me?
http://warlight.net/App.aspx?GameID=1136452

This game started 2 days ago. Boot time is 2 days as well. So, logically, force join time is nearly 2 direct boot times. And nudging isn't connected to it.
Am I right in counting?
Waiting for Randy's response.

You can only force-join people once every 24h, just as often as you can nudge them.

Force-join time is, I think, the same as direct boot time, but it might become longer if the person was recently nudged or force-joined, even in a different game.

From talking it over because this question came up in a tournament...

Force Join shows up after the Direct Boot Time transpires and also you have the opportunity to nudge them. So Direct Boot Time + 30 min

It's from this Change Log: http://warlight.net/ChangeLog/BetaPhase4.htm

Eek! sorry for the bad grammar above.

Correction: *This question came up in a tournament

Unfortunately it's tied to the nudge system. Therefore the player must be nudgeable, and the game must have existed longer than the smaller of the two boot times.

This means you can't force join if that person has been nudged in the last 24 hours. This should get fixed at some point.

Ideally I think we should just get rid of the lobby screen all together, since it's a bit pointless for tournament games since there's no option except to click Join. Although it might be a bit weird to just be thrown into a game, it does simplify the process a lot.

So, if I understood you right, in that game I have to wait 2*boot time (= 4 days) + hope that player wasn't nudged by his teammate, and only then Force Join button appears?

Well, I have just entered that game and I can already force join him. And it's only 2,5 days since it start. I assume he was nudged a little bit more than 1 days ago...and probably I couldn't force join him because of this. So really, it depends on nudge system.
And force join time is nearly 1 direct boot time of any tourny game.

"hope that player wasn't nudged by his teammate, and only then Force Join button appears?" - um, no. The force-join button replaces the nudge button, so you can't nudge anybody after the boot time, only force-join. You just have to hope that he wasn't nudged in any other game.

It does replaces nudge button, but only after 1) boot time has expired and 2) player wasn't nudged during 1 day before boot time has expired. If it's okay with first condition but it's not with second, then there will be no button at all.