I am curious as to why timed scripts never work properly in online mode.

They misfire, or never execute at all.

Any thoughts?

You can read something about it here: http://quest.codeplex.com/workitem/1068
I think that this is the most importatnt thing that must be done in Q5.5

Thanks for the reply Pertex. It's good to know that the issue is known.

Is there anything I can do to work around the issue that won't make the quest-app version of the game have burdensome timed-scripts?

Do I need to get rid of timed scripts all together?

Edit: Although, It doesn't seem to be the same issue, unless I am misreading it. My issue has nothing to do with player input. I have sequences that go somewhat like this...

<wait 4 seconds>
msg-->"blah blah blah"
<wait 6 seconds>
msg-------->"Whooopdy deee"
<wait 5 seconds
--------------------------->"Scooby dooby dooooooo!"

etc.

Sometimes, the scripts play, sometimes they don't. Sometimes it freezes the game. sometimes it makes the intro a garbled mess and skips several lines.

You should be able to immediately see what ails me a few seconds into my game, WAKE.
http://www.textadventures.co.uk/review/1088/

In the intro, if you click "Play Intro" while in the online version, the intro <i>might</i> begin to play, but it will result in skipped messages and, often, an entire sequence of messages being displayed all at once. The oddest part of the issue is that in one playthrough, the game will display a message and then give up, freezing at that screen. The next playthrough, a different series of messages will be displayed before the game freezes again. In a third playthrough, a random assortment of messages will display and the intro will be navigated without the game freezing.

I think the Quest web player needs to be updated so the games are executed client-side as opposed to server-side to remove the lag. That's what kills it.

Ah, that sounds like the issue right there. That would be fantastic. I look forward to the version where that is implemented. Thanks ahead of time, Alex!