Tim Cummings writes about the harshness of the Jump the Gun Factor:

I think the harsh penalty for going early is very unpopular with
pilots and it would be good if that feedback made its way back to CIVL. Even
16.666 minutes (1000 seconds) is too short in my opinion. I think most people
would be happy if the times on flights which jumped the gun could be pushed back
as if they had taken the first start gate. It is only new pilots who would want
to jump the gun if this was the case. The top pilots like start gates to prevent
the cat and mouse games we used to have at the start lines. If we encourage some
pilots to go out on the course early the later pilots get some thermal markers.
The early pilots then get a chance to fly with the better pilots out along the
course rather than just waving goodbye to them at the start.

Joerg Ewald responds:

If he doesn’t like 1000 seconds, he’s free to put in 2000, 3000,
even 10000 seconds. And if he puts the “Jump the gun factor” high enough,
penalties will not be “harsh” any more. With the danger that top pilots will
become a little less inclined to respecting the start gate time, I’m afraid.

Joerg then follows up after I said that I tried to do that and
1000 was the limit:

You’re right, there’s a maximum of 1000, and 100 for the penalty.
Then again, 10 seconds penalty for starting 16 minutes early does not sound
harsh to me.

I can certainly set the upper limit for those two values higher for the future.

Joerg writes:

Done. Arrival weight is also fixed. Don’t know yet when I’ll
release this. I usually try to add more than just two bug fixes before bringing
out a new version.