Players really need a vote to skip cutscene option, instead of just choosing skip.

[Nakiamiie]

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An option to vote to skip cutscenes rather than just any players being to skip when they want, would allow new players to see the cutscene without having to worry about the rest of their party skipping and starting the battle prematurely, or even someone accidentally skipping and starting the battle timer. This also prevents confusion on whether someone wants to watch the scene or not.

Better yet, the new player should simply tell the party it is his/her first time and wants to watch the cutscene.
I do, it works really well and requires no coding at all from the devs.
There is a bonus to it too, it improves a person's social skills.

Alternatively, the battle timer shouldnt start until everyone has finished watching/skipping the cutscene.

I agree to this, but players should be bound to a short perimeter around the entrance until everyone is done with the cutscene. Otherwise, I can already see players trying to exploit this to gain a few more seconds on the timer.