Proposal: Dummy Players

I decided not to join any more games in November 2004. Today, March 23th, my last game has come to an end. That's almost 4 months after I decided to quit, and I've been visiting the site everyday.

For when someone decides to leave, either because he doesn't want to keep playing, or because he can't play anymore, I'd like to suggest something.

Because I think if the player stops playing or just vanishes, it's unfair on the rest of the players. But forcing a player who wants to leave to keep playing is also unfair on him. Exploding games would also be unfair on the remaining players.

My proposal: when someone leaves the game (not just a particular game, but the site), he is replaced by a dummy player who will keep playing in all of his games.

There woudn't be any human behind these dummy players, their gaming could be as simple as random (within their possibilities at each given time).

Dummy players would occupy a position at the end of games but these points wouldn't be accumulated, they wouldn't appear on the ranking, etc. They "wouldn't count".

A player could turn himself into a dummy player or Achiles could enforce it if needed.

When a player joins a game, i suposse that he/she knowns the average duration of a game. If the people were more "cuidadoso" at joining games...
It is not easy to implement, but is will fix most of the inconveniences of fault players...
(think of it, it make more easy to a player to cheat with two others accounts, but this dont bother me)
Unfortunately, i have no time now, and i have other features pending. When i found a hole in my calendar and sleep at least 6.5 hours each day, i make some of the features pending.
But i'm not sure if this is a good idea... (it will bring a lot of bugs, it's hard to implement, i guess)

Achiles(X)

Thanks agh,

I think it's a pretty good idea. If Achilles can find the time to develop and implement this, it could prove very helpful... players could agree on the "answer time and robot policy" at the beginning of the game so that you would know you are expected to take less than (xx time to answer or be replaced by a robot.

Asking a robot to take over a player's role should probably be kept as an option open for the game organiser so that players can have gentlemen agreement such as "I will be out for three days, I'll resume the game next Saturday". and not be forcefully replaced by a robot.

By the way, On Days Of Wonders website they have something similar that is widely accepted by players (this is a real-time site so constraints are a bit different form here). If a player quits a game or remains inactive for a certain period of time, a robot takes over. The Bot result does impact the players' ranking...

Before they implemented this some players were known to unexpectedly disappear whenever the game was turning against them... Sad isn't it but aparently some poeple only live by their ranking. Since they put this in place, these wild disconnects have more or less disapeared.

As I said this would require some adaptation to our assynchronous context. But I think it's a brilliant idea.

Anyhow, it's true that simple as it amy seem, it may represent some hard work for you Achilles... Hope you can find some time for it...

Cheers
Francois

Pero agh de mi corazon, ya te has hartado de nosotros???

Posi, es una putada mu grande que te dejen colgá la partida, especialmente cuando te falta un distrito pa ganar ¬¬

Los hay con mal perder, xD

Podria hacerse una especie de puntuacion aparte (aunque eso tb es mucha faena pal pobre Achilles) para los dummy estos, en plan puntuacion acumulativa desde que empiezan a jugar en las partidas colgadas a medias... no se si me explico.

Bueno si no hay mas remedio pos seguiremos aguantandonos si alguien deja de aparecer en una partida, que remedio...

Por cierto, no habia posteao nunca en el foro y ya le estoy cogiendo hasta cariño, xD

Would it be easier for someone who wants to leave to try and find someone to take over the games? Achiles, can you switch players withing games?

Ican do it but i'd prefer not to do it.

Achiles(X)

Well I rather agree with Achiles : when you join a game, you have to take into account the average/maximum duration of this game. If you think you won't be able to play a few days after the beginning of the game, just join 3 players or less-than-8-districts games, which are usually faster.

Another way to prevent this would be real-time games (like Ticket to ride). Achiles, if you don't have time, I can help

You can pay me a monthly salary? (;
(I need 1000€ aprox.)

Achiles(X)

I must admit that you don't ask for a lot.

(i gain a few less than this...)

Achiles(X)

Nope, I just can't, but I can invite you to come in France - this such wonderful country blablabla... - and anyone who wants to :
1° - Play citadels
2° - Play other games
3° - Drink and eat
4° - If we'va time left, have a look for this real-time version

I have heard that some people plays citadels by paper cards or something like that... What a odd thing...
(:

Achiles(X)

Where in France RoKeN? Big country and all that.

I have stunying the bot, and maybe this weekend (if i found time) do the entire job.
I guess A pair of weeks with a lot of post-bugs...
Tomorow i'll drink a lot to do the job... I'll need it...

Achiles(X)

this weekend you aren´t going to work too much; you´ll have other things to do.

Lo se, lo se, pero disimula, ellos no lo saben...

Achiles(X)

I have been working this week and the bot is half functional.
It name is RoBot and it is designed to play games with a very limited skill. I hace trying to teach it to cook, but is a very bad student.
I hope it will be fully-functional in the next week.

Achiles(X)

Maybe you should also try to teach it to make coffee in the morning and bring it to your bedroom

Seriously, Achilles thank you very much for building enhancements for the requests of never happy players. I think this will be a great one.

Cheers
François-Sanjuro.

Looking forward to it myself. Sounds cleverer than my average henchman, mind you.