Question to other game admins at PBW

Gorgo · #1 August 18th, 2001, 06:59 PM

"i discovered its best to take the first come first serve approach rather than holding the spot for someone who sounds cool, as either way you get the same odds that the person will stick around. in the junkyard game, i had two replacement players for the same slot, neither of them panned out, and i eventually gave up and clicked finished."

So you decide that on your own and don't ask the other players? Of course you're the game admin, otherwise it could be quite sexy to define a policy about this at the start of the game, like: only if the first (or second etc.) replacement player fails, the empire goes AI, so nobody can suspect the game admin is exploiting his position.

In Ender's game, we know have the third person for the same spot, and it's the empire that is second of five in the game, so I wonder what's the deal! Maybe they're disappointed because it's 2406 and not a single shot has been fired.

Slaughtermeyer · #2 August 18th, 2001, 06:59 PM

Statistics not being visible can contribute to a high dropout rate among replacement players since they probably have no idea how the race in question is doing and might be disappointed if the race is in a hopeless position or in the lead so far as to not offer much of a challenge.

Gorgo · #3 August 18th, 2001, 07:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Slaughtermeyer:
Statistics not being visible can contribute to a high dropout rate among replacement players since they probably have no idea how the race in question is doing and might be disappointed if the race is in a hopeless position or in the lead so far as to not offer much of a challenge.

That's interesting. Can anyone else confirm this? Would be nice if we could get some more empirical evidence on this.

Gorgo · #4 August 19th, 2001, 01:01 AM

What do you do when players withdraw? I would prefer a replacement player to fill up the spot, but in my experience this seems to impose problems, as the replacements tend to leave again after a few turns.

Just pressing the "Finished"-button to terminate that empire is not very sexy in my opinion, or is it the best in the long term?

What are your experiences?

Puke · #5 August 19th, 2001, 01:20 AM

very mixed experiences there. sometimes replacement players are really on the ball, they pickup the roleplaying of the Last empire, and they really fight it out.

i discovered its best to take the first come first serve approach rather than holding the spot for someone who sounds cool, as either way you get the same odds that the person will stick around. in the junkyard game, i had two replacement players for the same slot, neither of them panned out, and i eventually gave up and clicked finished.

another game, i tried to hold a spot for someone, and i ended up with more serious players waiting in line because the person i was holding for never came through.

looking back, i think i would click the finished buton unless 1, there were 5 or less players, since in small games things can turn about and every player counts. or 2, the player who dropped was in a position of some influence or power in the game, and the game would really turn into a chicken shoot if they became AI. of course, there is always 3, if they are the enemy of my enemy and i want a human to be there to put up a fight.

just kidding about 3.

------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

Dragonlord · #6 August 19th, 2001, 10:15 AM

One thing I want to mention:

If a player shows signs of wanting to give up, exhort him to NOT surrender to another race if the game is still in the early stages, since that would really upset the balance of the game. Get a replacement player in stead and make sure the original player gives you the empire's password in case he changed it.

In one of my games I had to kick 3 replacement candidates because (#&@(*#*@ Kull the Conqueror up and left all his games without giving notice, he changed his password so nobody can take over now, and his empire is in 1st place after some 20 turns played, so I don't really want to have it AI controlled.

Gorgo · #7 August 19th, 2001, 11:28 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Dragonlord:
One thing I want to mention:

In one of my games I had to kick 3 replacement candidates because (#&@(*#*@ Kull the Conqueror up and left all his games without giving notice, he changed his password so nobody can take over now, and his empire is in 1st place after some 20 turns played, so I don't really want to have it AI controlled.

This affects Diplowar where I'm participating. Wasn't it possible to contact him so he could give out the password to the next player? We just solved this problem in Ender's game, where it occured for the second time (Ender is not there at the moment and noone knows when he will return). Yet I know it can be a hardship to find the non public e-mail-address of a player that has left.

Puke · #8 August 19th, 2001, 12:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Gorgo:
So you decide that on your own and don't ask the other players? Of course you're the game admin, otherwise it could be quite sexy to define a policy about this at the start of the game, like: only if the first (or second etc.) replacement player fails, the empire goes AI, so nobody can suspect the game admin is exploiting his position.

no. if its before the game starts, i wing it depending on how overdue the game is for starting, and how many players are available. if the game is already running, i ask for a general consensus. i decided to take the first come first serve approach as standard fair when looking for replacements when pre-screened guys were failing just as often as random guys, and perfectly legit candidates were getting irked at being left out because i was waiting for some hoser who never showed up. so no, i decide to find a replacement when most of the players in the game think its a good idea. and yes, the method i use to replace players is totally arbitrary and subjective.

you get into the worst situations in small games where replacements are critical. in larger games, its much easier to have lost turns or kicked players.

Dragonlord · #9 August 19th, 2001, 10:45 PM

Gorgo:

I got just one email from Kull in the Last week in which he confirmed he would be away till at least the 25th, this was *after* he had already missed some 5 turns. When I discovered the password problem because Beedee (the intended replacement player) couldn't get in, I emailed Kull again but have not heard from him since.

Gorgo · #10 August 23rd, 2001, 02:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Dragonlord:
One thing I want to mention:

If a player shows signs of wanting to give up, exhort him to NOT surrender to another race if the game is still in the early stages, since that would really upset the balance of the game. Get a replacement player in stead and make sure the original player gives you the empire's password in case he changed it.

In Ender's game, my long time ally has just surrendered to me and left the game. This makes me the superpower of the galaxy, moving from close second to first place by far. Can't wait till the others all declare war on me.