I could put this thread in the suggestions forum but I think this is more appropriate here as it directly relates to MP games and making a fun and enjoyable game session.





Not long ago I made a suggestion about player rating system for various ratings including such things as challenge and reliability.



What at the time I was thinking is instead of leaving it to chance who you joined a game with why not make a systems where you were rated by your past games and then those hosting games could limit who they wanted.



However I didn't get much input to the idea except some wanting a player driven ranking which at the time I could not for life of me figure how to work.



I think now I worked something out that is player driven and I would like those interested in MP games to give some feedback.

[HR][/HR]New Game Mechanic



Universal Turn Timer



Instead of a static universal turn timer the new timer would increment every turn so that after 30 turns the amount originally chosen would double. I.e. a original timer of 30 would increment up by 1 second every turn until turn 30 then would incrementally grow 2 seconds until turn 60 then 4 seconds until turn 90.



[HR][/HR]Definition



Game Completion



Game completion for the purposes of this proposal is defined as:

• Winning by achieving victory conditions.
• Losing through another achieving victory conditions.
• Remaining players may vote on winner, only the players above 30% in a victory condition are eligible. Votes for each player are equal to the players FIDS. For a player to successfully win they must receive 75% of the vote.
  
  

[HR][/HR]Definition



Quitting and Disconnecting



Quitting is voluntarily choosing to leave the game before game completion.





Quit With Reason

Upon quitting a dialogue will appear (detailed below) if the player chooses to respond he will be considered to have "Quit With Reason."



Involuntary Quit

It will be assumed if a player disconnects from a game and does not reconnect within 10 minutes that it is a "Involuntary Quit."



These quits do not count against or for the player, unless they exceed 10% of the total games played by the player.



If a players "Involuntary Quits" exceed 10% of his total played games then any "Involuntary Quit" above 10% will be treated for the purposes of ratings as a "Quit Without Reason"



Quit Without Reason

If the player "Quits without Reason, as above or exits without choosing a reason in dialogue, then the players ratings will drop as if he had answered affirmative to every reason to quit (see below).



[HR][/HR]Rating System



With this new system each player would be given 3 sets of ratings, all ratings except "Challenge Level" would be hidden from other players. Ratings would be from 0 to 100.

• Turn Speed (Separate Ratings)
  
  
  • Slow (Starts at 50)
  • Unregulated (No Rating)
  • Limited (Starts at 20)
  • Time Challenge (Starts at 0)
    
    
  
  
  
• Game Duration (Separate Ratings)
  
  
  • No Commitment (No Rating)
  • Minimal Commitment (Starts at 50)
  • In For The Long Haul (Starts at 0)
    
    
  
  
  
• Challenge Level (Combined Rating, 0-100)
  
  
  • Newbie (0-29)
  • Easy (30-55)
  • Normal (56-74)
  • Hard(75-89)
  • Serious (90-95)
  • Impossible (96-98
  • Endless (99-100)
    
    
  
  
  
  
  

Each host would choose in three categories what type of game they wanted:

• The choice for turn speed would be exclusionary (only one category applies), only those players with above 50 rating in a category could join for any category (Unregulated has no rating).
• The choice for game duration would be what time the host at minimum wanted players to commit too. If the host decides they want "No Commitment" then anyone can join. If the host decides "Minimal Commitment" then only those with a 50 rating in "Minimal Commitment" or "In For The Long Haul" could join. If the host decides "In For The Long Haul" then only those with a 50 rating in "In For The Long Haul" could join.
• The choice for Challenge would denote the max level. What ever Level the host chose would be the max "Challenge Level" allowed. (possibly add a choice for minimum as well)
  
  

Each player when looking for a game would only be able to see and join games they qualified for.





What Each Rating Category Means For A Game



Turn Speed



Slow

Slow would set the end turn timer to Last player (60 seconds), this could be set for slower or no timer but universal timer could not be set nor could the timers be set for faster than 60 seconds.



Completing

On any completion your rating for Slow would be increased by 25 rating.



Quitting

On Quitting, if you choose Turn Speed as too slow, your rating for Slow would be reduced by 25 rating.



Unregulated

Anything Goes.



Completing

On any completion your rating for "Slow" and "Limited" would be increased by 10 rating.



Quitting

On Quitting, if you choose Turn Speed as too Slow, your rating for "Slow" would be reduced by 10 rating.

On Quitting, if you choose Turn Speed as too fast, your rating for "Limited" would be reduced by 10 rating, your rating for "Time Challenge" would be reduced by 25 rating.



Limited

Limited would default the timer to the Universal Timer to 30 seconds using the new timer method (see above), This could be increased up to 90? seconds but not below 30.



Completing

On any completion "Time Challenge" would be increased by 10 rating, "Limited" would be increased by 25 rating.



Quitting

On Quitting, if you choose Turn Speed as too Slow, your rating for "Limited" would be reduced by 25 rating, your rating for "Slow" would be reduced by 50 rating.

On Quitting, if you choose Turn Speed as too fast, your rating for "Limited" would be reduced by 25 rating, your rating for "Time Challenge" would be reduced by 50 rating.



Time Challenge

The Time Challenge setting would default the new universal timer to 15 seconds starting, this could changed to any amount from 15 to 30 seconds.



Completing

On any completion "Time Challenge" would be increased by 25 rating



Quitting

On Quitting, if you choose Turn Speed as too fast, your rating for "Time Challenge" would be reduced by 25 rating.



Game Duration



No Commitment

This would denote no expectation of time commitment. You could be in the game for 5 minutes or hours who knows.



Minimal Commitment

You are committing to at least 60 minutes



In For The Long Haul

You are committing to at least 4 hours



Completing and Quitting

On completion or quitting your rating for "Minimal Commitment" and "In For The Long Haul" will be adjusted using the following formulas (Negative effects on ratings will only happen if quitting):

• Minimal Commitment = Current rating + ( [|MinutesinGame|-30]/3)
• In For The Long Haul = Current rating + ( [|MinutesinGame|-180]/6)
  
  

Challenge Level



Completing

On any completion your "Challenge Level" rating will be adjusted depending on whether you won or lost and your current Rank and your opponents Rank(s)



Likely to be a complicated formula. Basic idea would be for wins to count for little unless the players ranked high above you, and losses to only drop your rating significantly if the players rank much lower than you.



Quitting

On Quitting, If you chose that the game was too difficult you will loose 10 rating.



[HR][/HR]

Quitting



On quitting a game a pop up would happen, like such:



Why did you quit (choose one)?

• Turn Speed
• Length of Game
• Game Too Difficult
• Game Bugged
  
  

Upon clicking "Turn Speed" another dialogue would appear:



Was the Turn Speed to...

• Fast? (Choice does not appear in Slow Games.)
• Slow? (Choice does not appear in Time Challenge Games.)
  
  

No other choices would need a second popup.



In the case of choosing "Game Bugged;" if either, half of the current players choose or have chosen the same option within 5 turns, or you rejoin/re-host the game within 10 minutes, this option will not drop any ratings. If these conditions are not met it is considered a "Quit Without Reason."



See above for how all other quitting choices effects individual ratings.

Oh my God! I don't want to troll but you could've read "War & Peace" for the time you invented these useless, complicated and hectic ideas.

You have written quite a lot and I see that you have good intentions in improving the multiplayer gameplay. And I totally agree with you in all the topics, as I believe this would improve the quality of the multiplayer.

There is a much easier solution... :l only the games which go from begining to end are taken into account and there is an extra diplomatic option to surrender/capitulate which gives all systems either to a player you choose or to the player who is the reason for your surrender...

I don't like the automatic quit without reason approach. What about disconnects? When you are disconnected for whatever reason (mostly due to heavy traffic or problems your provider has) you get rated low automatically. That seems very unfair to me.

Tiriondil wrote:
I don't like the automatic quit without reason approach. What about disconnects? When you are disconnected for whatever reason (mostly due to heavy traffic or problems your provider has) you get rated low automatically. That seems very unfair to me.

I know its a long read but rereading might help you.

It will be assumed if a player disconnects from a game and does not reconnect within 10 minutes that it is a "Involuntary Quit."



These quits do not count against or for the player, unless they exceed 10% of the total games played by the player.



If a players "Involuntary Quits" exceed 10% of his total played games then any "Involuntary Quit" above 10% will be treated for the purposes of ratings as a "Quit Without Reason"



Quit Without Reason

If the player "Quits without Reason, as above or exits without choosing a reason in dialogue, then the players ratings will drop as if he had answered affirmative to every reason to quit (see below).

Basically unless a player is disconnecting and not reconnecting in 10 minutes for more than 10% of their total games, disconnects won't count as "quits without reason."



While I am sure some people have such bad connections they would fall into that category this would be exceedingly rare, (and frankly probably not someone who should be playing a internet game that lasts hours) 95% or more of those who would go above 10% "Involuntary Quits" would be those who rage quit and try to bypass the above system by disconnecting themselves.