The Dustbin

[Swuul]

Man, and I thought I was in trouble when my Windows 7 laptop (which barely is able to run FoG2) crashed during the early June heatwave a couple times (room temperature got close to 30 degrees Celsius, which caused the laptop to BSoD when pondering too long my turns; this happened IIRC twice in the match with Grumpydaddy and possibly in some other match too (each time the BSoD happened before I actually had moved a unit). That shouldn't happen anymore, as I finally got a gaming PC to my working apartment too (so only the electric breakdowns because of thunder are the only risk now (and that only when I am here at home in the bushes); we had a couple of those this summer, but IIRC I wasn't playing FoG2 during any of them).

Would be indeed cool to have an automatic system informing in the chat box if the turn was re-downloaded from the server.

[melm]

It all happens automatically. Any kind of crash and the game would be saved up until the last movement.

You have to finish the turn to get out of the game. No chance to modify with no crash.

I will have a chat with one of the devs from Chaos Reborn and see if any suggestions or insight can be added.

Ah, if the save is dynamically generated from move to move, then it's much safer. My point 1 could be refuted. I'd be very interested to know Chaos Reborn's professional view.

CR dev says that everything is on server side. Player can’t modify files on his computer. The dice rolls are on the server, too.

"UI-only stuff, like where you plan a move in CR is not sent to the server, but it has no effect on the game. E.g., if you click your wizard, and then click a hex, you get the green "planning a move arrow", but that doesn't change anything, so is client-only.
But as soon as you do anything that changes the games state, the request is sent to the server, and then the server sends the result to the client which updates the client.

So I guess in FoG2, you can play a move, then save-scum it? Like it only commits changes when you end turn? Like hitting alt-f4 in XCOM, it gives you a do-over?"

Thought about it for a while. So far I think this system is safe from cheat.
If the player crashes the game before the result realizes, such effort is futile. And if the result has already realized, then the result is transmitted to the server. So I guess it' s impossible to crash the game between the result seen and result sent to the server.

[stockwellpete]

I have not heard from MadMaxBot so he is declared "AWOL" and all his remaining matches will be awarded to his opponents.

[stockwellpete]

Division E

baldrick52 bt MadMaxBot 4-0
rs2excelsior bt MadMaxBot 4-0
snooky51 bt MadMaxBot 4-0
Stew101 bt MadMaxBot 4-0

MadMaxBot has gone AWOL and is not responding to any messages. Rule 6 decisions.

[stockwellpete]

Division C

Barrold713 beat MadMaxBot 4-0
gamercb beat MadMaxBot 4-0
MikeMarchant beat MadMaxBot 4-0
rs2excelsior beat MadMaxBot 4-0
sarmation beat MadMaxBot 4-0
SpeedyCM beat MadMaxBot 4-0

MadMaxBot has gone AWOL and is not responding to any messages. Rule 6 decisions.

[stockwellpete]

Classical Antiquity A-D Tables.jpg (988.6 KiB) Viewed 2191 times

Classical Antiquity E-F Tables.jpg (574.43 KiB) Viewed 2191 times

[stockwellpete]

Weekly round-up
Everything has been overshadowed by the removal of dkalenda (Pontic) from the tournament this week and he has been placed bottom of Division A. As herm (Seleucid) also failed to finish the season all the other players will maintain their top flight status for next season. Nosy_Rat (Indian) just needs a draw in his match with Schweetness101 (Hannibal in Italy) to secure second place. It is still very exciting in Division B where nyczar (Spartan) suffered his first defeat of the season to Questar17 (Ptolemaic), who himself suffered a first defeat to third-placed rexhurley (Hannibal in Italy). XLegione (Roman) is now firm favourite to take the automatic promotion place but he still has to play Questar17. Nothing to report this week in Divisions C and D but Division E is now completed after MadMaxBot (Roman) was declared AWOL and his remaining matches were dealt with under Rule 6. He finished in the automatic relegation place but he will not be playing in Season 9. It has has all come down to the last match in Division F where Blagrot (Samnite) must beat DanZanzibar (Carthaginian) 4-0 to snatch automatic promotion from his grasp and deny him a hat-trick of top place finishes.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Schweetness101 (Division A) 3 matches
rexhurley (Division B) 3 and finished
XLegione (Division B) 7 matches
NikiforosFokas (Division C) 8 matches
Aetius39 (Division E) 4 matches and finished
Stew101 (Division E) 6 matches and finished
DanZanzibar (Division F) 7 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 43 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 35 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 43 out of 45 matches completed
Division D - 42 out of 45 matches completed
Division E - 45 out of 45 matches completed
Division F - 44 out of 45 matches completed

These are excellent match completion rates.

Player of the week
Questar17 (Division B) who beat top of the table nyczar this week to keep his own automatic promotion hopes alive.

[stockwellpete]

Classical Antiquity A-B Charts.jpg (795.57 KiB) Viewed 1837 times

Classical Antiquity C-D Charts.jpg (822.48 KiB) Viewed 1837 times

Classical Antiquity E-F charts.jpg (833.07 KiB) Viewed 1837 times

[stockwellpete]

Late Antiquity A-D Tables.jpg (936.53 KiB) Viewed 2016 times

Late Antiquity E-F Tables.jpg (538.12 KiB) Viewed 2026 times

[stockwellpete]

Weekly round-up
In Division A a hard fought victory for ConstantinIX (Byzantine) in his last match against his closest challenger klayeckles (Sassanid) means that he is the new champion of Late Antiquity in his first season playing at this level. At the bottom of the table there was another defeat for XLegione (Roman) which meas he really has to beat fellow-struggler nyczar (also Roman) to have any chance of avoiding the drop. Very quiet in Division B where the main remaining issue is whether bottom-placed lydianed (Moorish) can get the 4 points he needs from remaining 4 matches to relegate cromlechi (Roman). The situation at the top of Division C is unchanged where phoyle3290 (Western Huns) trails IMC (Ancient British), the leader in the clubhouse, by 7 points with 3 matches left to play, against Bluefin (Scots-Irish), GDod (Byzantine) and Mike Marchant (Roman). At the bottom Mike Marchant needs 5 points from 4 games to relegate Swuul (Germanic Horse Tribes). Similarly in Division D there is no change at the top where edb1815 (Breton) and Supervark (Sassanid) can still overtake Garokan (Arab Bedouin) who has finished his matches. At the bottom Barrold713 (Roman) needs the minimum of a 3 point win against ggarynorman (Palmyran) to avoid automatic relegation and send Rob123 (Roman) down instead. Not much to report in Division E where late reserve Captainwaltersavage (Roman) has helped to speed things up a bit by already completing 5 matches. gamercb (Lombard) lost another match at the bottom but is still 2 points ahead of fellow-struggler Tratmot (Roman) who has a game in hand. Nothing to report from Division F this week where just the minor places are still up for grabs.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Morbio (Division A) 4 matches and finished
rbodleyscott (Division A) 3 matches
Snugglebunnies (Division A) 6 matches and finished
paulmcneil (Division B) 4 matches
phoyle3290 (Division C) 5 matches
General Shapur (Division D) 3 matches
rs2excelsior (Division D) 3 matches
Supervark (Division D) 5 matches
Morat (Division F) 3 matches
Stormcrow (Division F) 5 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 41 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 38 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 38 out of 45 matches completed
Division D - 40 out of 45 matches completed
Division E - 33 out of 45 matches completed
Division F - 43 out of 45 matches completed

These are generally good match completion rates, Division E is a little slow.

Player of the Week: rs2excelsior (Division D) with 2 wins this week.

[stockwellpete]

Late Antiquity A-B Charts.jpg (795 KiB) Viewed 1938 times

Late Antiquity C-D Charts.jpg (798.23 KiB) Viewed 1938 times

Late Antiquity E-F charts.jpg (757.16 KiB) Viewed 1938 times

[pantherboy]

I thought if you redid your turn all the results were the same. The benefit came from resequencing. For example I win the first combat roll but lose the next one so I choose to do the second combat first because that is more important to win. Am I confusing this with FOG1 when the game used d6's? I remember back in the FOG1 days that once the server had some kind of issue and every player was having trouble uploading their games. My brother and I both noticed that when redoing the turn everything resulted the same if you just repeated what failed to upload.

[stockwellpete]

Weekly round-up
Nosy_Rat (Frankish) closed the gap on pantherboy (Dailami) at the top of the table this week with 2 four-point wins. pompeytheflatulent (German) is in third and can still reach 27 points if he defeats Nosy_Rat in their match, but Nosy_Rat can still win the championship if defeats Schweetness101 (Andalusian) in his other outstanding match. dkalenda has been placed bottom (Byzantine) and CheAhn has moved to ninth putting him in the discretionary relegation category with just 2 wins this season. No further developments at the top of Division B where the match between ConstantiniX (Arab Conquest) and Macedonczyk (Byzantine) will be decisive. In Division C the leader in the clubhouse Challenge1 (Arab Conquest) is still waiting to see if Questar17 (Norman) can overtake him by gaining maximum points from his last 3 matches against SpeedyCM (Dailami), sunnyboy (Scots) and ulysisgrunt (Viking Ireland). DanZanzibar (Dailami) secured automatic promotion from Division E with a narrow win against late reserve snooky51 (Ghaznavid) and Stew101 secured the runners-up position with a close win over Aetius39 (Frankish). At the bottom the pressure is on Stormcrow (Viking) to get something from his remaining 2 matches if he is to avoid the drop. Nearly finished in Division F where a 4 point win for Nikobeg in the last match against hscic (Lombard) will see him tie in second place with random27 (German).

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Nosy_Rat (Division A) 7 matches
pompeytheflatulent (Division A) 4 matches
ConstantinIX (Division B) 6 matches
Cunningcairn (Division B) 3 matches and finished
Macedonczyk (Division B) 6 matches
sunnyboy (Division C) 5 matches
General Shapur (Division D) 5 matches and finished
grumpydaddy845 (Division D) 3 matches
DanZanzibar (Division E) 9 matches and finished

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 41 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 37 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 41 out of 45 matches completed
Division D - 36 out of 45 matches completed
Division E - 37 out of 45 matches completed
Division F - 44 out of 45 matches completed

These are very good match completion rates.

Player of the Week: Cunningcairn (Division B) with 3 wins this week.

[CONSTANTINIX]

As many have written before, it would be best if the system automatically informs the opponent about game restarts and I think that the best place would be a window where discussions are held during the game.
Something like that:
X: Good luck
Y: Good luck
Siltherine: Y restart game last turn 2 times.

Excellent idea.
Caesar's wife must be above suspicion ...
At least , we need to know the fact that the game was reloaded more than once
If there are additional reloads , the player should be aware of it and decide if it is suspicious or not depending on the results. If I lost my C-C during such a turn while succesfully attacking , I will probably raise an alarm and ask for investigation

[stockwellpete]

Biblical A-D Tables.jpg (700.66 KiB) Viewed 2147 times

[stockwellpete]

Weekly round-up
Two more wins for Nosy_Rat (Cimmerians) this week moved him up to third place just 2 points behind the current leader Snugglebunnies (Hebrew), who has finished his matches. Unless second-placed harveylh (Thracian) can beat Nosy_Rat in their match then he will be champion of this section. dkalenda (Urartian) has been placed bottom after illegally re-loading his matches and ninth-placed herm (Lydian) is ineligible next season after dropping out, so everyone else has maintained their top flight status for next season. In Division B an eighth straight win for Macedonczyk (Assyrian), one of them this week against previously top of the table batesmotel (Achaemenid), means that only sunnyboy (Syracusan) can stop him winning automatic promotion now. sunnyboy would have to win all 4 remaining matches 4-0, including one against Macedonczyk, to achieve this unlikely target. In Division C a late run by rs2excelsior (Carthaginian) means he now needs 8 points from his last 3 matches to overtake long-time leader baldrick52 (Kyrenean). rs2excelsior still has to play MikeMarchant (Greek Asiatic), sarmation (Phokian) and SawyeK (Egyptian). At the bottom MadMaxBot (Assyrian) has let his "inner Mel Gibson" get the better of him and has disappeared into the wilderness somewhere. No matter, he still gets the wooden spoon, which might be useful for digging himself out of holes in future.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Nosy_Rat (Division A) 6 matches
Macedonczyk (Division B) 8 matches
sunnyboy (Division B) 5 matches
rs2excelsior (Division C) 5 matches
SpeedyCM (Division C) 3 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 39 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 41 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 39 out of 45 matches completed

These are very good match completion rates.

Player of the week
Macedonczyk (Division B) and rs2excelsior (Division C) both with 2 wins each this week.

[stockwellpete]

Biblical A-B Charts.jpg (713.06 KiB) Viewed 1929 times

Biblical C-D Charts.jpg (553 KiB) Viewed 1929 times

[stockwellpete]

The system works as I tried it out when I was running the Caracole tournaments in Pike & Shot. I allowed players to opt for their preferred battle size and there were no complaints or arguments.

Yes, I am sure it does, but the one remaining issue is whether the default size of the battles should be 1200pts or 1600pts. The poll does suggest a small majority in favour of 1600pts so perhaps 1600pts should be the default size in future? Remember, that we will trial this is Season 9 with a view to rolling it out right across the tournament in Season 10.

To give an example of what will happen . . .

Consider a division in one of the standard tournament sections in future where 5 players have indicated they prefer 1200pt matches and 5 players have said they want to play at 1600pts.

If we set the default size at 1200pts then all those wanting to play at that size will get all 9 matches at 1200pts; the players wanting to play at 1600pts will only get 4 such matches and will play the other 5 at 1200pts. Overall, 35 out of the 45 matches that constitute a division will be played at 1200pts and only 10 at 1600pts.

If, on the other hand, we set the default size of 1600pts (as the poll suggests we might) then the numbers are reversed and 35 matches will be played at 1600pts and only 10 at 1200pts. Players wanting to play at 1200pts would only get 4 such matches and would have to play 5 at 1600pts, while those preferring 1600pts would play all matches at that scale.

Whatever is decided we need to consider the tournament-wide impact of such a change. Will players wanting to play at 1200pts be happy with (on average, depending on the balance of preferences in each division) playing just over half of their matches at 1600pts? If we set the default at 1200pts then the same question can be asked of those who prefer a slightly larger battle (and whose preference narrowly prevailed in our most recent poll).

Obviously if we have situations where, say, 7 players indicate a preference for a particular size game then the numbers will shift considerably.

For example, if the default was set at 1200pts and 3 players indicated a preference for that size but 7 players selected 1600pts then 24 matches out of 45 would be played at 1200pts and just 21 at 1600pts. Players preferring 1200pts would play all their matches at that scale and the 1600pt players would play 6 of their matches at their preferred size.

However, if the default size was set at 1600pts then only 3 matches out of the 45 would be played at 1200pts and 42 at 1600pts. Players preferring 1200pts would only get 2 matches at that size.

I hope my maths is correct. Thoughts please.

[pantherboy]

To be honest I think someone who prefers playing large battles is more likely to acquiesce with being required to play mid size rather than vice versa. Setting large as the default would probably cause some player attrition while medium would not. Also for players that perceive the size of the battle as taking noticeably more additional time that fact may limit their involvement in how many Divisions they sign up for.

[pantherboy]

Dang I just noticed that dkalenda beat Nosy and Pompey. Reversing their results has narrowed my chances!!! Can I get a bonus 4 points for beating dkalenda