I dont think we would be able to organise that Eriisa :o(

Maybe if we could talk BBW or Bad Bishop into suggesting to fencer that Olddear be removed..then it may happen

I don't think too that we would be able to organize that. Either Fencer remove her or we (i.e. we, who read this board) know for sure that OldDear is betting 10 points. Actually I thought about it and I don't think that it will affect the game dramatically. Alesh is affecting it much more (sure, he can change his bid).

it's not affecting it at all

By the way a move of more than 510 or so is ridiculous. At best you would get the 500 back and you might as well have played 10.

What are people thinking when they put 1000+??????

If everyone was playing properly the top pick would be considerably less then 500.

everyone is playing how they want to, if they play over 500 so be it. Its there chose and doesn't really affect the rest of us.

They will find out the hard way LOL

Of course when we are down to just a few players that will change considerably. :)

grenv: To almost everyone here this is a new game. Strategies have yet to be formulated and with such a diversity in players,plays will vary. Not everyone thinks alike nor has the same level of interest in this game.

And some of us are just plain cheap! LOL (self included there)

i have no idea what the best strategies are. Probably dependent on the competition. I do know that for the last few turns 1000 is a very obviously a very bad number, that's all. Just bet 11, you know there's someone forced to bet 10.

nice table badbishop! thanks! ... i bookmarked it .. i guess the url will be the same for next rounds as well ? :)

Yep. But I'm afraid it will be quite large after several moves. It's simply exported from Excel with lot of unnecessary formating tags. I don't want to edit the table manually every two days. :-)

i hope you are filling the table automagically ;)

Well, I have to enter the moves manually, but it's done in a few minutes.

why? you can copy paste the table to a text file, then read the text file into excel.

Will it works if the order of the players is not the same as after the previous moves too? Or when some player changes his/her nick? I copied the first move in this way, from the second move I do it manually because I think it's less work and/or the result is better. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not so good in computer matters...

I've resolved the bug with automatic moves. It should be correct in the next round (or the round after the next round).

Bad Bishop:

order of players: you can sort the lines of the temporary file in excel, so the players will always be in the same order.

you'd have to do something manually to compensate for the players that were eliminated in the current round.

if the players change their nick it will not work correctly, the text copied contains only nicks and not player IDs. fortunately not too many players change their name every 2 days

@Fencer: it is not good to make an option "resign". Example: if one player have 0 points left, anybody think, he must set 0 points next round - but he resign!

Good point, Mely.

Mely: There is not a resign right now is there.... or did I miss something?

I also agree that a resign is not a good option as the reason you stated.

Hmmm, I'd say it would be the best argument for the possibility to resign. Nobody is forced to bet 1 point if there are players with 0 point reserve. :-)

I think not moving should equal resigning. They should drop out. In addition the lowest number of those that actually moved drops out.

grenv: *nod* i agree with that .. the same like a normal time out on other game types .. the reason why thats not on 'pond' right now is because there are no weekend and vacation days allowed on there

is it possible to bet 0 points on purpose ? (even when you have some points remaining) .. no i wont test it! ;)

Are all pond games going to be 20000 points at start?
Or is it set so it is an amount relevant to the size of the group playing?

Because 20000 for a pond of say 20 is a bit much dont you think for example

Stevie: Bad Bishop already explained why it doesn't matter.

aww:( at brain rokos getting to create ponds:(, although when my knight membership runs out ill be getting a rook. fencer can knights still join the other ponds?

furbster: Yes.

Great :o)

furbster: You don't have to wait for your knight membership to run out. If you upgrade to a Rook, Fencer will calculate your remaining Knight time onto the Rook time.

oh, really? because thats what i was worried about, only just paying for my knight status and all.?

for that info eriisa i will make you have the brains:)

k i think i paid to upgrade it. just got to wait 24 hours :o)

furbster: Tempus fugit Mr Rook

:)

Stardust is now Known as the Latin Philosopher "Stardustiest"

Rose: LMAO @ Rose...I think we're getting off topic here so we best shhhh

Sssh...magis mutus quam piscis. (quieter than a fish).
Fish - pond - on topic? Oh well.

LMAO...my finger was hovering...thought i had a chance to modglob a globmod LOL

Fencer: I agree that the amount of points is not relevant, but that the percentage of the bonus points in relationship to the overall total is relevant. I have not thought it through completly, but I would like to see the bonas points be a higher percentage of the total starting points than the current 500 bonus with 20000 starting points.

I don't like the idea of increasing the bonus - otherwise it may end up giving 1 player a VERY big advantage right away.

How it is set up now, it will come into play as the game starts to wind down towards the end.

But

Czuch Chuckers: Bad Bishop (and many other Czech players) played this game for several years and I simply trust him that the rules are balanced well.

And many (probably thousands) German players...

Bad Bishop: /Fencer

Maybe it could be one of the options when setting up a new game, to be able to determine the amount of starting points and the bonus desired by the game creator?

BBW, I think that if the game will eventuALLY BECOME MORE INTERESTING LATER (BASED ON THE BONUS) tHEN WHY NOT MAKE IT A HIGHER BONUS TO STYART AND MAKE THE GAME MORE INTERESTING STRAIGHT AWAY? tHATS ALL...

Czuch Chuckers: Why do you think the game will be more interesting after the bonus change? In which way? I'm affraid I didn't get the point...

Opps - did not finish my post from before...

.... but I think once we start playing a few games completely, we all will have beter ideas on what may or may not work. Like Fencer said, many players have played this way for years - so it would probable be best if we can complete a few games before we can really suggest workable ideas.

Bad Bishop: I said I hadnt really thought it through.... But it seems that since it makes no sense to go for a 500 point bonus with more than a 500 point bid, that there is really no "safe" chance to go for it now. (although it is a game of "guts") Even if you bid 300 and you have to do it twice to get the bonus it is not worth it. It does seem that there will be a better risk/reward ratio later in the game, and that if the bonus were higher, it would come into play sooner.

I guess many people are simply bored with the slow pace of the game, and are looking for ways to improve this. Most agree that a smaller starting pool would help also.

I just found that we are able to play/create more pond games! Whoooohoooo!

I would like to play faster games, and since this game is not typical, and the next turn does not advance when all players have made a move, I would like to see the ability to create a game with shorter time limits, ie 10 minute moves or 5 minute moves or something. Also the abilty for a game to start when everyone has signed up, right away. Also to play with fewer than 16 people.

I would love to try a "quick game" with other people online where we could start and finish a game right then :)

Czuch Chuckers: one started earlier as soon as maximum players were obtained. I think thats why it started LOL

Czuch Chuckers: I agree with you of course that it makes no sense to bid more than, let say, 510 in order to get the bonus of 500. But as you can see, there are people willing to bid much more. Well, if they want, it's probably fun. After every runner recognize that the difference between the bonus and his/her bid is much higher than the average bid, it will probably change. (In our run rather after Alesh will wake up/falls into the pond. :-)) I'm quite sure there will be the same (or similar) problem with any bonus. But maybe I'm wrong.

The smaller starting pool would speed the game? I don't know why, I think it's technically not possible (IMHO the lenght of the game is limited by the number of runners, not by the given starting points), but obviously some (you say "most") people seem to think so. Strange...

The game is boring rather because we started with 250 runners... (Is it really boring? Not really, it's a very very long run for sure, but I'm not bored. Are you?)