Do you think you won't be bored in the future games? Oh, sure, you can bet only 1 point again... ;-)

BIG BAD WOLF: I am looking forward to the next version of the game. I think I heard where Fencer plans on letting us create our own ponds and limit the number of runners anpoints per runner. I also, expect the next version to take into consideration weekends and holidays.

The first run ignoring weekends, holidays, and vacations was a little too much for me considering it is running over Christmas and New Years.

It's a good idea - but I think once this first pond game is over, you will not see many people who will want to get out of the game

Czuch Chuckers: I absolutly agree. There needs to be a "Resign" option that doesn't affect everyone else trying to keep their feet dry.

"ScarletRose: (29. December 2004, 16:05:58) I guess I am still confused here as to how the points work. On two separate plays I played high moves, expecting to get my points back if I was the highest bidder. I have won 500 points two separate times. But, no motivation at this point to bid over 500 since highest bidder doesn't win back the points they bid.. there should be some motivation also in my opinion to get the bids higher then they currently are. This game is going to take forever! LOL"

scarlet. I agree you should get points back as well as 500.
But as for game length....the game will be same length no matter how many points are bid. (as it is now..it wont take longer than 356 days :o) could be quicker though :oD )

Bad Bishop: Thanks for the backup :)

Uhm mhm hm.

Maybe a way to allow someone to "quit" the game, without having to commit suicide, could be implimented, Fencer? -- A very good idea!

Summertop: I think it would be nice if you could commit suicide without effecting the rest of us playing the game. Just being able to resign would work better than you having to bid 1 to get out of it...

Czuch Chuckers: Yeah, just dive right into the pond...

pauloaguia: I am not quite sure what you meant by that last comment....

Bidding a 1 one the last round.....Hmmmm, is that what you guys meant about "guts"?

I guess over time we should expect more and more of that as some people get tired of playing such a long game.

Maybe a way to allow someone to "quit" the game, without having to commit suicide, could be implimented, Fencer?

of course two b's. I may be a mad rabbit, but not rabid

rabbitoid: I tried...Ah ha, there are two "B"s in rabbitoid. No wonder I couldn't find you.

I guess we should have guessed LOL

maybe, but he could have been nice and tell me his intentions in a PM before I wasted all these points

I like to run with someone who is bored and bets 1 point in the middle of the game. :-)

grenv: About the points: I don't know. I didn't think about it. It was just a number thrown at random while trying to explain that the number of points you start with doesn't have much impact on the length of the game... I guess that in my example, if the bonus was still 500 points everybody would go for the prize, place a bet of 30 and then the pond would finish in the next move... problem solved :)

I would suggest you didn't keep your totals throughout the tournament. It wouldn't be fair for the players that had to place high bets to survive their rounds and ended up with just a couple thousand points to have to face the player whose opponents never played and so he finished his round with the whole 20000.

By the way: there would be the option for more than one player to go to the next round. If, for instance, there were three rounds to start with, the best 4 or 5 players of each round would get to go upstream to the final so the final pond would still a fair amount of players.

Czuch Thanks. I've been told one too many times that I can only be an idiot from all the ideas I have . Looks like you just confirmed it :D

pauloaguia: Great idea!!!

excellent idea of multiple sections. In your example the sections would take 19 rounds at most, the final of only 13 people would take only 12 rounds.

I would suggest you keep your totals throughout the tournament as well.

In the hypothetical version where you get only 30 points, is there still a 500 point bonus? Or would it always be 1/40 of the starting total? Or would it depend on the number of players?

The thing is: too many players don't make the game boring... it just makes it take longer for it to get interesting (unless they're all players of the same level).
I think that limiting the number of starting players might be an option. Another one could be handling it like a tournament: whenever the number of players goes over a certain threshold (30-40?) several ponds will be created each with about 20 players or so. In the end, the winner(s) of each section dispute the final round...
So, for this 249 pond, there would have been 13 sections and the winner of each section would play in a final pond, lasting the wholw thing a maximum of about 40 turns instead of the expected 200 (now less) that happened here...

i agree with BBW, i think it'll get a lot more fun and interesting when we can set game parameters of less players.

Walter Montego: I agree Walter :oD

It's kind of stabilized, but not boring. As people drop out, the bets will get harder to make and the challenge will be just to stay in the game, let alone win it. I imagine when people have fifty or more games of this going at once and all sorts of parameters for each game, it'll be more interesting.

1) I believe (my guess) that a pawn will be able to continue any game (including pond) until it is over - just will not be able to start any new games.

2) Yes, this is getting boaring quickly. I believe after the new years (which Fencer is doing some archiving and other things like that) - he will hopefully look into creating some more pond games with the limit of 25-30 players - which should speed things up and make the game a lot more fun. (Current game will get fun - but it will take awhile before we get rid of enough players before it really starts to get interesting.)

pauloaguia: Good point!

I just noticed alesh has now reverted back to a pawn. Is he still able to play or will he be stuck with autoplay until he runs out of points?
Just curious...

*Runs to hiding after mentioning the A word *

Summertop: The fewer starting points is a false question... the number of rounds (and hence the game length) is determined by the number of starting players not the number of points you start with.
Since one player is eliminated each round you have at most n - 1 rounds (being n the number of players) even if you start with just 30 points.

Come to think of it, a 30 point game with 20 players might be something fun to watch... this would really need some guts to place a bet

This game is a good idea, but I am bored with it. Maybe I'll try again with fewer players AND fewer starting points.

It's just a visual bug, not a glitch in the game.

Yep, there is a little bug somewhere, Fencer knows is already. The errorneous automatic move is in the case of TaureanTracker and CaoZ, too.
All moves in a table

well if his number actually changed, he must have hit submit...

are you sure you hit summit, I did that a couple of days ago and had to go back to make my move again

Looks like there is a bug. Two turns ago, I made an automatic move, but I entered a different amount on the last round. The main Pond page still shows that my last move was an auto-move.

so we only lost 1 person in the last round? yeah! 182 to go!!!

I'd like to see how many points someone that's in the pond had when they fell in. List it in a column next to their final bet? Be kind of enteresting to see if they had lots left and went low, or if they had few left and went for the bonus. Or somewhere inbetween and got caught looking.

lol, well then im gonna go for 3 3/4's

Perhaps I'll bet 3 1/2 next turn.

5 it is then!

i still think you will get somebody guessing 2 or 3 , 4 should be safe

I've bet 11 in the last 2 rounds - each time thinking there might be a few people still betting in the single digits - Heck, it looks like close to half the people bet in the single digits last round!

Fencer: cool

Jason: Yes. After I finish some other things.

is it possible to set some more up of this game ,maybe with fewer players in ...maybe on a weekly basis or something ...that way we could get some results before the first on finishes or even set some more unlimited going so we dont have to wait ages to get into another one ;)

366 days left of this game at the most.
woohooooo At least we know it wont take any longer than a year now

(it just took me some time to teach them to leap in phase and stick to their right place ;))



(weehee i little screen with emoticons stayed behind to chose from ... a new(er) toy to play with :))

hah! i beat you at being first fencer .. all the little froggies in the pond are making fun of you

You should be able to change your number at any time, not "locked" into anything.

if i forget to do a move and i have to do the automatic move from the prior day, can i change that the following round or am i permanently locked into my number...kinda like a penalty.

Excellent ideas WhisperzQ and Chuck!