Coffeedragon wrote:
Thought about it a little, and I now think itґs quite a good system../quote]
I appreciate the point about trying to keep it simple and giving newbies a reason to play. Also, unless your around all the time (like me just now because I'm on holiday, not because I'm trying to boost by score!) it makes sense to concentrate on the important games.
What about a system where the winner gets 25% of the losers current points and the loser loses 20% of their current points. Newbies could get 10 points to start with and be ranked conscript, which would also be the lowest possible score. Having 10 as the lowest possible score avoids people taking a new identity if there score is less than that.
Using the 25% and the 20% means that there will always be an increasing number of points in the game.
Current ranking system based on points is fine although the levels may need to be adjusted.
You could also make it that you automatically forfit some points if you refuse a challenge when you don't have at least 3 active games against people of a similar level. I don't think this should apply to all chalenges cos you don't want to have to accept them all, but this avoids people stalling if they have lots of points.
The one danger is that the generals may not want to play the newbies to save their score. I don't think this is a big problem as if they lose the points will be distributed correctly and the newbies will/should want to concentrate on other newbies initially.
You could introduce an option for training battles where the ranks are very different, maybe 4 levels, which would only award victory points so that these games could take place.
If you ignore the last part, I don't think this would be much more complicated than the current system. You could even start with your current points to avoid scrapping the current scores (plus 10 points for everyone).
Newbies would play and surrender because they have nothing to lose.
If you include the training game option, the generals would play cos they would still get points. All other games should be fairly scored.
I think this sort of scoring system would show where the skill lies, even if you only play a few games.
I also reckon that you should gradually lose points to your opponent if you don't play your turns! Yes, yes, I know people have other things to do, but more that 2 weeks is getting silly! I won't mention any names, you know who you are!
Where the win is guaranteed please just surrender!