[Freeciv-Dev] Ranking system - invitation to discussion

[Arkadiusz Danilecki <szopen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there!
        First a little explanation; i can't decide if letter about ranking
system belongs to freeciv@ or freeciv-dev@ list. You could set FUT to
freeciv@ if You want to.

        After one day of poll on freeciv website you can see that
siginificant majority of players _want_ ranking system of some kind. Most
of them have probably some ideas how this ranking system should look.
It should be also obvious that the best, most fair ranking system could be
made only via discussion between many people. My idea for ranking system
could be consideraded as one of many starting points to discussion.


1) there was idea on basing ranking on demography. I don't think it is
good idea. Points scored in game with better players are not equal to
those scored with newbies. Points scored in games with many players are
not equal to those scored with just few. Good ranking system should
reflect this. 

2) In good ranking you shouldn;t get high rank after just one game;
Winning just one game could be accident. So idea of ranking based on
victory points from each game divided by count of game isn't very good. 

3) Ranking should encourage players to games; there should be always way
to get higher rank than players who stop play.

4) On other hand, there shouldn't be situation when someone has better
ranking only because he plays more games, when in fact he is poor player.

5) basing ranking solely on tournaments of some kind isn't very good.
There are good players who don;t have time to play at exact hours, and
taking part in tournaments. 

6)Not every game should be ranked; I could want to teach someone game of
freeciv; i could want just test some new strategies; I think there should
be a way to declare game ranked - lets say that before 3000 BC you must
declare if game is ranked or not.

My idea is :

a) assigning victory points for every played game; amount of victory
points should be based on with how many players and with how good players
you played, eg. if you playe with X,Y,Z, whose ranking is relative to
yours +2,+1,-2 you would get +2+1 points +3 points from amount of players.
Or +2+1-2 pts +3 pts from amount of players? Or +2+1 +2 (dont count those
who are much worse than you)? 

b) ranking is average victory points in last ten games (or last hundred
games..). You should play at least x games to be ranked.

Still have no idea how to fulfill 3) postulate.

c) you could complicate that more: eg. for get first rank (or first 10 vp)
you should just win with newbies or ais. Then for second rank you shoudl
defeat some with higer rank, and you don;t get vp for winning with ai;
then you don't get vp for winning with newbies; maybe at some rank you
had to win on at least one game gen 1, gen 2, gen 3, gen 4... maybe to get
highest rank you should win at last once via space race.. Ways of
complicating things are many :-))

This is just  an idea; I hope we will start discussion so in 1.12.0 (:->)
there will be ranking of some kind.

A.D.Danilecki "szopen" 

-- 
You can log off, but you can never leave 
        ,,CyberJolly dream'' N.Liedtke 
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