[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Ranking system - invitation to discussion

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> 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. 

Look at ICS ranking (fics.onenet.net and other servers).  It's solely
based on chess game results (win, draw, lose) but it works very well
(in the sense that a player's ranking usually gives me a very good
idea of whether we are likely to have an interesting game or not)
and I think we should just ask them if we can get their code, or
at least, their algorithm.  It does all the things you want.

> 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. 

ICS has different categories of games, each with their own ranking.
 
> 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.

ICS allows you to play unrated games.  Unidentified players can only play
unrated games.
 
> This is just  an idea; I hope we will start discussion so in 1.12.0 (:->)
> there will be ranking of some kind.

We need to playtest Daniel Burrows's authorization patch first ...

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