[Freeciv] Re: summary of ranking problems/questions

[Mike Kaufman <kaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 02:10:03AM +0200, Horn G=E1bor wrote:
> Hi!
> (0, We should separate ranked and non ranked games. The easiest way
> might be to make ports for ranked games and fun games. Fun ports would
> work just like the current ports, except that their result wouldn't get
> recorded into the ranking base. Sometimes people would like to practice
> or play w/o being ranked, so no need for rank all the games. But if we
> rank, would should do it as fair as possible).

no. all games should be ranked. if someone wants to not be ranked, he
should play as a guest.
=20
> 2, As i know CVS already can do it, althought it need some work to make
> it fit w/ the pubserver. I think a simple nickname/password
> authentication for joining the pregame is enough. And when games start,
> players would be forced to use their ranked names (or the gamelog shoul=
d
> be changed to contains the real nicks of them too). Dunno which is
> easier to implement, but i think we need it or the authentication becam=
e
> useless.

not much work needs to be done to make it work with pubserver. most of it
is already done. Players are forced to play with whatever name they joine=
d
pregame with.
=20
> 3, It's very hard to prevent this, so i think we should aim to make it
> useless. Ranking decay partly does this, but not completely. I think we
> shouldn't provide info about the name of players of the ranking ports'
> pregames. Only the number of them. So if a player join, he can decide i=
f
> he wanna plays or not, but cannot use the playerlist info w/o connectin=
g
> to decide what nick he use in that game. If he leaves and reconnects w/
> the same ip in a few mins, players should recognize it and could tell i=
t
> to the admin. It needs modification of the client/server code i think.
> It's not a 100% protection still, but might be enough againts 90 percen=
t
> of these cheats. If somebody really wants cheat he can, i see no way to
> prevent that. And i think if somebody is cought on cheating, he should
> be deleted from the ranking and banned permanently from the ranking. Fo=
r
> this doranking script has to be changed to save more detailed data from
> every game, so ranking would be recountable w/o the cheaters points (i
> can do this modification if we agree). I think no serious player would
> risk this.

no. what you want to do is create an investment [via the ranking calculat=
ion]
in the name you're using.

People simply need to get used to recognizing DNS names. This may mean
easier access to that information, perhaps in the player dialog. What you
describe in't cheating.

-mike