Patient Partner and a settings question

[activelearnpl]

Hi all,
I have had the MOST AMAZING partners playing to help teach me how to play and I appreciate all of the tips and information they have shared! I am wondering if there is a way for me to change my game settings so that I don't bore all of the seasoned players with all my questions and am more likely to play with players who lack skill like me now and then to give the good players a break from my fumbled play.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

[GeraldineMerida]

Yes, you can opt to restrict to whatever ELO levels you choose (except you cannot play only with people weaker than you).

Choose 'restrict table access' (top right over the game creation panel), then 'restrict by level' and uncheck whichever levels you'd prefer to avoid.

[Romain672]

Note that many tables of hanabi start with expert+ or master+.
So the tables which aren't limited like that will have (at least) the host normally not bothered by new players.

[Malo77]

I agree that some parameter are missing:
- beginner friendly game
- talk/no talk friendly games

see other threads

As a free player I cannot rstrict ELO, or I missed it ? (where is this possible ?)

I can only set level +/-1 or +/-2 or any level
and I think this is not enough

[Travis Hall]

As a free player I cannot rstrict ELO, or I missed it ? (where is this possible ?)

As a free player, you can’t create games at all. Hanabi is a premium game on BGA, so only premium members can set up games.

I’m guessing that you are talking about the settings you use when automatically joining games. So, if you want more control over which games you play, start joining games manually instead. Look at the settings of the tables that are looking for players yourself, and join the games you find most suitable. Read the descriptions - you’ll never get that taken into account by the automated tool. If you want to talk through the meaning of the clues as they are given, join training mode games - that’s what training mode is for.

And if you want to be able specify the table setting precisely, you might have to consider becoming a premium member so that you can start your own tables.

(BTW, even when joining games automatically, your options for ELO restriction allow you, an expert player to join Expert-only games, strong-to-master games, good-to-master games, or beginner-to-master games. That’s not that many settings, but it’s a pretty wide range of choices for ELO range for your partners. Do you really need to join games with average players but not apprentices?)

[Malo77]

I double checked and I and OP can set automatic join to =, +/-1, +/-2 or far/any level
I may consider removing "any level" from my play options.

I just need a few explanations sometimes when another players writes "???"
I suppose I would prefer some explanation/hint about what to improve / what was wrong.
I do not want a full game in training mode.

I agree, in an ideal world this would not happen and everybody will read the description and parameters before joining and join only if they accept all.

I still think including a chat/no chat in autmatic join/table creation may help,
and also game creator properly setting their ELO / level requirements may help.

There are severa bugs and improvement about this game in the bugtracker about these subjects and some others

A few of them here, you can upvote if you see fit:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=11910
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=2606
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=18293
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=18513

[Travis Hall]

I just need a few explanations sometimes when another players writes "???"
I suppose I would prefer some explanation/hint about what to improve / what was wrong.

Then ask them. Preferably after the game is finished, or at least after the relevant cards have all been played or discarded, because explaining your clues during play is cheating; the point of the game is that players have to deduce the meaning of the clues.

There are high-level players who are quite happy to explain how the techniques seen in good play work.

You won’t get a chat/no-chat option. There’s no proper measure of how much is “just a little bit of chat”. Chat is pretty important to how a site like BGA works, but it’s for explaining that someone just knocked on your door and you have to answer it, not exchanging info about the game in progress in a hidden-information game. If you want to exchange info still relevant to game play via chat at all, that’s training mode.

also game creator properly setting their ELO / level requirements may help.

They often set their requirements, but you should set yours. Look at the table settings before you join.

And also, you abandon almost a fifth of your games. That’s enough to significantly boost your ELO. Your rating sits a little over 500 right now, which means without that boost you probably would not be an expert. (This is not a direct comment on your play, because I have never played with you and thus have never observed your play. I’m not saying you play badly, just pointing out the facts of the statistics.) If you are joining games asking for experts, but you aren’t yet playing at the level of an expert, that could be a significant contributor to conflicts you have been having. Maybe consider laying off of the abandonment so that your ELO becomes more representative of your skill.

And you’ll probably learn more when you aren’t abandoning games that get difficult.

[Malo77]

I am not the only one suggesting this:
There are some old "chat optional" tickets open for a long time here
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35972
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35971

For the record some abandonned games in my records are not all "on me"
as I wish there were none, and this is coop play and common abandon.
But sometimes because of some players prefer to rant/abandon when some does 1 little mistake.
I prefer talking a bit with words than abandonning, but sometime we have no choice.
(see the previous No abandon ticket link I upvoted)

You may also not experience as much behaviours as I do as you are a higher ranked player.

I'll play with you any time to have fun and learn from my mistakes.

[Travis Hall]

I am not the only one suggesting this:
There are some old "chat optional" tickets open for a long time here
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35972
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35971

Those aren’t asking for an option to allow players to exchange a bit of game-relevant information sometimes. They are asking for the option that ensures that nobody passes information. (Which still wouldn’t work even if table chat were turned off, because players can message each other directly.) Passing information about the game via chat during play is still cheating, and thus should mean that a game that allows it - even a little - should be ineligible for ELO calculations. And that’s training mode.

For the record some abandonned games in my records are not all "on me"
as I wish there were none, and this is coop play and common abandon.
But sometimes because of some players prefer to rant/abandon when some does 1 little mistake.
I prefer talking a bit with words than abandonning, but sometime we have no choice.
(see the previous No abandon ticket link I upvoted)

You may also not experience as much behaviours as I do as you are a higher ranked player.

You agreed to abandon 19% of the games you played. A rate that high doesn’t happen just by coincidence.

I experience less of such behaviour because I decline abandon requests, and red thumb players who take issue with me doing so. You have that option too.

[Malo77]

You misunderstood my point, please read my first post again:
"I agree that some parameter are missing:
- beginner friendly game
- talk/no talk friendly games"

I should have written talks to learn from mistakes / not to cheat.
I think this kind of options can help the OP and others around
especially when your are a beginner at the game.

Please do not make specific example about me in the public forum,
without knowing me and even without palying with me
but come talk with pm if you really want to know more.

I do not know the whole game stats for low rank players
and Stats can be interpreted one way or another.

If I was a cheater I would not ask for an option to have no talking games,
and I would not post here, this is nonsense.