two player arena

[realnameless1]

Ticket to Ride is dumb as a two player game. It is not built that way, because it becomes very limited that way.

Thanks for your precious in-depth view on the topic

You are welcome.

[KP1024]

2P is a far, far better format for TTR, at least for Arena. The USA map isn't great for 2P though. And in general, I would be fine with switching between number of players for different Arena seasons.

[james1974]

Was looking forward to the tournament. Going to skip the 2-player variant. Who voted for that?

Per FAQ, a "guru" is whoever played the most games in the prior 30 days. If you prefer two-player vs multi, you'll naturally play a LOT more games in the same given time:

Fewer players => Fewer turns in a game => Faster games => More games played => Earning guru status

Thus there is a significant bias in "guru" assignment for players who prefer fewer players. In my game history 2-player TTR games are usually 4-8 minutes long, 4 player ones are 15-25 min.

This same reasoning presumably applies to almost all games; I noticed MANY games in the new arena season (not just TTR) switched from multi to two player this season. This is why I would suggest tweaking the guru ranking computation to not use simple sum of (games_played_last_30), but instead sum of (nbr_players) for that same set of games. Otherwise all BGA arena game seasons are naturally biased towards the fewest player settings, amongst the options which are roughly equally appealing.

But as for the specific TTR aspeect here, 2 player is just as fun/appealing as 4 player - only in a different way. Anyone claiming that 2-player isn't fun maybe should not be so quick to judge? The claim in the other thread that 2-player TTR is "all luck and no skill" is particularly laughable. I don't have a strong opinion if this arena season should be 2-player or multi again, but one thing I am certain of, the player making that comment should not have guru power for this game, as she clearly doesn't even understand it!

a bias for players who play 2 player games, but since Arena is 2 player that decision is forced. I voted for 4, but it wasn't to be. I like 2 as well it's just different, more tactical. I just don't like three where the board is congested and the double routes are closed.

[james1974]

I was just looking over the "all players" stats and noticed:

Longest Continuous Path bonus 0.46

That is: players average getting longest path 46% of the time. I know ties are possible, so multiple longest paths can be awarded in a single game, but even considering that happens from time to time this must mean that the overwhelming majority of games are two player games.

As an aside: it would be useful, I think, to have the stats broken down by number of players.

Thanks for reminding me about multiplayer, I was wondering why it wasn't 50%+ since someone gets it every game, and sometimes both players get it.

[thg0724]

I hadn't played in a couple months, came back and got in the Arena queue and it's two-player again. Or, is it "still"?

[ExaltedAngel]

I hadn't played in a couple months, came back and got in the Arena queue and it's two-player again. Or, is it "still"?

It's again, this is the second 2p season in a row

[thg0724]

I hadn't played in a couple months, came back and got in the Arena queue and it's two-player again. Or, is it "still"?

It's again, this is the second 2p season in a row

That's what I thought, but front page Arena "latest update" says "Previous season: 4P; New season: 2P" so I thought I'd check.

[ExaltedAngel]

I see, they probably didn't update that