Arena - Season Zero [BETA]

[RicardoRix]

Hi,

In the game of For Sale I just played I got minus points from battle elite points because another player was timed out by someone else!!!!! No one played a move and I’m being punished for trying to start a game! That’s the second or third time it’s happened. -3 from my score this time.surely this is a bug?

No, it's deliberately implemented like this:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=12256

[sprockitz]

Hi,

In the game of For Sale I just played I got minus points from battle elite points because another player was timed out by someone else!!!!! No one played a move and I’m being punished for trying to start a game! That’s the second or third time it’s happened. -3 from my score this time.surely this is a bug?

No, it's deliberately implemented like this:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=12256

That was implemented for Elo but not for EAS. It is still a poor solution but it is better than nothing.

For Elo it does work that you won’t lose points if someone quits but from the example in the report I guess it doesn’t work to prevent losers from gaining points....or the algorithm to determine such games doesn’t detect lewis and clark bc it isn’t a team game or quitting situation.

[AndyNovo]

I want to contrast Can't Stop and For Sale when it comes to earning stars. With can't stop the ladder has many many "elite" players (and you can find opponents quickly). In For Sale it takes a long time to find 4 players and gold tier makes you top 10 already (almost no elites). The reason for this is because coming 1st place against non-elites will earn you 2 stars but anything other than a win will likely cost you two stars. So to make it to elite tier you probably have to win 5 games in a row which is almost impossible with 4 players. Somehow the stars in 4 players needs some tweaking to make elite comparable across games. Will take some whiteboarding

[Ponderous]

Is chat still enabled in Arena mode?

i ask just because it is "competitive".

Just resubmitting in case somebody responds.

[nmego]

Pretty sure it is. It shouldn't be any trouble though.

[Sunmaster14]

I have a question about the season ending point. Will the standings be based on a cutoff in time (i.e. 0:00 CET) or the results of all arena games started until that cutoff will also count despite games themselves (turn-based) being finished after the cutoff? if it is the former one could expect there will be serious stalling problem where players would try to finish fast their good games and stall as much as possible the games that they expect to lose.

This would be very negative both for the integrity of results and play experience in general. One solution could be setting an earlier date when no new arena games can be started and a later date when season ends (by turning all turn-based "X days per 1 turn" games into fixed time limit "X days per game in total" games as in tournaments). As long as all players would be informed of these rules it should work fine.

But that is just an idea, I hope some solution for this potential problem has been devised by the admins.

[b514h]

I love Arena mode, but I HATE that it doesn't make you confirm game start. I've probably had at least 5 games that have timed me out and killed my rating because I was waiting at a table for a game I wanted to play and then got pulled away from my computer and the game started while I was gone. That is really, really frustrating, not only for me, but for the people who were waiting for me to play. Easily solved by just having everyone confirm up front.

[sprockitz]

after 7 games of terra mystica, with 6 first place finishes and 1 second I got myself to elite mode. And a rating of just 1615. Only 115 points above starting value after a relatively dominant performance (performance equivalent of a ~2020 rating using some basic math of 20-1 in head to head matchups)...top players are around 1800 and nowhere near my average finish position of 1.14. (I don't expect to be 1st after just 7 games, but should be in the same ballpark...not having barely made a dent above the starting position). I'm right in the middle of all those that reached elite (31st out of 62). It is very discouraging to see how slowly the ratings move...and has made me decide the mode isn't worth it for these longer games. For the longer games the time requirement to get to a top tier rating is impossibly high for most people...your arena mode isn't determining the best player but who has the most time on their hands (and who wants to devout a serious chunk to 1 game).

Why no K factor adjustment to make longer games more reasonable and more representative EAS attainable?
Why is the division by number of players making multi-player games move in ratings even slower? First in a 4 player game earns the same as first in a 2 player game...does not make sense. It is taken into account for Elo, why ignore it for EAS?

I still hope things will improve but when the Everest to climb is just the time to play games (mores than the skill with which they are played) I'll find better challenges.

[Someone_you_know]

Why did I get -46 to elo and -72 to arena points for a game I didn't even confirm?

https://imgur.com/tpVtbV9

[sprockitz]

Why did I get -46 to elo and -72 to arena points for a game I didn't even confirm?

https://imgur.com/tpVtbV9

Very confusing as it looks like you lost double what you should have. There is no confirmation with arena mode, so you can lose if you are waiting for a game then step away from the computer.