Arena is now fixed at FIFTEEN bags and a 150 deduction!

[StonePony]

I am very disappointed that whoever has decided to set the Arena games at 15 bags and a 150 point deduction. Doing so has removed a major strategic aspect of the game. When the bags are set at 10, one has to make a conscious choice each hand to set or avoid bags. At 5 bags, avoiding bags becomes too important, and at 15 not important enough. I don't think I am unique in this sentiment. Please consider reestablishing the bag limit at 10 and the deduction at 100. (I also would prefer that bags taken by the nil player be counted as team bags, but I suspect the feelings on that are less universal.)

[mickalot]

FWIW, I'm also not a fan of 15 (so far, I think it's not as good a match if you're playing up to 500), but I'm just one player. Does anyone know what the vote count was?

Anecdotally, it feels like there aren't that many active Spades players in Arena mode (and I've played with a lot of them), and in all the games I've played, I've literally _never_ heard a player mention that they prefer 15 (or 5) to 10.

[el cosimo]

This is indeed weird.. then you always win without bags penalty. 15 bags then you need to play very bad. Never played a game with that setting and already played more then 100 games

[mickalot]

IIUC, the 150% option was a user request from people playing short games up to 300, so they could play with a 10 bag limit. (FWIW, I personally find it weird that bags are expressed as a percentage -- no matter what the game length is, I think I just always want it to be 10 bags.)

Crazy theory: I wonder if there are a lot of non-Arena matches set at 300 with 150%/10 bags, and somehow that turned into Arena mode getting the 150% bag setting now?

[Christopher_616]

15 bags is a joke and not really spades... please don't keep this in the future.

[mickalot]

Is there anyone who prefers it at 15 bags and wants to speak up? (Currently, the most vocal players dislike it and want to go back to 10.)