Board Game Arena

English :

Hi everyone,

I just started developping a game whose license became recently available. In the game's rule, each player is able to select some kind of difficulty level, which affects starting material and some aspects of the game. The rules clearly states that each player may choose their level of difficulty and that select rules apply to each player (for instance : the first player chooses the easy mode, and easy rules apply to them while the second player chooses the difficult mode, hence difficult rule apply to their actions, during the same playthrough).

With my current understanding of the platform, when the table creator sets a game option, it is applied table-wide (ie. to all players). Is it possible to offer the same granularity the game rules are offering from the table creation screen (ie. each player has a dropdown menu where they pick the diffculty they wish to play) ? Or is it tolerable to have a popup during the game setup phase asking each player which level they want to play ? Or even adapt the game rules so that all players have the same difficulty level (and then leave it as a game option) ?

Thanks for your guidance,

SwHawk

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Français :

Bonjour tout le monde,

Je viens juste de commencer le développement d'un jeu dont la licence a récemment été obtenue par BGA. Les règles du jeu indiquent que chaque joueur peut choisir une sorte de niveau de difficulté qui modifie le matériel de départ ainsi que certains aspects du jeu. Les règles indiquent clairement que chaque joueur peut choisir son propre niveau de difficulté, et que les règles s'appliquent différemment aux joueurs en conséquence (par exemple : le premier joueur choisit le mode facile, et on lui applique les règles faciles, le second choisit le mode difficile, et les règles difficiles s'appliquent pour ses actions, le tout dans la même partie).

D'après ma compréhension actuelle de la plateforme, quand le créateur de la table choisit une option de jeu, elle est appliquée à toute la table (à tous les joueurs). Est-il possible d'offrir la même granularité que les règles à l'écran de création de table (chaque joueur aurait un menu où ils pourraient choisir leur niveau de difficulté) ? Ou bien est-il acceptable d'avoir un message flash ou une popup durant l mise en place de la table qui demande le niveau de difficulté à chaque joueur ? Ou alors adapte-t-on les règles du jeu de manière à ce que la difficulté s'applique à l'ensemble de la table (et donc le laisser en tant qu'option du jeu) ?

Merci pour vos conseils,

SwHawk

Hi,

Which game is it?
I am invoking Sourisdudesert because this kind of rule is going to be a mess in arena or tourmanennt mode. If a player select easy, will he gain an advantage playing it like that? You may need to manage the tournament/arena mode in your code somewhere.

About this choice, as it can be done only once, I think you will need a multiactivestate where each player will select his level of difficulty. As an idea, in arena/tournament difficulty level will be managed at table level.

What do you think?

Vincent

Hello

the key question is: which game it is?

We do have a game with a similar situation: Bubblee Pop. There are 3 difficulty levels. You have to choose one as a table option, and it is applied to both players. We do not allow to have different difficulty level between the players because this is not the spirit of BGA.

Hi,

SwHawk wrote: ↑I just started developping a game whose license became recently available.

I saw this in the studio projects list, and I'm veeeeery happy . (I won't mention the game name here or give clues, let's keep it a surprise.)

SwHawk wrote: ↑In the game's rule, each player is able to select some kind of difficulty level, which affects starting material and some aspects of the game. The rules clearly states that each player may choose their level of difficulty

The rules state that this is possible, and I've used it IRL, but I think that on a gaming site, this is not really relevant because of ELO points (or only in training mode). I think the designer, the publisher, BGA admins, and most players, won't mind if you don't implement this. But if you still want to implement this (might be useful for players who know each other and want to play together despite a different level at this game), I think the standard game should be with the same difficulty level for all players (chosen by the table creator before opening the table), and the "each player chooses their difficulty level " should be a game option available only in training mode.

SwHawk wrote: ↑Is it possible to offer the same granularity the game rules are offering from the table creation screen (ie. each player has a dropdown menu where they pick the diffculty they wish to play) ? Or is it tolerable to have a popup during the game setup phase asking each player which level they want to play ?

I don't think the 1st option is possible. I think the best way is to have a special player state (or a dialog / popup) at the beginning of the game, to ask each player their chosen difficulty level.

Bon code

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑08 November 2019, 21:13 the key question is: which game it is?

I'm choosing to keep that under the wraps for the moment, although there are enough clues throughout my first post and this one to be able to find out which game it is...

vincentt wrote: ↑08 November 2019, 21:03 If a player select easy, will he gain an advantage playing it like that?

In truthfullness, yes there is going to be an advantage, especially in tournament/arena mode. A player choosing the easy mode will have an additional starting material, as well as a leanier conditions at two keys moments of the game and a simplified rule for one of the actions. Although this simplified rule will lead to revealing the same information to all the players, so I'm not that sure it can be conceived as an advantage... And you have also to consider another advantage the hard mode gives you : on that same action, you may be able to score more as you may be able to litterally kill two birds with one stone...

There is also the matter of leanier conditions at two key moments of the game, this could also lead to a situation where an easy player would be gaining an edge on the others...

fafa-fr wrote: ↑08 November 2019, 21:24 The rules state that this is possible, and I've used it IRL, but I think that on a gaming site, this is not really relevant because of ELO points (or only in training mode). I think the designer, the publisher, BGA admins, and most players, won't mind if you don't implement this. But if you still want to implement this (might be useful for players who know each other and want to play together despite a different level at this game), I think the standard game should be with the same difficulty level for all players (chosen by the table creator before opening the table), and the "each player chooses their difficulty level " should be a game option available only in training mode.

vincentt wrote: ↑08 November 2019, 21:03 About this choice, as it can be done only once, I think you will need a multiactivestate where each player will select his level of difficulty. As an idea, in arena/tournament difficulty level will be managed at table level.

I will try to see if it is possible to detect server-side if the game is supposed to be a tournament/arena or not, although some speed reading of the docs hasn't made me aware of such functionnality. If it is indeed possible, then I was thinking of implementing it that way (through a popup, or a flash message, something like that), but that would come later in the development process.

As stated by sourisdudesert, this is not the spirit of BGA, so I may end up never implementing it, but I thank you all for your answers, your questions, and advice as well.

SwHawk

Good choice of game to implement! Looking forward to it

As others mentioned, I think no one will complaint about if choosing difficulty level wont be implemented..

SwHawk wrote: ↑08 November 2019, 22:32 I will try to see if it is possible to detect server-side if the game is supposed to be a tournament/arena or not, although some speed reading of the docs hasn't made me aware of such functionnality.

I think that if "choosing different difficulty levels in the same game" is implemented, it should only be a game option that must be selected by the table creator. And I think that if this option is allowed for standard games (ELO on), this will lead to problems and angry players who joined a game without understanding the meaning of this option, or without having seen that it was selected (even for non tournament and non arena games). So IMHO it should only be allowed with training mode.

In this case, no need to detect in your code if the game is a tournament or arena game, you just need to forbid this option for ELO on games (see Game options Studio doc page, displaycondition id 201), and then in your code, ask player level (the way you want) ONLY if this option is active.

Hi there,

Thanks everyone for your feedback and advices, which I followed.

I was able to :

1. Create the mixed difficulties variant, with an on/off switch
2. Modify the table-wide difficulty variant so that it will only be selectable if ELO is on or, if ELO is off, only if mixed difficulties is also off

Otherwise, I'm actually working on the game states ATM, and will certainly come back here on the forums should I encounter other difficulties.

Thanks again,

SwHawk

A-dam wrote: ↑08 November 2019, 23:14 As others mentioned, I think no one will complaint about if choosing difficulty level wont be implemented..

This is the internet: people will complain about everything. "But it specifically states that I can do this in the rules, why isn't it implemented??!??!"


But, yeah, making an option at table setup to allow mixed difficulties, and then making the first "move" of the game being a simultaneous 'choose difficulty' is probably the best way to do it.