Tichu Developer Update - Looking for Feedback!

[Tuut Tuut tis Luut]

The speed improvements are great. I always wondered why Tichu was so incredibly sluggish. I assumed it was incredibly poor, inefficient coding, not deliberate delays to make the game awful. Why would anyone do that?

The new button positions are much better, but it'll take me some time to get used to not having to make those massive mouse movements every click.

JonGetsGames wrote: ↑09 August 2023, 16:37


Maybe it's just me, but if I know what I'm not generally thrown off or bothered by I button I know I have no use for.

And yes, the game interface SHOULD cater to the lowest denominator. Since the site is for everyone, not just for the handful of people most experienced at the game. Save the gatekeeping attitude for your own bedroom door.
I agree that the bomb button should always be visible, it is the players responsibility to be aware if they have a bomb.

I really don't understand this attitude at all. It's a computer system. It knows and can make buttons available when they work. But instead you want to make the interface less user-friendly just because 1% of players who don't know the game might not know what a bomb is? Worst kind of lowest-common-denominator attitude. Write the UI for the 99% of players who know what they are doing and don't need a pointless button sitting there that does nothing.

Speaking of bombs, the important question is: Can you bomb your own play before another player can play on it? You should be able to, but the interface delay has always made it impossible, especially for those far away from France.

[Laurentio]

This game needs the option to show all already played cards for turn-based play.

[--Q--]

I really appreciate that Tichu is some love and that the interface is getting faster and improved in general.

The most important update for me personally would be a clear statement by admins or moderators about the ELO-resets. Right now I have no intention in playing as long as you get randomly flagged as a cheater randomly without official information why.

[Tichuplayer123]

Looking at the big picture, there are 30 moderators in a site with close to 730 games (and more being added in the future). I realize they will have issues getting it right for every game.

Proving the unethical use of multiple accounts in a single game is challenging at times, especially because it can happen in any online game with any complexity level. Limited amounts of moderators exist to moderate for the continuously growing numbers of games.

The most important update for me personally would be a clear statement by admins or moderators about the ELO-resets. Right now I have no intention in playing as long as you get randomly flagged as a cheater randomly without official information why.

We need to define or give examples of what is clear and what is not clear. In their defense, they do give the reason. Players think it is not clear enough or there’s not enough proof to back it up.

For now, I think this type of solution needs to be implemented; where one of more appointed Tichu consultants review the moderation reports for cheating.

I am quoting select parts.

(Credits to Silene)

1. It should be possible to report someone for cheating (additional option when reporting. Giving proof including details would be necessary). Moderators will handle these cases in addition to other reasons like insults BUT in reduced priority because often those are not time-sensitive - so they could wait and maybe - if only a single report is there for one person, that wouldn't be handled so soon, maybe not at all until reports add up.

2. Handling cheating reports would require consultation of experts in the game...

3. In addition to volunteering as moderator, people could volunteer as expert in a specific game. Similar to the guru-system but voluntarily. You won't just be added, but if you reach a certain rank (top 5% percentile of players or something like that) you'd get an invitation to sign up as an expert. But it should also be possible for not-high-ranking-players to set themselves to volunteer and give a reason why they feel qualified.

4. Moderators, when they chose to handle a cheating-case, can pick an expert among the list of volunteers to discuss the case with them.

I don't know if this process is possible to add to the actual moderation-system because I don't know how it is decided now which cases they get or how the decision-process actually works and how high the workload is already. But maybe it's worth thinking about it for by now unhandled cheating-cases that are until now impossible to report as well as for possible unjust mod-decision in cases like the one presented here.
(under the assumption this one was indeed an unjust case, which I don't know but to me as someone who also played with a fixed partner only (but only a few games so far), I find it very possible because we have already been accused of cheating in chat despite we never cheated and I can very well imagine people might report us if we had played more).

In addition I want to say that I highly appreciate the work moderators are doing in general and I believe that in the majority of cases, the decisions are good and just. Also I am sure that it is impossible to get it right every time, and if someone is wrongfully accused, you should keep calm and not go full aggro about it . So I believe in general the system is working, but I would really like to see an additional cheating-handling, that isn't being done so far. Maybe it's not realistic to handle the workload that comes with it, but it would be great if it was possible.

I worked hard (constantly looking online and in forums) to try to search out ways to create a win-win situation for both the moderators and players in these types of cases.

I want the Tichu experience to be improved for everyone on this site, especially when it comes to making sure things are fair.

[ufm]

I think the mods find constant pairing itself in ranked games as an unfair advantage against other randomly matched players.
It is the only possible explanation I can come up with for moderations.
If this assumption is correct, the custom team order should be limited to friendly mode to prevent further moderations.

1. It should be possible to report someone for cheating (additional option when reporting. Giving proof including details would be necessary). Moderators will handle these cases in addition to other reasons like insults BUT in reduced priority because often those are not time-sensitive - so they could wait and maybe - if only a single report is there for one person, that wouldn't be handled so soon, maybe not at all until reports add up.

Unfortunately, this never happened in Chess or some other games with engines.
Instead, all competitive features (rank trophies, Arena mode and tournaments) for those games are abolished permanently.

I don't know if this process is possible to add to the actual moderation-system because I don't know how it is decided now which cases they get or how the decision-process actually works and how high the workload is already.

There are other hundreds of games on BGA.
If BGA adopts this approach, admins and mods now must handle the appointment and management of 'experts' in each game, then review their verdicts.
Even considering games with more play time than Tichu, nearly 100 such games exist. The extra workload will be enormous.
Thus, BGA decided to deactivate competitive features upon request as above instead.

[Tichuplayer123]

I think the mods find constant pairing itself in ranked games as an unfair advantage against other randomly matched players.
It is the only possible explanation I can come up with for moderations.

This. We don’t know for sure. The mods never said this explicitly.

There is constant pairing in the game of bridge and it could serve as an advantage against randomly matched players - but it’s not considered cheating.