After 3 seasons noone valid winning Arena, could we get a non vanilla season ???

[tony97]

Im speculating here, but I assume this season will be won by an AI, as was season 14 (well founded speculation). And in between a cheater win.

Can we get a (ideally) both expansion arena season, despite the broken guru system ??

I wonder...


Edit: had the chance to confirm that the arena leader is in fact not an AI, but a very decent player (known under the nick Eman in the past) - sorry for that

[tony97]

No reason to bother to argue I guess, but for why it would solve at least part of the problem in competitive play:
- no AIs (yet) for both expansions, and even if there will be, they wont be perfect playing vs hidden information, and are way harder to make
- a lot of the top ranked player base moved on to expansions, and still more would be wanting to check it out, just needing that last nudge
- cheater will be way faster spotted in the top ranks when more engaged top players are playing


As for my part, I prob. will be leaving BGA without active competition; between the server lagging more and more in the last half year and moderations harrassments against me (from yet unknown source) and last but not least the dev/mod team doing nothing to support and keep engaged player base, leading to more and more leaves in the last 1-2 years, I just dont see enough draw of this site -.-

[Arrigo II]

Hi tony, I would be happy to see an Arena season with the expansions. That would give it some freshness and maybe give me the final motivation to learn a bit of it .
Unfortunately I'm not a guru and I can't contribute to the decision.

I agree with you about the last two seasons and I'm kinda boycotting the current one after the trophy was given to an obvious cheater.
Anyway, I don't see any reason to believe that the current Arena leader - a well known very good player with a new account - is using an AI, so the current season seems legit so far to me.
(I have strong suspicions on other account in the top 25, but fortunately they suddenly stopped playing after I messaged them about it)

That said, passing to the exansions would maybe help against the AIs but not against the kind of cheating that happened in the last season. To avoid that, we need more support from BGA, and at the moment I'm quite pessimistic about it.

[Molbertino Aquarelli]

I am a bit rusty after not playing this game for a couple of years, and just wondering if there exist already AIs so much stronger than the top players, that we should worry about it?
I mean even for the basic game it is doubtful with that amount of uncertainty in the game itself that AI can be so much stronger.
Maybe I'm wrong, would be grateful for any info from those who know.

[tony97]

I am a bit rusty after not playing this game for a couple of years, and just wondering if there exist already AIs so much stronger than the top players, that we should worry about it?
I mean even for the basic game it is doubtful with that amount of uncertainty in the game itself that AI can be so much stronger.
Maybe I'm wrong, would be grateful for any info from those who know.

well, Zeus rocks and is very competitive Id say - so was winner of 14th season (once more, just well founded speculation about this one)

PS: Also Im slowly getting back to vanilla 7wd - there isnt so much uncertainty as one might think, imo (even with both expansions, I very well know from age 1 what Im playing, even if the results and further actions (dependent on the opponent) might vary and be very dynamic [but for that yo also need opponents that understand what theyre doing ])

[Mispeps]

Just curious here, how do you suspect a player is using AI, do they do really weird moves? Also, how do you spot a cheater and how are they cheating?

[tony97]

Just curious here, how do you suspect a player is using AI, do they do really weird moves? Also, how do you spot a cheater and how are they cheating?

On the cheater part youve got already answers on this subforum - the ai part Id rather not tell since more people could use that knowledge to circumvent that indicators, which would make it harder to spot (but thats only relevant, when and if a good ai for this game gets wide spread ....)

[viperfang4]

Yeah, i stopped playing partway through last season, too many in a row of vanilla. The expansions mitigate some of the most egregious issues with the game: both mitigate going first with the reveal bonus tokens and the extra column between the two expansions, but both also tend to mitigate the advantage of more extra turn wonders.