Board Game Arena

I was playing a three player game in which I was going to win, everyone had passed for the last gen, and all that was left was for every player to play their last greenery from the plant production of the final production step. But after passing for the end of the gen, the player in last place just logged off, effectively leaving the game. So, once they were out of time, they were skipped. So now, instead of getting a win against both players, I only get a win against the player who left, and get counted as a tie against the remaining player. And since I was higher ranked than the 2nd place player I'm now tied with, I lost 2.8 ELO from that instead of gaining some extra. Feelsbadman.

I understand why things could kinda work this way in mid game, because just because you were ahead in points in the mid game doesn't mean you'd win in the end. But here, the game was decided. Sure, in some edge case some one could throw the game by placing a greenery incorrectly, but I was 11 points ahead...

Oh it happened to me this morning, just not fair. Literally last greenery. I lost 3 arena points and 2 ELO, it was horrible. And I was going to win by playing the lowly UNMI.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=505057063

I was not aware it works this way. That's indeed beyond stupid. I see no reason why it should work this way.

What is the alternative you are proposing?

Should we build some extensive AI that will calculate how the game would have ended and award ELO based on that? :p

You either neutralize the results fully, or you let the ELO-calculation do it's thing.

It used to be, or so it was claimed in the FAQ, that you never lost elo if someone else is expelled from the game (you may win nothing, or not as much as you would have otherwise, but you never lost). This has apparently changed with the recent elo changes.

This is not specific to Terraforming Mars or any other game, though.

ChesterDeBester wrote: ↑27 April 2024, 08:45 What is the alternative you are proposing?

Should we build some extensive AI that will calculate how the game would have ended and award ELO based on that? :p

You either neutralize the results fully, or you let the ELO-calculation do it's thing.

Just neutralize results between the other players. So count it as though player A won a 2p game vs the guy who left, player B won 2p game vs the guy who left and no result between A or B. I though it was so obvious that I never even considered it could work in any other way.

Edit.
I don't mean that it should display it in the results as 2p game, only that this is the way elo should be effected by such a game. The result may still show tie on 1st place between everyone.

Can't you use the function already provided in the top right when setting up a table to restrict other players ELO to ensure you don't play with players several bands below you? If someone leaves then the calc should have you beat someone and draw with someone of similar level and ELO should be granted AND you'd get a more interesting game playing with people of similar skill.

That doesn't help anything for arena

ChesterDeBester wrote: ↑27 April 2024, 08:45 What is the alternative you are proposing?

Should we build some extensive AI that will calculate how the game would have ended and award ELO based on that? :p

You either neutralize the results fully, or you let the ELO-calculation do it's thing.

I don't know of a great solution.

The minimal fix that would fix what happened to me would be to not engage the elo neutralization/tie after all players have passed for the last gen. So, if someone gets skipped/leaves after passing but without playing their last greenery, it just skips them and scores the game normally.

Another solution could be to not allow players remaining a free leave unless they're the last one. So, in a 3 player game, if one person leaves, the remaining 2 must keep playing and then the game scored normally except that any players that left get an automatic loss. Maybe only do this is the game has gone past a certain generation or terraforming percentage.

BaronMerlin wrote: ↑28 April 2024, 12:39 Can't you use the function already provided in the top right when setting up a table to restrict other players ELO to ensure you don't play with players several bands below you? If someone leaves then the calc should have you beat someone and draw with someone of similar level and ELO should be granted AND you'd get a more interesting game playing with people of similar skill.

This doesn't really fix the issue. Even if you're playing against people all at your own skill level, if some one leaves a game you would have won, you end up with less ELO than you would have gotten for a win against everyone instead of a tie against some players.