Board Game Arena

I am a newbie and I want to limit the skill level of the people I play against so I can learn the games. For example, I am at an ELO 1 in Ticket to Ride. I really don't want to play against someone who is an ELO 300+

I have the premium subscription - is there a setting that would allow me to limit players to people with less than 200 ELO?

When you create a game, (using the classic way of doing it), there is a link above the game window saying "Restrict table access". If you are creating a game from the game page, then there is a green people going through a door icon to open the "Restrict table access" window.

In Arena mode there are settings to restrict the level but they never work.

Goto play now. Find your game. Click to create. Really close to where you choose number of players. Is a tab for restrict access. Click. On. Set your preferences. One of the best features of site. Welcome to bga.

drstuey wrote: ↑09 May 2025, 11:30 In Arena mode there are settings to restrict the level but they never work.

I'm not sure that they don't work, but they often don't work the way people expect. They restrict in terms of Arena level, not ELO or player category. And in some leagues, there is only bronze and elite, so +1/-1 level can put a bronze player against an elite one.

KC Ryker wrote: ↑09 May 2025, 06:03 I am a newbie and I want to limit the skill level of the people I play against so I can learn the games. For example, I am at an ELO 1 in Ticket to Ride. I really don't want to play against someone who is an ELO 300+

I have the premium subscription - is there a setting that would allow me to limit players to people with less than 200 ELO?

You identified yourself as a newbie, yet you were referred to doing things the "classic way" as if that means anything to someone who wasn't around when the classic way was the only way....

Here's how you do it:
If you manually create a game (i.e., starting a game from the Play Now page [see my signature for the link] with the rightmost option set to "Manual"), you can adjust settings so that only beginners and apprentices are able to join by clicking the link labeled "Restrict table access." But it may seriously increase the time it takes for the game to fill.

Alternatively, under Automatic matching you can leave "I'm okay playing with: My level" set to the default (under Opponent's Level in Show Advanced Options) and set everything else to "I never want to play with." The filter options are found by clicking on the gear icon next to the game thumbnail image.

Those first two options are found on the Play Now page. From the single-game lobby, under the Start button to the right of the number of players you will see a green icon with people coming out of (or going into?) a door. Click on that to filter by opponent's level.

I didn't realize there were different options depending on how you start the game. Is this also true for reputation? I had someone tell me when I create a game I can do good reputation only but couldn't find that feature when creating the game. However, I usually only create the game from the Games page.

Alright - while writing this I went and looked from the "Play Now" setting and see how to do this! Cool! Didn't realize the different tabs had different options. I've been on BGA over a year. Makes me wonder what else I've been missing!

beth_five44 wrote: ↑11 May 2025, 13:59 I didn't realize there were different options depending on how you start the game. Is this also true for reputation? I had someone tell me when I create a game I can do good reputation only but couldn't find that feature when creating the game. However, I usually only create the game from the Games page.

Alright - while writing this I went and looked from the "Play Now" setting and see how to do this! Cool! Didn't realize the different tabs had different options. I've been on BGA over a year. Makes me wonder what else I've been missing!

Yes, restricting by reputation is available in the same place you use to restrict by skill level. "restrict table access" when creating a new table.

beth_five44 wrote: ↑11 May 2025, 13:59 I didn't realize there were different options depending on how you start the game. Is this also true for reputation? I had someone tell me when I create a game I can do good reputation only but couldn't find that feature when creating the game. However, I usually only create the game from the Games page.

You can restrict reputation from the Games page as well - those settings are under the little green door thing on the top right of the panel with the game settings (time/players/etc.). It's really unintuitive to find but once you know obviously it's not too hard to use.

nik592 wrote: ↑12 May 2025, 02:10

beth_five44 wrote: ↑11 May 2025, 13:59 I didn't realize there were different options depending on how you start the game. Is this also true for reputation? I had someone tell me when I create a game I can do good reputation only but couldn't find that feature when creating the game. However, I usually only create the game from the Games page.

You can restrict reputation from the Games page as well - those settings are under the little green door thing on the top right of the panel with the game settings (time/players/etc.). It's really unintuitive to find but once you know obviously it's not too hard to use.

and now I learned something new again! Thank you!