Board Game Arena

I understand that there is a penalty for winning several times in a row against the same player. However, in game 841508366 I played the first time with all of my opponents and got a -3% penalty. Can anyone exlain to me why this is?

This seems like a bug alright.

Based on previous advice, BGA expects you to submit a bug report in order to get the root problem resolved, and you should also contact support to manually correct your rating. That said, I am not 100% sure, so I am going to ask an expert.

tchobello wrote: ↑05 May 2026, 08:48 Fixing the bug → that’s a technical issue → handled by developers.
Restoring your Arena/ELO points → that’s an individual account issue → not handled by developers.

Developers (whether BGA or game devs) don’t manage player accounts, rankings, or manual ELO/Arena adjustments. Their responsibility is to make sure the system works correctly for everyone.

https://boardgamearena.com/support

tchobello, please let us know if what I wrote above is correct, and if not, what should OP actually do. Or even if it is indeed a bug in the first place, or there is some other explanation. I include the relevant player history:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamestats?pl ... finished=1

I know absolutely nothing about this.
I am a developer, not BGA staff.
I'm only pissed off by players sending me bug reports about their ELO.

If you make a bug report, make sure to NOT link it to the game when making the report but do include the table number in the description.
The system automatically separate reports between game specific and website specific based on that field, but BGA just never check game specific reports since they are handled by game devs. So it's a bit counter-intuitive but do noy say yes when asked whether it was happening at a specific table.

tchobello wrote: ↑12 May 2026, 10:37 I know absolutely nothing about this.

In that case, sorry. You seemed confident in the other topic.

tchobello wrote: ↑12 May 2026, 10:37 I'm only pissed off by players sending me bug reports about their ELO.

But that's not the players' fault. How would they even know? A bug is a bug, whether it's related to ELO or anything else. You should be pissed off by BGA's lack of proper handling of bug reports if anything, because that's what should be improved.

Reporting this kind of bug isn't easy. I hope I did it right. You can select "ELO isn't correct" in the game menu, but then you are just directed to the FAQ, and it leads to nowhere.

Looks good to me so far, BUT this will only get the original bug corrected (hopefully). If you want your rating restored too, contact support.

It's less than 2 ELO in total, and it is a beta game. Forget the rating, I don't care.

h_illes wrote: ↑12 May 2026, 13:03

tchobello wrote: ↑12 May 2026, 10:37 I'm only pissed off by players sending me bug reports about their ELO.

But that's not the players' fault. How would they even know? A bug is a bug, whether it's related to ELO or anything else. You should be pissed off by BGA's lack of proper handling of bug reports if anything, because that's what should be improved.

True, though it would be nice if players also took a moment to ask themselves, "Is this a bug that is specific to this game or is it likely a bug pertaining to BGA in general?"

As tchobello noted, most bug reports have nothing to do with the code for the specific game, and it's a major nuisance to deal with them.

Yes, BGA should do more to help the developers. BGA should post in huge font at the top of specific game bug reporting pages:
DO NOT POST BUGS HERE RELATED TO KARMA, ELO, CLOCK ISSUES, SITE OUTAGES, CONNECTIVITIY ISSUES, SUSPECTED CHEATING.
PLEASE READ AND UDERSTAND THE GAME RULES BEFORE POSTING A BUG REPORT.
PLEASE USE THE SEARCH FEATURE TO CHECK FOR SIMILAR POSTS; MOST LIKELY YOUR BUG IS JUST A RULES MISUNDERSTANBDING.
PLEASE GOOGLE THE CARD OR RULE IN QUESTION, OR ASK THE MEMBERS IN THE SPECIFIC GAME FORUM FIRST.
PLEASE DO NOT WASTE VOLUNTEER'S TIME BY FAILING TO DO THE ABOVE STEPS FIRST.


For example, anyone posting a bug in Terraforming Mars could do any of those this instead of creating the 30th identical "bug" report of "Hey, my predators were not allowed to eat an opponent's Pets, fix it!"
A simple bug forum search for keywords "Pets" or "Predators" would prevent this time-wasting nonsense.

Or, "I was expelled from the game, fix my Karma and Elo."
Okay? and ?? What do you expect us to do about it?

Etc.

FrankJones wrote: ↑13 May 2026, 11:56

h_illes wrote: ↑12 May 2026, 13:03 But that's not the players' fault. How would they even know? A bug is a bug, whether it's related to ELO or anything else. You should be pissed off by BGA's lack of proper handling of bug reports if anything, because that's what should be improved.

True, though it would be nice if players also took a moment to ask themselves, "Is this a bug that is specific to this game or is it likely a bug pertaining to BGA in general?"

It's not even just that. If a player gets their ELO calculated wrong (as for OP), that's a bug, right? Well, if they report it through the bug report system, even if they mark it as not specific to a game, they will NOT get their ELO fixed. For that, apparently they have to contact support in addition to the bug report. Why the player needs to go through an extra hoop for that is baffling. If whoever receives the bug report does not have the proper access to correct all aspects of the bug, the rest of the job should be forwarded to others who do, either automatically or by those who only resolve part of the bug.