Ladders

[Keygen]

It's better to protect it with passwords just to avoid cheating.
CMN can just hit the END or play the turn. It up to the player.
And always picking for CMN a player who is not currently playing in this game.

[Solver]

It's not wise for the others to set passwords, they're rarely compiciated enough. My passwords are always damned difficult, while the passwords set by the others are often just 5 letters and digits.
Also, take a look atht the way this happens in CtP: you play your turn, and the file for next player is put on your Desktop. So, you just need to click on it in order to see what your enemy is up to - but we do trust the others, and I can't remember terrible incidents because of this here, at Apolyton.

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Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[Viriato]

I arrive a bit late but here's my opinion.

I basically agree with what Tau Ceti stated in his post. He is probably one of the more fundamented opinions we can get. But there maybe more to it.

This game has been known to favour the warmongers. Most of the PBEM games never pass behiond the 100 turns. The ladder system could then be a way to reward the builders.

About the problems Googlie referred if your oponents are exchanging techs even if they don't need it and getting more points thanks to it that won't last long. On the long term they will need more turns to complete a research than you and you will easely outcome them.
The same thing with the crawlers. You will loose points while building crawlers but you will recover them when you build the SP or use your better production to build units/facilities faster.

What I am saying is that in the early game a better player may have a poor score but in the long term he will for sure outcome a more weak player. If you're playing several games, and normally you are, the early game effect will be minimized.

As a final remark I would like to talk about my personal experience.
Recently I won a game in the tournament against more experienced players and who were above me in the power graph for the most part of the game. Basically I won the game because when there were only 3 of us left the other 2 got into a fight and destroyed each other.
Considering the tournament rules I get a lot of points and they loose some. With the ladder system their performance throughout the game would have been rewarded, even if still got more points then they would.

It won't be easy finding a system to please the majority of the SMAC players but it might be worth a try.

[Solver]

Viriato, that's what I'm trying to do since I started the thread. I know SMAC is different, but at least now, I got someone rated here. What I want is feedback from those Chiron Winter 2 players who haven't still gave me their initial ratings and such.

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Solver the "Running Beer" - http://www.aok.20m.com

[aebbeka]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I would like to join a game. The highest AI level I've defeated is Librarian. (yeah, yeah, don't laugh, i've never even tried transcend. I get tired of the same old thing always happening. Yang and Miriam overtake everyone else, game over.)

[Solver]

Aebbeka,
Go to Tau Ceti's Tournament Sign-up thread, he'll get you in a game. If you want, you can ask the others to make the game rated, when you ask to get into a game.
Happy gaming!

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Solver the "Running Beer" - http://www.aok.20m.com