Re: [VANILLA-LIST:3128] changing the winning conditions for clue games

["Jonathan Ellis" <jbe28@email.byu.edu>]

> Let's try switching to an on-going scoring mechanism used in sports.  At
> regular intervals (perhaps every tick), current team point count would
> be calculated and added to each team's grand total.  At end-game, whoever
> has the highest score (absolute or by a margin) wins.

I've thought Netrek needed to switch to something like this for a long time,
but I thought it too radical a change to be accepted by "the INLC."  But
let's face it, 90 minute games -- even 60 minute games -- where only the
last 10 minutes are really exciting are not the way to go.

> Here is one possible formula:
>
> team1_points = (team2_army_def - team1_army_def) * 2 + team1_army_surplus.

> 4) Army stashing gives points, but using those armies gives a relatively
>    larger number of points.

Whad I'd be worried about is seeing this encourage stashing even MORE than
it is now.  As it stands, a team could choose between a guaranteed five
points
for leaving the armies on the planet, or a possible ten for dropping.  (Or
zero,
if the count is taken while the armies are on board the carrier.)  Maybe
just
adjusting the army_def multiplier upwards would be enough.  It would be fun
to try, for sure.

Obviously in any such scheme you'd want a very fine-grained timer so that
you don't introduce a "playing the clock" factor where teams try to time
their
takes just before the score update.  In fact I think a score updated every
second
would be fine.  Just devide the end results by 1000 or so to make it look
nicer. :)

-Jonathan