Planet M.U.L.E.

After much discussion and feedback, we have decided to recalculate the Hi-Score list as a first step towards a better Ranking System. While still not necessarily the strongest players end up highest, at least "consistently fair" players are now higher in the rankings.

From now on only tournament games which finish with at least 2 human players count towards "won games" affecting the ranking.

Therefore, one more column got added called "Legally Finished", from which then the "wins" are counted.
Abandoned or "unlegally finished" games are not counted.

This is the first step of a two-step measurement, which primary purpose is to ensure a better and fairer game environment and discourage cheating.

Any feedback and discussion is welcomed.

The Mule-Dev-Team.

yay, now i can play uschi an friends and they cant kick me!
Thanks guys  :D

well, they still can refuse to play with you and kick you before the game starts...

They wont finish a game if they kick me, at least they cant record a win. I outrank simpla now so its all good!
ps. hes still playing a game after somone dropped out, wonder what hell say when he notices he wasted his time playing with himself..

DM

This small change puts much more power to the players:
For a hosting player, it's now best to choose up to 4 players, as one foul player won't threaten to ruin the game.
Also, hosts will be looking for fair players, who are not likely to abandon when they are not hosting and losing.

Looks like the winning % for Simpla and Uschi dropped from like 90% to 30%. HaHa. Half of those 30% probably still came because of host advantages. Not that it matters anyway! Still comes down to who can play the most games gets the highest rankings.

I really like the new ranking system. I think it does justice to those who play the game.

Just a thought, how about recalculating the weekly Top 3 to compensate for only Legal games?

It would be like checking for band steroids after someone has won a race.

Thank you for all the hard work that you've put in to making this game.

- WYB

horrah... this is a good move data2008....
have the legal games been fully recalculated? as i can still see the the usual cheats still have their two-human games counting towards their wins
 ::)

I think to many people are obsessed with the rankings more than just playing the game for the fun of it. I see guys playing 25-30 games a week just to try and get a badge. Saw a weekly winner play 17 games in less than 2 days so he could get a badge. As much as i love mule that sounds like a chore and obsession to me.

@moodzzz: They should be fully recalculated, and new games counted accordingly.

It does discourage unfair kicking or tricks to force noobs or other players out of the game, but of course if a player hosting a 2 player game also finishes it with 2 humans after round 12 (=no bot has taken over a human), it does get counted as "legally finished".

So noobs could "annoy" hosts playing with only 2 humans, if they feel treated unfair or leave the game due to "lack of interest". So playing with noobs is becoming a bit more uncalculatable for a host, though one could simply wait for more players in the beginning, as then 1 noob or "foul apple" won't spoil the result. Of course it's much harder for "those hosts" to attract that many players in the beginning...


Another measurement which we are thinking about (and would like to see some feedback prior to implementing it) is to calculate the reliability of a host:

We count all (tourney) games a player has hosted so far (let's say 10 games).
Then we give each type of game a theoretical number of points depending on human players (2 humans = 1 point, 3 humans = 2 points and 4 humans = 3 points).
Let's assume the host has chosen 10 x 2 human player games = 10 theoretical points.
Then we count how many human players abandoned the game AFTER round 2 (if the game is abandoned before, then we don't count any points, in favor of the host), by subtracting 1 point for each human who did not finish round 12.
Let's say from the 10 2 player hosted games, only 3 ended round 12 with both human players still in game.
Then the host would have a hosting success rate of 30%. Of course this does not measure if a non-hosting player left the game voluntarily or due to his conncetion failure. But it still measures how many players were able to make it till the end.

We would then categorize hosts into something like this (based on the average outcome of all hosts):
>80% very good
 60% good
 40% okay
<40% bad

For a player hosting his first 3 human player game and ending up with 1 human player less, it would mean 1 out of 2 points = 50%. Of course the average would even out the more "reliable" games would be finished.

We are evaluating now, how that would result for most of the hosting players, but its likely, it will help better differentiate unreliable hosts (for whatever reasons, intentionally or technical does not matter) and be then able to show their sucess/failure rate in the lobby.

This of course somewhat turns around the perceived position of strength of a host back to the players not hosting, but then the host still has the inherently "gameplay advantages" of being the host.

Excellent idea!  We need a tool so players can view someones hosting record and can separate the bad hosts from the good ones.  This will do the trick.

Thanks

Wow - Great Idea for the ranking of hosts and also the Updated Ranking System is nice to see.

Great Job

that's a really good idea, as it becomes easier for rookies like me to somewhat assess the fairness of hosts before you enter a game. it may prevent you from realizing after some rounds that you are in a 2player game with a host that wont respond until you quit the game, who then goes on to play AI....

thank you for putting so much effort in improving this game and keeping it up and running

Who cares about the rankings! Play just for fun! All i care about is getting into a game with guys who dont quit. Abandoned stat is all i care about.

Hooray to Legally Finished! YAY!

Those players that dropped from 90 to 30 percent probably had a noob that was way behind and no need to boot!  The host ratings is a good idea!
I try to be the bestest host at Planet Mule.  Always helping new players to get up to speed before they lose interest.  I will occasionally host but not play to remove the host advantage from the players playing.
If I just relax when playing, I may win less but sure do enjoy it more!
As far as badges go, I won the weekly once, and am satisfied with that!
Spending 8 hrs and more in 1 day playing this game cannot be healthy!