Start Ranking 1st round

[data2008]

How should the Ranking be determined First Round?
Should Players make a secret bid before landing on the planet, thereby lowering their money asset and automatically drop in rank?
Or should it be based on hiscore Ranking?

Or just leave it random?

Please post your thoughts here.

[Keybounce]

High score ranking.

[leahcim99]

Secret Bid....Hi Score would be a disadvantage to top players.

Perhaps it can be based upon a players score from his/her from last game played...A player who has a real bad game would have an advantage in the very next game that they played.

 

[benoit]

I like random for starting.

[Bumbes]

As long as there are no good/bad news in#1 starting position advantage is minor imo, buying land for 1000 will usually cripple your development, buying out the store will drop your cash and others might buy land in #2.

Random was fine for me but Mt-Wampus is right, for example if there's just one 3 mountain plot on the map.

It's a small disadvantage for top players but following the 'last come, first served' philosophy highscore ranking based start position would make sense.


Well, secret bid, how to determine if 2 or more players don't place a bid?


Edit: Last played games could cause a tie as well, same is true for the highscore based model in case there are 2 new players with no games at all.

[data2008]

Well, secret bid, how to determine if 2 or more players don't place a bid?

Secret bidding would allow each player to choose to start with less money than the initial $1000.
For example, if one player bid $25, he would start with $975, which would make him fourth place if no one else bid lower. In case of a tie it would be random again for those equal.
So players would decide how much they want to bid for an eventual start advantage of being last.

[Mt-Wampus]

The best thing for Planetmule is probably to just shut down the site for a couple weeks and make a exact copy of the original C64 M.U.L.E. game with updated graphics and be done with it. There is just no way to make everybody happy and all the off the wall suggestions for game changes are taking the game to a strange unfamiliar place. Remake the C64 version, spruce up the graphics and fix the bugs is what i would do. A few bells and whistles is cool as long as they dont alter game play.

[C64 nostalgia]

The best thing for Planetmule is probably to just shut down the site for a couple weeks and make a exact copy of the original C64 M.U.L.E. game with updated graphics and be done with it. There is just no way to make everybody happy and all the off the wall suggestions for game changes are taking the game to a strange unfamiliar place. Remake the C64 version, spruce up the graphics and fix the bugs is what i would do. A few bells and whistles is cool as long as they dont alter game play.

Mt. Wampus sees the light -- a miracle on Planet M.U.L.E. Please, everyone... a moment of silence.

[C64 nostalgia]

How should the Ranking be determined First Round?
Should Players make a secret bid before landing on the planet, thereby lowering their money asset and automatically drop in rank?
Or should it be based on hiscore Ranking?

Or just leave it random?

More seriously...

Leave it random or base first round ranking on total number of games played. Total number of game played is fully objective, and correlates with a player's experience. The reason I give total games played over Hi-Score ranking as a suggestion is clearly outlined in the Proposal for a new ranking model thread: http://www.planetmule.com/forum?topic=682.0. Many do not believe the current Hi-Score ranking is an accurate measure of a player's proficiency.

[Intergalactic Mole]

The original M.U.L.E. did not support net-play.  A net-capable clone can never be programmed to be exactly the same as the original.  There have to be changes made to accomodate for latency.  Otherwise there are handicaps depending on each players latency.  

Back to the original topic... my vote would be random.

[C64 nostalgia]

The original M.U.L.E. did not support net-play.  A net-capable clone can never be programmed to be exactly the same as the original.  There have to be changes made to accomodate for latency.  Otherwise there are handicaps depending on each players latency.  

Back to the original topic... my vote would be random.

So then, are you suggesting latency being the determiner for first round ranking? I don't think that's a bad idea either.

Or, are you suggesting something totally different?

[Intergalactic Mole]

As previous noted, my vote was for it to be random.  I was pointing out to Wampus that his idea is not possible, and was actually somewhat hypocritical.  He is asking for an exact copy and then goes on to say it's okay to make changes. ..... 

[C64 nostalgia]

The original M.U.L.E. did not support net-play.  A net-capable clone can never be programmed to be exactly the same as the original.  There have to be changes made to accomodate for latency.  Otherwise there are handicaps depending on each players latency.  

Back to the original topic... my vote would be random.

My thought was Mt. Wampus was being sarcastic.

And, I have no idea how I missed your last sentence. Please, forgive me. I think, I just really liked your unintentional suggestion for the player with the greatest latency to get last place for round one.

[Mt-Wampus]

As previous noted, my vote was for it to be random.  I was pointing out to Wampus that his idea is not possible, and was actually somewhat hypocritical.  He is asking for an exact copy and then goes on to say it's okay to make changes. ..... 

Where did i say ANYTHING about it being OK to make changes? Do i even know you? Why the venom?

[dynadan]

I think first round ranking should be left random.  As the game is now each starting position plays a little differently.  I know I have a different strategy depending on which position i am in the 1st round.  This adds replayability to the game.  Making the system based on ranking or number of games would continually make the same people play the same position which i think hurts the game.  If random just had to be changed, i would go with ranking based on last legally finished game score.  That would at least give the less experienced players a chance to start in 1st and give the experienced players a small chance to start in last.

I agree with Interagalactic Mole any attempt to make this game exactly like the original will fail because of the latency issues with auctions.  That's why I have been so frustrated with the auction debate.... If we make the game as close to the original as possible it would become totally unplayable.  (talked about this plenty in other threads)  So if we can all agree that it CAN NOT be the same as the original, then we can start  discussing the pros and cons of any changes with a focus on improving current gameplay.  I think that would be a step in the right direction.

Otherwise make a hotseat only version that people can play with the updated graphics to get their exactly like the original "fix".

I agree with Mt. Wampus that you can't please everyone.  The developers have some tough decisions to make on what they want to spend their time and effort doing.  All we can do is keep debating and hope for the best.