Colours of names changed

[samuel]

Having just asked Spion why a player was blue when he could not play ranked, Spion said they have removed some colours and now all registered players are blue. He then went offline before I could continue. But I wanted to make the point that this now means its hard to tell if a player is capable of playing a ranked game or not unless they tell you. When a player is new you might want to set it up for a ranked game but then they won't be able to join. I always knew green meant they could not do ranked, now its hard to know if they dont say or reject your setup - they might just leave the room and then the game is lost totally.

Why not bring back the colours but put a description of what each one means on the main page? I myself never found out what orange meant!

[stratego]

hi,

you are right, we changed the color system today. additionally we add some features / fix some mistakes.

the colors:
we just use 2 colors for user and 2 colors for the gravon team:
blue: registered user /white unregistered user
black: admin / orange: moderator

because the old colors lead to more confusion than information (green colors could have 10 reasons)
we changed the system. this may lead to the situation, that you have to ask for ranking.
i do not understand your remark about leaving a game. a player without ranking option cannot join a game, if
ranking is enabled.

gravon pro:

this is the new client, but without download. just click on the link at webside. then a webstart application starts.
(if you click at gravon pro for the first time, the system loads some data)

within the new window the option: "open with..." should be enabled - just click at "ok"

bronstein / xfiles

if a player leaves a game with bronstein time modus, the game will now be added to the x-files.
there is no problem, if a player let his personal time run down to zero, but he must stay in the game, till it
ends in a draw.

later we add a new feature. if a player can claim a draw by timeout (because his personal time exceed
the main time of the game) he can click a button and the game ends direct in a draw. there will be an
additonal information for both players in the chat-box (timeout by bronstein modus)

watching for visitors

unregistered players cannot disable this option any longer.
if a registered and unregistered player join a game, the registered player is allowed to disable this option.

enable / disable options

if a player leaves a game before the game starts, the other player can change the settings, without to reset the game.

timeout unranked games

we smaller the waiting time for unranked games: => 5 mins for a win
(ranked games => 10 min)

bugfix bronstein modus

several bugfixes within bronstein modus.
e.g. it could happen, that a player lost by timeout, because his
opponent left the game during his move. the correct result is now in the batle results / rankings.

new ISF two-square-rule

as of 2011 we follow the new ISF two-square-rule. the rules was changed within 2010 for all nso`s,
(national stratego organisation) who want their tournament being taken into account for the ISF Stratego Rating.

the players can choose between the old or new rule:
old rules: 5 times - - - new rule: 3 times

additional background information:

1.1
The ISF Game Rules are standard criteria set by the International Stratego Federation (ISF),
which (together with the ISF Tournament Regulations) have to be met by tournament organizers if
they want their tournament being taken into account for the ISF Stratego Rating. Tournaments which
meet these criteria will hereafter be called ISF-tournaments. (ISF STratego Rating => Kleier Ranking)

1.2
The ISF Game Rules are based on the Jumbo Stratego Original Game Rules (see article 5).
The ISF Game Rules focus on potential conflict situations during tournaments, which are not
described in detail in the Jumbo Stratego Original Game Rules.


the new two-square-rule:

10. Three Moves on Two Squares: Two-Squares Rule

10.1
It is not allowed to move a piece more than 3 times non-stop between the same two squares,
regardless of what the opponent is doing. It does not matter whether a piece is moving and
thereby attacking an opponent’s piece, or just moving to an empty square.

10.2
When a scout is involved in the Two-Squares Rule, a scout is considered to start on the starting position
of his move plus all the squares he steps over, and he ends on the final position of his move plus
all the squares he steps over.


more stratego features

we will add some new features like:
- extra ranking for the shortest bronstein modus (speed stratego)
- challenge ranking: as of 2011 players have to play 25 games /quarter (100 pro year)
- overall ranking: as of 2011 players have to play 4 games each month. maybe we add a small ratio
(1:5 or 1:6) like we did for the challenge ranking.

[samuel]

Love all those new rules/ideas! Excellent stuff and some niggling problems now fixed.

I mentioned the colour because if I set a game up for ranking, but its quiet and a player who is green comes in to the room, I can de-select the ranking option so he can join - but now I might not know if he can do ranked or not, and he might leave the room before I can ask, since he won't be able to join. I won't want to change it in case he CAN do ranked games. Its not a massive problem, only that its harder to tell now and adjust the settings appropriately.

[acerimmer]

Hi

Just a few quick points:

Firstly I agree with samuel about losing the green nicks.

Secondly I think rather than be an option......the ISF rules should be followed in their entirety for any ranked game. Personally I prefere 5 over 3 move.....but as to not create any problems for (mostly) internet players who might want to join real life ISF games, I think this setting should be encouraged. Maybe have the 5 move option for any unranked game, but keep ranked games strictly to ISF rules please.

Thirdly I like the new stratego features, but I think it would also be good to have things say what they mean, currently a player has to play 3 games in 2 months......and sometimes they stay in the rankings much longer even though they broke this low limit.

Thanks,

Ace

[acerimmer]

Oh, and can we please have caps back in the nicks?
acerimmer is not AceRimmer.

[stratego]

hi ace,

joining a game the settings show the new isf rules per default, but we want to give some time to the
players, which do not know them. for a start both rules count for ranking, but i agree that we should change it after some time.

the caps are lost within the last update and i dont know why, for sure a little bug. we will fix it.

about ranking: do you know any names, which stay in the list without playing?

if so, we have to fix it too.

[acerimmer]

[gentleben]

I liked it better when we could see who could play a ranked game. I would prefer to go back to some kind of identifying mark, color being the best way I know.

But thanks for your constant efforts to improve the site.

[stratego]

hi,

the problem with the color is, that we have several rankings, not only stratego.
and we cannot add a new color for each ranking. next to that, some have no ranking, get a ranking bann etc etc.
if we fix all with a different color, we need an extra manual for the users.
(the blue color in past does not mean, that the player could play stratego ranking)

but checking ranking is easy, within every room you can use the menu "view" => management => userlist
click at a nick in the userlist to show his ranking.

beside other features we add a profile for each user in future, this will work better than 8 colors.

stratego

[gentleben]

I understand some might find it complicated but 8 colors are not needed. One color for registered/unranked players will work for ALL games just like one color (white) for all unregistered players works. All you need is a color for each game that has a ranking, like: blue - stratego, green - malefiz, etc. That would identify which players typically play which games.

Or a simpler way could be:
1. a color for ranked game players (and let these players play ranked games on every game)
2. a color for registered/unranked players (those who cannot play ranked games yet)
3. a color for unregistered players

[stratego]

hi ben,

its not that we didnt think about different systems, but none of these will work.

in past we had a simple world - malefiz or stratego. but today we have more players. next to that the players mix the
games and most can play for 2 or 3 rankings.

next to that you cannot use one color for one game:

green in past could be (i mention some options, there are much more)

- a player who is registered, but cannot play any ranking
- a player who wants to play rummikub ranking
- a player who wants to play rummikub and malefiz ranking
- a player who waits for stratego ranking, but cannot play rummikub ranking
- a player who waits for stratego ranking, but cannot play malefiz ranking
- a player who waits for stratego ranking,
- a player who plays stratego only, but cannot use ranking, because another player under the ip has already a ranking
- a player who had a stratego ranking, but gets a ranking bann.
etc etc.

if we mix up all with different colors, noone understands anything and the colors are useless.
beside we will have more rankings in future and even in past blue doesnt quarantee a stratego ranking.

the option via management is much easier and of course the new system is part of comming features.

stratego

[unbiasbob]

great job making it so white names cannot remove watching. I could never understand why white nicks unticked that anyway

[gentleben]

Stratego, I think you misunderstand how simple my last suggestion is. It allows someone to identify players who can play ranked games and players who can't but only has three colors.

1. a color for ranked game players (and let these players play ranked games on every game)
2. a color for registered/unranked players (those who cannot play ranked games yet)
3. a color for unregistered players

Just have one color for people who can play ranked games regardless of what game that is. But do not give them a ranking until they play the required number of games, just like playa1 who is no longer ranked but can play ranked games if he chooses.

And then have a color for those who cannot yet play ranked games but are registered and working on it.

And then finally have a color for unregistered players.

This elliminates the problem of not knowing whether a player can play a ranked game or not without having to look them up on some list. It is very simple.

[stratego]

hi ben,

yes maybe we misunderstand each other:

we cannot enable all rankings for all registered players. this bring us back to
old times with 100 of double nicks. its a lot of work to check the registered players
and we finally have a working system especially for stratego.

next to that i do not understand the difference between:

Just have one color for people who can play ranked games regardless of
what game that is. But do not give them a ranking until they play the
required number of games, just like playa1 who is no longer ranked but
can play ranked games if he chooses.

and

And then have a color for those who cannot yet play ranked games but are registered and working on it.

what is the difference between "working on it" and "untill they played the required number of games"

blue nick means:
this player has at least one ranking enabled - regardless of what game that is.

- only rummikub ranking (active after the requirement no of games)
- only malefiz ranking (active after the requirement no of games)
- only startego ranking (active after the requirement no of games)
- or a mix of any mentioned rankings (active after the requirement no of games for each game)

white => unreg player - no rankings at all

of course we could create 2 or 3 more colors for each status, but no
one understand this and we wanted a very simple system.

all admins within the team fully agreed to the new system.

of course you (or others) can bring up a proposal for the next meeting and i will ask
the team if we follow the arguments and change it again. (we meet every 14 days)

greets
stratego

[gentleben]

Stratego,

I am not trying to be difficult I hope you know and if you change nothing I will live with it. But here is the problem as I see it and the problem that was originally complained about by samuel. Samuel and I see that it is now difficult to tell whether a player who enters a room we are in can play a ranked game or not. With only two colors a player could be registered and not be able to play ranked games because they are new to gravon and are in that waiting period before they can play ranked games.

Let me try to explain with an example. Let's say I am in a room joined to a game waiting for another player to come in the room and join. If someone like playa1 came in he could play a ranked game even though he is currently not on the ranking board because he has not played enough games in the last 2 months. However, lets say a recently registered player comes in and I see his nick is blue. I might think he can play a ranked game even though he cannot yet. He also might leave the room when I would not mind playing an unranked game, if I only knew he could not play ranked games. (I do not mind playing new players who have registered even though they cannot play ranked games yet)

So my proposal was for three colors:
1. A color for players who can play ranked games. (And let that color have the ability to play ranked games of every type, stratego, malefiz, rummikub, etc.) This color can also be used for players who can play ranked games but who are not ranked because they have not played enough games.
2. A color for newly registered players who cannot play ranked games yet.
3. A color for unregistered players.

Maybe this has helped you understand what I meant. But thanls for all the work the admins do to improve this site.