PDL 2020 Viewers Lounge

[Woolgie]

The first four PDL games have been created and invites sent. You can watch the games here (links will be available when the games start):

164071 PDL D1 Jan A https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play_details.php?game_id=164071

164075 PDL D1 Jan B https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play_details.php?game_id=164075

164076 PDL D2 Jan A https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play_details.php?game_id=164076

164074 PDL D2 Jan B https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play.php?game_id=164074

165174 PDL D1 https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play_details.php?game_id=165174

165175 PDL D2 https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play.php?game_id=165175

166091 PDL D1 Mar A

166092 PDL D1 Mar B

166093 PDL D2 Mar A

166094 PDL D2 Mar B

Please restrict any comments below to not discussing strategy as per the site rules.

[Custer]

Marking me turf......

[jay65536]

Will definitely be checking this. Wish I could play (prior time commitments won't allow it).

I didn't want to foul up the signups thread with this question, but I wonder if some of the players may find this relevant as the year wears on:

Under this scoring system, how exactly does the 4 points per center work? I assume that if someone votes their way out of a draw, they still get 4 points per center? Also, does this hold in the event of a solo? Do players who lose to a solo still get 4 points per center? And does the soloist also get 4 points per center, meaning center count matters in a solo?

[Woolgie]

Will definitely be checking this. Wish I could play (prior time commitments won't allow it).

I didn't want to foul up the signups thread with this question, but I wonder if some of the players may find this relevant as the year wears on:

Under this scoring system, how exactly does the 4 points per center work? I assume that if someone votes their way out of a draw, they still get 4 points per center? Also, does this hold in the event of a solo? Do players who lose to a solo still get 4 points per center? And does the soloist also get 4 points per center, meaning center count matters in a solo?

Yes to everything. The four points per centre are always awarded based on the end of the game counts. It is not intended that these points challenge the scale of points for a draw but merely allow a differential between those getting zero for a loss.

[jay65536]

That is surprising to me, because the way you have laid out the system, the draw points from a 2way down go 126/84/63/50/42/36. That means, for example, that a 4way can beat a 3way with 6 extra centers (24 vs. 21), or a 5way can beat a 4way with 4 extra centers (16 vs. 13). I had assumed this was intentional!

[V]

That is surprising to me, because the way you have laid out the system, the draw points from a 2way down go 126/84/63/50/42/36. That means, for example, that a 4way can beat a 3way with 6 extra centers (24 vs. 21), or a 5way can beat a 4way with 4 extra centers (16 vs. 13). I had assumed this was intentional!

Oh God, & now it starts. There’s a reason PDL2018 failed...
Let Woolgie do whatever Woolgie does. We have 42 eager participants who will hopefully complete 4 games each.
Bickering about F ing points does nobody any good...

[Woolgie]

That is surprising to me, because the way you have laid out the system, the draw points from a 2way down go 126/84/63/50/42/36. That means, for example, that a 4way can beat a 3way with 6 extra centers (24 vs. 21), or a 5way can beat a 4way with 4 extra centers (16 vs. 13). I had assumed this was intentional!

There will always come a point when the points have an effect. If someone gets 17 centres and loses, they’ll get 68 points which is obviously better than a three way. But totally unlikely. And then you have to consider that three way participant would also have SC points too so they would still get more.

As for your example, when could a 4 way participant have 6 more centres than if there was one less player? It’s technically possible yes and let’s see what happens, but it’s unlikely. If it does happen it’ll be fun.

Maybe I should edit my previous message as the points could have an impact, but it will be rare that someone can play for extra centres and deliberately not eliminate a player rather than eliminate a player and thereby pick extra centres too.

Lastly, thems the rules.

[Custer]

Bravo, bravo......well said.......play ball!

Custer

[jay65536]

As for your example, when could a 4 way participant have 6 more centres than if there was one less player? It’s technically possible yes and let’s see what happens, but it’s unlikely. If it does happen it’ll be fun.

Maybe I should edit my previous message as the points could have an impact, but it will be rare that someone can play for extra centres and deliberately not eliminate a player rather than eliminate a player and thereby pick extra centres too.

Deliberately not eliminating a player is something that you do not to gain draw points, but usually to indirectly help you try for a solo. As such, my example is meant to show that this aspect of the system strikes me as a good thing, not a bad thing, but the players should be aware of exactly how the system works before they get into any midgame/endgame scenarios.

It might help the players, for example, to know that under the PDL2020 system, the German result in this game:
https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play ... _id=131301

would not be worth as much as the German result in this game:
https://www.playdiplomacy.com/game_play ... _id=135230

even though the first result is a 3way and the second result is a 4way. (The first is 120 points; the second is 123.) The point is that if you're Germany in the second game, you don't have to scramble to whittle down the draw in order to get a solid point result, and your solo bid didn't screw you out of a good spot in the league standings, as it would have done if centers were just a tiebreaker instead of a significant part of the score. (Of course in the second position, whittling the draw down is an even better result, if it's possible, so I don't think players would be deliberately voting larger draws just because, but still.) As for how likely this is, I just picked out two games from my finished games list, which is only 6 games long. So I think this might end up impacting the standings in some way by the time the league plays out. Again, though, I'm saying this because I think that kind of impact on the league standings seems like it'll be a good thing.

[Custer]

Ouch! My head hurts. Jeeves! Bring up another bottle of vodka!

LOL

Custer