Vortex Wars

Dear developers,

I've just had the most stupid match you could imagine. It was that frustrating that on more then one occasion I shouted about all sorts of nasty things concerning your mothers.
When you are clearly winning, having 2/3 of XXL map on attrition, many 8's and your opponent has only few with rest of 1's, you do not expect bad programming to help you lose. To be more precise, this is what happened during 10 - 20 turns. The opponent attacks my 8 with 5 - wins having 4. Attacks my 8 with 4 - its draw, I have 3 on that tile. I attack with my 8 his 6, I lose, he has 5 left... Of course, these are not exact events, but this is something that kept and kept happening. Well, I'm student of mathematics, 3rd year, and I have knowledge of statistics and probability. Either our understanding of probable events differ, or your algorithm is lacking... (and I forgot to point out I had Demons race faced against non-bonus race). I am only sorry that I didn't note every roll. It was absurd.
Another thing is the algorithm for border distribution. It is too weak. On some occasions purely stupid. It could be much more efficient. At least do not give all tiles that are bordering same unoccupied, "dead end" tile many reinforcements when only one tile can be used.
And while I'm complaining, another thing is draw button... can you please, pretty please, reveal to us the pagan ritual that needs to be done in order to be able to draw. Once, I waited for full moon, danced naked around fire whispering klingon and bathed in the blood of a chicken I slaughtered moments before. No sign of draw. Then the other time it appeared for no apparent reason.
At least give us a readme when you update.

Thank you for reading this,
your player, Ennar.

1) "problems" you encountered are not results of bad programming, if anything, they are design "problems"
2) they are not problems, everything works as designed
3) if you know something about probability theory and statistics, you might also heard about pseudo random numbers, guess what, they are not random. I am using top of the line pseudo random number generator but it can still bite you in the ass as you can see. I don't plan to modify results to make them more """fair"""
3) border distribution works as designed, if you don't like it than use manual distribution (no matter what I do, there will be people complaining that it doesn't work as it should)
4) there are release notes after each update, you can find them in announcements section of this forum.
5) You are first to complain (as far as I know) that draw button doesn't work since I fixed it last time. If you feel that it doesn't show when it should let me know so I can look into it. I can't fix something I don't know about

And while I'm complaining, another thing is draw button... can you please, pretty please, reveal to us the pagan ritual that needs to be done in order to be able to draw. Once, I waited for full moon, danced naked around fire whispering klingon and bathed in the blood of a chicken I slaughtered moments before. No sign of draw.

Talking about the draw button, I think he meant that you have to wait for 20 turns to be able to use it, and that could be very reasonable complaint, because in many games there are use of forming alliances, and when you have defeated the rest of the players, it's silly to wait until you have collected those much needed 20 turns. I'd prefer not waiting for button to appear, but if it's a big no-no, then could we at at least talk about reducing the number to 10, 8 or 5? You may wonder, if it's so frustrating , why don't you just fight your ally. Well I think it's for various reasons, one of them could be that you both made it happen, I mean, win the game, and territories you both acquired could be disproportional, so the fairest way is to draw. Thank you for your time.

armor wrote:because in many games there are use of forming alliances, and when you have defeated the rest of the players, it's silly to wait until you have collected those much needed 20 turns.

if I could properly detect stalemates than draw would appear only in those situations. I don't like when people offer draw because their alliance won, they should fight to death if possible. If anything I will remove draw button altogether now that there are less chokepoints and stalemates shouldn't be that common

NICE

Lopdo wrote:I don't like when people offer draw because their alliance won, they should fight to death if possible.

But why? Lets say the game has distribution on borders and player 7 and player 8 have allied against player 1 and player 5, and in the course of events they do get to beat the opponents, but player 7 has taken most of the regions, which couldn't be possible without player's 8 help, and you would suggest for player 7 to kill off his ally, who has limited source of reinforcements. Alliance isn't just a name, it's about honesty and keeping your promises to your other party, of course, if they both don't agree to continue match between them two. I think we should keep the draw button, but if you didn't intend this game to be about politics as well, then ok. Thank you for your time.

At least the weaker ally got 2nd, and not a potential last. Plus, allies suck for everyone else without one, so it should dissuade the use of allies.

as techgump says, alliances ruin game for every player that isn't part of them. I like that they are forming by themselves, but I am not ever going to encourage or even reward such behavior

RNG is a cruel mistress? What can be said other than that.

The only thing he could do differently is a weighted system where if someone rolls poorly consistently or well consistently it starts shifting their dice directly rather than letting it stay random.

Ie: if you roll 1d6 and get six twice in a row your next roll is 1d6-1 etc.

armor wrote:Alliance isn't just a name, it's about honesty and keeping your promises to your other party, of course, if they both don't agree to continue match between them two.

You should read about real life. In it, alliances seem to often be quite the opposite of that.