Maybe this is more of a bug. But if something happens in a duel (for example, extreme amounts of lag, forgetting to equip weapons, a sudden server message that they're handing out samoflange) that makes a duel unrepresentative of a true fight, the abort should not result in a duel rating change, via making the duel into a draw.

There should be a second command /duel draw, which requests a draw of the other player.

The other thing I was thinking about was making the ratings actually mean something. In chess, ratings are just a guesstimate of the percentage chance for one player. In go, they represent a handicap that could be given between the players.

In our situation, that handicap could be considered in terms of health. So say a 3 dan pilot ought to be able to give a 1 dan pilot a 30% health advantage and win.

The way you make this available, is by measuring the difference in health at the end of a duel, and factoring that into the rating calculation. So if I only barely beat Millenium Blackhawk, I wouldn't have much of a rating advantage, since we would be considered to be almost equal.

I haven't looked at the equations for go in a while. This also means that if you want to gain ranking, you can't barely beat someone 2 levels beneath you. You have to beat them by more than the "handicap" or you lose points.

Check out http://kgs.kiseido.com for more info on this kind of system.

I agree with /duel abort not affecting rating. The other day I was in a duel, where when my opponent tried to accept he was told I wasn't in the sector, and when I tried to reissue the challenge, it said I was already in a duel. So I /duel aborted, and ended up getting a rating loss. But, then, I started with (I think) a higher rating than I deserved, so oh well. ;)

I would also like a more go-like rating system, especially if the /duel challenge was changed to allow handicaps. I swear I could beat you, Shape, if you only did 80% damage. ;-) Any rating gain or loss would of course be appropriatly adjusted for the handicap.

[edit in response to Spider]
Sorry, should have mentioned that I think it should be optional, when agreed to by both parties. Most duels would be even.
[/edit]

There has been a number of "you won: you lost" affecting us all in the beginning. At one point you lost all duels that you had in a station sector, since if you docked after the duel you were recorded as a loss.

Same goes for a lot other such things, ie when damaging self and so on :)

Handicap, I dislike the approach in general. When I account for duels, most of the time it is to be able to fight somone of my own nation and show him/her the ropes. Adding handicap to that means I'd have to fight to win, not to teach. Big difference.

I also dislike the handicap idea. I mean, if I am fighting someone far below me who happens to land a nice string on me as the duel begins, but then I kill him quickly afterward, I don't want to lose standing.

Handicap shouldn't matter. If you win, you win. There is no "margin."

Also, sometimes against a n00b, I'll just do a simple circle strafe and blast the n00b away, to make the duel end quickly. I'll let the n00b hit me a few times, knowing that I can dodge if I need to. I don't want to have to duel n00bs the same way I'd duel vets, for fear of not winning by more than their handicap.

but there IS a margin, and it comes heavily into play when you consider the strength of a fighter, his/her ability to continue fighting battles.

Its about creating FAIR fights, between vets and noobs, and that makes it about teaching. No one's asking you to take an unreasonable handicap. But for an even fight, there should be some.

Yeah, there are a lot of situations that get recorded as draws, and that affects rating... and yet the only situation that is an actual draw (we kill each other within a few seconds) counts as a win for whoever died last. Lame.

I'll work on that. I'm half inclined to delete all the draws in the database as none of them are situations which should affect ranking.

I will admit that I was in a duel with Ghostieboy and he started to lag, I could almost hear him screaming, he ended up forfeiting, and I won. That wasn't fair to him or myself, and I wouldn't mind if it was wiped from my standing (kernel.panic).

As far as the handicap goes, I disagree with it. I think that if noobs and vets want a "fair" fight, let them both get in busses instead of taking a hit to standing because they know how to fight better. If a noob accepts a duel, they accept the fact that the person dueling may be a vet. There is already a penalty for shooting at someone of lower standing, we don't need this in duels as well. Besides, dueling is for the fun of PvP, to see who really is better with what they bring to the fight. I often see calls for ships and armament on the chat so that it's more of a balanced fight. Lets leave that alone.

I do think that a draw/opponent-accept-draw would be a wise choice.

my 2 cents...

I'm changing it - /duel forfeit counts as a loss, but /duel abort, when mutually agreed, does not affect either of your ratings. The only way to get a draw in the next version is to kill one another simultaneously.

This will be in the next patch. The current system records draws for just about everything, and it can affect your rating when it does that.

Are you doing this ex post facto, so that past /duel aborts don't affect the rating? Or will it just be future /duel aborts?

Yeah, I'll delete all the old draws as they are all invalid IMO and recompute ratings accordingly, unless someone has some kind of objection.

what is the timeframe to get a draw considering that you can blow somebody up by your own explosion but that may happen a couple seconds later in stead of instantaneous or because of the person dodging into one of your sunflares while you go boom.

Not to mention that lag affects this timeperception also.

cheers

There's a five-second window after one of you dies - if the other person dies within that window, it's a draw.

If you kill another player, and die from their explosion splash, do they get credit for the kill? It should be registered as an suicide IMO.

Right, if you suicide you lose. I'll make sure that works as expected.