Racing Time - The most controversial issue of the game type.

[animuson]

Ok, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of the racing records. Currently, it only stores records for users who have logged in somewhere (any authority is fine). Users will then be able to login to their Tronner account and link those accounts to it so all the scores combine together. Basically, it's like logging in on Armagetron, you type your user@auth.com and password into a box and the script simulates the actions of Armagetron to query that authority and check if the password is correct. If it is, it simply write a line that says "user@auth.com -> user ID". Scores that are not linked to a Tronner account don't count in the overall ladder. Note: Passwords are not stored on the Tronner site at all.

However, the hardest part is keeping the scores up to date. Sure, someone might set a very nice record one day, but how long should they keep it? Keeping records forever is out of the question, eventually the game will get boring because no one can beat the times anymore. Previously I kept the user's top two scores on file. After 90 days of their top score being on file, it would get deleted and replaced by their second highest score at the time. I liked this system because it constantly kept the game going, you had to keep playing to keep your scores up there. Anyways, since I haven't implemented any such methods in the new system, I want some opinions on what the best way to keep track of scores would be and what others think should be done. How long should scores be kept? How many of their top scores should I keep? Etc...

I know people will try to complain that once they get a record it should stay forever, but they need to understand that will ruin the game in the long-run, so it is unacceptable. Racing can't function on the standard ladder systems that most other game types function on.

Another thing we can consider here is calculating the points for the overall ladder. The current setup:
1. The system goes through each map and selects the top 100 (or less) scores for the map.
2. For each score of that map, the user gets difference between the total number of scores for the map and the rank they're at plus an additional point (if there are 50 scores and you're rank 1, 50 - 1 + 1 = 50 points).
3. The system then calculates the total number of maps the user has played, divides that by 10, and multiplies their points by the resulting value.

[DDMJ]

For historical purposes perhaps you could just keep the top 25 scores from each map forever, but only visible online somewhere on your site. At the end of each month you could wipe the scores clean maybe. That would make the beginning of the month really fun and popular as your server gets overloaded with players trying to steal the spotlight.

[apparition]

Loggin In
This isn't a problem. I like it a lot. It makes it feel official, and it's highly necessary. Whatever way you want your racers to login isn't either, but I like using the Arma forums since I have an instant chat for it Those who are interested (Titan, Woned, Evo, Eric, BigTron, Sammy, Gonzap, Potter, etc. ) will definitely sign up on Tronner.com if that's gonna enhance the game type.

Record Keeping
I think it would be cool to display the following:
1. Overall Track Record
2. Weekly Track Record
3. Monthly Track Record

Ladder
Racing is so interesting because there are many ways to do this. The current way makes sense after I worked it out in my head But it's kind of complicated. Personally I like these two ladder options that I think simply reflect the 2 ways of racing (racing risky trying to get best times, and racing safely just to finish and get good scores):
1. Race Times: Overall track record positions could be recorded and added up. The lower your score the higher the position you have on the ladder.
2. Points Earned: Overall points earned (currently seems almost pointless). I often like playing to be in the positive overall with points rather than playing really risky and ending with -12. So each player's match score adds/subtracts based on their points.

Could the server have both? Or all 3?

By the way, HUGE thank you for accommodating the color issue. Not many people would be willing to try and fix the colors for colorblind people on all the maps the way you did. Thank you!

This is also a problem for me in team sumo servers if anyone is reading this - gold and green/blue and violet end up looking the same. This might be useful to discuss somewhere else though

[animuson]

For historical purposes perhaps you could just keep the top 25 scores from each map forever, but only visible online somewhere on your site. At the end of each month you could wipe the scores clean maybe. That would make the beginning of the month really fun and popular as your server gets overloaded with players trying to steal the spotlight.

It was partially suggested (and then expanded on by me) to keep an additional field for each user with their times which would contain their best score ever achieved for the map, so that person knows the best they've ever done and then just have a short line in the map info that states what the best score ever for the map was.

I've pondered the idea of doing a clean sweep each month before, but I've never really gotten strong support for it. Maybe with the idea of keeping their best scores on file and the badges system I plan to implement, doing a complete wipe might make the servers much more competitive. I'll definitely factor that into my decision.

Racing is so interesting because there are many ways to do this. The current way makes sense after I worked it out in my head But it's kind of complicated. Personally I like these two ladder options that I think simply reflect the 2 ways of racing (racing risky trying to get best times, and racing safely just to finish and get good scores):
1. Race Times: Overall track record positions could be recorded and added up. The lower your score the higher the position you have on the ladder.
2. Points Earned: Overall points earned (currently seems almost pointless). I often like playing to be in the positive overall with points rather than playing really risky and ending with -12. So each player's match score adds/subtracts based on their points.

Could the server have both? Or all 3?

I love the idea of making the players always have to compete, not just for the record times, but for points as well. I've never really thought of a good way to keep track though. There are MATCH_SCORE and MATCH_WINNER ladderlog output options I can use, but coming up with a good way to store the points can be tricky. Also, I've never been a big fan of having the number of points a user has stored somewhere because then if something glitches and they randomly receive, say, 500 points, I don't really have any record of how they jumped up 500 points all of a sudden. I prefer having the points calculated each time by the script or having it recalculate points every so often and storing those values in the cache. I will definitely keep these in mind and I'll probably spend some time trying to figure out an adequate way of making it work.