The GOTM Retirement Plan

[AlanH]

Spurred on by my own failure to complete GOTM 42, and inspired by mad-bax's retirement announcement today, I have modified the submission process to allow players to submit a Retired game.

You may upload an unfinished game using the standard C/GOTM Submission Page, and selecting the "When I retired from my incomplete game" option in the pop-up menu. You must still do this within the normal deadline for game submission.

If you choose this option your submission will be given the same Jason score as it would if it were a Loss on the same date with the same Firaxis score. In other words you will receive no victory bonus, but there will be no penalty either.

Your entry will appear in the Results table as Condition = "Incomplete", Victory = "Retired". Retired games will not be eligible for any awards. If you really covet an ambulance you will still have to arrange for the AI to defeat you.

The changes in the submission system were quite substantial for such a small addition, so if anyone detects any misbehaviour in the the system, please contact me.

 

[DaveMcW]

Great - this has been a long-awaited feature!

Unfortunately, the Jason and Firaxis scores encourage people to retire if they lose a significant portion of their empire, instead of fighting it out to the end. But that should be a problem for the scoring experts, not the submission system.

 

[solenoozerec]

Unfortunately, the Jason and Firaxis scores encourage people to retire if they lose a significant portion of their empire, instead of fighting it out to the end.

That's right, but you could do that even without retirement. In GOTM37 I disbanded all my cities (after I was almost near domination) to achive a very fast end.

 

[AlanH]

I think Dave is probably right. There ought to be a bonus for hanging in there to the bitter end rather than disbanding your civilisation in a single 'night of the long knives'.

We could maybe implement a "lost game" scoring formula on data available in the final save. Maybe we determine your peak year using the histograph data, use that point to provide a base score, and then add a bonus related to the number of turns you survived after that. The player who throws the game in one turn will then get a much smaller bonus than one who fights tooth and nail for 50 turns before losing.

But I think I'd rather spend time on Dave's interesting QSC suggestions than on fine tuning scores for lost and retired games.

 

[Methos]

Thanks! I was really hoping for this. Due to this I will now definitely attempt GOTM43 and play for as long as possible. Earlier I hated to even try as I knew eventually I would just give up (Regent level player playing Deity-what do you expect ). This way I can still attempt it and submit so I at least have some sort of score and can still see my ratings with everyone else.

I realize that some may use this to their advantage but it actually benefits me in other ways. I have more of a reason to attempt such difficult games.

All those previous XOTM games I played and gave up on won't be wasted in the future. Thanks Alan!

 

[AlanH]

Just a warning: Don't hold out hopes for great scores from this to boost Global Rankings. As part of my testing I submitted my last GOTM 42 save. It was within 150 tiles and 15-20 turns of reaching domination when I ran out of time. It would score 1800 Jason points vs maybe 7-8K if I had finished it.

Loss scores are typically down in the bottom 10%-15%, and that's the kind of level a resignation will achieve, so no one is going to get rich and famous out of playing lots of resignations, but as Methos says, at least you now get a little recognition for all those hours you slaved over a hot keyboard.

 

[Xerol]

Well, at least it would be less of a DROP for those that couldn't finish.

You gave me a start when I read the thread title - I thought GOTM was ending!

 

[Redtooth]

You gave me a start when I read the thread title - I thought GOTM was ending!

same here, that's the first thing I thought of

But this is a good idea. I haven't played many of the games, but I fear that there are some I won't be able to complete. So this leaves it open that I can still submit without a real finish.

 

[civ_steve]

I was hyper-ventilating as I opened this thread! Whew!

Great addition to the already very robust submittal system. Thanks again, AlanH!

 

[solenoozerec]

I think Dave is probably right. There ought to be a bonus for hanging in there to the bitter end rather than disbanding your civilisation in a single 'night of the long knives'.

Absolutly agree with that. In COTM3 I escaped with a settler , for a while I traveled on a galley and then I made an attempt to rebuild my civilization. I think I managed to build 2 or 3 towns. And then I realized that all this struggle through a few hunderd years was actualy reducing my final score. Pathetic.

 

[Ronald]

I was hyper-ventilating as I opened this thread! Whew!

I also expected some terrible news and I am very glad that my fears were not confirmed.
Please, if you want to prevent heart attacks choose somewhat more unambiguous headlines

Ronald

 

[AlanH]

Just keeping you all on your toes. Why should I have all the heart attacks around here?