FFA=SOLO/ Simplify the game

i like the old wta format. ffa for low rated players and solo for high rated players

I see the point of your exceptions and I agree that x=3/7 is an important treshold because that's where 2nd place goes from positive to negative rating change. If I understand you correctly, you want to follow the same graph as we currently use in FFA (was it a tanh?) for all ratings, but if one players is rated lower than 1500, x cannot cross 3/7.

We would need to decide at what point x=3/7, maybe at 1800 or 1900 rating average. 

We could also try

for lowest player <=1500, 3,1-tanh,-1+tanh,-3

for 1500<lowest player<2100, 3,1-tanh-(lowest-1500)/600,-1,-3+tanh+(lowest-1500)/600
if 2nd<0, disp 'This is a rated Winner-Takes-All! 2nd-4th will lose rating'

for lowest player >=2100, 3, -1, -1, -1 (Solo) disp 'This is a Rated Solo Game! 2nd-4th will lose rating equally'

And the option to leave a Checkbox for Solo Tournament Format but leave rating changes the even newer FFA way.

-1, I don't care what you do to FFA mode, but leave FFA shenanigans out of Solo. I won't even start on stupid idea of removing Solo and forcing everyone to play FFA. Forcing people to play Solo wouldn't work either, as majority of people aren't comfortable with playing alone. Leave it as it is because these 2 modes are completely different.

just bring back the old format

-1 gajillion billion

I don't think this is a good idea, because players should still have the option to play either mode if they want to.

Maybe players can still have the option, but in that case i think that it would be smarter to give more visibility to one mode/option, setting it up for default, show a main leaderboard, hide the other options a bit...Just try to focus on "selling one product".

And with one product i would consider every aspect of it. Two examples:

a) Just the fact that you can decide that new queens after promoting pawns can value either 1 or 9 points affects the whole strategy a lot, so its like playing another variant. 

b) About the time, a lot of us got used to play 1/15D  since it was the default, but then it makes sense to spend your 15D in every move, even if your move seems clear, because it's "free time", although sometimes might be better to play fast so the other players dont have more time to think as well. Trying to avoid that time control as a default might help us to get used to another time controls. Making games unnecessary longer doesnt help either to make 4PC popular.

I'm trying to express this 2 things:

a) Having so many options and variants is not helping 4PC to grow.

b) Current FFA and SOLO are not even that different anyway if played at a certain level, so time will be slowly making it more similar as well for the rest of the players once they start understanding the game better.

Thank you for this post.

YES I think more and more that we should simply move back to what was the case 2 years ago: all games with all 4 players above 1550 (today it's 1850) were WTA automatically. Today I would suggest 2000 as threshold. (The players will fully have the choice in fact as launching or reaching a game with 2000 as low limit would automatically mean Solo).

YES Antichess should be moved to Var.

YES we have to re-merge FFA and Solo (calling it Individual, as opposed to Teams).

YES we must simplify quite a lot if we want to increase the legibility and the popularity of the game, as Hest presented above.

I think we should avoid though making it too complicated. I personally see only 2 possibilities:

- either we move back to the 2018 system (WTA above some level, I would suggest simply 2000 today, and not 1850 anymore),

- or we create let's say 3 tranches A B C, with the average rating of the 4 players taken into account for example, and A (rating under 1800) it's for example FFA as is now, B it's for example +3  +0.5  -1  -2.5 (to discourage the blatant teaming and to oblige ppl to play for 1st) and C is the current Solo. So when the game begins, the system would announce the format and it would also be displayed somewhere during the game, in order to influence the style of their play for those who understand

And now, as for marketing point of view, Jbolea is 100% right because it's absolutely true that more the product is clear and understandable, more there will be players and new players. That's why it's very important to have a STANDARD (antichess, hyperbullet, diplo, whatever, are fun but it's NICHES and instead of attracting ppl, in fact it removes them from the Standard). And splitting between FFA and Solo 2 years ago clearly was a mistake I believe because it reduced the number of the games, it's very visible. 

You implemented the possibility of fine-configuring the game: 1p or 9p queen, possibility of promoting to rooks or not, diplo or not, en-passant or not, etc.

The problem with that nice approach is that it reduces mechanically the flow. Some player get stuck in their favorite play mode and don't play standard anymore.

I believe when launching the game we should very very clearly EITHER launch (or join) a STANDARD game (where you only choose 3 things: TEAMS or INDIVIDUAL, ANON/NOT ANON, TIMING) or a VARIANT (which can be rated, but totally separately). 

Only the main leaderboards (Teams/Indiv. and Rapid/Blitz) should be displayed and taken into account for Champions, the other ones can exist but only for those who play them (hyperbullet, diplo, whatever).

no don't don't don't

If you dare delete top FFA in favor of the absolute sewage known as Solo I'm never playing 4pc again

bringing back the old WTA format seems to be a good solution

IF SOLO GAMES DON'T FILL UP, IT'S BECAUSE NOBODY LIKES SOLO. DON'T INFECT FFA.

👍

Could we vote?... I predict the majority of the relevant votes* will be in favour of the 2018 solution (automatic WTA if ALL the players are above some threshold or if the average rating is above some threshold; it used to be 1550, i.e. 1850 today, but I think 2000 would be more appropriate in fact).

*relevant votes are those of players who have played at least 1000 games, of which at least 200 Solo, and having at least 2000 FFA and at least 1700 Solo, i.e. they know what they're speaking about.

And also ties for first should not exist, bc eventually it will just be a teams game.

I totally agree:

a) now we have in std: variable promotion (9ptQ, QBRN with pieces cost, 1ptQ), (no) en passant, (no) zombies. I suggest in the rating standard, leave only: 1ptQ (or like nice compromise 1pt QBRN), en passant, zombies. the rest leave for casual std game

although the standard may change in the future: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/a-statistical-approach-to-the-point-value-of-pieces-in-ffa

b) it was already suggested somewhere, instead of 1|15D use 3|5 or 1|7 like default