What is the best starting setup and more importantly why?

I stop playing when FFA was killed and solo became standard, so I've been AFK for a while. I'm trying to get back into 4p chess and obviously, the starting positions have changed and it has thrown me off a little. I personally prefer the old setup, but it's mostly just because It's what I'm used to. From my understanding, it was changed to balance out the win percentage of each color. unlike when en passant was introduced and I felt like Hitler returned to take control of 4-player chess just to torture me and ruin my games, I can get behind this change as it makes the game fair and that's a good thing. (I did eventually come to love the introduction of en passant)

Now I'm looking at the BY setup and BYG setup and I'm lost on whether these setups are good and how they change the gameplay. Why are these setups being introduced? Do they make the game more fair or fun, with more interesting openings? Someone enlighten me.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could tell me your preferred setup compared to the others and your arguments for why.  

Now that I think about it, the only actual issue I have with this setup is how green realistically only has one move to play in the beginning or else you risk getting mated on move 2, to think that a mate is possible that early is just extremely disturbing to me. Other than that, I have no problem waiting a few turns for the game to get unique. 

Yeah, I like Omatamix a lot. I think it does balance the game a little.

BY

The top 3 setups are:

1. BY Setup 
2. Old Standard 
3. BYG Setup

New Standard doesn't belong in the best setup conversation, the day it's gone 4pc will instantly improve. 


 

At least people prefer it over BYG 🤷‍♂️

Amazing.  A few people prefer it over a setup they've never played before, after a year of playing New Standard.  87% prefer a better setup for FFA, and 75% want a new setup for Teams, yet we're stuck with New Standard for some odd reason.

I'm bored of playing this dull setup, when better setups exist.  Congrats @TheCheeseDuck, you're among the 15% that tolerates New Standard, some of us won't settle for less.

I think 87% and 75% are questionable due to the inherent fallibility of that particular poll. It was a very biased sample.

How is it biased?  New Standard is being played 24/7 for the past year, and yet it's the 3rd most popular option.  People do have a bias towards better positions, I agree with you there. 

It's biased because the survey was not taken by a random sample of players. it was an optional survey so the results can't be proven to be accurate. also, not enough players took it for it to be a trustworthy survey in my opinion anyway)

On top of that we don't know (except the admins maybe) the ratings of the people who took the poll, just like you said it's not trustworthy and it's not even close to the majority of the people who play. 

Yet the poll is clear, New Standard sucks and most people don't want to play it, despite being the default position for the past year. 

That is not proven that most people dont want to play it. I think it being the position for a year and people still playing despite server problems may show that it is more popular than some people seem to think.

I like Old Setup

Seems like you're making assumptions as well.  You are equating people's love for 4pc to the starting position.  I got to 2400+ Teams playing the new setup, but found it to be quite tedious and boring.  We play it cuz we're stuck with it.  New setup takes the fun and excitement out of 4pc, ask anyone who's played the BY arenas or has any experience with Old Setup, and see which setup they prefer. 

Playing the same starting position repeatedly in 90% of games, regardless of one's color is boring, due to the repetitive and forcing nature.  Old Standard, BY, and BYG are all superior positions to the new setup, but they're not well-suited for beginners. 

If it's not suited to beginners there is no point in doing it because eventually, the game will die off. Sometimes we have to sacrifice 30 seconds of boring moves at the start of every game for 4pc to grow and thrive.