No cap on points lost

My average rating is about 3100, but really it keeps oscillating between let's say 2800 (even 2700) up to 3400 (even 3500). Like everybody here sometimes I have good winning streaks, sometimes bad losing streaks, sometimes I just... float. The principle of the rating system is: the higher you get the more points you lose when defeated, so that things become harder if you get high, and things become easier if you get low. This keeps the balance, it works like a spring. When I climb up to 3400 (which is over my actual skills) then I lose too many points per game and the system pulls me down. When I fall down to 2800 (which is under my actual skills) then I only lose a few points per game and the system repushes me up. So you have not to worry much for a single loss or even a series of losses all together, just keep playing and you'll always be back to your average rating.

Questions & Answers
-- My skills are always the same, why my rating oscillates like this?
-- Well, this game is mostly based on strategy but there is also a great influence of randomness: dice, cards, and... yes, beginners' mistakes are also part of the randomness. You cannot think at your rating like something fixed and established: you'll always go up and down. Keep in mind, when you win a 9p game you are rewarded with 160 points, if you win 3 of them then it's 480 points upward! Great climbs are possible, great falls too.

Keeping this on personal examples. My worst experience was (years ago) when I tried to learn how to play same-time games... It is not for me really, it was a complete failure: in a few days I lost more than 1000 points! "Oh Lord, years of hard work to get my nice rank, all thrown away! What I can do now?" Nothing, I just restarted playing as always and in a couple of weeks or so I got my rank again. Remember the spring effect: the more you go down the more you are pushed up.

I'm getting to the topic now.

What is better for ranking up as high as possible? Playing only high ranks, so you lose less points per game? Playing only newbies, so you win many games? Well, I tried both "modes" and it doesn't change much, my rating is always the same more or less.

It is hard to win against newbies? Of course it is not, it is as hard as stealing sweets from kids! But wait, it is not all good, it's a sort of gamble at reverse: you can surely win many games, but you are risking much, if something goes wrong you'll lose many points. Well, that's fair.

Now, asking to play beginners, without having the risk of losing many points, it's a bit like wishing to get drunk keeping the bottle full. It shouldn't be possible normally. I mean, it might be a legit request, but to be implemented in a way that is fair, it would require more job than just putting a cap of 50 on the points lost. For example it may be established (in advance) that the game is "point halved", then you'll ask to an Admin to do the maths returning points divided by 2. Oh well, this would be fair! But c'mon... Is it really necessary? I don't think so.

Worst of the worst, when a General loses on Privates, and he's supposed to lose let's say 80 points, but actually he only loses 50 (because of the new rule), this means that the legitimate winner of the game is rewarded 30 points less! We are actually deducting points from beginners' wins in order to refund Generals' losses! It is not something I can call "fair" in any ways.

As a player and staff member I'm totally opposed to the new rule, and I'll do my best to convince the wise members of the staff to restore the original rules as they had been until May 24th: no cap on the points one can lose.

It doesn't change much for the rating I am, because when I play beginners I lose at most 45-50 points (unlikely more than 50) but just in case, I don't want any points-cap facility to be applied on my account. I'm fairly happy to always lose all the points I deserve to lose, and above all I want the players in my games to be always rewarded in full for their wins.

I felt like we should be fair and clear on this matter and so I could not avoid to express my thought.
Anyone feeling the same?

I feel the same!

Hi, I agree.

I think that especialy removing points from lower point players is damaging because it causes a lesser interest to play more games.

It also makes different level players games less risky and so maybe a little more boring.

I don't know why the change came to be, maybe you can tell us? I could speculate that there where not enough games that mixed higher players with lowers so in this case higher players are more keen to play with lower players by losing less points? If this is the case maybe it can be done with some other prizes to incentivise mixed levels games?

Or else more points to everyone :-)

cheers.

I think it would be better to not discuss on a new topic, but use the topic that asked for the rating cap in this topic. Reading through that thread will also explain why we chose to introduce the cap. In general it may be nicer to keep both sides of the discussion together. I will lock this thread.