It is very appreciated that you take over abandoned positions. Your profile keeps track of the number of times you have done so, so your effort will be visible to everyone.

I think that if one would get points from taking over an abandoned position, we would get too many players who take over a position just for the points and will put zero effort in it. That is bad for the games and hence I don't think we should award players who take over abandoned positions with points. It is already sometimes the case that someone takes over an abandoned position that can be perfectly lead into a draw, yet decides to put no effort in it at all. People often don't feel motivated already to work on a position they didn't invest any points in.

Joining games as a dying CD'ed country is often a thankless endeavor. Your work is much appreciated.

I personally have joined a few abandoned positions in the past. I found them not worth my time. I personally don't think that five points would make a huge difference in my decision, but if they would help a few people, then I am all for it.

I think that the bigger problem, at least in my experience, is people giving up on a game. I will be the first to admit that I have done this before, and I am not sure of a good way around it. Given the pace of many FP games, the writing can be on the wall almost a month before someone is officially out. For many people, that is a long time to still care about a lost game.

I have no clue how hard that would be to code. We have very limited developer time available so everything's hard to code

I figured i could win points, but most games needing new players seem to have the weakest position being abandoned, so i've joined a bunch of games w/ no hope of anything but being defeated in 2 or 3 phases, just to keep games going.

I was thinking that the math around the -5 points (the incentive) to join might not require a ton of coding. Taking that five points from the person who abandons might be more work than is worth the effort, however.

Thanks for helping games out! It's an interesting idea. Right now the reward is thaf you do get points if you manage to lead the country into a spot in the draw.

Hi, just getting back into Diplomacy after many years, and I've been taking over abandoned positions, mostly just so the game can continue. Doesn't hurt me to play a few phases as a certain Country, no matter how far behind they are.

But, i notice while it costs me nothing to take over a position, there is no reward for doing so. I'm game to do it, but maybe instead of 0 points to join an ongoing game and takeover an abandoned position, maybe it could be -5 points, so you actually get 5 for just helping get the game moving?

Also, that 5 points could be taken from the person who abandoned the game.

Anyway, just a thought.