Steep, Reliability-Crushing Learning Curve
Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 3:40 am
I joined this site a couple of months ago, and have since played several games. Overall, I quite like it, but there are a few problems I've run into as a new player that tend to suck a bit of the fun out of it for me.
For one, when you join an in-progress game filling in for a player that has left, you don't get any excuses back. While this sort of makes sense, it means that your choices are either be perfectly reliable, or get kicked with a corresponding hit to your rating. This happened to me a couple of times early on, with the result being that I gave up on joining in-progress games. I feel that this could be much improved by kicking a replacement player out of the game without a rating drop, or even replenishing the excuses to some degree (although I see how this could lead to many players abandoning a losing country in quick succession...)
Additionally, it's hard to find a way to ask for a pause from moderators. I recently was unable to access WebDip, and probably will be again within the next few days, and while there is a form to fill out on the forum, everything seems to point to you being supposed to email the moderation team. I did so, and have still not received a response to said email. Luckily, the people in the press game I was in were very considerate and accepted my request for a pause, but I still got kicked out of my two gunboat games, presumably with corresponding RR decreases. For this, I would suggest adding some sort of entry to the FAQ regarding what to do if you need a pause.
Overall, I feel like while the people are great, the computers that kick in when the people are overworked aren't, and, as this is very much a programmer-built site, its unclear what to do in the majority of circumstances.
For one, when you join an in-progress game filling in for a player that has left, you don't get any excuses back. While this sort of makes sense, it means that your choices are either be perfectly reliable, or get kicked with a corresponding hit to your rating. This happened to me a couple of times early on, with the result being that I gave up on joining in-progress games. I feel that this could be much improved by kicking a replacement player out of the game without a rating drop, or even replenishing the excuses to some degree (although I see how this could lead to many players abandoning a losing country in quick succession...)
Additionally, it's hard to find a way to ask for a pause from moderators. I recently was unable to access WebDip, and probably will be again within the next few days, and while there is a form to fill out on the forum, everything seems to point to you being supposed to email the moderation team. I did so, and have still not received a response to said email. Luckily, the people in the press game I was in were very considerate and accepted my request for a pause, but I still got kicked out of my two gunboat games, presumably with corresponding RR decreases. For this, I would suggest adding some sort of entry to the FAQ regarding what to do if you need a pause.
Overall, I feel like while the people are great, the computers that kick in when the people are overworked aren't, and, as this is very much a programmer-built site, its unclear what to do in the majority of circumstances.