There will be variant support in the next version of webDiplomacy, I've been told. The coding is done, kestas is just adapting maps for it and testing it. I wouldn't be surprised if he has something out by the end of next week.

See http://forum.webdiplomacy.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=402

Ah hello Gil, nice to see you over here.
As said above, Kestas is adding the code required to support variants at the moment (from what I've heard its going well).

I'm sure no one agrees with me, but I quite like how this site is only classic diplomacy, while variants can be played on the other site.
All we need is more people to join the other site so games are easier to set up.

Yup, really looking forward to getting variant support out. It was practically done a week ago, but since then I've been writing some test variants and gilgatex's World variant to try it out, and cleaning up/polishing, and trying test cases.

Really hoping it has the desired affect of making integrating code between servers with different variants much easier, because over here we have some nifty client-side order code and bug-fixes, and gilgatex has lots of very neat stuff on his server, and it'd be great to get the best of both worlds (while still giving gilgatex free reign to stay on the bleeding edge of development with all his neat new features)

I agree with Dave to some extent, that its nice to have a classic only game on here BUT with variants such as the 35 player world war game, it would certainly add a new dimension to what is a great site with some great personalities on it.

I like GoonDip and i like some of the variants but it would be great to see maybe 1 or 2 variants here and to make them as polished and as good looking as the classic map. I can imagine the World War map looking just as good as hte classic map and given the care and attention that is noteworthy of this site.

Im looking forward to it alot....but hopefully there wont be too many variants :)

As for my site, I prefer quantity over quality ;)

In fact, we haven't had a single classic game played on goondip (other than briefly some classic games popped up when I was testing out fog of war). If people want to play classic, they usually just play Milan, which is similar enough, but better balanced for Italy and Austria.

I'd like to see varients added here, but if/when they are then perhaps we can get the statistics improved a bit, even if only to separate 'real diplomacy' (wta, standard map) from 'other'. I know I'm a supporter of PPSC but I agree that the true version should be WTA. Slight change of subject I know, but are there any plans to make this the default option?

I would hope part of the variant code would be separate stat tracking. Just as I would hope the game search page would have the ability to search by variant with the standard map being at the top of the list.

Speaking of which, is there any possibility of making the URL change when a search is done to include the specified search options so you could bookmark that particular search and use it again and again without having to click through all the check boxes each time?

I agree with Dave for the most part. As much as I love tinkering there is something about the "pureness" of this site that appeals to me.

I raised this question before and it seems like it was brushed aside - how will all of this affect stats tracking? What about ghost ratings? Classic Diplomacy has 50 something years of playtesting behind it... I would hope the variants are somewhat tested. I mean, does a "win" in the 100 years war variant *really* mean as much as a classic Dippy win? I think more variety will dilute the meaning of everyones record to a degree.

Just my two cents. Of course as soon as the variants are up I'm going to be wondering how easy it would be to work on the code for new maps! : p

Advanced game options are hidden in the new version, but can be shown with a click (like the FAQ), and by default variant games will be hidden in the game listings too.

Also we'll be limiting the number of variants we host here, keeping the focus on the main classic game, but with the ability to play some of the more popular variants too if you're interested enough to look them up.
We may rotate which variants are active, or over time drop variants no-one is playing to try and get a solid lineup of a handful of standard webdip variants :-)

Re: stat tracking, TGM will have access to data that'll let him include/exclude variants as he wants. Perhaps a table form on profiles showing wins losses totals etc vs WTA/PPSC/variant? Points will apply to variants as usual I think, that way people can choose

Alderian which search do you need to run so often? Really it's best not to encourage searching too frequently because non-standard searches use more resources than the default ones. Better to tweak the defaults than increase custom searches

All for the pure diplomacy of this site! Why ruin it with variants!

I'm against variants on the site for all the reasons listed above which were so much more eloquently said than I could have. I would only be accepting of them if they did not affect stats (and did not have stats of their own) and were well accepted and tested variants.

well to the "purists" out there... sorry to burst your bubble - but this site LONG ago got away from being a 'pure' diplomacy site. in fact, PPSC is the dominant game here, which itself is a variant. so is 'anonymous', 'public press', and 'gunboat' all variants. really so is WTA - since FTF is the only 'pure' form of the game (with 15 min turns and eye-contact).

in fact - 'pure' diplomacy players (for 50 years) have had a rich history of playing variants - both in postal (pre email days) and in the PBEM world (many PBEM sites out there started in the 80s and early 90s including the Judges). and games like Youngstown, Modern, Hundred, Milan, F Rom, and even ancient Med probably have more games to their name than PPSC (several times over I would bet).

so again - sorry to burst your bubble - but Diplomacy is much older than webdip - and although I personally LOVE web-dip and I wont even consider going back to PBEM (or judges - ickh), I dont want you guys to delude yourself into thinking that just because you started to play here, this is 'pure' dip somehow.

none-the-less, it is VERY clear to me that webdiplomacy is the future of the game - and eventually - maybe even the future of the best players in the world (who currently play mainly tournament FTF games or can be found in the Acadamy - another PBEM community).

but again - despite the top-flight play and diplomacy i've seen from players here, you should be aware that the top players in the world, very few if any of whom play here, could pretty much beat our top 10 or 20 players on a pretty consistent basis. i've seen them in action, and we are not them =)


as for the Variants - I say Thank you Kestas and gilgatex and whoever it was that ran the korean site - you guys are rockin' our world and making this earth a better place by your efforts. I cant wait to have new ways to enjoy/waste my time and I cant wait to play a "Chaos" game here with only top 100 GR players invited... boy wouldn't that be something...

Kestas, I often do a search the excludes private games since I'm not interested in those, whether it is in progress joinable games or new games. I also imagine that people that have time for live games could use a search that would list joinable or new live games.

I could just ignore the passworded games, but it is easier to compare games to see which ones I want to play when the ones I'm not interested in or can't join aren't even shown.

Oh, also when looking for a gunboat game I do searches for those, but again have to go in and click joinable, pre-game, etc...

Everything Sir Babak said....

And i like the way Kestas thinks. Keeping those popular variants will keep this site at the top and give everyone here, who wants to the chance to play on this site a much broader choice of games. Its not for everyone, but if you dont want to play them....dont!

Thanks Kestas!

I think only top, widely accepted variants should be added after a poll voting procedure.

Most of them feel much worse than the original game (example ancient greece of worldleadersthegame.com: ok cool map, shitty gameplay)

I think that's my underlying point. I don't want to get variant happy and have the quality of this site go down.

I guess I should qualify my statements by stating if the variants are worthy of this excellent site I'm all for them.

Well I have to say I think it would be nice to have several of them, and I think the biggest issue will be the number of posts on the forum when people are trying to collect players for different maps as well as different phase lengths etc, as this will lead to many more threads.

as the site grows figle - we are likely to need seperate sub-forum... one for discussion - one for new game announcements - one for varians/live gams maybe...

or just two - one for game announcmeents and one for everything else...? dunno

Haha, I'm not the one to tell. Infact I'm probably the lead supporter for multiple forum pages here :P