Q: What do I do if I think someone is cheating?
A: Email the mods at [email protected] but whatever you do, do *not* post the cheating accusation in the forums.

*[email protected]

Thanks, Draugnar. Excellent addition to the list.

Q: Can we change the forums to a tab format?
A: No.

Q: Why not?
A: Because. I'm glad you are a good debater and have great points as to why it should be changed, but try to come to grasp with the idea that it's just not going to happen.

I have only one more question:

Q: Who is your daddy, and what does he do?
A: I don't know...

Q: Why are we posting these instead of emailing mods/kestas to update the faq?

A: No idea, but some questions are already on the faq....

Q: Why are we posting these instead of emailing mods/kestas to update the faq?

A: Not the Mods because they can't change the FAQ as far as I know, and not Kestas because he's probably too busy to take care of it.

Yes, some of these questions do overlap with the FAQ/rules, but they still get asked often on the forum and it might be worthwhile to reinforce them here.

Maybe some of the other questions do belong in the FAQ, but others do not. I don't think it's a good idea to flood the mods/Kestas with emailed suggestions. By bringing up and answering questions in this thread, it provides a living FAQ that people can contribute to, without bugging Kestas to incorporate every suggestion. If Kestas sees some questions that makes sense, he could always choose to incorporate them.

Also, it provides an area to ask questions of simple curiosities about the site. Such as...

Q: Has Live World ever been done?
A: Yes, thrice, with 5 minute phases. I have no idea how they pulled it off, but a quick search yields these results:
gameID=20856
gameID=28649
gameID=27899

Q: Why are unit build stars or removal blasts (icons on the map) sometimes black instead of colored properly?
A: Just a minor, unresolved graphics bug. Don't believe people's claims of stealth units or other special rules.

Q: What is ghost rating? Where do I find it?
A: Ghost rating is an alternative player ranking system devised and maintained by TheGhostMaker. The system is derived from the principles of the Elo rating system. To see the ghost rating lists and more details about how it works go here
http://tournaments.webdiplomacy.net/theghost-ratingslist

Q: How do I improve my Ghost-rating?
A: Play better

Q: But how else?
A: really, just try to do as well as you can in every game and you'll improve as much as you possibly can.

Now some unanswered ones that I have

Q: What are some of the longest games (in terms of game years) on this server?

Q: What happens if everyone in a game simultaneously resigns?

A1: That requires clarification. There are many games that lasted years with no movement because there was no draw feature.

A2: That will never happen. There will always be a slight difference in time and the last person will win.

A: to the second... Set one up with some trustworthy folks, have no one issue an order or go to the game beyond the inital Spring 01 set of negotiations, and find out.

Q: (re: A1) Does any one have any examples of really long games (in game years) with moves being made nearly throughout (not just inactivity or holding a drawn position)?

@abgemacht: re: A2: don't the resignations happen on the change of phase? Where does the time difference come in?

@draugnar: I would try it but I don't want to accidentally end up with a resigned mark on my profile

@yebellz,

That's very true, come to think of it. In that case, I'd expect that the Adjudicator drops players in some order (ie everyone isn't dropped at once), so someone wills till be the winner.

I agree with Abgemacht on that last part. As far as trying it out, if you let a mod know, they can remove the black mark from your and your firends record. In fact, get Fig or one of the other mods to participate and it'll never show up. Or you could try it on OliDip in a 1 on 1 game.

Q: Would multi-accounting still be unacceptable if you never played with the two accounts in the same game? (This is purely hypothetical; I only have one account.)

A Yes, this is unacceptable.

There's almost no legitimate reason for doing this and it only makes the Mods' job harder to find real multiaccounters.

But if they're not using the second account to further the first, what is the problem with having another?

They will eventually catch you and delete one of your accounts

It is against the rules. The mods have said as much. I fhtye catch you (and you insistent asking makes me suspect you are doing justthat) they willban one of the accounts. If you have two, I'd suggest you write them and fees up and tell them which you want banned.

@jodabomb24:
A: because then you don't need two accounts and can have no honest reason for maintaining two.

@jod

The problem is EXACTLY what I said. It makes the mod's job harder to detect real multiaccounters. And, as others have mentioned, there is no reason to have a second account except to 1) multiaccout 2) get rid of the point limitation, neither of which are legitimate reasons.

And of the million other things that I can think of, some other reasons are server space, general communal sanity, and better things to do with your time.

@jodabomb24:
A: You can Never have two or more accounts, because there are so many ways it can abuse the system...
1) cheating
2) having more points to work with
3) concealing past game record
4) concealing past inappropriate behavior (in games, forum, PMs)
5) harder job for mods
... and you can probably think of more

There is no legitimate reason to play multiple accounts.

Q: Is this an American website?
A: It is developed and run by an Australian, moderated by people from the US, UK, and other places, and while it has a large US player base, there are a ton of people from all over the world.

Q: How does a draw work in WTA versus PPSC?
A: The same. The remaining players split the pot.

Q: Can my friends and relatives share a computer to play without being banned for multi-accounting.
A: Yes, but you are better off letting the moderators know ahead of time in case anyone thinks you are multi-accounting. Also see next Q and A.

Q: Can friends and relatives play in games together?
A: Yes, as long as you do not meta-game, such as preplanned alliances, unbreakable alliances, knowing who is who in an anonymous game, communicating outside the game in nopress/public press games, etc... I.e. as long as you treat others the same or better than your friends and relatives, then no worries.

Q: How does the chat timestamps in an anon game work?

Note: I've never played in anon game with chat (only anon gunboat so far). I noticed while observing an anon game that the chats have "~" in front of the time stamp. Are the timestamps being randomized slightly in order to prevent people from inferring identity?

Yes, they are approximations so that you won't be able to deduce from chat times who the player might be. Although, a determined player who is online and monitoring the game closely may still be able to figure it out if he or she knows who all is in the game to begin with.

Q: Is there an open-access adjudicator available where one can set up a board and determine what the result of a set of orders will be? I feel like that would make it much easier to visualize the possibilities that would flow from all of the opponents' potential moves.

Q: Is there an easier way to search for live games than to click "Games", click "Search", select "non-joined games" that are "joinable," uncheck all phase lengths other than "Less than 1 hour", filter for "running," non-paused games, and sort in ascending order of nearest phase change? I feel like I have to do this every time I log into the website. Can I create a bookmark that will go through the motions for me?

Q: Is it "metagaming" if I convinced six of my real-life friends to join the site, created a game for the seven of us, and played it while all of us were in the same room? I've wanted to play a game of face-to-face with my friends for a while, and this seems like the easiest way, if it's not illegal.

Q1: Open-source adjudicator?
A1: jDip is pretty nice. Open-source Java
http://jdip.sourceforge.net/

A2: Just click on the "New" tab and look through all the games that haven't started.

A3:This is fine as long as you play a legit game. In other words, if 6 of you surrender so that 1 of you can get a bunch of points, you'll all be in trouble.

Why would six legitimate (and possibly respected) players just give their points to someone else. It's not like we are talking about trying it with new players where there is a suspicion of multiaccounting. The idea was to have 7 real players who were genuinely interested in finding out give it a try and see who got the victory. Do it as a 5 point game so no one loses alot as someone is bound to "win" I'm sure.

@Draug, I don't know why, but I'm sure it's happened in the past.

I just wanted to make sure tar knew what was acceptable and what was not.

Oops. I thought wew were tlaking about the test game to see what happens if everyone CDs at once. Teach me to not get fully caught up before responding. *wipes egg from face*

A3: It's definitely not meta-gaming IF everyone is able to play with a Completely Neutral, Unbiased mindset. However, that is often impossible amongst a group of friends, but I would say it's generally fine since it's only a group of friends and everyone has gone into the game understanding the relationships between everyone. Just avoid creating a mix of friends and complete strangers as that could cause obvious problems.

If you wanted to play face-to-face, you could also use jDip.

@tar - also be certain to let the mods know so they don't see seven set of orders all coming from the same external IP and think you are a multi trying to deceive them.

Well at least part of Draugnar's advice is helpful despite the misunderstanding of context. Keeping the point stake very low in a friends-only game is probably a good idea.

A2: (adding to abgemacht's advice) Click on the New tab, ctrl+F, search for "(live)", while going through the pages. Easy as pie

Thanks for the information. I only have one account. Believe or don't believe me; it doesn't really matter.