Here are my opinions, for what they're worth:

1. All games count for GR and if people are so fixated on GR that it affects their game play or choice of game, then the punishment fits the crime.
2. Keep the "main" GR as we have it, but also have three sub-categories: WTA full press classic, live and gunboat.

Gunboat and Press are two very different games. Everything else is just a variant. We need two GRs and we we need to weed out the World Map, Ancient Med and Wilson variants. PPSC and WTA are equally worthy and should be lumped together. within these two categories. A third "all encompassing" GR is fine too but nobody would care if Gunboat and Full are segregated.

I had to vote on the survey that Wilson deserved its own category. I don't believe this, but there was no way to say it should be excluded like there was with Med and World.

Lando +1 (except for the PPSC bit, but I don't care about that as much as the variant part).

I honestly think if you are the best diplomacy player it shouldn't change between those two distinctions.

Gunboat and Press are very different games, though, I maintain.

And some of us play for fun.

@Lando

Agreed, but the problem is that GR rates PPSC different than WTA and I think it rewards poor play.

@Czech

I don't pay much attention to rankings at all. I think they're fun, but not as fun as the game itself. I'm just saying what I'd like to see if it were to be implemented into the site.

Zult: Not sure what you mean. If I want to know how I do in non-live grey press PPSC World diplomacy I check those boxes and get an answer.

I assure you the coding is not difficult, just 4 flags to track for each game played, and the data storage is just the same thing as TGM hase now x 136 or w/e Draug said (that sounds right). CSV's do not take up much space.

Maybe it's not necessary or anything, but it is the most elegant option and if you're going to put the effort into instituting this kind of system there's really no reason not to do it right the first time. Nobody will be *upset* with a system that includes every option :)

@abge if you did it my way WTA players could no longer whine about that :)

@abge, you're right. However if GR weighted all games like WTA but consider both types equally, then players would have incentive to join fewer WTA games.

@lando if you did it my way this would not be a concern. Everybody could play the variant they find most fun and be ranked accordingly, without their "inferior variants," cross polluting my own score.

Right, but then its so convoluted your number doesn't mean anything. There will be like 8 #1s. Two seems reasonable.

Well some of them won't mean anything to many people. And there will still be a WTA classic overall category as well as an overall gunboat along with a hundred others.

I'm not really arguing we ought to do this, just that it encompasses everything everybody wants and more. I don't agree that it is any more convoluted than arbitrary weights or lumping white press with grey press together.

I guess if it is that customizable that is good

GR is a great tool for organizing competitive game. People of all point levels but similar abilities can play against each other, bringing the best games possible. However, in Gunboat one must rely on points as the sole factor for determining worthy opponents which simply isn't fair.

I like playing gunboat games with people like JesusPetry and Trooth. As far as I am concerned they are two of the best on this site. However, neither of them has tons of points, for whatever reason. So if a Gunboat GR system could bring people like them and I into games together then it has achieved its purpose, in my opinion.

If we end up tracking all these thousand combinations, I think the profile should only display:
All-Time "Classic"
Peak "Classic"
Current Month's "Classic"
And then the sub-GR they are most active in, be it gunboat, map variant, etc.

@YJ,
If it's not hard to code the calculations of those scores, are you volunteering to do it? I wouldn't want to assume that it's easily done unless I myself know for sure that it's easily done.

OK, so using a config file or creating a config table in the DB would make selecting which options to break out easy enough. The records could be kept in a secondary table related to the player/user table with current rating and game options. The options would be a simple 0, 1, 2, 3 kind of thing where 0 meant all. Otherwise the number would refer to the option. In the WTA_PPSC field, for instance, 1 might be WTA and 2 be PPSC.

I can picture how all of this could work and think I might have to free up some personal timne to help out with this. You all may have just foudn the way to prevent me from "retiring" for a time, although I'll probably still take a break from playing.

Oh, and if you can't tell, relational database design is one of my specialties.

I assume this place is java scripted? I don't know how to do that.

I know how I'd do it in C and there isn't anything functionally different about applying the code (the logic is the same, but syntax different). But hell no I'm not volunteering to do it. I'm just pointing out the best way to do it - and how I would do it if I were to do it myself. I have no interest in doing it myself.

lol see even Draugnar likes my idea. That's cuz he thinks BIG.

I assume this place is java scripted? I don't know how to do that.

I know how I'd do it in C and there isn't anything functionally different about applying the code (the logic is the same, but syntax different). But hell no I'm not volunteering to do it. I'm just pointing out the best way to do it - and how I would do it if I were to do it myself. I have no interest in doing it myself.

Almost everything is big about Draugar, except where it counts. :)
Love you, D.

The UI is, but the GR would be calculated server side, which is PHP. I'd only be of use for the DB design as my PHP is, well, non-existent.

Now, Z... I was nice and got back on track. Don't make me go Draugma King on you. :-)

@D, did you misspell your own name or is that some obscure reference?

@YJ, I want this GR system to be a great system, but I don't want us to bite off more than we can chew.

The survey I posted asks if you're interested in working on the development so we can build a team, manage the project, and not go crazy.

Obscure reference. You've heard of a drama queen? Well I got the nickname Draugma (like drama) when I had one of my fits some time back.

@Geo - Yep, said I woudl on the survey. Just wanted you to know I don't know PHP, but I know SQL in many flavors like nobody's business.

Personally, I equate gunboat to ancient med and world, they're all variants that are far different from and inferior to classic full press, so I would argue that the GR as we have it and WTA full press classic are by far the most important rankings, but enough people play live and gunboat that I think some would enjoy seeing these rankings as well, however meaningless.

Ah, I see. Let's hope you won't go all DK on us.

I like MM's bit about the other variants being "meaningless." Way to be nonjudmental.