maxes at 18, 1 more than half

Suleiman II is actually asking about points, not about the conditions for a solo victory (indeed 18 SCs).
Yes, in a PPSC game, you gain more points for each SC you conquer. So, when possible, you have interest to stop at 17 and then cross the barrier well over 18 (I got 22 in one game and plenty of points).
It often depends on your will to respect agreements with other players and also if you feel the pressure to reach 18 cause you may not be able to do it the following turn.

to my understanding the maximum you can get on a ppsc game is pot/34*18...

according to your profile julian you have never won a game

ah... it must be his profile that he multis on that one that big pot...

ah... he only has one active game...

can someone confirm that the maximum points on a ppsc is pot/34*18

julien will you please explain why i should not report you for multiaccounting

i think Julien came from facebook phpdip.

it is one of these two, the onlly difference is in the first one it rounds points.
(pot/34)*18
(pot*18)/34

i believe both of these come to the same result...

It wouldn't make sense if extra SCs didn't equal extra points. In that case, assuming that other powers don't gain extra points arbitrarily, the math would force some points to disappear.

Assume, for example, that there are only two powers left in a game. At 18-16, one obviously gets slightly more than half, the other gets slightly less via the formula pot/34 * x where x is SC count.

If only player has 22 and the other has 12, then obviously the 22 gets more, not because it COULDN'T cap you at 18, but because the player with 12 only gets pot/34 * 12 (since it would be absurd for them to get points AS IF they had taken 16 SCs). If the player with 22 got pot/34 * 18, where would the extra pot/34 * 4 points go? Into the air?

i believe the winner gets pot/34*18 and the other points are distributed according to your absurd scenario...

Well, first off, we know that the points come and go in a PPSC game because of rounding. For example, if the pot is 49 (7 point buy in) and the centers are split 18-16 then the person with 18 gets 18 points and the person with 16 centers gets 16 points for a total of 34 points with 15 points disappearing into thin air.

But if the pot is 56 (8 point buy in) then the person with 18 centers gets 36 points and the person with 16 centers gets 32 points for a total of 68 points which means 12 points appeared out of thin air.

When I first started here a month or two ago I had heard that the winner gets pot/34*18 and the rest of the points are divided amongst the rest based on the remaining number of centers.

So if the winner had 20 centers and you and another person each had 7 centers for a total of 34, then you and the other person would be splitting the remaining points rather than getting (pot/34)*7 which is less. But I don't know for sure.

I was told it maxes at 18. Then I looked at the code, and it doesn't max. And you get (pot/number of centers owned by surviving players) * (number of centers you own). So if there are centers owned by nobody, the pot is divided by less than 34.

Relook at the code JB. That is for the survivors, but there is another earlier formula for the winner.

I just looked again, JB, and it appears it does give the credit to the winner based on their total SCs. I could have sworn I saw this was different in the past.

I was absolutely told that 18 or 34, in PPSC you get the same. But the code doesn't bear that out, and Empirically, 20 SCs definitely give you more than 18. I had to apologize to someone when I got mad at him for taking 4 SCs in the last turn when he only needed 2. It turns out that it wasn't a waste.

Look at the functions 'bet' and 'distributeWinnings'

http://phpdiplomacy.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/phpdiplomacy/phpdiplomacy/gamemaster/game.php?view=markup

I did and your right. Win with 20 SCs, get 20 SCs forth of points.

oops worth

Really? I was sure that it was capped at 18. I've never tried to get more, and I don't play PPSC any more, but this could be an error because I thought Kestas wanted it to be so that it capped at 18.

Ah, I've just talked to Kestas. Apparently he had planned to implement a cap on 18 centres, but currently, you do get more points for more centres. =/

I'll be fixing this, plus the rounding errors which impact small-points games, in the next version

ha ha I created a mess LOL
btw, I'm no multi accounting, mellvins059 , no need to report me ;-)
I'm indeed brand new on this server but I've been playing on FB diplo for a long time (kestas knows me well), and the code is the same
I'm surprised nobody in this thread noticed you get more points with more SCs than 18, it is a basic strategy on the other site to stop at 17 then seize as many as possible SCs in one of the following turns.
However I think such a strategy is quite unnatural, so capping does make sense.

I think amonkeyperson did that and everybody in that game got mad. They overreacted and took it to the forum, anyone remember that?

Haha I remember that, he got 24 SCs, but yea he really pissed everyone in that game off.

Made for a great forum fight though:]

Oh yea I remember that.... He got 24 SCs right?
I think this was the game:
http://phpdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=8648

;]

why did everybody get mad at him?
he just took advantages of the rules, which were the same for everyone!
the other guys should get pissed off at themselves not getting at 24 but not at amonkeyperson

yea they should have came together and attackedme together instead of land grabbing from each other if they were so mad. At me winning like that.
I just wanted to see how many scs I could have gotten without cheating.

yea cuz the three accounts worked out so well for you didnt it eh monkey?:p

Ok, I admit, we've been over this and the lack of cap is a mistake. But picking up extra centres for points is a huge dick move, so keep it on the downlow.

Luckily it will be fixed.

Well put Centurian :P...

picking up extra centers is not a "huge dick move", everybody does it on facebook diplo
it is just the logical way to react to the way the algorithm currently works
it is really a surprise for me to see that here this banal strategy is not mainsteam, or even that people didnt realize they get more points above 18.
when the algorithm will change, people will adapt their behaviour in consequence

I with you on this one Julien. If people don't like it then change the rules. As the game currently stands (on this site) one of the goals is to win points. If that means taking a few more supply centre so be it.

yes this is exactly my point

Wow I can't believe someone accused Julien of multiaccounting based on this thread. That is ridiculous. lol.
I remember you from Facebook Diplomacy I think Julien. You were one of the really good players in that big points game, Elite (with Stephen and Fizi and few others). That's right isn't it? Welcome to phpdiplomacy.net.

What about prolonging a game at 17 SCs to allow an ally to take over all the other SCs? People that should have got a few consolation points at the end of a game wouldn't get them not because of a lack of Diplomacy skill but just because the winning players decided to exploit the system

I think there are strategies to maximize points that unfortunately run counter to the system's goals. The 18+ SC problem will be pretty easy to counter, but the strategy above is harder to prevent by changing the system

(Oh and welcome to phpdiplomacy.net Julien, glad to see you here :-)

Kestas you describe that as exploitation but what if such an arrangement could be the natural consequence of diplomatic negotions. For example, let England doesn't think he can win, but if he allies with France, then France will certainly win. Is it wrong for England to say, I will help you win but in return you must guarantee me 17 supply centres?

I think this is where you get into the divide between WTA and PPSC. PPSC lends itself to harvesting points. From a WTA perspective it just seems wrong. I just think it is two very different styles and each player should play the style they enjoy.

If you play PPSC, you run the risk of being eliminated not so that a player can win but so that a second player can get a lot of points too, and that's the way it works, so you have no room to complain or be bitter.