Rabbit Chase Discussion
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 5:11 pm
There have been a lot of complaints and suggestions for the rabbit bestowment algorithm that is used in 1.10.2. To get it all straight I'm collecting the ideas and issues here so we can all have input on what we can do.
The current rabbit method is based on the bzflag score. This score uses total number of kills and deaths to get a number. In 1.10.2 the method was updated to make it have less anomalies, but it still has one core problem. The players with the highest score will always be the rabbits. This has the disadvantage of making it very hard for someone who has just joined the game to become the rabbit. 2 very good players who have been playing on the server for a while, could just bounce rabbit back and forth, not mater who kills the rabbit. This is very frustrating. This is the core reason to change the method.
Regarding the hunter 'team', presently the hunters are rouge colored ( black ), but act as a team. This is most confusing to new players. It seems that everyone agrees that the color should be changed to an existing team to ease confusion, red seems to make the most sense.
Before the rabbit method can be changed it is important to figure out what the point of the rabbit game is. Is the point to be the rabbit? Or is the point to hunt the rabbit. No mater what there are always aspects of both in the game. But the goal needs to be determined.
If being the rabbit is the goal. Then hunting rabbits is just a means to achieve that goal. And killing hunters when one is the rabbit is a means of keeping that goal. If this is the case then the best scoring solution would be to make the score based on time as rabbit. Something like 1 point every x seconds, say 30 seconds. Then he who kills the rabbit becomes rabbit. This seems to be the intended goal of the game.
If the point is hunting rabbits, then killing rabbits is a means to increase ones score. Killing hunters as a rabbit is then just a means to reduce other hunters score. In this mode points should be given for killing a rabbit, and points taken away for killing a team mate, and being killed by the rabbit. When a rabbit dies, then the assignment should be random, as no one really wants to be the rabbit since they are exempt from increasing there standing. This does not seem to be a popular goal.
Another option is to make the rabbit bestowment based on a flag. You have the rabbit flag, you are it. When you die, you drop the flag, and it's a scramble. In this mode, time as rabbit would be a good scoring metric.
On a note, hunters are a team, but they really don't have to work together. It is actually detrimental to help another hunter ( score wise ), in any game mode. But we don't want hunters to be killing each other ( that's just wrong ). So they are on a team to enforce the existing team killing mechanism. An option for a later version would be a Team Rabbit Chase mode, that used 4 teams, each with a group of hunters that could work together and had a common score. On a rabbit kill, the team member who did the killing would be made into a rabbit, and his team would then have to defend him from the other teams of hunters.
I personally feel that some change needs to be made for 1.10.4 in this area.
( note this was origonaly posted to the bzfalg -dev mailing list on SF, but I decided to post it here as well, for those that don't get the mailing list. )
The current rabbit method is based on the bzflag score. This score uses total number of kills and deaths to get a number. In 1.10.2 the method was updated to make it have less anomalies, but it still has one core problem. The players with the highest score will always be the rabbits. This has the disadvantage of making it very hard for someone who has just joined the game to become the rabbit. 2 very good players who have been playing on the server for a while, could just bounce rabbit back and forth, not mater who kills the rabbit. This is very frustrating. This is the core reason to change the method.
Regarding the hunter 'team', presently the hunters are rouge colored ( black ), but act as a team. This is most confusing to new players. It seems that everyone agrees that the color should be changed to an existing team to ease confusion, red seems to make the most sense.
Before the rabbit method can be changed it is important to figure out what the point of the rabbit game is. Is the point to be the rabbit? Or is the point to hunt the rabbit. No mater what there are always aspects of both in the game. But the goal needs to be determined.
If being the rabbit is the goal. Then hunting rabbits is just a means to achieve that goal. And killing hunters when one is the rabbit is a means of keeping that goal. If this is the case then the best scoring solution would be to make the score based on time as rabbit. Something like 1 point every x seconds, say 30 seconds. Then he who kills the rabbit becomes rabbit. This seems to be the intended goal of the game.
If the point is hunting rabbits, then killing rabbits is a means to increase ones score. Killing hunters as a rabbit is then just a means to reduce other hunters score. In this mode points should be given for killing a rabbit, and points taken away for killing a team mate, and being killed by the rabbit. When a rabbit dies, then the assignment should be random, as no one really wants to be the rabbit since they are exempt from increasing there standing. This does not seem to be a popular goal.
Another option is to make the rabbit bestowment based on a flag. You have the rabbit flag, you are it. When you die, you drop the flag, and it's a scramble. In this mode, time as rabbit would be a good scoring metric.
On a note, hunters are a team, but they really don't have to work together. It is actually detrimental to help another hunter ( score wise ), in any game mode. But we don't want hunters to be killing each other ( that's just wrong ). So they are on a team to enforce the existing team killing mechanism. An option for a later version would be a Team Rabbit Chase mode, that used 4 teams, each with a group of hunters that could work together and had a common score. On a rabbit kill, the team member who did the killing would be made into a rabbit, and his team would then have to defend him from the other teams of hunters.
I personally feel that some change needs to be made for 1.10.4 in this area.
( note this was origonaly posted to the bzfalg -dev mailing list on SF, but I decided to post it here as well, for those that don't get the mailing list. )