Gladiator X: There will be blood

[Spaced Cowboy]

I'm good with 100 each.

[EPW]

Semi-Final Matches

Theben vs. Spacius Maximus
The Doctor vs. Ludd

[snoopy369]

How about ((W1-A2)+20)*3 + 40 ?

0/20 vs 0/20 gives you 40.
10/10 vs 0/20 gives you 70.
10/10 vs 10/10 gives you 100.
20/0 vs 10/10 gives you 130.
20/0 vs 20/0 gives you 160.

You could also increase the multiplier to 4 and increase this range (to 40-200 centered on 120).

In these matchups, Spike/Ludd would have 100 while Spaced/Theben would have 118.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by snoopy369
I understand that, i'm just not sure if I agree that it's a problem

Well it is. Partly it's practical, because of dual running of semis, partly it's to ensure a fitting fight, because no one wants a semi to be over in 1 or 2 rounds after all that pre-amble (or indeed to last forever with 2 20As), and partly it's equity to ensure that the people in the final haven't just fluked one lucky round.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by snoopy369
How about ((W1-A2)+20)*3 + 40 ?

0/20 vs 0/20 gives you 40.
10/10 vs 0/20 gives you 70.
10/10 vs 10/10 gives you 100.
20/0 vs 10/10 gives you 130.
20/0 vs 20/0 gives you 160.

You could also increase the multiplier to 4 and increase this range (to 40-200 centered on 120).

In these matchups, Spike/Ludd would have 100 while Spaced/Theben would have 118.

That's a really good effort actually, but a couple of picky points:

1) Need to round for elegance
2) The extremes have been accentuated a touch too much. I don't think HP should ever be below 50 even for 0/20 v 0/20. And 160 is too much even for two 20/0 players. We have used as high as 150 in the past though.

But pretty solid - 100 looks right for me and Ludd, and SC/Theben probably do need a few more points. 120 looks about right for effective bonus of 6.

How about ((W1-A2)+20)*2.5 + 50?

Theben/SC come out at 115 this way - though we could round to nearest 10 if people think that 5s are too unwieldy.

[EPW]

hmmm, there is no reason for the 20 to be in the parenthesis.

3(W1-A2)+100 or 2.5(W1-A2) + 100 seem reasonable.

Edit: Actually 2.5 seems perfect.

[DrSpike]

Fair point.

And yeah 2.5 has the best characteristics.

[snoopy369]

Indeed, I just put it in the parens to make it more obvious what I was doing (bringing 0/20 0/20 back to zero).

[Theben]

Nice formula.

I don't think it's necessary to follow that to the hilt, though it could be used to give a good idea where we should start from. In the end whatever the gladiators themselves agree on should be what's done.

Obviously for Doc/Ludd 100 is fine, as for me & Spaced, I'm partial to either 100 or 120. Any other number would seem strange, and +3 to hit, +6 power between us isn't that much. There'll probably be a bit more defense involved in our matches to compensate (assuming 100).

[General Ludd]

Are we fighting to the death now instead of just 2 rounds?

[Theben]

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by General Ludd
Are we fighting to the death now instead of just 2 rounds?

Yes, but don't worry I'll be gentle.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Hitting Ludd is HARD. Frankly I think it's easier to go up against a 20/0 player than a 0/20 player... I screwed up the first round (obviously) and had a basically impossible task in the second, since all he had to do was 0/33/0 0/33/0 0/34/0 and then in order to hit, at 8/12 (-6 to attack/-12 to power), I had to have something like 40/0/10 in order to hit at all - which of course does not do any damage; so I had to hope he screwed up and didn't do 0/33/0. Unfortunately, Ludd is not a complete moron

Against you, it may be slightly easier... We'll see.

Incidentally, my orders for the first round where random.

[EPW]

Does everyone agree on 100 and 120?

[General Ludd]

Sure, I don't really care. It's more a question of how much work you might have to do than anything else.

[DrSpike]

Agreed.

[Theben]

100 for them, either 100 or 120 for us... I'll agree to whichever Spaced prefers.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by General Ludd


Incidentally, my orders for the first round where random.

Truly random???? That would be ... interesting.

With 0/20 and a relatively high negative modifier (say, any combination where A1-W2 > 10), there's a strong incentive to try

(A2-W1)/2+n / X / (A2-W1)+p
x3
where n = some small number you think is higher than the opp will put in defense in a low-defense scenario (say, 1, or 6); p = addon to power, again small, like 2 or 3 or 5; and X = whatever is left, for 1/3.

For example, in our situation (-6/-12):
7/13/13
7/14/13
7/13/13

which would allow you to hit three times for one damage, and block anything up to 19/20 on the offense.

The obvious other stratagy is
0/X/0 for two, and N/X/P where N/P are large numbers:
0/25/0
0/25/0
17/20/13
where you successfully block anything up to 30 on the attack (you won't get much over 30 coming at you in the first round i'd think), and then the 17/20/13 hits small defenses for one point (any defense up to 10). Then 0/33/0 for the second round, and you win 100 to 99 against most attacks...

I think 0/20 is very effective in the prelim rounds (where you just have to get one point ahead and then stay there), but not very effective in the later rounds (where you cannot afford to just stand pat). But I suppose we'll see

[Spaced Cowboy]

120 is okay with me, lets roll!

[EPW]

1/4

[EPW]

Originally posted by snoopy369


Truly random???? That would be ... interesting.

With 0/20 and a relatively high negative modifier (say, any combination where A1-W2 > 10), there's a strong incentive to try

(A2-W1)/2+n / X / (A2-W1)+p
x3
where n = some small number you think is higher than the opp will put in defense in a low-defense scenario (say, 1, or 6); p = addon to power, again small, like 2 or 3 or 5; and X = whatever is left, for 1/3.

For example, in our situation (-6/-12):
7/13/13
7/14/13
7/13/13

which would allow you to hit three times for one damage, and block anything up to 19/20 on the offense.

This didn't seem to work very well for you Maybe I should post my strategy guide

[Spaced Cowboy]

sent

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by EPW


This didn't seem to work very well for you Maybe I should post my strategy guide

Maybe I've only played this game twice, so there's definitely a lot I haven't seen about strategies yet... and the worst thing about strategy is when your opp does something unexpected and theoretically inefficient, but it happens to beat your strategy

[DrSpike]

Like I did to you in the last round.

This game isn't really about the probabilities, because unless your opponent is a complete idiot (which only Felch was) good orders can easily be countered if you are unlucky. More important is to play the man not the ball - I just somehow knew you would be too afraid of the KO to do two high attacks.

Likewise I've countered SC's orders for about the last 15 consecutive rounds.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Like I did to you in the last round.

This game isn't really about the probabilities, because unless your opponent is a complete idiot (which only Felch was) good orders can easily be countered if you are unlucky. More important is to play the man not the ball - I just somehow knew you would be too afraid of the KO to do two high attacks.

Likewise I've countered SC's orders for about the last 15 consecutive rounds.

Your mum would be so proud that you owned a drunk olde guy.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Like I did to you in the last round.

This game isn't really about the probabilities, because unless your opponent is a complete idiot (which only Felch was) good orders can easily be countered if you are unlucky. More important is to play the man not the ball - I just somehow knew you would be too afraid of the KO to do two high attacks.

Likewise I've countered SC's orders for about the last 15 consecutive rounds.

See, that's quite interesting. I actually was going to go for the KO (and at minimum double KO) but decided you would think I was going to do that, so changed my orders based on that

[Theben]

Yeah, there's been a few times where I've 2nd-guessed my opponent and failed. I've noticed that what you'd normally expect from someone is what they'll do more than 1/2 the time.

After that you start to figure in the hit/power bonus, and look back to see what your opponent actually did in previous rounds. I noticed that Gramps attacked in every segment but not with much power, so I felt pretty safe going for a 2 hit 2nd segment KO.

Last you do the number crunching. Again in the last round Darkcloud could have won had he realized that with the hit/power penalty he could've just barely beat me if he went all to hit with just enough power to put him over the top, assuming I went 0/33-34/0 on all 3 segments. I figured DC was too green to realize that, and in any event I sent -30- -35- -35- just to be safe.

[EPW]

Please try to get your orders in within two days of the request: we may have upwards of 5 rounds each for the semis and we may even have to repeat the match in case of a tie, so lets try to be fast about getting the orders in.

[DarkCloud]

Last you do the number crunching. Again in the last round Darkcloud could have won had he realized that with the hit/power penalty he could've just barely beat me if he went all to hit with just enough power to put him over the top, assuming I went 0/33-34/0 on all 3 segments. I figured DC was too green to realize that, and in any event I sent -30- -35- -35- just to be safe.

Ah, you had that pegged right. I didn't realize Felch had a bonus to his defense from the start.

[Theben]

He didn't have a bonus to defense per se. But his weapon 4, armor 16 compared to my weapon 9, armor 11 leaves a difference between us of -3.5 to hit, -7 power (W4-A11, or W9-A16). Against Gramps it was +/- 0, and against Spaced or the Doc there's a +.