- 1,155
- gtp_iLex
The penalty system is obviously not working against punting. Besides that, there are players who seem to like to crash ferrari's into unsuspecting players. Although this is considered 'unfair', just saying so will not stop this.
After giving the whole problem with punters some thought I came up with the basics for a ranking system that would help clean drivers avoid punters. It's not complete, nor is it completely foolproof, but it is a start and maybe something others are interested in.
One of the good things about this system is that it isn't meant to judge punters. It just puts players in races with other players who drive as fair or unfair as they do.
The great thing about computer games is that a number is attached to everything and ofcourse that number can be recorded (you could record the amount of tyre squeel if you like). Already, without a damage model, the impact of a crash is recorded. If you touch another car you usually don't get a penalty, if you ram it hard, you definately get one.
If you record the information you need to rank the 'fair play' of a player, you could then make a system in which this player would be assigned a class.
The ranking system could record:
- Total Damage points
- Total Number of impacts
- Calculated Average damage points per impact
If a player has some very small impacts, it could still be a clean driver who's not completely clean yet, but definately trying. If a player has some very large impacts, it is obviously a player who isn't experienced enough or who isn't trying at all.
- Total number (and severity) of other penalties
- Number of races started
- Number of races finished
- Calculated number of unfinished races
When GT5P connects to PSN network, it checks if there are any started races that haven't been finished. You could also check the times a player really disconnects from the server during a race, but I don't know if this is solid (and how much time it takes for PSN to recognize a disconnected player). The start and finish markers could be send from GT5P to make sure that a switched off PS3 cannot accidently be recognized as still connected.
By recording all points for, say, the last 20 races you get a system in which occasional mistakes are easy to overcome, while consistent terrible driving (a.k.a. serial punting) is clearly visible.
Based on the above, players could be ranked in, say, 5 classes:
D - The notorious punters can have their games in here. If you don't even try to behave, you go to this class. This is were the bumpercar races take place. And from a different perspective: If you LIKE to use GT5P as a bumpercar game, then this is the place where you can find other people who like it.
C - The pool that needs cleaning.
B - The starting point. All players start here. and based on their first twenty races, they get reassigned (see possible problems)
A - The class for the relatively clean drivers. Based on the information, drivers in this class are absolutely trying and mostly succeding in driving cleanly.
S - Only the cleanest of drivers. The masters of the clean overtake have their own special class in here. This is where people play by the official rules.
In situations where there are too little players online players can be borrowed from a lower class. So, S races can have A drivers, A races B drivers etc. Maybe drivers from class D should be excluded, but this would make class D a real prison
Possible problems:
-One BIG problem is that it is probably impossible to ever get out of class D. Although this class is meant for purposely terrible drivers, beginning drivers without any notion of this system might accidently end up here.
-Another problem with this system is that people who like bumper cars will start in B, then go to C and then to D, leaving bumper car fans in all three classes.
A possible solution to both these problems is to have something like a 5 race preselection.
-There is one loophole as far as I can see and that is the possibility to wait untill all other cars are gone and then drive a clean race (without encountering any other cars) in order to increase your ranking. One way to overcome this is to create a time limit in which a clean race has to be run (for every track). If you do not finish within this time span, your clean lap will not be recorded. But this might give other problems.
Note 1: This system cannot record private room driving, because that would make it easy to cheat the system (start 20 races with a friend and purposely drive very clean etc.).
Note 2: This is only a ranking system based on the ability to drive cleanly. To make the system transparent I haven't incorporated any ranking based on winning.
Ok, this post is not complete, but I'm tired of typing and have to get some work done. I'll update this post with further ideas.
Please let me know what you think.
After giving the whole problem with punters some thought I came up with the basics for a ranking system that would help clean drivers avoid punters. It's not complete, nor is it completely foolproof, but it is a start and maybe something others are interested in.
One of the good things about this system is that it isn't meant to judge punters. It just puts players in races with other players who drive as fair or unfair as they do.
The great thing about computer games is that a number is attached to everything and ofcourse that number can be recorded (you could record the amount of tyre squeel if you like). Already, without a damage model, the impact of a crash is recorded. If you touch another car you usually don't get a penalty, if you ram it hard, you definately get one.
If you record the information you need to rank the 'fair play' of a player, you could then make a system in which this player would be assigned a class.
The ranking system could record:
- Total Damage points
- Total Number of impacts
- Calculated Average damage points per impact
If a player has some very small impacts, it could still be a clean driver who's not completely clean yet, but definately trying. If a player has some very large impacts, it is obviously a player who isn't experienced enough or who isn't trying at all.
- Total number (and severity) of other penalties
- Number of races started
- Number of races finished
- Calculated number of unfinished races
When GT5P connects to PSN network, it checks if there are any started races that haven't been finished. You could also check the times a player really disconnects from the server during a race, but I don't know if this is solid (and how much time it takes for PSN to recognize a disconnected player). The start and finish markers could be send from GT5P to make sure that a switched off PS3 cannot accidently be recognized as still connected.
By recording all points for, say, the last 20 races you get a system in which occasional mistakes are easy to overcome, while consistent terrible driving (a.k.a. serial punting) is clearly visible.
Based on the above, players could be ranked in, say, 5 classes:
D - The notorious punters can have their games in here. If you don't even try to behave, you go to this class. This is were the bumpercar races take place. And from a different perspective: If you LIKE to use GT5P as a bumpercar game, then this is the place where you can find other people who like it.
C - The pool that needs cleaning.
B - The starting point. All players start here. and based on their first twenty races, they get reassigned (see possible problems)
A - The class for the relatively clean drivers. Based on the information, drivers in this class are absolutely trying and mostly succeding in driving cleanly.
S - Only the cleanest of drivers. The masters of the clean overtake have their own special class in here. This is where people play by the official rules.
In situations where there are too little players online players can be borrowed from a lower class. So, S races can have A drivers, A races B drivers etc. Maybe drivers from class D should be excluded, but this would make class D a real prison
Possible problems:
-One BIG problem is that it is probably impossible to ever get out of class D. Although this class is meant for purposely terrible drivers, beginning drivers without any notion of this system might accidently end up here.
-Another problem with this system is that people who like bumper cars will start in B, then go to C and then to D, leaving bumper car fans in all three classes.
A possible solution to both these problems is to have something like a 5 race preselection.
-There is one loophole as far as I can see and that is the possibility to wait untill all other cars are gone and then drive a clean race (without encountering any other cars) in order to increase your ranking. One way to overcome this is to create a time limit in which a clean race has to be run (for every track). If you do not finish within this time span, your clean lap will not be recorded. But this might give other problems.
Note 1: This system cannot record private room driving, because that would make it easy to cheat the system (start 20 races with a friend and purposely drive very clean etc.).
Note 2: This is only a ranking system based on the ability to drive cleanly. To make the system transparent I haven't incorporated any ranking based on winning.
Ok, this post is not complete, but I'm tired of typing and have to get some work done. I'll update this post with further ideas.
Please let me know what you think.
