Backgammon Online

25-Nov-2009
22:27 PST

The ladder seems like a very exciting new element and I have signed up for it. I have one concern however, What will the time limits be on a game? I cannot play at less than three days per move, because I do not play at weekends, An opponent knowing this could challenge (and I have to accept) at less than that and win by me timing out.

Also how many ladder games might a person play simultaneously?

26-Nov-2009
18:44 PST

Great questions! That information was inadvertently omitted from the Rules/Procedures so we will update that as well.

Currently, there is only one Ladder and that Ladder has a 3-day time per turn (to allow for weekends!). You can set the maximum number of active Ladder games in your PREFS, with the default being 5. Additionally, you may only have 1 active Ladder game with any other Ladder player (meaning you cannot challenge a Ladder player to a Ladder game if you have an active Ladder game with them).

04-Dec-2009
05:43 PST

Kudos for the ladder folks I think it's great. But may I make one suggestion and that is people on the ladder who are playing the maximum number of games have the challenge link removed or deactivated. It is quite frustrating to challenge and then be informed that they are playing the maxmimum number of games.

But this whinge aside, a fantastic job!

04-Dec-2009
08:25 PST

Great job on Ladder!

Just a suggestion- on the page where I see the list of my opponents and their ranking, it would be nice to add a ladder icon next to all opponents. For example, I play two games against the opponent (one regular game and one ladder game). How do I know which game relates to the Ladder?

Keep it up, Zoo Escape Staff!

04-Dec-2009
22:30 PST

I'll second the ladder comments regarding the challenges and an icon, similar to the tournament icon.

Keep up the good work!

05-Dec-2009
18:03 PST

Another issue-
When I want to challenge a player, I click and find out that I cannot play a game against that player because he/she set up the maximum games (most of my oppontents set up at 5). It would be nice to set up an icon (red flag) or letter "M" that show me this player reaches the maximum of games. That would save me a lot of time.

07-Dec-2009
09:28 PST

I think it would be helpful to send an announcement that people can change their maximum ladder games in the personal preferences. I bet most don't realize that they can change the default.

07-Dec-2009
14:32 PST

There seems to be a problem with monitoring of Ladder challenges. I currently have 12 challenges against me, 3 players have challenged me 3 times each which is against the Rules/Procedures declarations:

"•Only one active Ladder game is allowed between a pair of Ladder players (you cannot challenge any player with whom you have an active Ladder game)."

Is there a monitoring safeguard in the Ladder programming or has it been hacked?

07-Dec-2009
14:34 PST

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments.

1) The ''Challenge' link will not appear for opponents playing their maximum number of games and in its place is a question mark.

2) We will consider adding additional information to the active games table!

3) For the maximum ladder games preference, we've added a link to the Ladders page to let players know that they can modify this value.

Keep the ideas coming!

~Cheers~

07-Dec-2009
14:45 PST

It appears that you are in the Ladder and in a Tournament. For Tourneys, there are 3 games between each pair of players in a group, with the pairing done automatically. For Ladders, a player may decide whom to challenge (within certain limitations), and there may only be one game between any pair of players. We do only use icon for the two types of games (so that may be confusing), but the text next to the icon on the right side of the game page should state the type of game that it is.