Player and Team Rating Tables
There has been a lot of discussion on the mepbmlist concerning ratings for
players. We've taken a look at this and also the emails sent to us on the
subject. Here then are some ideas.
Please discuss and give feedback on what we can do to change it (what
changes you would make and what you would keep the same), what you think of
it (good or bad), what is unclear and needs improvement and anything other
feedback you think useful. We have in mind 6 ratings: Valar, Maia, Istari,
Ainur, Council of the Wise and Nazgul. Note you don't need to do anything
to get these ratings, we'll do all the work.!
Valar - this is based on similar ratings found in other games such as chess.
The quality of both teams is taken into account, as is the split of the
neutrals. If this rating became popular, it would have a very profound
balancing effect on the neutrals, it would be rare to get games where one
side is too strong and the game ends too quickly.
Maia - designed to be like experience points. This will show how much
experience you have at playing Middle-earth. It gives more points for
winning than for losing, it also gives more points if you play with other
more experienced players.
Istari - individual success, based on ability to score well for a particular
nation relative to how that nation is normally scored at the end of the
game. In addition we'll have an overall rating.
Ainur - a rating for Grudge teams. This rewards Grudge teams who win without
losing too many nations along the way.
Council of the Wise - a player voting system. At the end of the game
players vote for their team-mates.
Nazgul - a rating of experience combined with Winning percentage.
Each of these ratings will be updated at the end of a game. For scoring
purposes the last player that ran that particular nation will be counted.
(This means that a player who runs a nation, then stops AND another player
takes over, will not be counted for any of these ratings) .
This also means that if you are in more than one game your rating could well
be different by the end of the game. In these cases it is always your newest
rating that will be used. So if you start one game with 1,500 points and
then lose 50 from another game when the game ends you will have to use 1,450
as your 'original rating'.
Any games which start with less than 20 positions will count for less and so
only earn 1/2 points. Each rating will also alter as time goes on to show a
true status of active players. The updated ratings will be sent out to
players and added to the website each month. As time passes, players who
have not played recently will find their scores dropping, whilst active
players will remain at the top of the tables.
After each month your scores will be modified as follows:
The following pages explain each rating as we envisage them. There's quite a
bit of maths involved, so you might want to take it rating by rating and
think about each before looking at the next. There are also plain English
equations and examples, which should help.
Valar Rating
There is no change in your rating if there was a draw, if you won the game
you add the change, if you lost the game you subtract the change.
New Valar Rating = Original Rating + Change
Where; Change = 45 + (TotLose - TotWin )/150
Definitions: TotLose = Total of the Original ratings of the Losing team,
TotWin = Total of the Original ratings of the Winning team
Neutrals that do not change allegiance are counted as losing players for
their rating adjustment, but not for the total of the losing team's rating.
Example
The Free Peoples win on turn 30 with 11 players on their team. The losing
team (DS) had 13 players on their team before the inevitable drops. One
Neutral dropped and was not taken up.
Free People (winners) have a rating of:
Nation Original Rating
Wood 1450
NortM 1550
Eothra 1200 (got knocked out on turn 5 but still counts)
Arth 1300
Card 1500
NortG 1524
SoutG 1544
Dwarf 1700
Sinda 1800
Noldo 1000
Harad 1200
Total (TotWin) 15768
Dark Servants have a Rating of:
Nation Original Rating
WitchK 1290 (died on turn 8)
DragL 1100
DogL 1400 (dropped out two turns before the end of game)
Cloud 1050
BlinS 1784
IceK 1800
QuieA 1500 (new player so given default Provisional rating of 1500)
FireK 1600 (ran the Fire King and the Long Rider)
LongR 1600
DarkL 1856
Cors 1900
Dunl 1243
East 1542
Total (TotLose) 19665
Rhudaur was Neutral throughout the game so counts as losing. We'll come to
that one later.
Change = 45 + (15768 - 19665 )/150
= 45 + 25.98 = 71 (round to nearest)
So the Dwarf's new score is: 1700 + 71 = 1771, and the Blind Sorcerer's new
score is:1784 - 71 =1713
Note - The Rhudaur player, who remained neutral all game loses 71 points.
His previous rating does not impact on the calculation. The Fire King and
the Long Rider's score is affected only once despite the fact that the
player is running two positions.
Maia Rating
Definitions
RatNew = New player rating
RatOrig = Original player rating
TmAv = Your team's average rating at game end (worked out in the same
manner as the Valar ratings)
Score = Score for the game where S = 4 Win, = 3 Draw, = 2 Loss
EndTurn = Generic turn number the game Ended
RatNew = RatOrig + (TmAv/RatOrig) x Score x SQR (EndTurn)
e.g. On turn 30 Dark Servants win. Their Average Rating is 1400. If I am a
winner on that team and I went into the game with a Maia rating of 1250, my
new Maia Rating would be:
= 1250 + (1400/1250 x 4 x SQR30 )
= 1250 + (1.12 x 4 x 5.477)
= 1250 + 25 (rounding nearest)
= 1275
If I were on the losing side (FP) with the same start rating (and the
average FP team rating was 1600) then my new Maia Rating would be:
= 1250 + (1600/1250 x 2 x SQR30)
= 1250 + (1.28 x 2 x 5.477)
= 1250 + 14 (rounding nearest)
= 1264
Istari Rating
Victory Points refers to the final score of each player, not including those
gained through completion of individual victory conditions.
Each scenario will have ratings for the individual nation. So there will be
a total of 25 from 1650, 25 from 2950, 3 from Fourth Age and 5 from Bofa.
Fourth Age will be for North Kingdom, South Kingdom and normal nation.
We'll show the top 10 ratings on the website and occasional Brees. This will
be presented under the title "Top nations".
In addition there will be an overall Istari rating.
VictPoints = Victory Points scored for that nation without Victory
conditions
AveRateNtn = Average rating of that Nation at game end.
New Istari Rating = Original Rating + (VictPoints - AveRateNtn)
With multiple nations you will alter your score multiple times for that
game.
Eg Your Istari rating is 1600. A 1650 game ends with you as the Woodmen
and the Northmen scoring 1050 and 1300 respectively. If the average ratings
of Woodmen before that was 1100 and Northmen 1150 then your new Istari
Rating would be:
Woodmen = 1600 + (1050 - 1100)
= 1600 - 50
= 1550
Northmen with your new I Rating = 1550 + (1300 - 1150)
= 1550 + 150
= 1700
So your new rating would be 1700.
Ainur Rating
Grudge game - a Grudge Team is defined as any group of players which has at
least 5 members of the same team as played together before. It also has
same designated Team Co-ordinator. Members can come and go as long as 5
players of the original team remain.
If you make a change to a team roster between games you lose ( C x C )
points, where C = number of players changed. This means you lose 1 point if
you change 1 team member on the roster, 4 points if you change 2, and 25
points if you change 5 etc.
Two examples of Grudge teams: Sam Roads' 'Team GM', or Ben Shushan's 'USA1'
Grudge games can occur across the spectrum of gaming formats, with a minimum
of 10 nations filled a-side. Many players will never play a grudge game
because they prefer different formats, so they need not worry about Ainur
ratings.
There is no change in your rating if there was a draw, if you won the game
you add the change, if you lost the game you subtract the change.
The Ainur rating is applicable to the team, not the individual players.
GruOrigLose = Original Grudge rating of Losing team
GruOrigWin = Original Grudge rating of Winning team
ActWinNtn = Number of Active nations on winning side at game end
NumNtn = Number of nations per side at game start
New Grudge rating = Original Grudge rating + Change
Change = 60 x ( GruOrigLose / GruOrigWin) x ( ActWinNtn / NumNtn)
E.g. Winning Grudge team has an original rating of 1500, losing team of
1450. It started as a 12v12 game and the winning team lost 4 nations by the
end of the game so ended with 8 active nations.
Change = 60 x ( 1450/1500 ) x ( 8/12 )
= 60 x ( 0.97 ) x ( 0.67 )
= 39 ( rounded to nearest )
So the winning team would walk away with a new rating of 1539 points and the
losers would skulk off with a new rating of 1411 points.
Council of the Wise
At the end of each game players will be given the opportunity to vote for
their team-mates. Vote for players, that given their position's resources
and characteristics made the best use of that nation and best contribution
to the team by filling in the following form and getting it back to us. The
deadline is 2 weeks after the end of the game.
···
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END OF GAME NOMINATION FORM
Dear Player please return this slip with your nomination for the players who
contributed most to the game # ______
BEST TEAM PLAYER
The players whom you feel contributed most to your team's effort to win:
1st ____________________
2nd ____________________
3rd ____________________
BEST PLAYED NATION
Talking into account the different potentials of the various nations at the
nations at the start, and the special contributions which you feel might be
expected of them:
1st ____________________
2nd ____________________
3rd ____________________
BEST PLAYED ENEMY NATION
1st ____________________
Your name __________________
Account number __________________
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Guidelines for voting:
These are some of the ones that have been suggested as useful criteria for
voting:
Best Team Player: Co-ordination, data gathering and mapping, suggestions,
overall tactics, assistance to less experienced players, neutral wooing,
error checking, morale management,
Best played Nation: skill at playing a nation, success with nation, small
scale tactics.
Best played Enem: impact they had on us, interesting dialogue, fun I had
playing against a particular nation are some of the criteria you might want
to.
Nazgul Rating
GamStTa = Games Started or Takenover
GamWon = Number of Games won.
Nazgul rating = Winning% = GamWon / GamStTa
Eg if you had played 5 games and won 4 of them you would get a Nazgul rating
of 4/5 = 80%.
Multiple positions in games only count once. We would not include Bofa.
Monthly Adjustment
In addition at the end of every 1 month we'll run a normalising equation on:
Vala, Maia, Ainur (ie the Ainur database and Team Rating), Istari player
rating in the main databse (not the databse of Top Nations in each
scenario),
Nazgul and Council are not Adjusted.
New Adjusted Rating = [0.98 x ( Original Rating - 1500 )] + 1500
E.g. A rating of 1850 will be modified down to 1843 after one month and down
to 1836 after two months
New Rating = [0.98 x ( 1850 - 1500)] +1500
= [0.98 x 350] + 1500
= 1843
(1500 is the average, or the start rating. We will give people approximate
ratings when we start doing this. We'll discuss these approximate ratings
in a different article.)
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Middle Earth Games
Mailto: me@MiddleEarthGames.com
Website: www.MiddleEarthGames.com
UK: Office A, 340 North Road, Cardiff CF14 3BP, UK
USA: PO Box 280, Medford, OR 97501-0019, USA
Phone times: 10am-6.30pm UK time (BST - British Standard Time); 5am-1.30pm
(EST), 8pm-2.30am (AEST)
UK: 029 2091 3359/ (029 2062-5665 can be used if the other is engaged) [Dial
Code: 011 44 2920. for US players]
UK Fax: 029 2062 5532
US: 01 503 296 2325
US: Alternate Phone & Fax: 541-772-7872 (10-5pm weekdays) (fax24hrs)
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