Automatch updates 2024-12-10

[dexonsmith]

Very happy to see progress on the play page.

It still seems like the default of “+/-3” (which works out effectively to “maximum two stones of handicap”) is pretty small for those with handicap enabled, and will greatly limit potential matches. In case you missed my comment in the other thread: Upcoming changes to the Play page and general time settings - #209 by dexonsmith

@dexonsmith

• For non-handicap games, the settings define how lopsided an expected game result should be. A system default of “up to 3.00 ranks away” makes sense.
• For handicap games, the settings define how lopsided the starting position should be (but not the expected game result). A system default of “up to 9 stones of handicap” makes sense.

To be coherent, I think you need really two separate sliders.

• How lopsided can the initial position be? (max handicap stones, defaults to 9, hidden and interpreted as “0” if someone turns off handicap games")
• How lopsided can the expected game result be? (max rank difference after subtracting handicap, defaults to 3, hidden and interpreted as “0.99” if someone turns off non-handicap games)

With that as context, wanted to reply to this comment:

@anoek

If there is a large rank difference I do defer accepting a match until a certain amount of time has passed to give a chance of a more even match coming along. I’ll have to ponder whether that makes sense anymore, and/or if there’s a way to communicate that better.

Perhaps it makes sense to defer accepting matches where the expected game result is lopsided, but not really where just the expected initial position is lopsided.