I think it would be nice for players to be able to agree to end the game “prematurely” when both of them have had enough. Since we already have AI analyzing games after they end anyway, we could easily have it evaluate who won. And maybe if it’s within 3 points we have a sort of “are you sure?” option.
This would be primarily so that players like me, who dislike the endgame, can skip it, but it could also be used by beginners if they are confused about how to actually end a game (this seems to be a common issue). I know, it wouldn’t be healthy for beginners to use this feature from an educational perspective, but they might be happy to have the option.
A button like this will annoy me, as I enjoy finishing my games in any conventional way (counting or resign). I will not enjoy to take a decision while I am still playing the game.
And I don’t like the idea to let an AI decide the status and result, it should be the players.
@mart900 - there is a very simple solution which allows you to OPT IN rather than requiring a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone on OGS
When you create your games, and invite people to them, just click the options that allow for the OGS Score Estimator to be used by both players during the game. As I understand it, OGS disables this option by default, but you can certainly create custom games that allow it.
Now granted - if it is early in an average 19x19 game - like move 0-100 - then the score estimator will only be a rough guess because - presumably - there will still be huge parts of the board that are undecided, and need to be played in to get a better sense of who might be leading. Unless someone has a few dead groups on the board, and the other is leading by 80 points - chances are you’ll both have to keep playing before the score estimator can make a prediction that is reasonably accurate
However, if Midgame is mostly over, most of the board is resolved, and one of you is going into Endgame down by 30 points with no possibility of changing the score so drastically - then both of you can look at the Score Estimator, and take that information into consideration for whether one of you should resign, or keep playing. Alternately, if it is a close game (i.e. a difference of less than 4-6 points) you might both choose to play the endgame because there’s a chance someone could make a mistake and the score could reasonably change enough to have the other person win.
So yes, rather than asking for an OGS-wide change, this is something you can do for your own games, and everything is already set up to do pretty much what you’re asking (as long as you are familiar with the OGS Score Estimator, and understand its strengths and weaknesses). Cheers!
Personally, I think this will make it more confusing for beginners. They will not actually learn how to finish if they just rely on the AI to do it. If players continue to rely on AI to count or read for them, they will start to rely on it and become weaker when it is unavailable. So I think this is a great idea! Anything that weakens my opponents is a win in my book
Hmmm, you know, it’s been a LONG TIME since I’ve created a ranked / unraked custom game. I remember there being a separate button to enable / disable the OGS Score Estimator, but I guess there have been some site changes since then… either that or the OGS Score Estimator becomes auto-enabled if you allow analysis mode…
In case I am incorrect or out of the loop, apologies for my ignorance / not being up on the latest updates.
Yeah, and I find this feature faulty as I have encountered it a few times when I was closing Dame points (and sometimes exposing Teire), while my opponents happily kept on passing
Count me strongly opposed. One of the charms of Go is the difficulty of judging the current game state. Letting beginners hand their fates to the machine will not build judgement.
and I would have needed that feature in my last OTB tournament, just skipping my bad endgame
