Well, if there really should be a restriction like this, I won’t be using automatch. There should definitely be a stepper/slider or something for all time settings so that one could really make it so that it fits their likes.
I don’t see it working for correspondence anyway. Currently there are too few open challenges in “long games” area, nothing suitable most of the time. I suppose people who play correspondence on OGS mostly get their games from ladders and tournaments (I certainly do), although sometimes I see people posting a bunch of custom challenges, DGS-style. Having an automatch for correspondence won’t hurt, but I don’t think it will be very popular.
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Well, I guess it would only be to cover all the spectrum. If it’s there, it won’t hurt; if it’s not there, there’ll certainly be some users asking for it.
You could use tygem auto match system, where the players decide on the time setting after they get matched. So have 3 options titled blitz, live and correspondence maybe. Then once the players get matched they can decide there time settings and if they can’t agree they leave the room with no penalty.
Nah. Automatch should be automatch, i.e. automatic. you click, you get paired, you play. @HowToPlay that is like pseudo-automatch. When you want to play a game, either you want to play live, or blitz or corr. My thoughts.
Yes but when a live game can differ from 10 minutes main to 30 minutes main have a choice is nice, same with blitz and correspondence. 3-7 days 1-5 minutes etc etc
@HowToPlay on Chess servers you get a limited choice of popular times to choose from. For example;
- 2 minutes max time with a 15 second increment.
- 5 minutes main time with 5x 30 second periods.
- 15 minutes main time with 3x 30 second periods.
- 30 minutes main time with 3x 30 second periods.
The idea being that the fewer choices available the more likely you will be to find a quick match. Quick is the whole point; if you want a specific time control and are willing to wait a few minutes for a game to start, create a standard open challenge. Automatch is for people who just want to click a button and get a game started.
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The real issue is to do with the number of players in the automatch queue. If there are fewer players then the system will struggle to match evenly rated players. If that becomes a regular thing then people will gradually stop using the automatch service. This enforces the need for the smallest selection of time controls possible.
The problem is actually compounded for Go servers because of the variety of board sizes. If you accommodate the three common board sizes then the queue for each time control will be reduced in size by a further third. That implies that only 19x19 games should be part of the automatch service - either that or only one time control should be offered.
I can’t help but feel like this is a problem that doesn’t need solving. I’m going to open a separate thread to propose an alternative.
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I’ve opened a new thread called Open Challenge Presets to propose an alternative solution.
I think it would alleviate the need for an automatch feature, solve the problem it was trying to address and remove the contention about how an automatch feature should be implemented.
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