How about a way for players to simply drop out of the pond.
The system would probably have to send all the remaining players a message saying who dropped out.
I suppose it wold be unfair to have players drop out last minute right before the end of a round, so maybe limit it so that players can only drop out when more than 25% of the time per turn is remaining. This would be way better than the way it is now!
My membership is about to expire. I am thinking about renewing as a bishop for a few months. Can a bishop play in ponds? I am in a pond now with 99 players and would hate to drop out so soon!
Could you please put a colored background (a nice light blue would look good) behind the bonus winner in the list of pond participants on any pond page just like you put a grey background around me in any pond I'm in? Please? ;-)
Vikings: Then just remove all the pawns when it starts. It stinks to have them floating around anyway.
Are pawns in the game? Or are they out? Seems to me they're half in/half out. Kinda stupid way to play a game if you ask me.
Sorting out the starting issue, sorting out the pawns issue, and allowing different starting point totals and bonus would make this good game a great game!
Thad: personally, I think that may not be the best idea. This particular pond is a great example as to why. There are 5 pawns entered as of now, that would mean that there would be frozen bids for the first 5 rounds at least.Add to that that these huge ponds don't occur very often, those 5 pawns could easily affect bidding for 10-25 rounds. I think the way it is now is best. the pawns bids don't matter, play the pond as if they aren't there
I'd like to see the way Ponds work changed. I think a player should make his (or her) first move when he signs up. Thta way, everyone's first move would be made and all the confusion about players falling with a zero bid and the lowest other bid also falling in round one could be eliminated. Not much else would change. The pond would still appear on your list of ponds once it has started and you could edit your first bid just like any other bid. I see no drawbacks to this change.
This game would be better of you were required to make your opening bid when you signed up. That way, there wouldn't be any confusion over how the first round bids differ from all the other rounds. Of course you could still change your opening bid once the game starts. Essentially, the game would start as soon as you sign up, but the timer would not start until the minimum number of players signed up or the starting deadline was reached.
WellyWales: It should be pointed out that if a pawn falls in with zero in the first round, there will also be someone else fall in with the next lowest bid, but thats the first round only
joshi tm: I see what you mean, there are people that bid higher in the first round and then lower in later rounds., and there are people who will bid smaller toward the end but not nessecarrily with less than 2000 points left, pawns cause some of this bidding also. I guess that I don't see being observant the same as cheating.
What will happen if they do not remove themselves from the pond, and starts as they are a pawn - they will just not bid in the first turn and fall out of the game.
If they are already playing a pond then turn into a pawn, then their last bid will just be repeated until they fall out (or win - which I think has happened once)
Vikings: Sorry for confusing you, but I meant the lowest bid of round 21 (enderme's 441). Backoff's lowest bid was 595, that's above the criterium of 200.
joshi tm< I'm talking about the current round, where Brian fell in with a 598, Alan stayed in with 667 and the next closest bid was backoff with a 1222. so it fits your criteria of the next lowest bid being 200 points lower than the next (595 in this case).
Vikings: No, because FANTAS had the lowest bid of 53 (after bidding everything he has), and in that round he has the lowest inside the criteria. so 200 under the last bid of FANTAS would be -147, and is all fair again.
joshi tm: under your criterea, AlanP's bid in this pond http://brainking.com/en/Pond?bms=21&g=2875 would be considered cheating when in fact it was a good and gutsy bid,there was a logic to the bid that only he followed, yet you would have him punnished by falling in? these bids happen in many games
How different do you thing these Pond games would be with different starting values and bonus amounts? It seems to me that if the number of players is fairly small (under 20) that running out of points rarely becomes an issue. If we started with only 1000 instead of 20,000 then play would be different.
I'd like to see changes made to BK so that the creator of teh Pond can set the initial number of points and the value of the bonus.