Author |
Topic: 2010 Postal Mixer (Read 12989 times) |
|
Fritzlein
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #706
Gender: 
Posts: 5928
|
 |
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #15 on: Mar 29th, 2010, 10:12am » |
 Quote  Modify
|
OK, that makes more sense anyway, since the play starts April 11 on both schedules. There's no need for a large gap between the end of registration and the beginning of play, since all that needs to be done is fix the ratings and produce the pairings.
|
|
 IP Logged |
|
|
|
RonWeasley
Forum Guru
Harry's friend (Arimaa player #441)
Gender:
Posts: 882
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #16 on: Mar 29th, 2010, 12:04pm » |
Quote Modify
|
on Mar 29th, 2010, 7:07am, Fritzlein wrote:Hmmm, only two days left to register, but no RonWeasley. Don't get me wrong: with 21 players already signed up, this is guaranteed to be a great year for the Postal Mixer no matter what. It's just that Ron has been there every year since the beginning. If he doesn't sign up, it would be the end of an error era...  |
|
I just noticed that the registration is open. I was thinking of playing fewer games this year than usual, because I'm having trouble keeping up with the two to four games I usually have. But wait! This is supposed to be fun. I'm getting too caught up in playing well and forgetting that I would rather play for fun. So I'm going to play lots of games and apologize in advance if I play carelessly and lose, as if that's going to make anybody feel bad. Look for Fritz to ask me to explain why I didn't attack on move 12. And for me to completely ignore him, because I won't know the answer.
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Fritzlein
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #706
Gender:
Posts: 5928
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #17 on: Mar 29th, 2010, 1:52pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Yes, it is supposed to be fun. I think it can be fun to play in a few minutes on a lot of postal games, or think for a long time on a few postal games, or think for a long time on a lot of postal games! The thing that is not fun is feeling that I have to win every game, and agonizing over every move because I am so afraid of losing. I need to get over that at every time control 
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
omar
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #2
Gender:
Posts: 1003
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #18 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 8:31am » |
Quote Modify
|
I signed up OpFor for the postal. It would be great if a few more bots played.
Although it's supposed to be fun keep in mind that these games will be rated and considered 'event games' and will effect your WHR and WHRE ratings.
I am taking a chance and trying to see how it works out without the registration deposit. I hope everyone takes the games seriously and doesn't abandon them.
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Fritzlein
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #706
Gender:
Posts: 5928
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #19 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 9:47am » |
Quote Modify
|
Yes, we're already going to have the biggest Postal Mixer ever, even if nobody else signs up. Hopefully we will also have the most completed games ever.
Some historical trends suggests that when the number of players goes up, the number of mismatched games goes down (yay!) while the number of games resigned or lost on time goes up (boo!). We shall see whether the trend continues in 2010.
Year . . 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Players . . 16 19 20 15 14 31?
Games . . 80 95 85 84 70 119?
Mismatches . 9 5 3 21 19
Not Finished . 20 31 18 8 4
% Mismatches . 11 5 4 25 27
% Not Finished 25 33 21 10 6
|
| « Last Edit: Apr 4th, 2010, 6:36am by Fritzlein » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
jdb
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #214
Gender:
Posts: 682
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #20 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 11:04am » |
Quote Modify
|
Omar, you can sign clueless up for a maximum of 20 games
Thanks
Jeff
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Fritzlein
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #706
Gender:
Posts: 5928
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #21 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 11:33am » |
Quote Modify
|
on Mar 31st, 2010, 11:04am, jdb wrote:| Omar, you can sign clueless up for a maximum of 20 games |
|
Woohoo! Thanks, jdb. This will be humanity's first glimpse of clueless's postal strength, correct? Will you, like Janzert, basically run a computer full-time on this task? That's very generous.
By the way, for both of you, a fun little feature would be to have to the bot chat something like time spent, depth searched, nodes evaluated, or such-like on each move. Chatting the eval would be particularly fun for the human opponents, but probably gives away to much. I don't know how hard chatting would be, though, and how much effort you would want to spend on a feature that doesn't improve playing strength. Simply entering your bots at all is a big contribution to the fun of the tournament.
|
| « Last Edit: Mar 31st, 2010, 11:50am by Fritzlein » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
BlackKnight
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #695
Gender:
Posts: 98
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #22 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 1:36pm » |
Quote Modify
|
on Mar 31st, 2010, 11:33am, Fritzlein wrote:
a fun little feature would be to have to the bot chat |
|
Because Rat is implemented in a different way, she always talks a lot before she starts searching for a move. Maybe too much. 
So I also was wondering whether or not the bot interface and the server actually allow the bot to send messages to the chat window during the game.
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Janzert
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #247
Gender:
Posts: 1016
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #23 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 9:30pm » |
Quote Modify
|
If I'm remembering correctly, when I was making the AEI gameroom interface I thought the server protocol supported the bot chatting, but I never tried it out. Anyway I'm pretty positive neither interface currently supports the bot chatting. It is something that I have thought about adding to AEI before though and really should try out.
A related thing I do wish the server supported was a way to chat (one-way) to the spectators, instead of the opponent.
Edit: Duh, immediately after posting I realised/remembered that yes the server protocol does for sure allow the bot to chat. That is how both interfaces (AEI and Getmove) chat the initial bot greeting in a game. I do still need to add a way for the program to access it though.
Janzert
|
| « Last Edit: Mar 31st, 2010, 9:33pm by Janzert » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Eltripas
Forum Guru
Meh-he-kah-naw
Gender:
Posts: 225
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #24 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 10:13pm » |
Quote Modify
|
on Mar 31st, 2010, 11:33am, Fritzlein wrote:
By the way, for both of you, a fun little feature would be to have to the bot chat something like time spent, depth searched, nodes evaluated, or such-like on each move. |
|
The bot should also make fun of you when he "thinks" it is winning and beg for mercy when he "thinks" it is losing.
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
chessandgo
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #1889
Gender:
Posts: 1244
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #25 on: Mar 31st, 2010, 11:47pm » |
Quote Modify
|
I used to have a chess program which, when losing, liked to say things like:
"Your computer has been infected by a virus, reboot IMMEDIATELY!" or
"My code must have been tampered with"
And when winning:
"I learnt a game with X's and O's yesterday and ... no, forget it, it would be too complicated for you"
|
| « Last Edit: Mar 31st, 2010, 11:48pm by chessandgo » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
omar
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #2
Gender:
Posts: 1003
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #26 on: Apr 2nd, 2010, 10:24pm » |
Quote Modify
|
on Mar 31st, 2010, 11:04am, jdb wrote:Omar, you can sign clueless up for a maximum of 20 games
Thanks
Jeff
|
|
Awesome. Clueless is signed up.
Wow, the postal mixer is going to be a mega event this year.
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Tuks
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #2626
Gender:
Posts: 203
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #27 on: Apr 9th, 2010, 7:10am » |
Quote Modify
|
40 people signed up, that's triple last year!
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Fritzlein
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #706
Gender:
Posts: 5928
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #28 on: Apr 11th, 2010, 7:01am » |
Quote Modify
|
Apparently Omar decided to pair the games based on game room rating this year instead of based on whole-history ratings. I think I would have preferred WHR so that I would have been paired with the best anti-human players rather than the best bot-bashers, but it looks like a raft of fun games nonetheless.
In another change from last year, the games page appears not to be updating with the move number (and side to move) of each game. The continually updating status is a quick and easy way to check on the progress of the tournament. This year more than ever the feature would be useful because it will be impossible to look in on every game.
What a turnout! 42 players and 144 games! That's double the games and triple the participants of last year. Game-hungry players get to gorge on fifteen to seventeen games this year. Unless people forfeit their games in droves, this will be by far the most awesome Postal Mixer ever.
Year . . 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Players . . 16 19 20 15 14 42
Games . . 80 95 85 84 70 147
Mismatches . 9 5 3 21 19 23
Not Finished . 20 31 18 8 4
% Mismatches . 11 5 4 25 27 16
% Not Finished 25 33 21 10 6
*edit* recounted the games
|
| « Last Edit: Apr 12th, 2010, 8:45pm by Fritzlein » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Fritzlein
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #706
Gender:
Posts: 5928
|
|
Re: 2010 Postal Mixer
« Reply #29 on: Apr 11th, 2010, 9:34pm » |
Quote Modify
|
First 24 hours summary:
30 of the 42 players started moving.
Hippo vs. Eltripas is the most advanced game, making it all the way to move 9. 
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
|
Home
Help
Search
Members
Login
Register
Reply
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print