Test Amulet Contest with MONEY Prizes

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-18 18:36:16

The amulet code is in place for the launch contest, but it needs to be tested.

I've created 6 test amulets. There is no physical prize for these, just a cash prize that will be deposited into your account.

The full rules are below, but to summarize: Each amulet is held by one player at a time. Amulets pass from player to player throughout the contest. Amulets are invisible unless you're holding one. Take an amulet from another player by being the last one standing in a game against them. Rack up points on the amulet while holding it by being the last one standing in as many games as possible. Pass the amulet to someone else when they are the last player standing in a game against you. Whoever has the most points on an amulet by the end wins that amulet's prize money.

Here are the amulets:

Prize: $100
http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/ser … mulet_id=1

Prize: $75
http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/ser … mulet_id=2

Prize: $50
http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/ser … mulet_id=3

Prize: $30
http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/ser … mulet_id=4

Prize: $20
http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/ser … mulet_id=5

Prize: $10
http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/ser … mulet_id=6

Intial Amulet Distribution

Amulets are dropped into the player pool at the start to players that are the last one standing in their game (last in the game who still has coins---if you leave while your opponent still has coins, your opponent will be the last player standing).

Amulet Game Rules

When you hold an amulet, you can start an amulet game by pressing AMULET GAME on the NEW GAME screen. You must have at least $3 in your account to start an amulet game. You will be paired up with a random opponent at stakes of $3 or less. You don't know the stakes until the end. Your opponent does not know you have the amulet unless they win it from you. If you don't currently hold an amulet, playing normal games with stakes at or below $3 will give you a chance of getting pulled into an amulet game against an amulet holder.

If you are the last player standing, you get 200 points on that amulet. If your opponent is the last player standing, they take the amulet from you, and they get 200 points on that amulet.

As an amulet holder, you can only win points on an amulet or risk losing it in AMULET GAMES. You can freely play non-amulet games without affecting the amulet that you are holding.

HOWEVER, you lose one point every minute that you hold the amulet.

After two hours of no amulet game activity, you drop the amulet back into the player pool.

Final Winners

Whoever has the most points on an amulet at the end of the contest wins the money associated with that amulet. Prizes are assigned starting with the most valuable amulet first, and each player can win at most one prize.

cullman · 2015-03-18 19:10:03

Should we be seeing the amulet game button yet?

context fabric · 2015-03-18 19:10:47

Im not sure if this is desired but, I played an amulet game (the $75 one) against cat flask. The wager was 20c and neither of us had the amulet going in. At the end of the game I lost and cat flask gained the amulet, however my balance still shows I lost the 20c.

This may be my confusion but I thought in amulet games the amulet was the prize at stake and not the initial wager.

InfiniteJester · 2015-03-18 20:25:17

Like cullman, I don't seem to be getting the amulet game button.

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-18 21:00:22

You should only see that button if you're currently holding the amulet.

Otherwise, you just play any game for stakes of $3 or under, and you may randomly get pulled to challenge one of the amulet-holders.

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-18 21:02:25

Fabric, I think that was when the amulets were first being handed out. Yes, the money stakes still count!

There was a lot of back-and-forth ironing out how the contest would work. See the Working Rules post for the latest.

storeroom leaflet · 2015-03-18 23:09:30

When will the contest end?

Professor Chin · 2015-03-18 23:49:34

storeroom leaflet wrote:

When will the contest end?

You can see the remaining time on the Amulets pages.

.. · 2015-03-19 01:20:19

jasonrohrer wrote:

You should only see that button if you're currently holding the amulet.
Otherwise, you just play any game for stakes of $3 or under, and you may randomly get pulled to challenge one of the amulet-holders.

Your description of the contest doesn't say that, in fact it gives the opposite impression: that both opponents need to click the "Amulet Game" button.

I also notice that quest ownership has 78 points with amulet 5. How is that possible? If they went 2 hours without playing an amulet game and dropped it, shouldn't they have 80 points left?

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-19 01:51:07

Well... the flush happens at 2-minute intervals, so they likely held it for 2 hours + 2 minutes until the next flush caught them.

But for some reason, the amulets aren't getting picked back up after being dropped like this... hmm...

No, actually, that part actually does seem to be working. It looks like there simply aren't enough non-amulet players around to pick them up (everyone keeps getting pulled into amulet games, making them ineligible to pick up one of the free-floating amulets).

.. · 2015-03-19 02:12:45

I was wondering why there are so few amulets in play...

Huh... I just got a message, after winning a game where the other player timed out without ever moving: "Recieving amulet" followed a second later by "Failed to fetch amulet"!!

And now I see a 0 underneath the Deposit button. To stdout was printed:

Starting web request 154 [GET http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/server.php?action=get_balance&sequence_number=42134&account_hmac=XXXX&user_id=XXXX (null)]

Frame rate = 60.024010 frames/second
Web result = XXXX
4
http://cordialminuet.com/testAmulets/gimel.tga
0
OK

Frame rate = 60.024010 frames/second
Frame rate = 60.024010 frames/second

Starting web request 155 [GET http://cordialminuet.com/testAmulets/gimel.tga (null)]

Frame rate = 60.060060 frames/second
Result size = -5249000
Only TGA files without colormaps can be read.
Frame rate = 59.988002 frames/second
Frame rate = 60.060060 frames/second
(etc)

I quit and restarted and again got the "Recieving amulet" message, except this time it actually shows up; this time the log shows:

Starting web request 3 [GET http://cordialminuet.com/gameServer/server.php?action=get_balance&sequence_number=42140&account_hmac=XXXX&user_id=XXXX (null)]

Web result = XXXX
4
http://cordialminuet.com/testAmulets/gimel.tga
0
OK


Starting web request 4 [GET http://cordialminuet.com/testAmulets/gimel.tga (null)]

Result size = 12323

I still have 0 points though! At least I assume that's the points I have, and that it should start at 200. It would be nice if it were explained.

Last edited by .. (2015-03-19 02:24:23)

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-19 02:17:42

Fixed the description to make it clear that AMULET GAME is only available to those holding the amulet.

Dot-Dot:

That is really strange. It sounds like the web request for the TGA failed the first time through, but came through okay the second time. No idea why...

Can you email me the recorded game file for the session when it failed, and also for the session where it succeeded? jasonrohrer@fastmail.fm

Yes, if you pick up a free amulet (one that is floating, waiting to be picked up), you start with 0 points. If you win it from an amulet-holder, you get 200 points to start with.

.. · 2015-03-19 02:27:38

Rereading your post I see that you didn't actually say how many points you start with after initial amulet distribution; but it makes perfect sense to start at 0 points. I also looked at the thread discussing the rules, but it looks like you haven't talked about it since page 1, so I don't know what the current story is.

OK, emailing. But it sounds like there really isn't much to see here aside from a failed file download; it simply confused me.

Last edited by .. (2015-03-19 02:28:19)

.. · 2015-03-19 02:52:19

Oh! I didn't realise that I actually had negative points even though it showed 0. After winning a game I only have 163, so there's more pressure to act than I though.

Presumably during the actual launch of the game there will be more players, but right now it seems it would be good if trying to play an amulet game could also sometimes create games at random stakes that others could join. There are 6 amulets but unlikely to be many more than 6 players active at once. EDIT: right now, the amulet contest discourages people from joining other people's games as if I understand correctly they can only win an amulet either by hosting a game, or if it's distributed randomly. (EDIT: this is wrong.) There's someone repeatedly creating and closing a game for $3 every couple of minutes. I even saw two open games for $3.00 listed on the "other games" section at the same time. How is that even possible?

Last edited by .. (2015-03-19 12:48:18)

InfiniteJester · 2015-03-19 03:24:30

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

.. · 2015-03-19 04:41:20

I had some trouble getting into any amulet games. I get the impression that when a game is created it shows up under 'Other Games', but isn't removed when its closed, which would explain why there are duplicate games. Several times I waited unsuccessfully for an amulet game while there appeared to be games open so I gave up and played a regular game. (At other times there were people opening games at $3, but I avoided them.) There's also a random delay before you join them, right? I guess it's also possible many of the people posting games for $0.10 didn't have at least $3 in their accounts.

I now have less than 80 points remaining. It looks like either playing a non-amulet game or waiting for an amulet game reset the timer. By the time I drop the amulet I'll have negative points again! Seems a bit unfair, but maybe it's a punishment for camping on an amulet? What I want to know is, if I later regain the amulet will I still have negative points? Surely my score should be reset to zero!
EDIT: turns out I dropped the amulet before reaching zero points. Also, I timed out while waiting for an amulet game (I didn't know until I cancelled and found I didn't have it anymore) but nothing bad seemed to happen.

Also, I notice that your score isn't updated when you hit the 'Refresh' button. It is however updated if you click 'New Game' and then cancel.

Last edited by .. (2015-03-19 04:46:37)

Cobblestone · 2015-03-19 06:09:29

Wait, the points go negative...? I picked up one from the pool for 0 points and I've been sitting here waiting for a game, but no one seems to be playing right now. So that means I'll be at -120 if I don't find a game and the two hours pass?

Edit: So I got into a game after about 30 minutes and came out of it with 158 points. Having the points go negative is pretty brutal! I don't suppose there's any way to make the amulet points show up on the waiting for opponent screen so we can watch them tick down or know that we've lost it?

Edit 2: I'd really like to advocate a drop amulet button again. I only played one amulet game and it's very clear that no one else is playing right now... I'm sort of just forced to watch my points decay. Obviously I'll have to start playing earlier in the day!

Last edited by Cobblestone (2015-03-19 07:30:47)

.. · 2015-03-19 12:06:02

Yeah, I take back the part where I said "it makes perfect sense to start at 0 points". I now think it just doesn't make sense at all, as explained in storeroom leaflet's thread.

EDIT: And it looks like some of my other comments aren't so relevant either. For the reference of other people, I found the part where it's actually explained how starting ofamulet games work: here, see also here. (Note that the rules listed in Working Rules for Launch Contest are out of date.)

So this explains why I was having trouble playing any amulet games, and apparently shows that whoever kept creating new games for $3 every minute was wasting their time if no-one else wanted to play at those stakes.

Last edited by .. (2015-03-19 13:16:26)

.. · 2015-03-19 12:19:39

Found another bug: after you have an amulet and lose it, hovering over "New Game" in Create Game continues to display "Create a non-amulet game"

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-19 20:30:48

Good catch there on the lingering tool tip!

The REFRESH button only refreshes the game list, not the balance or amulet score.

Whoops! The OTHER GAMES list is incorrectly showing waiting amulet games. These have place-holder stakes of $3. That's also why there can be more than one of them (multiple amulet holders waiting for games).

I've fixed it so that when you pick up a free-floating amulet, you get 200 points to start. Thus, you won't ever be able to tell the difference between picking up a free-floating one and taking one from someone.

You lose points while you are holding, it, but it can't go below zero. Essentially, when you finally drop it, the server subtracts a penalty for however long you held it, capping it at zero.

But as you observed, that meant that you could lose point while holding the amulet BEFORE winning points on it, making you instantly jump down (to 158 or whatever) when your 200 points for the win are added in.

.. · 2015-03-20 13:33:26

It's funny to know all those $3 games were just illusions rather than someone spamming them : )

So that means that entering the "Create Game" page and leaving it again doesn't just refresh the display but actually causes the score to be recalculated? Sounds like a mild bug: if your score is effectively -X (time penalty is larger than score) then you can increase the score you will have after your next game from 200-X to 200 by entering and leaving that page.

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-20 15:19:47

No... it's actually water-tight, but confusing.

I track the time you picked up the amulet, and your points won, and that's it.

When I need to show you your score, I calculate how many minutes you've held it, and subtract that from your points won, and show you that score. But I don't update the score or save it. Your points won remains untouched.

Then, when you finally drop it, I calculate how many minutes you held it, subtract that from your points won, and save it as your points won.

So, granularity of player actions has no effect on the score. Reloading the score, time gaps between activity, etc, have no effect. No round-off errors, accumulating errors, etc.

The amulet possession and amulet score is currently provided to the client only in one call (get_balance). Your balance is only retrieved when returning to the menu page from somewhere else that may have affected your balance. Refreshing the game list does not retrieve the balance again.

I suppose that the score could auto-tick down based on minutes that have passed since last reload. Then you could actually sit there and watch it decay. I'll do that.

Dan_Dan84 · 2015-03-20 15:30:11

jasonrohrer wrote:

I suppose that the score could auto-tick down based on minutes that have passed since last reload. Then you could actually sit there and watch it decay. I'll do that.

Sounds like a fun weekend ahead!

context fabric · 2015-03-20 16:30:04

Cobblestone wrote:

I'd really like to advocate a drop amulet button again. I only played one amulet game and it's very clear that no one else is playing right now... I'm sort of just forced to watch my points decay. Obviously I'll have to start playing earlier in the day!

+1 For the "Drop Amulet" button. Being forced to watch your score tick down is painful.

jasonrohrer · 2015-03-20 19:28:02

Drop amulet button and auto-tickdown score have been added in v17, just released.

CORDIAL MINUET ENSEMBLE

#1 2015-03-18 18:36:16

Test Amulet Contest with MONEY Prizes

#2 2015-03-18 19:10:03

Re: Test Amulet Contest with MONEY Prizes

#3 2015-03-18 19:10:47

Re: Test Amulet Contest with MONEY Prizes

#4 2015-03-18 20:25:17

Re: Test Amulet Contest with MONEY Prizes

#5 2015-03-18 21:00:22

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#6 2015-03-18 21:02:25

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#7 2015-03-18 23:09:30

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#8 2015-03-18 23:49:34

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#9 2015-03-19 01:20:19

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#10 2015-03-19 01:51:07

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#11 2015-03-19 02:12:45

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#12 2015-03-19 02:17:42

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#13 2015-03-19 02:27:38

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#20 2015-03-19 20:30:48

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#21 2015-03-20 13:33:26

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#22 2015-03-20 15:19:47

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#23 2015-03-20 15:30:11

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#25 2015-03-20 19:28:02

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