CORDIAL MINUET ENSEMBLE

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2014-11-20

Posts: 802

Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

v25 introduces a new, experimental game mode.

Column picking and betting works exactly the same as the original mode, as explained in the how-to-play video.

Scoring is totally different.

You win by having a better set of three squares by the end than your opponent.  The possible kinds of sets are ranked as described below, based on their probability (more rare occurrences are ranked higher):

1.  Straight Flush (three numbers in a sequence of all the same suit)

2.  Three of the same number.

3.  Flush (three of the same suit).

4.  Straight (three numbers in a row)

5.  Pair (two of the same number)

6.  High valued square

In the case of a tie in the above rankings, the player with the higher-numbered square wins.

Examples:
999 beats 888
876 beats 765
854 (non-flush) beats 754 (non-flush)

In the case of a tie in the highest numbered square, the next highest square wins. 

Example:

965 flush beats 954 flush
954 flush beats 953 flush
885 beats 884
854 (non-flush) beats 853 (non-flush)

Good news is that this ranking is the same as Poker in every way except that three of a kind is ranked higher in this game.

These rankings are based on the following ways these sets can occur. 

There are 7,140 possible sets.
There are 4,620 ways to make nothing (65%)
There are 1,728 ways to make a pair (24%)
There are 420 ways to make a straight (5%)
There are 308 ways to make a flush (4%)
There are 36 ways to make three of the same number (0.5%)
There are 28 ways to make a straight flush (0.3%)

computermouth

Member

Registered: 2014-12-27

Posts: 134

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

I was going to do stuff tonight. Now I am not going to do stuff tonight.

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Try Linux, get free. #!++ (CrunchbangPlusPlus) is a stable distribution based on Debian 8. Keep it fast, keep it pretty.

PersonGuy

Member

Registered: 2014-12-22

Posts: 19

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

Impressions from just 2 1cent games. One ended with the opponent leaving at roughly even. Another ended with me out of chips:
- It feels like the odds of getting a good hand are lower than your estimation because so few possible numbers/suits are available in the last round (given that there are some suit/number duplicates and some that can't help your hand). Sometimes the ONLY possible improvement remaining is a higher single number.
- My best guess was to pick a row with lots of suit diversity and hope I can steer toward rows that will give better odds at a flush or straight.
- I don't have any sense of how to guess what my opponent is picking for me or what I should pick for them. Honestly it didn't feel any different from playing against a random house (except for the betting of course).
- It's visually hard to understand what possible hands my opponent might have, even after the 3rd pick.
- In my head I was calling the suits: splotch, lemon, plus, and cactus

I don't know if I'd give it a second chance, I just didn't have any of the same fun that I normally have with the game.

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2014-11-20

Posts: 802

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

Love those suit names!

Yeah, the first pick is especially meaningless, it seems.  My kid is playing right now, and my advice to him is to pick the col with the most variety for himself and the col with the least variety for the opponent.  For example, if you give the opponent the col with four 5's in it, there's no chance for them to pair or triple.  If you give them the col with lots of one suit in it, there's less chance for them to flush.

And if they learn that you're doing that, well... they've got you beat, I think.

After third pick, it's pretty easy for me to quickly look through their possible squares and detect pairs, straights, flushes, etc.  Also to detect the case where they have none of these.

PersonGuy

Member

Registered: 2014-12-22

Posts: 19

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

Maybe if both players had 2 shared cards before the first pick it would change how we value even the first pick.

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2014-11-20

Posts: 802

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

Yeah, it's true that shared cards can be generated randomly... though it could be then argued that the grid would then favor one player too much, at random.  I dunno...

Defiant00

Member

Registered: 2015-05-06

Posts: 21

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

One thing that immediately threw me off in this game mode is how much harder I find it to see my picks. I think it's because the symbols have so much more solid black, so you have a much smaller area on the square to see the color differences. Would you consider having it display my picks down where the score used to be? I think that might help a lot.

Disclaimer, I've only played one game for about 5 rounds, so it's possible that's the main reason.

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Insect College

LiteS

Member

Registered: 2015-01-27

Posts: 82

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

Yeah, it's true that shared cards can be generated randomly... though it could be then argued that the grid would then favor one player too much, at random.  I dunno...

Well, instead of the first turn you could show each board have each player choose a public card, then reveal both public cards and proceed with the normal game.

If I think "Hey, there's a good chance I could get a 9 on this board, I'll add a 9 to the public space" then your opponent will know this, and will try to block you, or go for the 9 themselves. It would definitely add weight and strategy to the first pick.

Mechanically, you could choose the public card by mousing over the board, since the entire "deck" is available there, but having the deck have two 9's of Cactus might be problematic for score reasons (maybe?). I don't think adding a 5th round of betting is a good idea. You could increase the deck size to 40, and have players choose 2 of the 4 missing from the board to be public, and 2 of them to be unavailable for the game. (Omaha poker style)

Professor Chin

Member

Registered: 2015-01-13

Posts: 54

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

You could increase the deck size to 40, and have players choose 2 of the 4 missing from the board to be public, and 2 of them to be unavailable for the game. (Omaha poker style)

It seems a nice idea to try!
Also a series from 1 to 10 sounds more complete and in line with tarot numerology

I like the alt-game (I played only few games so far) and the feeling is quite different from vanilla.
In the standard the picking comes with a sense of duel, trying to second guess the opponent. In the alt I find myself thinking more of "regions of opportunities" and patterns...

Recopied Monk?
Picker Mooned?

..

Member

Registered: 2014-11-21

Posts: 259

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

One thing that immediately threw me off in this game mode is how much harder I find it to see my picks. I think it's because the symbols have so much more solid black, so you have a much smaller area on the square to see the color differences.

I also found it hard to see my picks; I actually thought at first that Jason had changed the ink blending in alt mode. The fact that I keep my monitors set quite dim could be part of the problem.

Well, instead of the first turn you could show each board have each player choose a public card, then reveal both public cards and proceed with the normal game.

Another option: change the first column picking round. Both players still pick two columns, but both squares selected by the intersections are revealed and shared. Then two normal rounds of picking, for hands 4 numbers total. But I guess there's no way to order the two columns you pick, so it would make more sense to do it over two rounds... pretty inelegant.

Gan-PC

Member

Registered: 2015-05-21

Posts: 1

Re: Scoring rules for Experimental Game Mode

I also find the suits to be a bit hard to distinguish if you look at them all at once and don't have much reaction time.
Maybe you should use something like different directions of line and circle ripples as suits? -- Something more easily distinguished.