Well, there have been a lot of opinions spoken here, and I'm not sure what I think is the best option yet. I do believe that *something* should be done, so here's my reply to the opinion that nothing should be done:
That said, CaravelNet is meant to be competitive (I'm pretty sure) and so if I make a mistake by bumping into a wall, that's a mistake. In a footrace, if you make a misstep and don't win, that's your problem. It doesn't affect me much, but IMHO, if you make a mistake, and someone fixes something that you should have fixed, that's your problem.
I don't think a footrace is a good analogy - if I raced the fastest 1-mile runner in the world, I don't think I could beat him even if he tripped. His skill is that much higher than mine. However, with high scores, as long as I can somehow pass a room, I can download the #1 demo and recreate it to appear as good or if I'm lucky find a small flaw that I can improve upon.
Here are the pros and cons of the various suggestions as I see them:
A:
Current implementation
Pro: Near perfect #1s will be less likely to be sniped, but can still be legitimately beaten.
Con: People want to download demos. NOW.
B:
"competitive"/"uncompetitive"
Pro: People who don't care about highscores can download demos whenever they want. People who do care won't get sniped (but can still get legitimately beaten)
Con: You gotta pick one or the other, and can't go back.
B
2: Make it so you can change back and forth, but changing to competitive changes the timestamps on all demos since you last changed.
Pro: Fixes the above Con.
Con: Added complexity to code and confusion for players.
C:
Download demo -> later uploads for that room timestamped +1 week
Pro: Players can download demos at any time, and are only "
punished"
for rooms they watched other demos for. Competitiveness is per-room rather than per person.
Con: Worries about this punishing people who aren't even trying to snipe a #1, or punish them indefinitely.
C2: Change the timestamp to be +1 week from their last demo download, or +1 week from the submission time of the demo beaten.
Pro: Addresses the Con in C.
Con: ??
D:
Algorithmically determine if a new #1 is a tweak or innovative
Pro: Were it perfect, it'd be pretty neat.
Con: Complex, prone to false positives and false negatives.
E:
Clans
Okay, I don't understand this one.
Anyways, it seems like C
2 is the best option to me. There are some parameters to tweak in there, but it seems like a compromise that should make most people happy.
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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--
Mahatma Gandhi