Schik wrote:
So... from now on, if you download a demo that is ranked higher than yours, then submit a new demo for that room, your demo will have its timestamp moved forward one week.
If there are any people out there who use CaravelNet but don't regularly read the 'general' section of the forum, they are being cheated, right this very moment. Whether or not there will be an in-game warning, there needs to be some sort of prominent announcement of this change, so that people don't unknowingly cheat themselves.
Also, I still don't see any clarification on whether downloading a demo which is tied with you on moves, but beats your demo on time submitted, counts against you in this system or not.
Additionally, this system this system seems severely inequitable in rooms composed of many small parts, where those with higher place are likely to still have imperfections not present in some of the scores below them. The higher ranked player can steal the lower ranked players techniques with complete impunity. Even if this means one player took 20 extra moves on the roach horde, but saved 10 moves on the goblins, and 9 moves through a clever trick with the serpent. The player that had trouble with the horde is out of luck, while the other player, who was good at roaches, but not much else, gets a free pass to snipe.
I don't think that making sniping available only to those who already have an edge will make the competition more fair. It doesn't *eliminate* sniping, it just makes it easier for those who have a high rank in any given room.
Finally, this system penalizes people for something its easy to forget is forbidden. And lets remember that in game demo downloads are only possible for demos near the top, so if you're in lets say 20th place, you can only download penalizing demos, not 'safe' one. It also seems to depend on assuming demos are only downloaded with an intent to directly exploit them. It shows a lack of trust in the players of DROD, and especially, especially in players with lower average ranks, who will be quietly penalized for almost every demo they download.
The more I think about this system, the less I like it, for all these reasons. (It also severly muddies the waters on who thought up any given trick first, and who might be copying... ]Say a player downloads a #1 demo, doesn't copy it, but thinks of a new and unique trick, that nets them third place. Now the second place player downloads this demo, plays through and gets a new #1. His #1 is stamped 5 or 6 days earlier than the actual discoverer of this trick, who now appears to be copying off his demo. Not only was sniping involved, but the sniper wasn't penalized, comes out looking clean, and the innovator LOOKS like he was an imitator to anyone who looks at the demos involved.)
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Now I will repeatedly apply the happy-face rule"
/dy
