The Embassy

Introducing the Mystery Scoring System.  This is a name that reflects that the actual points scored isn't known until the tournament is over. OK, enough.  Let's get to it.  Here's a breakdown of what the system looks like. The Mystery scoring system The Mystery scoring system is based on DIAS games, where all survivors share in the draw.  (I have modified it to work with non-DIAS games.) In a draw , all players involved in the draw score 100  points. For games which are non-DIAS, players that survive but who are not part of the draw receive 10 points. Eliminated players receive 0 points. If a game ends in a solo, all other players receive 0 points. Solos are scored using the following process: Find the sum of all points scored in games which end in a draw. Divide this total by the number of games that ended in the draw - the average number of points awarded. Divide the average number of points above by the number of games that ended in a...

Before I move on to look at my suggestion for a scoring system I want to summarise the problems with scoring systems that are out there already.  If we can work out what is wrong with them, we can use this to design a system that might address these problems. When I first started playing on online I remember raising a question: Why are draws scored equally? Why isn't the number of supply centres you hold at the end of the game taken into account? The answer that came back from a site mod was along the lines of the argument I use now.  At the end of a game of Diplomacy you have achieved one of three results: you've won, you've drawn, or you've lost.  If you've won, then you get all the points in the game.  If you've drawn, it doesn't matter what number of SCs you've finished the game on, the result is the same.  If you've lost... well. At the time, that site used a game result system to score games: 12 points for a win 6 points for a 2-wa...