[ANN] Blockchain-reaction | Up to 10,000x winnings | 100% Skill based

[Massimo80]

What I fail to understand is how exactly adding a "free play with more skilled CPU" feature could damage the game in any way. Do you fear people being able to actually practice more and get good enough to beat the CPU on staked games?

If you fear bots, a CAPTCHA can easily stop them.

If you fear people... you shoulnd't be allowing play against CPU in the first place

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[wang_yan]

What I fail to understand is how exactly adding a "free play with more skilled CPU" feature could damage the game in any way. Do you fear people being able to actually practice more and get good enough to beat the CPU on staked games?

If you fear bots, a CAPTCHA can easily stop them.

If you fear people... you shoulnd't be allowing play against CPU in the first place

You have to pay the tuition when playing against some professional：)

[Massimo80]

Another suggestion: a game should show the list of players already in, not only their number.

Otherwise, when hopefully the game will have more players, there's the risk of joining the wrong game

[Massimo80]

Ok, just got heavily punished by handicap and lost all balance. Luckily it was just a few mBTCs. But i'm not putting any money into this game unless the handicap system gets completely reworked.

Some points:

• Why does the handicap goes up much, much faster than it goes down?
• Why it's impossible to play CPU without handicap, even FOR FREE?
• And, since we're here: why it's impossible to play CPU for free at higher levels than "very easy"? Fear of bots is not a valid reason, if you can use CAPTCHAs for the faucet you can use it for joining a game, too.

The game is genuinely fun and addictive, but once you win a couple of times, it just starts throwing handicap after handicap at you until you are gone. And it's not enough to lose as many times as you have won to rebalance it: I've lost all the money I've put in it, and yet I can't start a game without handicap... at ANY level.

This could be a very, very good game, but as it is, its only use is throwing away money.

[monsterer]

Hi Massimo,

Thanks for the feedback, I take pride in listening to my users when they make suggestions.

Games of skill are incredibly hard to balance against human players of vastly different abilities; without proper care the CPU player suffers vast losses which are enough to put it out of business and with it, the game itself.

During the course of development many different experiments have been run trying to strike a balance between fairness and the longevity of the CPU, some of them are kept and some are discarded - it's an ongoing process.

The handicap system is designed to make every single game even odds - I will review the way in which the points are handed out against the CPU.

Cheers, Paul.

[Massimo80]

Games of skill are incredibly hard to balance against human players of vastly different abilities; without proper care the CPU player suffers vast losses which are enough to put it out of business and with it, the game itself.

This is something I acknowledge and respect; my suggestion is in fact to add free play against the CPU at different skill levels, with the option to enable/disable/customize handicap.

The problem with the handicap system is, when it gets high enough, it really doesn't matter how much the CPU (or the other player) is skilled; you're just going to lose anyway. A "very easy" CPU with high handicap is much, much tougher than any "expert" CPU with 0 handicap. So though, in fact, that once it gets above a certain level you can't possibly win (and if you manage to win anyway, it only gets higher). But you can't play with a more skilled CPU unless you put some money into it... and then, even if you win, the same thing repeats again: once you beat a level 4-5 times, handicap gets high enough to make the game unwinnable. You can lose on purpose to lower your handicap, but this actually means throwing money away, because you can't do it for free, and losing at a lower skill level doesn't influence a higher one. The end result is, after a few rounds of playing at each level, you're stuck and simply can't play anymore. Your only option is finding a human player willing to play for free, or risking money against an opponent which might very well defeat you (again, very often because of handicap, if you have a higher score than him). At least, with human players you can enable/disable handicap. With CPU you can't even do that.

Free play against the CPU shouldn't of course influence your score; or you could keep two separate scores for stakes and free games. But this really is a much needed feature if you want players to stay after a few games at "very easy" level.

You said you're concerned about bots; a simple CAPTCHA is enough to stop them. BTW, why should you be concerned about bots playing for free... but not about them playing for money? You are not actually risking anything when people play for free. If you are concerned about people TESTING bots using free games and then using them to win stakes games... well, it would actually be a lot easier for a hypothetical bot writer to test his bot himself instead of using your live site Howewer, again: CAPTCHA.

[monsterer]

Following feedback, the handicap points are now handed out equally for the CPU player (on win/lose) putting CPU mode in line with regular PvP play.

[boumalo]

A bit complicated for me today and if I entered the game now I will be slaughtered by experienced players

[TheAwer]

A bit complicated for me today and if I entered the game now I will be slaughtered by experienced players

I don't mean to thread-jack, but as there are other people who think this is too confusing I want to share something I found recently.  There's a new game that you can play with Bitcoin (or Litecoin, Dogecoin, Earthcoin, or just for free) called SatoshiGem.  It's a LOT easier to understand and play than Blockchain-Reaction(it's basically candy crush).

There's multiplayer pvp and tournaments, and the only problem with this site right now is that there aren't enough people.  Let's change that!

The website is www.satoshigem.com and the forum post is at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=555362.msg6062104#msg6062104

[monsterer]

It might be more complicated to understand than candy crush, but the game has deeper gameplay.

In addition, you can go from 100 satoshis (free from the faucet) to 0.01 BTC, which is a 10,000 x payout.

[wang_yan]

It might be more complicated to understand than candy crush, but the game has deeper gameplay.

In addition, you can go from 100 satoshis (free from the faucet) to 0.01 BTC, which is a 10,000 x payout.

In a single game?

[monsterer]

In a single game?

Over the course of several games.

[Massimo80]

In a single game?

Over the course of several games.

...and over the course of several unbeatable handicaps

[Chancellor]

Well, I've tried SatoshiGems and don't like it. Why? For one single reason. Unlike Blockchain-Reaction, SatoshiGems is not pure skill based, but has significant luck factor. In case of B-C current configuration on the playfield depends only on moves of players done so far. In case of SG, playfield configuration obviously depends (sometimes in a critical way) on order of randomly selected gems falling from the above. Then, saying it short, been there, was not impressed.

[Massimo80]

Where has the faucet gone? Looks loike it isn't there anymore...

BTW, this thread has been dead for a while, and the game chat looks quite dead too. Is still anyone out there?

[Buziss]

BTW, this thread has been dead for a while, and the game chat looks quite dead too. Is still anyone out there?

It seems even OP has given up on this project as well.
IMO, the site provides an unique skill-based game and is fun, but maybe most people prefer the more straight-forward dice and blackjack games...

[Massimo80]

It seems even OP has given up on this project as well.
IMO, the site provides an unique skill-based game and is fun, but maybe most people prefer the more straight-forward dice and blackjack games...

Same thought here. And it's quite a sad one.
The game actually *is* fun... 

[Chancellor]

Hoho, I can see I'm still the number one in the Top 25. Too bad hanging there for hours and waiting for a game was extremely boring, I've also found BTC daytrading much more profitable...

[m5j0r]

Interesting idea.
The "handicap" against the AI sucks big time though. It's extremely unfair - a little bit too much..
There are basically no human players anyway.

[fulanomengano]

Great fun game, but handicap sux, withdrawal limitations and fees are too high. I regret putting any money on it. Basically a smart covered scam.

FM