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

[monsterer]

I've just made a little video showing me winning the 4 CPU difficulty levels, hope it gives you some play tips!

I would like to watch a video where you show how to win with Medium CPU having +59 handicap against you .

Yes, that would indeed be impressive. I've just updated the handicap curve so it should be more sensible now. Let me know how you get on?

[Chancellor]

I would like to watch a video where you show how to win with Medium CPU having +59 handicap against you .

Yes, that would indeed be impressive. I've just updated the handicap curve so it should be more sensible now. Let me know how you get on?

OK, now I struggle against +49. I would have zero chances even with intermediate level human player, but as the Medium CPU does not wipe me out at the start, I can prevail.

[Chancellor]

Latest versions of the game are highly intolerant for longer ping times. Then, it often happens that my connection is routed via crappy "tinet.net" skeleton network, managed by some GTT. See what happens when I try to traceroute the thing:

10  ae6.fra61.ip4.tinet.net (141.136.103.213)  39 ms  55 ms  40 ms
11  xe-2-1-0.lon21.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.183.29)  3947 ms  4293 ms  3866 ms

Hop 16 is blockchain-reaction. This is an extreme example, usually this router delays by 1.0 to 1.5 second. I've tried to bypass this crappy tinet.net skeleton by using some HTTP proxies, but they sometimes introduce even higher delays.

From my observations it seems that even one outlier ping above 500 msec may cause the game to lock unrecoverrably. Of course in this case stakes are not returned. Then, playing higher stakes is just a roulette (with rather high house edge, if you ask me...).

It seems to me that the game code design was not done with high network delays in mind. Probably design phase tests were only conducted on a LAN. I've played different games online on different platforms and had not encounter similar problems.

[monsterer]

It seems to me that the game code design was not done with high network delays in mind. Probably design phase tests were only conducted on a LAN. I've played different games online on different platforms and had not encounter similar problems.

The problem is related to either browser specific or network driver specific handling of long polling HTTP packets as best I can determine. The game has a streaming system for incoming messages which control the behaviour of the game, so that it can update whenever a player makes a move, or a chat message arrives etc etc. The client sends a subscribe POST to the server which just sits there with no response generated until there is data to deliver.

It is my suspicion that these type of requests fall foul of driver management of outstanding HTTP requests - either they get put on a low priority queue, or are internally discarded in some implementations.

In order to get around this problem I will have to look at a websockets implementation to handle the streaming instead, which is my next priority because the game needs to be 100% stable. Please bare with me while these changes get implemented

Cheers, Paul.

[monsterer]

Server is undergoing some maintenance, ETA for back online is late tomorrow, thanks for you patience!

[Chancellor]

Server is undergoing some maintenance, ETA for back online is late tomorrow, thanks for you patience!

Let's hope our deposited hundreds of BTC are safe .

[spookycloud]

Website is under construction?
ETA when going back online?
Are my 57 bitcoins safe?

[monsterer]

All coins are safe (as usual), ETA late tomorrow to resume operations. Thanks for your patience.

[monsterer]

Ok, we're back up and running! Sorry for the delay.

[monsterer]

Update:

• 17,410 games played
• 0.60640739 BTC won
• Best player is steelin, with 0.19518676 BTC won and a 71% win ratio

Come join the fun!

Cheers, Paul.

[monsterer]

New build has been uploaded:

• Skill points are now exchanged in PvP matches
• Handicap moves will get allocated to you when playing a more skilled CPU player
• HTTP server has been rewritten for less play interruptions

Let me know how you get on!

Cheers, Paul.

[monsterer]

New build:

• Added 'Expert' mode CPU player, play to win 0.01 BTC per game
• 'Medium' and 'Hard' mode have been reworked, and handicap moves in their favour have been reset to zero

Enjoy!

[Chancellor]

Server is down again?

[Massimo80]

Nice game, but could it be possible to add free matches with easy/medium CPU?
Thus at least a player could know what he's going to face when starting to play for money... very easy CPU is, quite frankly, really TOO easy to get a good grip on the game.

[SZZT]

 
ha, this is fun, i just played a few freebies though.
i'll practice some and go for some coins

thanx man, it's a cool little game!

[Massimo80]

Been hooked there for a couple of hours, nice game indeed 

Too bad there doesn't seem anyone to play with... CPU is fun, but after having beaten each level a couple of times, the handicap makes the game effectively unwinnable and your only choice is to go up a level after another.

Where are all the players?!? 

[Massimo80]

I've been forced to play against the CPU due to the lack of human players, and I have to say, the handicap really needs more tuning.

After you beat the CPU at the same level 3-4 times, the game becomes effectively unwinnable at that level; but the real problem is, handicap seems to go up really fast when you win games... but it doesn't seem to do anything even remotely similar when you lose them.

I've been playing lots of CPU games from the "very easy" level up to the "medium" level, until I got my CPU skill (that I guess is some sort of score / skill level) up to above 100; then I started losing due to having too much handicap; I couldn't move to "hard" due to not enough balance, thus I just kept losing... but the handicap Always stayed there. After losing and losing again, I tried playing again at the "easy" level... but I still had the same handicap as before! My skill level went down to 30, and yet I still have the same handicap when I start a game.

The only time handicap seems to actually work like it should is when I start a game at the "very easy" level: then I can get as much as 10 red squares. But from the "easy" level onwards, I always start with so much handicap against me I can't win anymore.

Can you please explain the actual algorithm for computing handicap? It just seems quite random, or at least quite erratic...

[Massimo80]

Update: I played some games at the "hard" level, and that erratic behavior of the handicap system doesn't cease to amaze me. Just some minutes ago, I started a game at the "very easy" level and I got almost half the board full of red squares. Of course I won quite easily, but then I started another game at the "easy" level... and I got more than half the board full of green squares! How does this make any sense?!?  

[Chancellor]

How does this make any sense?

It seems to me that every CPU level keeps a separate track of your skill points. Anyway I've grabbed so many skill points against CPU, so I cannot win with it on any level anymore. Then I usually hang on for hours waiting on human players, but they are rare.

[FPCN]

How does this make any sense?

It seems to me that every CPU level keeps a separate track of your skill points. Anyway I've grabbed so many skill points against CPU, so I cannot win with it on any level anymore. Then I usually hang on for hours waiting on human players, but they are rare.

Are you steelin?