Triqqy Forum

Unbalanced player turn order in tournaments

I've noticed that very often unbalanced and unfair turn orders are assigned to players in tournament games. I assume a randomizing mechanism is used for that, but it definitely needs to be looked into and revised to make it more balanced. I'm sure we can count on Triqqy to dedicate some effort in accomplishing this!

Examples for 2, 3, and 4-player games: In 2-player matches (3 games) the same player often gets to go first in all three games. In majority of board games the first player has some advantage, so to make things fairer, the starting player should be alternated.

In 3-player games it's easy - clearly each player should go first in one game, second in another, and third in another.

In 4-player games I've seen a player end up being twice 4th and once 3rd in a 3-game match. Not fun! A more balanced turn order would be something like below (4 players, 3 games):

Player A - Game 1: 1st; Game 2: 2nd; Game 3: 4th
Player B - Game 1: 4th; Game 2: 1st; Game 3: 3rd
Player C - Game 1: 3rd; Game 2: 4th; Game 3: 1st
Player D - Game 1: 2nd; Game 2: 3rd; Game 3: 2nd
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Do the people who run this site care about user's suggestions/comments or even read them?

Here are my turn order stats so far for Through the Desert. All are 2-player games.

* In the last 19 games I've been first only twice!
* I have played the game a total of 23 times, I've been first only 5 times.
* I've played 7 games against one opponent. He was first every single time!!!
6 of the 7 games were two 3-game matches.

Come on people. You need to fix your turn order assignments.

Triqqy is a free site, that does not even have ads. The only reason we have spent 1000s of hours creating and supporting the site, for no financial return, is so we can slightly tweak the starting position stats of certain selected players and laugh at them. We do not have time to change this because we are too busy laughing, 24.5 hours a day, at the horrific plight of these poor, unsuspecting players.

I know it's free and I understand it takes a lot of time and effort to keep the site running and I very much appreciate it. I'm even willing to pay a reasonable registration fee, if instated.
The stats I listed were simply to show an example of how skewed the turn orders can become if left to a random mechanism or whatever method is used now.
If you don't have the time or resources to remedy this issue, I can understand, but why the sarcasm? My note was just a helpful observation and suggestion, or at worst, a constructive criticism for improving the site.

I'm sorry if that post came in a very negative way. The point is to take the game lightly and never lose your sense of humor. The webmaster is always ready to help when he can but there are still some times where we still have to remember that he is also only human just like the rest of us and it can be tiring when you have a lot on your plate. The games that are offered here, take them as they are, if the game gets a bug that it became unplayable, we'll fix it. Again, take the games lightly and stay positive in life.