I do not like being in a game where we have put pressure on the player in #1 slot who got there by someone giving him all their ships and basses. He feels the pressure and quits then someone new pops in after 60 or more turns and is in first place. I think that once the game gets past turn 25 the race should be dead. I will not stay in this game if this is the case. It was the same player that droped out of Bets 22. We took a vote to end the game and now someone new has poped in at the #1 slot after about 70 turns. This just does not feel right.

I like this feature. It usually creates an imbalance when a player drops. This is especially true when the player that drops was doing well. I have had both allies and enemies drop in my Nu games, many times one of the top players. I would have been happy if someone would have came in to replace my ally or my enemy. While I much prefer to begin the game on turn 1, I will also join games in progress at times. So far I have joined a game at turn 5 and at turn 50. Whenever I next join a game already in progress as a replacement, I will likely look to replace a player already in first, second or third. This feature will make it much easier to do so.

Great Idea!

Worth noting that:

If a player has played less than 50 turns in a game (either by leaving early, joining late or a short game) they will receive achievement points = expected points * (number of turns played / 50)

So anyone joining a game near the end won't really get a huge boost in the Leaderboard but will enjoy playing a race in an advanced position late in the game. Straight into the action! And you may learn a thing or two from the previous management ;)

@Baer, I guess it's up to Joshua to think a way. Something like the vote of a "replacement" that has joined recently (i.e only for less than x turns ) might not be a valid vote. It does feel silly that his vote would make the game go on.

He has not voted yet but the four of us remaining had alreaded voted to end the game. I sent in a quicky turn just to be sure I did not miss one. If the game were going to continue I would want some warning.
Bondservent does make some good points and I admit players droping out here are a big problem. Perhaps when you have to pay to play it will help. It just does not feel good that someone that has not played a single turn can jump in and be #1 after 75 turns of game play. leaderboard or no.

Never thought of it, but I agree with figak that in the case of Baer's game, if everyone else wants to quit, then any new player should not have a vote until they are there for 10 or so turns. Also, you are right about possible action when joining a game in first place after turn 50. I did this, and in only 8 turns so far, I have already destroyed and had destroyed many tons of destruction. VCRs galore.

Can we please have a way of having our race listed on the replacements page without actually resigning? I mean, I'd like to hand my game over to someone else, but I'll keep playing it until a replacement is found.

I agree with james t. above.
Not that I'm planning to quit a game, but I think the Idea to be able to find a replacement BEFORE I have to quit is a great benefit.

I don't really like playing in games with changing race ownerships, but it's worse to play in a game with several dead or unplayed races. If somebody is willing to find a replacement and staying committed to the game until he has, in my opinion this should be encouraged!

If possible, I like james t. idea too.

That is a good idea. Also a way to temp. turn over your turn would be valuable in the case of travel or other R L issues that might keep you from playing.

@Baer that's a very good addition to @james t. idea!

I'd like to add a function to contact the former player. I took a replacement from elchulus and like to decipher his notes :)

So Elchulus, when you're watching: please contact me!

Joshua, take a look at the score chart of game 7723: Part Ofyour World System (current turn: 38). This is a game where Robots needs replacement, they are second, but the graph definitely shows something different.

I've noticed the two rankings (military score, and planet count) used somewhat at random throughout the site, and the two scores can be very different. In your example, Robots do have the second-highest planet count; if you took up the game it would show "2nd place" on the game on your profile page; but for most purposes the military score is far more of an indicator than planet count.

I strongly support the idea of James to create something to find replacements IN ADVANCE. After my > 10 years of intensive play I found that dropping players are the main party poopers of this game. A look at the new list shows you dropping players in good posiitons beyond turn 70. I assume there are good real life reason that they drop. But imagine the hours of long term planung their opponents already did. Or even more the oppononents of their opponents. E.g. if one neighbour of a Bog player drops then odds for all other players are significantly decreasing.

CONCLUSION: The fun of the game is that you have living and intelligent opponents and that it is balanced in terms of how many planets you can get without diplomacy or fighting. Support players who try to save fun for the other when they have to drop.

And if someone has a good and not too punitive idea to encourage players NOT TO DROP just because your first 2 planets haven't insects or bovonoids or because your are the Evil Empire and your neighbour is the Privateer - shout it out loud. :)

Some ideas to discourage people from dropping games:

- customized ship designs, different colors/shapes etc. (Stats. will not change of course)
- Customized race and/or ship names
- The ability to rename your planets
- Only unlock the possibility to join a new game after a player has played x turns.
- Place the amount of played turns on this site behind the user name (e.g. JeroenB (38))
- If a player is forced out of a game after 3 turns, do not allow him to join any new game for x days, (If you want to drop a game at least do it by resigning so the other player can continue in their pace)
- Ask people why they are resigning their games (this could be done automatically with some short questions) The results could be used to improve this site/game
- Find some solution for players being on holiday. This has caused me to drop 2 games because i couldn't send in my turns during the holiday. (Some ideas on this subject have been raised in other topics)
- give players points based on the amount of turns they've played. Use these points as 'virtual money' with which you can 'buy' things (although i do not yet know what there should be to buy)

just some (crazy) ideas