Player Ghosts in Competitions

[NotMorgoth]

I don't know if I'm allowed to post a thread here that is not just about a specific competition, but it is related to competitions so I'll go ahead and see if anyone objects.

I've been reminded of this by another thread: if the idea of a competition is that everyone starts with the same save and so in theory plays the same game, then in variants with player ghosts, shouldn't the same ghosts also be 'available' to all players.

I first noticed this in the most recent Sangband competition, when someone mentioned getting something good from a player ghost. I did not have any ghosts in my game as I was playing from the newly-downloaded latest version so there was nothing in the bones file.

I guess this would mean that as well as the save file, everyone would have to download the bones file and use that (assuming all variants use bones files to generate ghosts.) Alternatively, competitions should require that a newly downloaded version of the game be used, so no-one has any ghosts.

[Magnate]

I don't know if I'm allowed to post a thread here that is not just about a specific competition, but it is related to competitions so I'll go ahead and see if anyone objects.

I've been reminded of this by another thread: if the idea of a competition is that everyone starts with the same save and so in theory plays the same game, then in variants with player ghosts, shouldn't the same ghosts also be 'available' to all players.

I first noticed this in the most recent Sangband competition, when someone mentioned getting something good from a player ghost. I did not have any ghosts in my game as I was playing from the newly-downloaded latest version so there was nothing in the bones file.

I guess this would mean that as well as the save file, everyone would have to download the bones file and use that (assuming all variants use bones files to generate ghosts.) Alternatively, competitions should require that a newly downloaded version of the game be used, so no-one has any ghosts.

I think including the bones file in the download would be better, as ghosts are a nice feature of variants which have them, so it would be a shame to insist that comps never have any.

I agree that this should be equalised though, so hopefully putting the comp bones file in the right place isn't going to be too hard for anyone.

One thing that occurs to me is that people like me get through literally dozens of comp characters in a single comp - we need to insist or ensure that the same bones file is used for each char, otherwise my later comp chars will benefit from the ghosts of their predecessors (who will not be available to better players!).

[Nick]

Most variants that use bones files come with a few standard ones.

As far as benefit goes, player ghosts aren't an unmixed blessing

[the Invisible Stalker]

Because I play more of a diving strategy I'm rarely strong enough to kill a player ghost. Certainly they kill me more often than I kill them.

[ewan]

Agree: one of the closest brushes I had prior to eventual Tinkle death was with 'Tinker Bell, the Lich' - odd as my best char to that point had only been clvl 4 or something

[the Invisible Stalker]

Agree: one of the closest brushes I had prior to eventual Tinkle death was with 'Tinker Bell, the Lich' - odd as my best char to that point had only been clvl 4 or something

I guess she had a more interesting career after death.