Gold Use in Players League

Nadin25 wrote:

Honestly i do not ever recall a time i was SO HAPPY about being WRONG, well not up to date at VERY LEAST!

thanks everyone for your help and suggestions

I have decided to increase the penalties to 15 VP for each use

However if there is excessive use, i reserve the option to escalate the penalty as high as a ban, but not limiting the descretion for a penalty greater than 15 or less than ban

first time accidental usage that is reported to me either on the sign up post or in game or the world herald will be a no penalty, but a penalty for first usage reported could be included if it is judged to be excessive (one or two maybe an accident, but more than that is probalbly not an accident)

there is still time for you to comment and maybe persuade me to another option

I intended to weigh in here earlier, but it slipped my mind. I will explain the rules that we go by in the Alliance World Cup that has worked quite well.

We make a distinction between Accidents and Deliberate use of gold.

A) Reported Accidents

It is up to each player to monitor their own gold balance when playing in an official gold free match. It is the responsibility of the player to know if any of their gold has been spent. Accidental gold expenditures must be publicly admitted in the game newspaper and communicated to the admin team without delay. The accidentally used gold must be MITIGATED in some manner immediately to continue the balance of the game. In many cases double the gain from gold must be mitigated.

Examples of mitigation from accidental use of gold:

For resources accidentally purchased those same resources must be placed on the market at the maximum allowed price of $30 or $60, and listed in the newspaper for all to see that those remain on the market unpurchased. If those resources are purchased or removed from the market the cash must be distributed to enemies.

For research speed increases the research should either be halted and restarted and documented in the world herald with screenshots or production or that unit must wait DOUBLE the amount of time that research was increased before production may start. Again document with screenshots from a tool such as gyazo or lightshot and post in newspaper.

For building speed up the building must not be used for DOUBLE the amount of time that it was sped up. For example if a factory was completed 12 hours early, it must not be used for 24 hours from the time of completion, or to put it another way 12 hours additional after the original completion time. Document with screenshots in newspaper. Screenshots should include time and date.

For completion of something like a fort or unit with the enemy approaching that province the player must sacrifice double the units or strength. For example if an infantry unit is completed with gold while the enemy approaches, then two infantry must be sent away to be destroyed by the enemy. If a fort is improved from 35% to 45% then 20% of the units in the fort must be sent away to be destroyed. This must be admitted in the newspaper and arranged with the approaching enemy.

For unit healing then units must be sacrificed. For example if a group of 10 units was healed by 10%, then 2 of those units must be sacrificed. This follows the plan that double the gain must be removed from play.

For sabotage spy missions purchased with gold mitigation can be in the form of reparations paid in resources for any sabotage done. In this case suitable agreement should be reached between the two parties, and then posted in the newspaper.

If a player reveals armies they must admit this in the newspaper and halt ALL movement of their own units exactly where they are for 24 hours. They may not advance, they may not retreat, they may not move at all. The player must also admit to the gold reveal in the newspaper.

Manpower is the only resource that cannot be traded away, and in that case a bug report - general question must be sent from within the game worded: "Attn Doc Leiprechan, in this players league match I have accidentally purchased xxx manpower for yyy gold. Can you delete this manpower from this game please." and again report this action in the newspaper.

If reported accidents are promptly mitigated to the satisfaction of affected players and the admin team, then no penalty is awarded.

B) Unreported accidents

When use of gold is discovered that was not reported, there are penalty points applied to the match. In the AWC a team victory is just over 500 points, each penalty is 50 points, or approximately 10%. If any player has two or more accidental gold expenditures they are disqualified from the round.

C) Intentional use of gold

When it becomes obvious that a player intended to use gold, either by three or more accidents, by expending more than 5,000 gold in the round, or by admitting that they are aware of the prohibitions about gold use, yet continue to use gold, or by trying to get away with gold use without getting caught. then the player will be removed from the round immediately and will be prohibited from participating for the remainder of the season. The determination between reported accidents, unreported accidents, and intentional use of gold will be at the sole discretion of the league administrators.

These rules have served us well in the AWC. There are always a few accidents, but after the first round when two teams were disqualified for intentional gold use there has been very little unreported gold use.

VorlonFCW wrote:

I intended to weigh in here earlier, but it slipped my mind. I will explain the rules that we go by in the Alliance World Cup that has worked quite well.

We make a distinction between Accidents and Deliberate use of gold.

i will consider it again when the season ends

VorlonFCW wrote:

Document with screenshots in newspaper. Screenshots should include time and date.

Now, if you allow exceptions for pictures uploaded to third party websites, then that is another story, in that you can provide a plain-text link that can be cut & pasted into one's browser. But, apart from that, I don't see how your mitigation rules could be easily obeyed by most players.

Diabolical wrote:

Now, if you allow exceptions for pictures uploaded to third party websites, then that is another story, in that you can provide a plain-text link that can be cut & pasted into one's browser.

The only reason to join the PL is to be sure that we play without gold.

So :

- ANY gold use (even "accidental"...) should be submitted to an automatic strong penalty. An automatic, non negociable and already dissuasive fee.

We don't want gold at all. Players MUST take care not clicking onto the ingot.

- Any recidivism or deliberate gold use = exclusion.

VorlonFCW wrote:

Diabolical wrote:

Now, if you allow exceptions for pictures uploaded to third party websites, then that is another story, in that you can provide a plain-text link that can be cut & pasted into one's browser.

This is what I mean by screenshot, using a program such as lightshot or gyazo. I did not say post a "picture" in the world herald

CoralWar wrote:

The only reason to join the PL is to be sure that we play without gold.

So :

- ANY gold use (even "accidental"...) should be submitted to an automatic strong penalty. An automatic, non negociable and already dissuasive fee.

We don't want gold at all. Players MUST take care not clicking onto the ingot.

- Any recidivism or deliberate gold use = exclusion.

I'm something of a "click while moving rapidly" kind of guy. And I've accidentally violated the gold usage rules several times in the past...usually while switching to the espionage screen, only to have a delayed click activating over a golden spy action. I've also accidentally clicked on the morale-killer button on an ally's territory, and the health boost on my own units. I've probably done some other things I've since forgotten. But, as a responsible participant, I reported the discretions each time, including deliberately not acting on the map data I accidentally stole, once, for a full day-to-day day-change that probably lasted well over a full 24 hours.

Trust, me, I was duly punished as staff saw appropriate for each action, and I accepted each punishment -- though sometimes stinging -- with sincere apology and due reverence for the sanctity of the gold-less rule. You see, when I participated in the PL, I did so with two things in mind....I wanted to take on really active players who wouldn't abandon the match and I wanted to play in matches with absolutely no gold. So, of course, I gladly accepted my own punishment for such violations, even though they were always accidental.

Just to make you laugh...at me...one time, I even suffered a point deduction of -100. That wouldn't have seemed so very bad, but I actually finished in negative territory for the season! Trust me, it was funny and I did screw up in the first place. I may not have wanted to finish with -- literally -- the lowest score in the league for that season (and possibly the lowest score in the history of the PL), but I know and trust that the PL will continue to be a place to go to play active games. And, no, I can't give out the details as to the incident, in part because I can't remember them, but also to do so might violate a ToS rule. But it was deserved, believe you me....even if it was just an accident.

Anyway, I am late in joining this month, so I'm not in it. But after being away from the league for a while, I'm thinking about coming back. Maybe you'll have me to contend with in February.

Good luck!

thanks for your response

and i hope to see you back in the PL in Feb