Scenario Testing

[Steel God]

A few random thoughts about H2H:

I play tested for HPS Simulations for several years and the #1 thing I always begged for was to do more testing that involved 2 live players, and not so much one player against the AI. For time (and hence budget) reasons they allowed us only a little of the "head to head" testing. Since my primary area of interest is in PBEM, and I never play the AI, I generally found the stock scenarios (developed as they were predominately for AI play) to be imbalanced towards one side or the other. So it seemed a natural fit to use the H2H area to take existing stock scenarios, and/or original designs, and put them through a formalized process that would hopefully produce scenarios with a better balance for PBEM use.

Is it necessary to use the system? No, never have said that, and I do believe that some veteran designers would probably get little benefit from using it; primarily because once you are experienced enough you get a feel for design and what will produce balance and what won't. But for people who haven't designed scores of scenarios, there is a way for them to have them go through a review by a group of peers who will hopefully help them produce a more balanced scenario. Can they just design it and stick it in the database? Of course, but I wonder how many potentially good scenarios got lost in the data base because something that could be fixed easily made a scenario unbalanced and after the first 2 plays with crappy ratings everyone else passed it by. If it had gone through H2H and those fixes had been applied before release, it could just as easily be the next ladder favorite scenario.

That's why I encourage Darran to continue to push H2H.

Will it work for CS? It was originally developed for CS so I am sure it can. Will it work for every ladder? I know of issues with certain ladders that effect H2H and prevent better usage. Why do I think the CS Community has issues with H2H that others don't (at the moment anyway)? CS is a venerable game. People have a lot of stick time with it. That experience breeds a certain level of competency in ones abilities, and some folks may feel they don't need the H2H system to produce balance in a PBEM scenario. I am in no position to judge whether any such folks would be right or wrong, nor am I concerned if the CS Community wants to ignore H2H. If anyone wants to use it, it's there for them, and we provide it as a service to designers if they wish to take advantage of it. If not, that's fine too. We would ask though that if someone does want to use the system, maybe help them out and test their game for them.

Good Gaming.