Blockbox (Post feature requests, bugs, etc)

[deniax]

Version 9.5.6-Build20090807-2013

Features:

- Press ALT+R during countdown now really lets you select different teams

- Fixed VSX garbage (whatever the player numbers)

Clear 4 lines = send 4 lines
Clear 3 lines = send 2 lines
Clear 2 lines = send 1 lines

- Fixed Rated garbage:

2 players playing: 4,2,1
3 players playing: 3,1,0.5
4 players playing: 2, 0.7 , 0.4
5 players playing: 1, 0.5 , 0.25

(4,2,1 means if you clear 4 lines you send 4 garbage, if you clear 3 lines, you send 2 garbage, if you clear 2 lines, you send 1 garbage

If a game starts with 5 players, but 3 of them die, then of course "2 players playing" rule applies

- Removed the clear 4 single lines in a row sends 1 garbage

- Enabled Controls Method (4/8/modded control) also in Classic

Bug Fixes

- Fixed a bug in APM where garbage would count double
- Fixed a bug where My Replays tab could get broken

[jujube]

thanks again for the updates.

i like the idea of having a new garbage system for each number of players. much better than the same system for 2-3 etc imo, and the garbage adds for tetrises look elegant and reasonable. one thing that still bugs me is the proportion of garbage sent for each type of clear. tetrises are already weighted in 2p, in a way that a lot of people agree on (1 line sent per line cleared for a tetris, 0.67 for a triple), but it becomes weighted more heavily in 3p and 4p in Blockbox rated games.

the reason i keep bringing this up is because there is value in making doubles and triples while downstacking. why do i say that? because very few people can do it consistently

it's a skill that takes a lot of time and work to develop, and when the garbage system diminishes the value of that skill too much then the game loses some depth. going for tetrises is a skill too and it will always be rewarded, but i don't think it should be the only way to play effectively. there aren't T-spins or combo rewards in rated games, so i'd very much like to see strong downstacking keep its place in the game.

[meow]

the tetris adds for 3/4P does look like an anomaly. the numbers used in the new system were designed to keep the exact feel of the old system with the difference being that it doesn't create imbalanced situations.

we could change the tetrises to double the garbage of a triple because that keeps their value the same in all situations.

Old system
this is our best guess of how it works
-tetrises send 4/3/2/1 lines to each player in 2/3/4/5P games
-triples send a total of 2 lines distributed randomly based on the amount of lines each player has received  eg. Player 1 clears a triple, 1 line is added to Player 2 and Player 3, Player 4 and 5 receive nothing
-doubles send 1 line and works the same way as a triple
-the randomness in how the lines were distributed is what lead to unfairness

in short, tetrises send to all whereas doubles and triples' sends are spread

Total number of lines sent

Code Select Expand

Clear   2P  3P  4P  5P
Tetris   4   6   6   4
Triple   2   2   2   2
Double   1   1   1   1
For the tetris, it's 4x1, 3x2, 2x3, 1x4

New system
-replicates the old system without the random 1 line adds that cause imbalance
-just divide the number of adds in each column by 1 for 2P, 2 for 3P, 3 for 4P and 4 for 5P

Total number of lines sent

Code Select Expand

Clear   2P  3P  4P  5P
Tetris   4   3   2   1
Triple   2   1 2/3 1/2
Double   1 1/2 1/3 1/4

Better system?

Code Select Expand

Clear   2P  3P  4P  5P
Tetris   4   2 4/3   1
Triple   2   1 2/3 1/2
Double   1 1/2 1/3 1/4

[jujube]

Better system?

Code Select Expand

Clear   2P  3P  4P  5P
Tetris   4   2 4/3   1
Triple   2   1 2/3 1/2
Double   1 1/2 1/3 1/4

yes i believe so. it keeps the relative values of clears consistent across the board.

[Blink]

ah this garbage system is much better imo, just had some great 2v2 action with sandibaby against maserati/shizi and kotetsu.  Now the team with less members isn't further crippled by split garbage.  thanks for the updates deniax

[Anonymous]

There's a bug where in vs, a player who doesn't get last place will get last place. For instance, I was playing a 5p game and I got 3rd place, but after the game, the results display showed that I got last place. I think Paul676 has had the same problem sometimes.

[clincher]

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]There's a bug where in vs, a player who doesn't get last place will get last place. For instance, I was playing a 5p game and I got 3rd place, but after the game, the results display showed that I got last place. I think Paul676 has had the same problem sometimes.[/quote]
Yeah this has happened to me before too.

[Paul676]

Hi Deniax

Two things, firstly a bug report, secondly a couple of requests, see what you think about it.

Firstly, when I played vs games last night and the night before with 4 people or more, despite finishing after (and thus beating) various people, on the results box whenever I came 3rd or 4th, it said that I came 4th or 5th respecitvely, and oncewhen I came 3rd, I came 5th. I know it's not my eyes deceiving me because when ped0 suicided and I came next last, he came in front of me and gained lots of rating, much to his annoyance. (Jdapple, anonymous and I'm sure others can also testify that it happened). However when I came 2nd or 1st, it stayed in the right place. I'm not sure what it is, at first I thought it might have been because I might not have sent as much garbage as I should etc, because I often play very defensively in large games, but in one game I sent an absolute motherload of garbage, then came "last" (second last). Obviously this is pretty bad for rating, but also it makes other players feel bad that they are winning but not fairly. Also I'm not an isolated case because I know that Stephlovesyooh has got it as well because I finished 4th, she finished 3rd, but we switched places on the sheet, which doesn't usually happen with this bug. Do you know what could be the cause of this?

(as I can now see, others have reported it too)

Secondly for some requests, and see what people think

Well I very much enjoyed on the Tetris Friends website two games, which don't seem to be here.

First one is a 40 line multiplayer- though on TF it's not live, but I wish it were, and obviously training 40 lines against someone else is more fun than just with yourself, and that's what got me into tetris mainly, so is there an easy way to implement it?

Secondly, where is a best score in 2 mins feature (called ultra as I'm sure you'll know) on TF which isn't on BB, however I'm sure it would be popular on BB as well, so what do you think- on this platform, we also have the possibility of giving even more points for t-spin triples, which TF treats as doubles.

Just to say that the "which doesn't usually happen with this bug" was referring to the fact that I gained a place, which doesn't happen when I'm playing someone without the bug, hence I know Setph has it too

[caffeine]

I may've missed this, but could someone remind me how one sends 1/4 a garbage line?

[I_AM_SAND]

I may've missed this, but could someone remind me how one sends 1/4 a garbage line?

basically keeps adding up. when a whole number is reached, the line is sent.

[caffeine]

So, in a game with four players left, I clear a Tetris and that sends a line with a remainder of 1/3 in store. Then I clear a triple and that sends 2/3 plus the old remainder of 1/3 to send 1 garbage line? Okay, that works for me.

[Anonymous]

I know I've posted in this thread way too much, but one feature I would like to see would be a button or page or something that shows all the different shortcuts. I'm pretty sure most of the veteran blockbox players already know most of them by now, but I think it would be more newby friendly if we added a shortcuts page.

[clincher]

There's a bug where in vs, a player who doesn't get last place will get last place. For instance, I was playing a 5p game and I got 3rd place, but after the game, the results display showed that I got last place. I think Paul676 has had the same problem sometimes.

This is really starting to annoy some people.
I don't know what's causing it I don't know what the hell is going on

[SpawN]

I have an interesting paradox. I played blockbox and I`m getting confused with the colour of the L and J pieces, since the game I play has different colors for those pieces. However, today I played TGM, which has the same colours as blockbox and I`m not getting confused which piece to rotate on what side. However, this is still a problem I have in Blockbox.

My suspicion is that the playfield is way too small, since I`m used to play on a bigger field and maybe thats why I have problems with that. TGM's field is also big. Actually, its not big, its normal, but Blockbox field is too small.

[Kitaru]

Which rotation system are you using on Blockbox? It could be the initial orientations that are tripping you up. You could try switching to ARS, which is the same colors, orientations, etc. that are used in TGM.

I don't know if this is what is affecting you, but a few players I've talked to seem to have learned a mental processing shortcut that involves rote memorization of which buttons yields which orientations from spawn rather than learning which direction will get to which orientation from whatever orientation they are currently in. For this reason, swapping the positions of the clockwise and counterclockwise buttons makes SRS easier for them to use. It's a weird workaround, but I've heard of a handful of people independantly implementing it, haha.