Re: [haggis] Rounds

[Chris Nash <chris_nash@prodigy.net>]

Thanks for the feedback Mark... I was pretty sure I'd be going over old ground, as I've only been
here a week. Had to be the week you were away, of course...

> The offers phase needs to be a bit more controlled than it is now - it is going to have to be
> guaranteed that *all* the offers a player makes could be honored in the trade phase. 
> I'm still hesitant to do that.  I think making offers you can't necessarily pull off isn't a bad
> thing.  And, who's to say that my first trade won't make my second trade work?

My motivation here was from an 'information content' perspective. Putting out an offer shouldn't
be something you can do for free. If I put out four offers to give up an X, then I'm effectively
telling everyone 1) I have at least 4 X's and 2) I'm not all that attached to them. Much the same
with a rule, if I offer up rule Y about X, I think the rule number has to also include that it's
about X. The offers have to slowly yield clues about what everyone's doing, and *why*, so everyone
can work out the goals.

> But, to expand on the idea.  I've made and read several suggestions that there be an offer
> phase, then trading is open.  At what point to I close trading for another offer phase?  And can
> offers still be created during the trading phase?

I say a definite no to more offers once the trading phase begins. (And no withdrawing them,
either). At the very least, if a new rule gets gained, it shouldn't be revealed until the next
turn. It's even arguable that seeing who is accepting what offers, in what order, is something
that might not work in pbem. Again, it's to secure a level playing field over pbem. Everyone is
making their trade decisions based on the same information - the state of the game at the end of
the offer phase - not some perhaps not-so-slight advantage gained by having the luck to check mail
at the right time. (Of course, that means if you *really* want to eliminate the time factors,
you'd have to hide all offers and all trades until the end of their repective phases. Sounds a lot
like a new option: -ultrapedantic).

> Do I need to add a "pass" command so a player can say they want to wait out the turn but don't
> want to hold up the game?  Can that "pass" be rescinded?
 
If the offer phase and trading phase are disjoint, I think everyone has to say they've finished
making offers. The trading phase ends when everyone has accepted the offers they like and rejected
the others, so there's none left on the table. You could argue that no offers made in the offer
phase, or no trades made in the trade phase, signals end-of-game.

I'll shut up for a while now and let someone else have the floor.