i also mentioned a possible solution where both players receive garbage holes in adjacent columns, but not necessarily in the same pattern. it wouldn't amount to the exact same difficulty for both players but it would be close. caffeine's situation for player A is pretty unlikely, but i understand it's just an example. you probably wouldn't have time to watch for every hole the other player receives, but you'd most likely notice if they had a deep garbage hole, and you'd know not to stack over that column in your well if you were going to get the same pattern.
Hebo mini netplay did the same stunt, and screen peeking is really quick and easy to do. I do think it would be a problem, but I don't have a better idea.
I played a fair amount of Heboris and couldn't discern a way to take advantage of "peeking." Once you're in the flow, I just kind of play and do the best I can. I don't know, but it even sounds funny to me when someone says you can have an advantage of "peeking." I mean, hello, you're already behind pace if you can see what garbage you're going to get. Also, players get the same garbage in Tetris Mobile.
I don't think screen peeking is too much of an issue either. If you were playing fast like Rosti mentioned, or rather, forced to play fast, you can't really peek efficiently anyway. Like jujube mentioned, you'd only be able to get a gist of the garbage, but that becomes less of a problem as the hole alignment gets increasingly random. Anyhow, I agree that the faster player should have that privilege. They'd have to be a great deal faster anyway to make any good use out of it, in which case they'd have such a big advantage that it wouldn't really make any noticeable difference if they had just played normally.
I disagree, peeking means you've given your opponent more garbage then he's given you, meaning you're already in the lead. And it does give you a significant advantage. I went into this when I wrote about the tetris tournament I won. I had a lot going for me, but I feel peeking really gave me an edge. Especially because the garbage distribution favoured repeats. I'd send a quick double to learn where to make my tetris hole and it was quite effective. On the other hand, peeking the piece sequence is completely useless, I'll agree.
But wasn't that Gameboy Tetris? If the gameplay is slow then by all means peeking can help significantly, but as long as the speed of the players isn't above that which the gameplay can manage, I don't think it's an advantage because it forces the player to lose time.
WHen using TDS style garbage, peeking can give an insane advantage, and is definitely worth it if the garbage is parallelized. You send your double, then immediately build your tetris hole where you are going to get attacked, and it only takes the blink of an eye. That is where the tetromino tennis effect comes into play. THe guy send you a tetris, and you send it right back, followed by another of your own, and his hole isn't lined up, so he needs to downstack to get rid of your attack, and in the meantime you are building another tetris or whip out the t-spins.
I agree that it would be fair to have identical garbage, or at least identical changes in garbage columns. I've always wondered how a versus Tetris game would work if the column where garbage would appear would always be marked at the bottom of the well.
Ezzelin's idea is really just an extension of NEXT. Other games where the blocks scroll onto the screen include Puzzle League and Zoop, and both of these have previews for what will appear where (one row of blocks in PL, position of next block in Zoop).
Yeah, I got the "who sees garbage" backwards. Thanks for pointing that out CT. Extension of NEXT or not, I still believe that "fairness" should take priority over "someone can peek."
http://s5.tinypic.com/b9g5d3.jpg This error is killing me. I can't do SHIT. I log out on both spelpunt and gamepoint then try to log in on game point and it keeps giving me the same error. None of the three options helps me any. GRRR
So at the bottom of each player's playfield would be a small marker on a column to indicate where the empty column in the garbage that that player received would be. The garbage sequence for the game would thus have to be determined in advance of garbage actually being given. Perhaps there even could be one or two more markers showing the next columns that would be used after the column changes. This would probably only work for games where the column wasn't changing too frequently. This could lead to interesting strategies, as players wouldn't always stack with the hole on the right column, but would instead build in preperation for where the garbage would be. It would also be more fair compared to the case where one player's stack happens to line up with the garbage, and the other player's doesn't.
Actually, in a lot of games, competitive players try to reduce randomness as much as possible in the name of fairness. Just look at the fighting game scene. For example, Smash Bros. players often turn off items in order to get rid of random elements that might favor one player over another. Now, I'm not saying all Tetris games should work this way, but it could be an interesting option to try.
managed to get through the dutch and sign up as well, though i wont be playing much due to RSI problems. (seconded about VIP accounts, and also i'm just confused by the dutch. wasn't there some screenshot guide around somewhere? or was that for TOJ?)
The TC members who joined during the beta all acquired a SuperVIP account. You will have to pm Deniax over here, look for him on IRC or on BlockBox if you have more questions. Basically there are 3 types of accounts available. This is translated from the Spelpunt site: Normal account: - chatting during games - personal rating FREE VIP account: - normal account features - special VIP icon - wide screen version - personal VIP page - friendslist - access to exclusive games - emoticons - guestbook / photoalbum - higher upgrade bonus 17,50 / $22 SuperVIP account: - VIP account features - able to enter full rooms - high upgrade bonus - create SuperVIP games - more guestbook options 49,95 / $63 There is an English version of the site, but it isn't completely finished. Me or one of the other Dutch members could create a tutorial if really necessary. Visit the IRC channel for more help! Link to the English site: http://www.gamepoint.co.uk/ That really sucks. I too had problems with RSI a few years ago. Working out at the gym, taking micro-pauses every now and then and finding a correct and comfortable sitting position made it a thing of the past. Just take care of it now, because if it gets worse it's really a pain and it could get chronic. And the tutorial you're talking about was indeed for TOJ.
ouch, that super vip status is spendy. Anyone playing on Linux? I'm gonna see if I can get this going via vmware one way or another.
