Sunday, January 17, 2021

Call for Judgment: Chain Retraction

Passes 4-0. BLASTOISE retroactively destroyed per today’s Schedule Post. Poindexter is directed to update the gamestate. -Bucky

Adminned at 18 Jan 2021 16:54:13 UTC

At 8:18 on January 14th, I made an attack on CHARMELEON. When the attack was resolved on the 15th, no EM Weapon effect was applied and so I immediately scheduled a second attack on CHARMELEON, destroying my Shell with the power expenditure.

On January 16th, shortly after the second attack landed but before the results were confirmed, I switched Shells, became Jockeying again, and scheduled a third attack run on BLASTOISE.

In the Schedule Post for January 17th, the Poindexter resolved the second attack and determined that it provoked a response from CHARMELEON’s EM Weapon. This invalidated the third attack run.

However, if CHARMELEON had an EM weapon, the second attack would have been illegal because I would have been disabled from the first attack. Moreover, I would’ve been in a different Shell than the one I thought I was in for the third attack run, and would not have enough Power for it as a result. (Of course, if I’d known I was EM-disabled, I would not have entered battle at all for the second run and could have made substantially the same third attack run in the same shell).

Therefore, the current representation of the gamestate is inconsistent regarding the effects of CHARMELEON’s possible EM Weapon

Given the amount of information that has been leaked due to illegal actions (including Camera Turret hints for the second attack), and the degree to which they have snowballed, I believe the fairest outcome is to declare that CHARMELEON simply never had an EM weapon. Accordingly:
* No Pilots are currently disabled by CHARMELEON’s EM Weapon.
* My attacks on BLASTOISE on the 16th were valid and Poindexter shall update the gamestate accordingly.
* In the likely event that BLASTOISE was destroyed by that attack run, any Fire Attempts on BLASTOISE on the 17th were invalid and should be refunded.

The alternative state is that CHARMELEON had an EMP weapon all along. That would involve the following changes. This CfJ expressly does NOT adopt the following, and instead declares these did not occur:
* Having fired three miscalibrated attacks at BLASTOISE on the 16th, I became Recovering; my attempt to purchase Hot Blood as a meme was invalid because I was still Jockeying at the time and should be reverted; and my most recent attempt to become Jockeying failed because I was not Outfitting and so I should still be Recovering with one less Experience than represented in the Ansible Hangar.

Comments

Josh: Observer he/they

17-01-2021 20:00:28 UTC

Ugh god keeping track of this stuff is such a ballache

Josh: Observer he/they

17-01-2021 20:05:14 UTC

The problem that I have here is that this CfJ will take at least a day or so to resolve, meaning that tomorrow’s (and possibly the day after’s) schedule update once again sits in an ambiguous state of Schroedinger’s gamestate.

My preferred solution would be a full grandfather: uphold the current gamestate, reprimand the Poindexter, and keep going. It’s a fudge, I know, but no-one has lost anything from the status quo except a bit of time, and it doesn’t linger too much.

Bucky:

17-01-2021 20:11:20 UTC

Regarding tracking, I think the main source of headaches is that it often takes 3-4 days before we’re in a position to check your work.

Josh: Observer he/they

17-01-2021 20:16:12 UTC

Yep. I’m aware of the pressure, for sure.

I feel like we might need to define some parameters around this; have a policy whereby if there is little or no harm or strategic impact to a mistake then we disregard it (make “whatever the Poindexter says in the schedule post is true”, regardless of what should be true) but have a way to challenge and revert if the mistake is serious and substantial.

Bucky:

17-01-2021 20:19:40 UTC

This is indeed serious and substantial, millions of Civilian lives are at stake.

Bucky:

17-01-2021 20:33:08 UTC

Also, Josh, if you’re concerned about people taking actions based on incorrect or ambiguous gamestate, consider that your “uphold all the Schedule Posts” alternative trades off at most three days of uncertainty (most of which has been warned about due to this CfJ, and the full extent of which only happens if no CfJ hits quorum) against two days where people were certainly acting on incorrect gamestate (the revelation that CHARMELEON had no EM Weapon) plus whatever period of uncertainty comes with this CFJ before it’d hit quorum AGAINST.

Josh: Observer he/they

17-01-2021 20:33:54 UTC

You think I don’t know that Pilot *chomps cigar*

Josh: Observer he/they

17-01-2021 20:55:24 UTC

Yeah… fine. I guess the ideal solution is that I stop missing things.  for

Coderblaze:

18-01-2021 14:54:28 UTC

for

Raven1207: he/they

18-01-2021 16:31:28 UTC

for

Bucky:

18-01-2021 16:50:42 UTC

Although I didn’t mention it when I filed the CfJ for strategic reasons, the late-EM status quo left a window of about six hours where any Pilot (or idle admin) but myself and Coderblaze could have jumped in and taken a guaranteed kill on BLASTOISE, claiming what I thought (incorrectly) at the time would be a revenge crown.