Wednesday, January 01, 2025

Call for Judgment: The snails are at the starting line, gathering rocket fuel

Enacted 3-0. Josh

Adminned at 03 Jan 2025 19:39:50 UTC

Increase the Plays of every Snail by 1.

So, there’s a problem with the current official ruleset; because Snails who have not made a Play are safe from predators, I can win the current race in a single Play via Spotting Danger 34 times (over the course of 34 days) and then using a Stomp Rocket. As a consequence, right now I have no incentive to do anything else, and the game is likely to grind to a huge halt. A symmetrical increase in Plays makes predation possible, in a way that doesn’t change the official ruleset or (as far as I can tell) interfere with anything else. This needs urgent attention because otherwise we’ll have to wait for the queue to clear before most of the snails have any incentive to act, which will mean several days of boring waiting.

The “Plays=0” protection was likely intended to protect Snails who didn’t move early in the race, but the race has been ongoing for long enough that that protection probably isn’t needed in this race any more.

posted by ais523 at 01 Jan 2025 13:49:00 UTC Comments (7)

Comments

JonathanDark: he/him

01-01-2025 16:05:09 UTC

You didn’t want to patch the rules for the next Race to avoid this same scenario next time?

ais523:

01-01-2025 16:12:10 UTC

I do want to patch them, but that would better be done by proposal rather than CFJ and I’m out of slots. I could patch the rules for the next race in this CFJ if people think that that’s a good idea, but there will probably be time to fix those by proposal before the next race starts (without delaying the game), so I limited the CFJ to only the immediate problem (as I think is traditional with CFJs).

JonathanDark: he/him

01-01-2025 16:17:17 UTC

It’s been a mix over the last year or so. Some players have used the CfJ to both fix the immediate problem and introduce the longer term fix at the same time, both to indicate the direction they wish to go and in case the issue is forgotten and repeats itself.

It’s also an opportunity to introduce a new scam in disguise as a fix, if you’re so inclined.

JonathanDark: he/him

01-01-2025 16:24:55 UTC

My feelings on tradition is that it’s great for providing a consistent base of thinking and common ground, but it can be limiting if you don’t take into account the ever-changing player base and the organically evolving way the ruleset is treated.

Josh: he/they

01-01-2025 17:02:49 UTC

My concern here is that this puts me at greatest risk, as the furthest-back Snail.

I will probably vote FOR but will hold my vote late, I think, in the hopes that I can enact this myself, and thereby move before exposing myself to getting munched on by squirrels.

JonathanDark: he/him

01-01-2025 19:14:53 UTC

for

Josh: he/they

03-01-2025 19:39:33 UTC

for