Suggestions to Improve Robot Duplicate

[docshu]

I am at home recovering from surgery and have played multiple robot tournaments. There are a few suggestions to improve these games.

1. When the North Robot buys the contract, allow the human player to declare and rotate the directions. This would allow for the human player to have greater control of his/her results.

2. An option not to close the trick without a mouse click. Sometimes a trick closes so fast, I do not see what was played.

3. Allow a player to resign. Often the event is over except for 1 or 2 tables where the human has given up and left, but the results await the full 55 minutes.

[BunnyGo]

Hi docshu, welcome to the forums. I hope you recover quickly. Allow me to address your comments for now and more experienced, and directly involved people will probably address them when they get to it.

 

1. This is one of the most often requested suggestions and, for reasons I do not fully appreciate, it is more difficult than I would imagine to implement. But I believe it is somewhere on a long list of things to do.

 

2. I agree that tricks sometimes close quickly, however as long as you haven't played to the next trick (either from your hand or dummy) then you can click on the trick (on the lower right of the screen) and see the previous trick again.

 

3. You can resign by clicking on the "Director!" button and choosing to resign. Not everyone chooses to do this, and so it is fairly usual (I've never seen it otherwise) that it takes 55 minutes to get the results. C'est la vie.

 

Sincerely,

Ben

[Rain]

Hi Docshu,

 

Welcome to BBO forums :) Let me try and elaborate on what Bunny said.

 

1. When the North Robot buys the contract, allow the human player to declare and rotate the directions. This would allow for the human player to have greater control of his/her results.

 

The difficulty, as I understand it, is because of old BBO. Old BBO makes it hard to code changes, and it requires even more to implement these changes.

But this is a feature that I think is coming...very soon.... (btw I don't see *myself* wanting to declarer for robot even if I could. But I can understand if experts want to do this. GIB is just better than I am and I recognize this fact)

 

 

2. An option not to close the trick without a mouse click. Sometimes a trick closes so fast, I do not see what was played.

 

 

In BBO, click on the "Options" button. It looks like a little cog at the bottom of your BBO.

Click on "Table"

Select "Confirm end of tricks" option.

You now can confirm before the trick goes away.

 

 

3. Allow a player to resign. Often the event is over except for 1 or 2 tables where the human has given up and left, but the results await the full 55 minutes.

 

Are you saying, the player who is slow, should be given option to resign?

In a robot tourney like this, players can always resign. Do so by clicking on the "Call TD" button. There is a withdraw button there.

Once you are done with your robot tourney, completed all boards, you get to leave early.

 

Players who are very slow could be slow for a number of reasons. They are unlikely to be around to "resign".

However, the software currently removes players who appear to be much slower than others AND appear to be away from BBO. The player will be asked "are you still here?" If he doesn't respond, software removes him. If he responds and says he's here, then he will not be removed. :)

 

While waiting for results, why not play another tourney or do something else in BBO? When the results are up, you will see a pop up of results, or you can see it in the results section anyway. Not everyone can be as fast as you. :)

 

See you in BBO.

[docshu]

Hi Docshu,

 

Welcome to BBO forums :) Let me try and elaborate on what Bunny said.

 

1. When the North Robot buys the contract, allow the human player to declare and rotate the directions. This would allow for the human player to have greater control of his/her results.

 

The difficulty, as I understand it, is because of old BBO. Old BBO makes it hard to code changes, and it requires even more to implement these changes.

But this is a feature that I think is coming...very soon.... (btw I don't see *myself* wanting to declarer for robot even if I could. But I can understand if experts want to do this. GIB is just better than I am and I recognize this fact)

 

 

2. An option not to close the trick without a mouse click. Sometimes a trick closes so fast, I do not see what was played.

 

 

In BBO, click on the "Options" button. It looks like a little cog at the bottom of your BBO.

Click on "Table"

Select "Confirm end of tricks" option.

You now can confirm before the trick goes away.

 

 

3. Allow a player to resign. Often the event is over except for 1 or 2 tables where the human has given up and left, but the results await the full 55 minutes.

 

Are you saying, the player who is slow, should be given option to resign?

In a robot tourney like this, players can always resign. Do so by clicking on the "Call TD" button. There is a withdraw button there.

Once you are done with your robot tourney, completed all boards, you get to leave early.

 

Players who are very slow could be slow for a number of reasons. They are unlikely to be around to "resign".

However, the software currently removes players who appear to be much slower than others AND appear to be away from BBO. The player will be asked "are you still here?" If he doesn't respond, software removes him. If he responds and says he's here, then he will not be removed. :)

 

While waiting for results, why not play another tourney or do something else in BBO? When the results are up, you will see a pop up of results, or you can see it in the results section anyway. Not everyone can be as fast as you. :)

 

See you in BBO.

[docshu]

Thanks for prompt responses.

having played using Bridge Baron at home, I note that it always allows the human to play the hand if he/she would otherwise be the dummy.

Dave

[barmar]

3. Allow a player to resign. Often the event is over except for 1 or 2 tables where the human has given up and left, but the results await the full 55 minutes.

I've noticed lately that if the only players left are disconnected, the tournament ends immediately. I think I suggested this about 6 months ago.

[helene_t]

Rain I think you misunderstood docshu. He/she didn't suggest slow players who want to play on being kicked out. Rather, players who do not play anymore should be given the option to resign (thereby not prolonging the tourney for others) instead of just go walking the dog so that BBO thinks they are still playing. As Bunny Go says, this is already implemented but not everybody uses it. Maybe a player who hasn't played a card for five minutes should be kicked out if everyone else has finished. Not sure if this would be desirable. But, as Barmar says, the tourney ends when only disconnected players are left, I would think that this solves the issue in most cases.

[1eyedjack]

It would certainly add an interesting dimension to the strategy of playing these tourneys if you have the OPTION to declare or be dummy. When the contract is solid I would certainly want the robot to declare, as he plays faster than I can click, and the hand is over faster so I can get more hands in.

[Bbradley62]

When I play Free Robot Duplicate, there is a "Withdraw" button; it's not even hidden behind a "Director" button. Is this not the case in all Robot tournaments? Or is this a download vs web difference?

[BunnyGo]

When I play Free Robot Duplicate, there is a "Withdraw" button; it's not even hidden behind a "Director" button. Is this not the case in all Robot tournaments? Or is this a download vs web difference?

 

I haven't played in several months, so I may be remembering the details of how it worked incorrectly.

[barmar]

I think it used to be hidden behind the Director button, but it changed at some point.

[Rain]

This is a new versus old BBO thing.

 

In the old BBO, you still have to click "Call Director", then withdraw from there.

 

New BBO, it is "withdraw" button.

[beowulf]

Indeed, it is very frustrating waiting for players to finish Robot Duplicates who are many boards behind (i.e. they have gone to sleep, keeled over and gone to meet their maker, or other distraction). If you haven't played a card for a while, the software could suggest resigning (just like it suggests logging out when you haven't done anything for a while). If you're really still there thinking about a suit combination, you could click and be back. Otherwise, let's get rid of the players who have given up.

[barmar]

I think it does this now. A few days ago I played an ACBL Robot Dup, and with 10 or 15 minutes to go there was a player who was stalled on an early board. Then the results popped up.