Questions About Online Play

[ceptertsukasa]

For any of those lucky enough to have played the Japanese version of Saga I have a few questions about the Xbox Live play.
1)How does the game handle disconnects by human players? Does the AI finish the game? Do you still get credit for the win?

2)How do the online rankings work? Are they based strictly on win/loss record or other factors as well?

3)Is there a skill matching option for setting up online games with human opponents?

Thank you in advance and I look forward to playing with all of you on Live. Feel free to send me a Friend Request. Gamertag is Tim Shady Ver 1

[TopCat]

ceptertsukasa said:

For any of those lucky enough to have played the Japanese version of Saga I have a few questions about the Xbox Live play.
1)How does the game handle disconnects by human players? Does the AI finish the game? Do you still get credit for the win?

2)How do the online rankings work? Are they based strictly on win/loss record or other factors as well?

3)Is there a skill matching option for setting up online games with human opponents?

Thank you in advance and I look forward to playing with all of you on Live. Feel free to send me a Friend Request. Gamertag is Tim Shady Ver 1

Welcome!

1) If a human player disconnects on the next turn that player will be controlled by the AI and a message will pop up stating this fact. The game does not end. I've not counted my wins so I can't confrm that if one or all opponents are AI controlled online if you still get the victory if you win the battle. If another player desyncs his turn may time out and he may resync on a later turn, or he may time out and his cepter will be AI controlled. It's possible for all players to desync and be playing different games with the same cepters online. It's very funny when this happens to hear descriptions from the other players as to what you are doing in the other games.

2) The online rankings are divided into number of wins and True Skill ranking. It doesn't list your win/loss record or win % on the rankings screen so I've not been able to determine how exactly it calculates; nor have I put in any effort to figure it out by reading any forums about it. I do know that I have over 100 wins online but for some reason the ranking lists my number of wins as 60-something. I don't think this number represents (#wins - #losses) since it says "Number of Victories" and I'm sure mine wouldn't add out to around 60. I've also monitored it just after an online win and observed it not increase. I just haven't paid enough attention or been motivated enough to find out.

3) While there is a True Skill ranking present in the game there is no method to be matched by skill. You can choose a match from a list of currently hosted matches or quick match which just seems to throw you into a random game fitting your matching criteria.

[ceptertsukasa]

Thank you for the quick reply. I was just a little worried that people would try to bail out if they feel they have no chance to win the battle. I would hate to spend an hour or so in a battle only to have an opponent quit out. If the AI continues to play their deck for them, that is as good a solution I can think of. This makes me even more excited to get online and play. Thanks again for the reply and all of your knowledge from the Japanese version. I appreciate it and I am sure others do as well. Keep up the good work.

[ckazz]

yeah couple queries/thoughts to add -
So if you wrap up a game another disconnects from, do you still get your full # of cards for the win?
Do you still get any ante'd card the player put up? Is that card revealed at ante or end?
If you lose do you still get the lower card amount, and lose (any) ante?

I see a little concern here on the ante, where there are a few interesting use cases -
If both players end up in different games and the ante remains, can both win the antes?
Similiarly I guess same thing, can both lose the antes?
[For one who can't continue any kind of play (power out?) do they lose their and/or winning ante, regardless of where the game was at, at the time?

I suppose that's the only grey area to me - I think playing ante could spice it up, but I think I'd want to know how some of that gets treated before I start offering that up.

Maybe those types of things are why trading bit it, there's a lot of stuff to work out, and that's where you get people taking advantage of a system, if anywhere.

So while it's a pretty big bummer there's no online trading, adding online gaming > that

[TopCat]

If you finish a match you always get the appropriate number of cards.

As for ante, I have never played a game with it. Because of the 4 card limit you hit a point where betting cards is pointless and you'll hit this point earlier if you use efficient techniques to earn cards on the side. At the level I play at no one bothers putting cards up. I believe I currently have close to 10,000 cards and I don't play nearly as much as some of the other guys play. So I'm afraid I can't answer any of these questions. If I had to guess based on experience I'd say that thinking about absolutes will determine what happens; if you both win "different" games you both win the betted cards and neither of you lost any cards since the AI lost and not you.

I also need to mention a fact that I neglected to mention. The default ranking is based on Points primarily; the number of wins that I mentioned earlier is just another piece of datum taht is mentioned along with it. It is the point total that determines rank. I know there is at least one guy ahead of me who slightly more listed wins but way more points than I do. I have no idea how points are determined; I imagine factors like round number, total magic, and number of players are used to quantify it.

[ckazz]

TopCat thanks for thoughts on it, not too surprising its not that popular either then.
Interesting heads up on the points. I just can't wait to dig in Feb

[Moptop]

Hi TopCat,

Thanks for the all answers, they've been very informative! I have a question I have seen answered anywhere else, however: is there a team chat channel for 2v2 matches, or do players need to use an external chat channel to speak privately?

[TopCat]

No, there is no private team chat. You'll have to use a private channel to speak with just your teammate, so it'll involve going back and forth to communicate.