07-13-2021, 02:39 PM
In Galac-Tac we strictly adhere to the turn formatting. Of course, it's a computer-moderated game and needs to be "by the book". These days the user also enters the order directly into the system themselves so there's no GM intervention there at all. But in the old days it was GM-typed off a piece of paper, and that's what started the current format-specific phase.
Back then, there were first problems understanding what was written so we changed from mostly-text orders to mostly-numeric ones, which helped a lot. But it did make mistakes easier to overlook.
We tried correcting orders that looked wrong, but (a) we couldn't see most of the issues, and (b) we mis-corrected some things pretty badly (either changing orders that were actually intended or ones that were corrected incorrectly). After messing things up enough for players, we gave up and told them "what you said is what you get", so it's up to the player to get it right. As mentioned elsewhere, this isn't always a bad thing as it makes players pay attention to what they're doing. The biggest problem is generally with new players just learning the rules and formatting, and we've always been happy to help anyone who has questions or explain things that went wrong.
Now that we (as an industry) have mostly gotten off of paper turn submission we usually have new computerized possibilities to help with this situation. For Galac-Tac players using my GTac front-end program it contains both an order-entry assistant (prompting them with the appropriate formatting) and a "check turn for errors" command which catches most of of the kinds of things players are prone to. This really helps avoid problems a lot, and I really need to incorporate that into the direct web site entry page as well.
This, I think, is the best solution for games with relatively consistent turn formatting: have the game pre-check the orders for the players immediately when they're submitted and report back anything that looks suspicious. Then allow the player to correct orders that he decides are actually wrong.
Back then, there were first problems understanding what was written so we changed from mostly-text orders to mostly-numeric ones, which helped a lot. But it did make mistakes easier to overlook.
We tried correcting orders that looked wrong, but (a) we couldn't see most of the issues, and (b) we mis-corrected some things pretty badly (either changing orders that were actually intended or ones that were corrected incorrectly). After messing things up enough for players, we gave up and told them "what you said is what you get", so it's up to the player to get it right. As mentioned elsewhere, this isn't always a bad thing as it makes players pay attention to what they're doing. The biggest problem is generally with new players just learning the rules and formatting, and we've always been happy to help anyone who has questions or explain things that went wrong.
Now that we (as an industry) have mostly gotten off of paper turn submission we usually have new computerized possibilities to help with this situation. For Galac-Tac players using my GTac front-end program it contains both an order-entry assistant (prompting them with the appropriate formatting) and a "check turn for errors" command which catches most of of the kinds of things players are prone to. This really helps avoid problems a lot, and I really need to incorporate that into the direct web site entry page as well.
This, I think, is the best solution for games with relatively consistent turn formatting: have the game pre-check the orders for the players immediately when they're submitted and report back anything that looks suspicious. Then allow the player to correct orders that he decides are actually wrong.