Referee-Free Battle Modes?

So, people like battling. But refs aren't always free to help you battle. And from what I've heard on the Skype chats lately, that's pretty annoying. Here's a potential solution to this problem:

Self-Reffed Battles.

Instead of having a third person act as referee, both battlers ref the battle. Both people use the reffing calculator to keep track of the battle, and both take turns posting stats and attacks. This way, there would be two people (instead of one) making sure that the battle was being reffed correctly. Errors could be checked and fixed much more quickly!

Now, of course if this became a thing, there would have to be some requirements. Firstly, both participants would have to be a ref. Obviously. Secondly, also obviously, only battle modes where everything is sent publicly could be used.

I can see two benefits to implementing this. Most obviously, refs would be able to battle each other more. That would be good. Also, this may become an incentive for people to want to become refs. I don't know, maybe.

This idea is simple to implement, and has direct benefits. I am sure this idea needs a LOT of work, but what do you think? Do self-reffed battles have any potential? Are they really as needed as they seem to me?

 

I actually like this suggestion, assuming gyms / LD can't be done this way I think this has some potential.
Some logistic problems Ash brought up before was that you'd ideally still need a neutral third party to take care of sleep / con / rampage duration rolls.
Payment situations would be a bit iffier to decide though.

 

I honestly don't think this is going to accomplish anything even if it were implemented. The issue currently is finding 1 ref. For this to work you need 2 plus a neutral person. It excludes non refs from participating, and makes refs who might come on during the middle of the battle to be unable to do their job. Also, the only mode available would be DPPt, which is even more limiting. In the end, the amount of times this system would even be used would be smaller than the need to implement it. If you want more battles reffed, work to become a ref. That's the proactive way to solve the issue of lacking refs. Hope I don't sound too harsh, I just am not really a fan of this particular suggestion.

 

Rampage is actually NOT a problem. Because there are only two possibilities, you can roll after the second turn and it either ends immediately/confuses or doesn't, nothing is given away that shouldn't be. Sleep and Confusion however are problems.

As I've said before, I'm fairly indifferent on this one. I don't have any strong objections besides the logistics of sleep/confusion, but I'm also not going to push for it to happen. Swift did bring up some good points.

Things perhaps stated before but that are definite requirements for this if it happens:
– BOTH participants are refs. This way they can check each other's work until they arrive at the same result, instead of one person going along with whatever the other says introducing bias possibility.
– PUBLIC SENDS ONLY. The reasoning is hopefully obvious when you think about who you're sending to.
If there were others, they have slipped my mind.

 

Becoming a ref himself does not solve the problem of refs not reffing for him.

but yeah this seems needless, work must be done to encourage refs to ref instead of working around inactivity by bypassing refs altogether

 

This is a problem for any individual ref (believe me, I know), but the more refs there are the more likely it is that you will find one available. I wasn't directing that statement at any one person, I meant it as a general statement. The more people who become refs and are proactive, the less likely it will become that there are none online and/or available.

 

Thank you all for your discussion! Honestly, I'm surprised how much traffic this has gotten- usually, my ideas don't get nearly this much talk.

Firstly, I want to make sure everyone knows this: I am not much of a battler. In fact, I haven't battled on the URPG in more than a year! I personally find more enjoyment out of the Story section. That being said, I do have an interest in all facets of the URPG running as well as possible, so I have random ideas about everything. Just be warned, my battling knowledge may be flawed.

I want to make it clear, my idea is for a battling system that only requires 2 battlers with reffing experience, instead of 2 battlers and a ref. The goal of this system is to make it possible for experienced players to battle each other without needing to look for a ref. Now, I have seen 2 main criticisms of this idea; I will respond to both now.

The first problem seems to be with how such a battling system could handle sleep and confusion. This system would require all sends to be public, but sleep and confusion determine their duration through private rolls. Well, honestly I think the solution to this is a pretty simple change to how sleep and confusion are handled on the URPG! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe sleep lasts for 1-3 turns, and confusion lasts for 1-4 turns. Here's how I think they could work:
- Beginning on the second turn for each status, roll a 3-sided die for sleep and a 4-sided die for confusion just before the affected Pokemon moves, at the same time that you would handle freeze rolls (note: this roll would occur before rolling for damage from confusion). If the roll is 1, the Pokemon wakes up / snaps out of confusion. Every subsequent turn, remove 1 side of the die (so on the third turn, you would roll a 2-sided die for sleep and a 3-sided die for confusion). This would yield a probability of waking up each turn that is mathematically identical to the private-roll method we use currently! And yes, it requires a couple extra rolls, but it works.

The other problem seems to be that this is just not necessary. However, this opinion is currently held most strongly by Swift, who I think doesn't like it for reasons that my change to sleep and confusion mechanics fixes. And honestly, if we are to introduce a new battling feature, the question is not how unnecessary something is. If that was the question, there are probably a few battling modes we should remove for lack of use. Every battling mode, no matter how situational or seemingly silly, if it works, will eventually be used in some way. The important question is whether self-reffed battles would be in any way negative for the URPG community, and I personally don't see how they could be bad. That's all.

Thank you all for discussing this idea, and I look forward to lots more critique and communication!

 

There is a key difference between the limited use of this mode, and the limited use of other modes.

This referee-free mode is limited because of the restrictions and conditions. It can only occur between two refs. It has to be public send. Mechanics needs to be modified to suit.

Compare that to GSC rules for example. Yeah, they almost never get used, but they're still open to ANYONE who wants to use them.

I'm not comfortable implementing something that would function as exclusively as this. Plus, what happens if the refs disagree on a particular calculation?

 

Ah, I see. Thanks Monbrey, I hadn't thought about that nearly enough. Yeah, you're right, this idea is WAY too situational to bother with implementing.

The idea's cool, though! Maybe one day, something like this will work...