FTA and 2(3) actions on first turn

[Xpander]

(09-12-2012 07:48 PM)Kamikaze28 Wrote:  Somehow related to your post is a thread I started way back when about the difficulty of creating an AI for Outwitters which demonstrates the difficulty of establishing 'prefect play' in Outwitters.

After skimming through the last page, I would like to summarize the different factors that go into FTA:

• Perfect knowledge of P2's unit placement
• Opportunity to lead in unit count
• Opportunity to move first (initiative)
  

By passing as P1, you effectively give all these advantages to P2 and get 5 Wits in return. I agree with Joggles and stipulate that having 5 additional Wits is not equally important to having these three advantages.

That's about the best description I have read so far on this. I was kind of hinting at that in my posts if you read between the lines, no amount of wits will balance this. Still, I hate to play devil's advocate, but I'm still not entirely convinced that this is a major issue. People have been saying this about chess for years and the game still marches on without any changes. I agree that the way match pairing is set up right now, it can be abused, but that's probably an easier fix. I admit I haven't played any games as first player in a long time...maybe I've just gotten good at going second, I don't know, lol. I just hate for there to be some sort of high level change that impacts the game in a negative way and then a month from that people will be complaining about Black having the advantage... I just hope that this gets some serious consideration before a decision is made on changes.