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somebody909 (1024

)
26 Jan 23 UTC
(+3)

Shhh Secret Variants

This is a story about finding the variant with the fewest games played and it lead to a deep dive into the secret variants that aren't on the variants table...

somebody909 (1024 )
26 Jan 23 UTC
(+2)

A previous forum post (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/forum.php?viewthread=92581#92581) was discussing what the least played variant is. As it turns out, it is chaoctopi with only four games played so far. This got me thinking though, can we go even lower?

Cast your minds back. The year is 2020 and my friend alifeee creates a new variant: Scottish Clan Wars. It gets posted on this forum and it gets played around 20 times. But, disaster strikes! Oli, admin of vDip, creator of variants and hero of men went on hiatus. This meant that Scottish Clan Wars never got added to the variant table, but still existed deep down in the website. This got me thinking ... what if there were other variants that got affected by this ... perhaps there exists a variant with even fewer than 4 plays.

So alifeee and I started searching through the variants. Using Python, we compared the variants in the variant table with those elsewhere on the site. I now present to you the list of 'secret' variants on the site:

First are the most interesting ones, finished variants with a few games played but which aren't on the variant table.

-Scottish Clan Wars (24 games)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=141)

-Two different Bronze Age Diplomacies (6/10 games)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=142)
(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=137)

-Diadokhi (2 games)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=139)

-East Europe(11 games)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=135)

-New York (1 game)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=146)

-North America(5 games)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=144)

-Western Europe 1300 (11 games)(https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=145)

So we have a new variant with the lowest number of games played! It is New York with 1 game played! I'm not sure how they managed to actually play that game, given that it isnt on the list when you click "create a new game" So it seems that there are three different lists of variants, the full list, the table list and the playable list.

Next we have some really cool looking maps that never got played/finished.

-Chesspolitik (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=132) a really odd chess themed map

-Pits of Horror (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=147) a really awesome looking lava hell world - interestingly it is the most recent variant to be added (id=148 doesnt exist)

-Africa (https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=124) a 7 player variant of africa

And finally we have some unfinished variants, an interesting look into variant development for those who never got to make one before Oli vanished :(

-https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=104
-https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=140
-https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=131
-https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=143
-https://www.vdiplomacy.com/variants.php?variantID=126

Here's to hoping that Oli is alive and well, and that he will return to us when we need him most. Amen

alifeee (1229 )
26 Jan 23 UTC
(+1)

hey, Scottish Clan Wars? That's mine!

somebody909 (1024 )
26 Jan 23 UTC
(+1)

|.`::::'.|
|::.`'.::|
|' .::. `|
This is an ASCII scottish flag apparently - it's so bad it might start a clan war

Anon (?? )
26 Jan 23 UTC

https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=54933
https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=54934

GOD (1699 )
26 Jan 23 UTC

oh wow how did you create those?

and thank you so much for finding these variants, somebody909!

Anon (?? )
26 Jan 23 UTC

https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=54933
They appear in the drop down menu on the variant creation page.

Lord Saviour (1456 )
27 Jan 23 UTC
(+1)

I've played clan wars 2 or 3 times I think. Good to see all of these have been found!

GOD (1699 )
27 Jan 23 UTC

The issue I have with Western Europe 1300 is that England seems to be borderline indefeatable, if not all players agree to attack it right away.

David E. Cohen (1000 )
27 Jan 23 UTC
(+2)

East Indies (131) is mine. I believe it is ready to play (though of course there may be coding errors that could show up). For the past couple of years, it has just needed someone to "flip the switch". :^(

David E. Cohen (1000 )
27 Jan 23 UTC
(+1)

Though I do see a mistake in the victory criterion (it should be 36 of 70, rather than 35 of 69), which should presumably be easy to fix.

rk (993 )
28 Jan 23 UTC
(+1)

"I'm not sure how they managed to actually play that game..."
I think, if you are the creator/owner of a variant, you can make a new game even if it's not in a playable state. Because I can make a new East Europe game, but the other "private" variants don't appear for me.

Fake Al (1747 )
28 Jan 23 UTC

These are the last variants that were being worked on before Olli's disappearance. The games the variants have are test games that only the variant creator could start. But, since Olli's disappeared, they can't be released to the rest of the site.

JECE (1534 )
29 Jan 23 UTC

rk, it's intersting that your variant allows coastal crawl between Serbia and Vienna. The impassable Dalmatia on the map would seem to block that.

Lord Saviour (1456 )
30 Jan 23 UTC

There was a variant being made of the middle East. Can't seem to find it. I think Fake AI was moderating the game.

Fake Al (1747 )
30 Jan 23 UTC

If you mean the bronze age variant, I recently got back to it and I'm running a new test game https://vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=54970

There's also the Arab Diplomacy variant that some people were talking about, but I don't think it ever got implemented here (I think it did on Flame's site, though).

Lord Saviour (1456 )
31 Jan 23 UTC

That's the one!

Fake Al (1747 )
01 Feb 23 UTC

By the way, speaking of the "secret" bronze age variants. One of them is an old 7-player one that's outdated. So I'm planning on replacing the map with something else for 7-players (I think only Oli could change the number of players). Something I threw together this week is something based on the South China Sea dispute. The idea is that there'd be a motherlode of SC's on islands in the middle of the sea. But these SC's would all be bordered by David E Cohen-style high seas regions.

https://i.imgur.com/afATT5I.png

Enriador (1507 )
02 Feb 23 UTC

East Indies is pretty much ready! I fear that if David dies before it's released he will haunt me to the end of my days. I did my best, man! ;(

Chesspolitik is something I touched with Oli a while back, and I do work on it from time to time when I want to get bored (because chess tiles *are* a bore to make, at least East Indies taught me Asian geography), but lost steam with Oli's absence since we need him to make it actually work. Whenever variants get rolling again it will be the first one I will finish.

I pitched Arab Diplomacy before and it could have been on the site years ago but it couldn't get implemented because at the time some high profile terrorist attacks made a Middle East variant a no-go zone. It is a fun variant though in hindsight it is severely unbalanced.

The Ambassador (2008 )
08 Feb 23 UTC

Anyone else planning a secret variant game? Could be tempted.

GarnerHannah (1000 )
08 Feb 23 UTC

interesting information

Fake Al (1747 )
08 Feb 23 UTC

who's to say there aren't a few secret variant games already going?

Lord Saviour (1456 )
08 Feb 23 UTC

Spooky

G-Man (2384 )
01 Mar 23 UTC

[G-Man rabidly salivates in the back of the Secret Variant Speakeasy]

23 replies

Anon (??

)
27 Feb 23 UTC

Europa coming

https://www.vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=55405
This is an new Europa! With 4 excuses and extend never!this will allow fluent playing and no worry about an drop out!please come in and enjoy the game!

0 replies