Table of Content

1. Rules - v0.15 (14 July 2008)
2. Agreement
3. Faq - v0.3 (14 July 2008)

Notice: The ladder is not in any way associated with the official Wesnoth forum, it's moderators and/or
 the developers of Wesnoth. Please don't use the forum to start new ladder threads and don't ever contact 
 the Wesnoth staff or server admins about ladder related issues - they won't & can't help you.

Rules

Ladder Rating & Ranking

1. To be rated you just need to play a game. The more games you play against different opponents, the more accurate your rating becomes. All players that have played one or more games always have a rating.
2. To be ranked you must have played at least;
   1. 1 games and
   2. have played at least one game the recent 10000 days. The rank orders players by comparing their rating and also the amount of games they've played. The more, the better, in both cases.
3. To be listed in the ladder table you must;
   1. have a rating that's 200 or above, and
   2. have played at least one game the recent 10000 days and
   3. played at least 1 games in total. You can read the details here.

Game setup

1. All games are 1 vs 1. You're allowed to play however many games you want, with whoever that is participating in the ladder and that wants to compete with you. To find an opponent for a ladder game you'd have to contact people in the ladder and/or create (ladder) games on the offical server. You can find players by using the ladder in-game friends list, contacting them via some kind of instant messenger and also email challange them via their profile.
2. Game must be played on one of the Official Servers using the original unmodified software.
3. The name of the game must start with the prefix (L) or (Ladder). It's recomended but not mandatory to let it be followed by ladder.subversiva.org and don't forget your ladder nick & your Elo rating. The ranking may be rounded to nearest hundredth (1545 becomes 1500). An example of a ladder game name according to the above would be: (L) ladder.subversiva.org (eyerouge 1600) Another example is: (L) doodle 1545 vs Rick 1800
4. Only the current stable and development versions of Battle for Wesnoth for your plattform are legal for you. Only exceptions to this are if those versions don't perform well on your system, in which case you're allowed to use one older subversion. Always make sure both you and your opponent use the same version before the game begins to avoid all kinds of trouble.
5. You must have downloaded your copy of Wesnoth from a site that the wesnoth.org download section links to.
6. The loading of Saved Games isn't allowed unless you both explicitly agree that it is or the rules suggest it.
7. The only legit era is the Default one. No other eras are accepted.
8. All official 2 player maps associated with the specific game version and that come with the game are allowed if they're made for a 1vs1 common game duel. Notice that survival maps are not allowed. Neither are the following maps: Wesbowl.
9. Use map settings: On
10. Time limits must be activated and set according to the following.
    • Reservoir: 270
    • Init. Limit: 270
    • Turn Bonus: 200
    • Action Bonus: 20
    These are the lowest values allowed unless you agree on another higher or lower setting with your opponent before the game starts. (If you're an apprentice be warned: For many total newcomers to the world of Wesnoth the recomended time setting can be harsh. You have to eat many Wose roots before you can play the game skillfully under the perils of time. Try to agree on more time before starting the game if you're worried about this.)
11. Settings within the game lobby: Be in different teams, have the map default amount of gold and default income.
12. Observers: It's strongly encouraged that you allow observers, but you have the right to play ladder games with observers turned off. If at least one player requests that observers are turned off then observers must be turned off. A player who enters a game with observers on automatically agrees on allowing observers. Notice: If you allow observers your opponent or his friends can observe your moves with another instance of Wesnoth. In general people don't cheat, and it's considered to be more more polite and friendly to allow observers.

Players

1. When playing a ladder game you must a) use the exact and same nick in the game as you use on the ladder and b) also make sure that the opponent also has his original ladder name when playing a ladder game with you. If you fail you may get your game result deleted by admin without any warning. It doesn't matter which one of you isn't using his/her real ladder nickname - as long as one isn't doing it the game result is void, and you're not even entitled to report the game in the first place. In cases where you disconnect and can't get your real nickname back on a reconnect then you should still use your exact real ladder nickname followed by an extenstion marking that it's a temporary solution. Example: nickname_2 or nickname_tmp. If using an extension make sure it's crystal clear you're doing so, especially if you have hard to understand nickname. If somebody has hi-jacked your nickname then don't play until you have resolved the situation.
2. If two players communicate the language used should be English unless they both agree to use another language. If an observer speaks openly in a game, so that the players can see the text, she/he is only allowed to do so in the very same language the players use. Private chat between the observers may occur in any language.
3. The winner of the game is allowed to report the result to the ladder after each finished game. The loser isn't.
4. Except for the cases below the winner/loser is declared by Wesnoth.
5. In cases where one of the players get disconnected and/or disconnects the other player must a) wait 5 minutes for b) the disconnecter to return to the game or server lobby and c) state his/her intention to continue the game. If the disconnecter does all this then the game must be loaded by the non-disconnecter and continued from the most recent save. If the non-disconnector lacks the save game it may be created/loaded by the disconnecter instead. If a player disconnects and fails to return to the game or server lobby within 5 minutes he/she loses the game. If a player disconnects and returns to the game or server lobby within time but doesn't explicitly state that he/she wishes to continue the game he/she loses the game. Everything in this paragraph can be handled in another way if the players all agree on it.
6. In cases where all players get disconnected due to official server failure then a) all players must try to rejoin the server lobby within 10 minutes from the disconnect in order to resume the game by loading. b) If the server is still officially unreachable after 15 minutes the game ends as a draw and isn't reported to the ladder unless both players agree on something else. c) If one player reconnects, waits 15 minutes for the other player to show up and the other player doesn't, the player who re-connected wins the game.
7. If all parties at any time agree that they began playing the game using the wrong settings they're allowed to disconnect and start a new game instead. The correct settings are defined in this document.
8. Always save a replay of your game - it might be of value in the future and will also prevent the most common cheaters.
9. If you manage to make a false report by misstake please send us a mail and we'll correct it.
10. As soon as an out of sync (OOS) message is shown to a player that player must report it to the other. The game must then be loaded from the most recent saved turn before the first OOS-message. OOS errors mean that the game sends different types of info to the players, which in the end will result you seeing all kinds of things that haven't isn't seen by your opponent and vice versa. In essence you'll be playing two separate games against nobody, which doesn't make any sense. If you ignore the OOS-error messages and keep on playing the game is declared unvalid unless it's re-loaded according to the above.
11. In cases where the OOS problem arise, the player requsiting a re-load due to the OSS error must be able to validate the error with a screenshot and a save file if the opponent doesn't get the same error message and the opponent actually demands the validation.
12. It's strongly recomended that you always finish a game the same day it was started because experience tells us that players you don't know can be problematic to get hold of. If however both players explicitly agree that they want to finish the game another time by saving and then reloading it in the future they are allowed to do so. In such a case the players must both agree on where and how to meet (in GMT if they use different time zones) in order to continue the game, before they part. If they don't agree before they part the player who parts first from the ongoing game will be declared the loser of the game. Once again we'd like to warn you from continuing games in the future - it often just causes trouble. If you play with the timer enabled this is also needed less often.
13. If both players agree that a situation that isn't covered by the rules arises they can, if they agree on the solution, decide themself how it should be handled. If the players don't agree on how it should be handled then the game is declared a draw and the result is not reported to the ladder. Whenever any of this happens the players must contact the ladder admin with an explanation of what happend.

Agreement

1. By registering or using the ladder you agree to follow all rules and regulations.
2. You swear that you won't ever cheat, report false results or fail to report correct ones, abuse or exploit this system in any way.
3. You are only allowed to have one account. If you want to create a new account and delete your old please contact us and be ready to give eyerouge your password in order for us to verify that you're the real owner of the account that's about to be deleted.
4. If you suspect a player breaks the agreement you must contact us. Don't fear - we treat all correspondence with discretion. Whatever you do, don't start rumours or accusations in the open as it never leads to anything productive.
5. Using this ladder and our services isn't a right - it's a privilege that we choose to give to you as long as we want and as long as it's possible.
6. If there are breaches in the agreement and/or other for us apparent reasons to do so the site administration has the right to ban users and/or delete/modify results and other info, together with any other necessary measures that a situation might require for us to secure the ladders integrity and the intended functions of it as the admin envisions them.
7. The rules are always a subject for change. If many players require a modification, addition or deletion or if the admin sees fit the rules will be revised. Revisions are marked with a version number and they're announced in the news section as well as in here.

FAQ

• What is this site?
• How do I report the result of a game?
• I've played x games. Why am I still unranked?
• Why don't I show in the ladder listing?
• Won't people cheat?
• I can't login...
• Is there an easy way to add all ladder members as friends in-game?
• Does my rating suck? Is having 1500 good?
• What does passive rank mode mean?
• Help! My Elo points changed for no reason!
• What is the countdown in days for in my profile?
• How can I upload a replay?
• What is sportsmanship?
• How do I write a game comment?
• What is Average P W/L/T in the profile?
• Where do I get a ruling?
• The rules suck.
• What is the stuff next to the players nick in the waiting for game list?
• How is the rating calculated?
• What are the points in () that I see in the profiles?
• What is a provisional player?
• Won't players just play against weaker players?
• It's not fun or a good idea to use a ranking system. The Wesnoth developers/community/santa is against it.
• How can I help?
• How can I edit my profile?
• What good are the avatars?
• I have an idea. Who do I contact?
• How do I contact you?
• Where's the graphics from?
• Why is the ladder not an official part of the Wesnoth community?

What is this site?

It's a site that helps you keep track of your skills in the excellent open source game Battle for Wesnoth (wesnoth.org). By playing against others who also use the site you can report the results of your games and get a rating. You can also use the system to find players of simillar skill. All you have to do to start participating is to Join, play a game against another person that uses the ladder, and then let the winner report the result of the game.

How do I report the result of a game?

Granted you have created an account, you press Report in the main menu. You then tell us who the winner / loser is, and also your account password. That's it.

I've played x games. Why am I still unranked?

You must play at least 3 games to get a ranking. The more games you play, the more accurate it gets. 3 is currently the bare minimum.

Why don't I show in the ladder listing?

You show up in the ladder listing if you are ranked and also have a rating of at least 200. While any player can get to see his ranking, only the ranked players that have a rating of at least 200 will appear on the ladders list. This is to keep it free from clutter and to only show the top players.

Won't people cheat?

In short, this is an imaginary problem. So the answer is no.
I've written a more extensive answer to this one in here.

I can't log in...

These are the reasons for why you can't log in. You;

1. Haven't registered: The site requires that you're a registered user to enter it.
2. Registered but haven't activated your account: When you register you get an e-mail with an activation link. Find the e-mail, check your spam in, and click the activation link. If you haven't activated your account the site will tell you this when you try to log in.
3. Registered, activated your account, but get a wrong username/password error: You enter the wrong username and/or password. Check your info in the welcome e-mail, we included it there for you to remember it better.
4. Registered, activated your account, but nothing at all happens when you ty to log in - you don't even get an error message: This is a common problem and depends on your browser not accepting cookies. Please change your browser settings so it accepts our cookies. If you use Internet Explorer you could also try to add http://chaosrealm.net and http://chaosrealm.net/wesnoth and http://ladder.subversiva.org to your trusted sites list within IE. We do however strongly suggest that you abandon the use of Internet Explorer and go with an open source browser instead, like for example Firefox.

Is there an easy way to add all ladder members as friends in-game?

Yes. Amazing you asked that question ;) Use our always up to date friends list.

Does my rating suck? Is having 1500 good?

Many players that are not familiar with Elo's Rating System believe that 1500 is a newcomers rating. Understand this: It is not the case! When a player registers at the ladder he/she gets a rating of 1500, but, that rating is really the expected rating of an average player and not of a newcomer to the game. This means that people that are new to the game or still learning it are expected to have a rating thats way lower than 1500. It's normal. A player who has been around for a while and knows the game is expected to be average and have around 1500, while a really skilled veteran would have a higher. As a reference, players that have around 2000 are considered strong, and those beyond 2500 grandmasters.

Whatever your rating is, it doesn't suck. The rating is a measure of your skills, in relation to the other players on the ladder. It gets better and more accurate the more you play the game and the more different people you meet. Becoming good at Wesnoth takes very long time and a lot of patience. If you lack either your Wesnoth career will be short. Use the ladder as a personal measure tool, to see your own development and to find players that are about the same skill level as you are - that's when the game is most fun to play. Please don't see it as competition until you are truly ready for it and know you can handle the heat. And never lose faith because the rating says you are a newcomer skill wise or rank low on the ladder. After all, you are supposed to until you start mastering the game. With time your skills will grow, and so will your rating.

What does passive rank mode mean?

In order to keep the ladder meaningfull, up to date and to encourage activity we have a rule that says that you must have played at least one game within 10000 days if you wish to be listed as a valid contender in the ladder. If you don't play a game for 10001 days your account will be set in passive rating mode. While beeing in a passive rating mode you won't get listed as competing in the ladder and you'll temporarily lose your place in it until you play a new game. You'll then be considered to be an active player again and you will be automatically removed from the passive rating mode. You will of course also regain your proper rating, taking the new game into account, as usual. And to answer the question everybody fears: No, you won't lose rating while beeing in passive rating mode. If you had 1500 when you were put in the passive mode, was passive for 3 months and then play a game where you win 10 points, you would then be an active player again, but now with 1510 points.

Help! My Elo points changed for no reason!

Nothing ever happens without reason, and if it does then the ladder needs some fixing. These are the only times your Elo points will change:

• You have undone one or several games you reported. When doing so you will still have the points from the game(s) for a while. In the not distant future they will however disappear, as they should, giving you your real Elo rating.
• For a simillar reason your Elo might change without you ever undoing a game: If you play against Donald, and he, before you two play, has made a false or wrong report, then Donald will have a higher Elo rating then he really has when you play against him. This means that if you win over Donald, that maybe had an Elo of 1600, you win too many points since he really never had that many to begin with. Later on, after you have played Donald, his rating get's corrected by him/us undoing some of his wrongfully reported games he played before he met you. Thus, the points you won when you beat Donald could be lowered to be correct. The points you will get for winning over Donald are whatever his correct Elo would give you, at the time you played.
• The above could be extended to x amount of players: If Donald's Elo is based on say 2 wrongly reported games, and Donald plays you, and you play Anna, and Anna plays Flash, then you, Anna and Flash (and Donald of course) would all get corrected Elo ratings the second Donald's rating is corrected. The cool part with this is that it doesn't matter how complex the relations are: The ladder will always fix it. You don't ever have to think about this, as your rating would usually be correct or about to be corrected automagically if needed. Add to that that it's also very rare to play against a player that has made false or wrong reports since a vast majority seldom or never report false/wrong.
• You played a game and won or lost, and it was reported. Hence your Elo would change. Check your game history to see if it refreshes your memory.
• Somebody reported a game which you supposedly played. Check your profiles game history to see the most recent games. If somebody reported a false game, please contact that person and ask him/her to undo it. If you get no response then contact us and we'll take care of it. Never contact us directly without trying to get in touch with that person.
• Once in a while we upgrade the ladders rating system and in particular the forumulas we use to calculate you Elo. In such a rare case it would be announced by us as news, and the effect would be global on the ladder, so all other players would get equal changes in Elo points as you. Typically we adjust the K-values and ranges where they're valid. However, all such changes have retroactive effects in the name of fairness.

What is the countdown in days for in my profile?

It shows you how many days you have left until you're put in passive rank mode. You can only see this if you're logged in and view your own profile.

How can I upload a replay?

When reporting a game you can choose to upload a replay if you want to. It must be smaller than 200 kB and a gz-file. All replays you upload can be downloaded and watched by others.

What is sportsmanship?

Sportsmanship is a type of karma-system we offer our players. It's a way to rate the conduct of your opponents by giving them a numerical value from 1 (lowest, worst) to 5 (highest, best). The winner can rate the loser when he/she reports the win. The loser can rate the winner via the profile -> game history. Once given a rating can't be changed.

Every player has a sportsmanship average in his/her profile. It's the sum of all his averages divided by the number of ratings. We strongly encourage you to rate your opponents as it will make it easier to spot people that behave badly or in any other way not wished by the general wesnoth or ladder community.

Also keep in mind that however you rate people, it is always official. Be prepared to stand up for your opinions and be open with them, or keep them to yourself and don't use the rating at all.

How to rate
If you've played a casual, normal game where nothing popped up then that equals a 3. It means that the opponent followed the general multiplayers conduct and also abided under all the ladder rules. Please keep in mind a 3 is not a bad rating. It's actually what's expected in most games as it signifies "normality".

If you happen to play against somebody that's friendly or helps you out, enchants your game play session or does something which makes him/her stand out as a nice person measured by general multiplayer standards or the ladder rules, then he/she should get a 4 or 5. Reward nice people.

Likewise, when the contrary is true, a person should get a 1 or 2. Examples for when it would occur are: Player is spamming, not responding several turns or reporting AFK, disconnecting without notice and without coming back or messaging, acting like 7-year old from hell, etc etc. In essence, anything that normal sportsmanship would deem as bad and which is unwanted according the ladder rules and/or the general Wesnoth multiplayer community should guarantee a rating of 1 or 2. Punish the wicked.

Notice: Sportsmanship has nothing with player skills to do or how good or bad a player is at the game itself! It's a rating of the social aspect of gaming and a measure of the attitude of people.

How do I write a game comment?

The participants of a game can comment it if they choose to do so. The winner inputs his/her comment when reporting the game. The loser can add a comment by pressing L/W/WL/Add in his profile's recent game history. Please keep in mind that comments are always official. Use the English language and make sure the public can understand what you write. Don't be offensive or an idiot in some other wat, or admin will delete your comment(s) and/or your account without a warning. Once posted you can't change the comment (yes, this is a feature and not us beeing lazy coders), so please read it through before you post it as nobody will change it or correct it for you later on.

Wtf is Average P W/L/T in the profile?

The Average P WLT shows x / y / z, which translates to the average points the player wins when she wins, the average points the player loses when she loses, and also the average points the player gets/loses per game in total. I hope you all see the potential already, as this great info actually tells you what kind of a player you/the others are:

The higher average win points a player has, the more higher rated players she plays (and wins) against. If a player always plays with opponents that have about the same rating as her she would have a an average win point of 12. The higher win point, the tougher opponents the player challenged and won over, and vice versa.

As for the average loss points, the opposite is the case: The lower average loss point (remember it's a negative number, so -11 is lower than -10) a player has the more ass whooping she got from players that have a lower rating than herself. Again, if this number is somewhere around -12, then the player usually loses against other players that had about the same rating as herself when the game took place.

The average points in total is the less usable of the 3 numbers: It displays all the points you have earned - the points you have lost / the total amount of games you have played. With other words, it tells you how many points you get or lose in an average game. In reality though this average game can never exist and the other two figures are way better pointers towards that end.

Where do I get a ruling?

The ladder admin doesn't support or encourage rulings of any kind. The reasons for that are many practical ones: It would require a constant supply of veteran players/truly objective refeeres. On top of that, even veteran players have different opinions from time to time. In many cases there's simply no wesnoth oracle that can state something as a fact, on the contrary, most of their work would be qualified guesses.

Add to this the more theoretical reasons that are separate from the already mentioned: We don't want to centralize the ladder or the running of it more than necessary. We don't want a boss or ruler to dictate who wins or not, since it's not our perspective on how an open source community should work. On the contrary, we think it should be self-sustaining. Lastly, the rules are pretty clear about most things and simple to follow. Whenever they say that a game is won or lost then it is just that. If you think that the rules need to be revised we'd welcome ny input you have on them granted you argue for your point. We update them whenever there's a need.

The rules suck.

Somebody is bound to feel tha way, but it's not really interesting unless you can explain why and you have sound arguments. If a majoirty of players want a rule change we'll fix it. Just prove your case. After all we're here to serve you, not enforce a special kind of game play nobody is interested in. The rules are still very early in development and we'd welcome any feedback.

What is the stuff next to the players nick in the waiting for game list?

When a player puts him/her self in the waiting for game list the following info is seen in the entry:

1. Nickname - the name of the player looking for a game.
2. (rating) - this is the elo rating of the player.
3. time - the amount of time that the player is still available.
4. dev / sta / im - where to meet the player: If he/she is already waiting in the lobby of the development or stable version or if you should make contact by using an instant messenger.

How is the rating calculated?

We use a version of the Elo system, which is the same as most chess clubs use to rank their players. In short, the better players you beat, the more points you get and vice versa. The same rules apply to all players. We don't want to encourage players to start optimizing their points and doing calculations: Play because it's fun, not to milk out every point.

The higher the K-value you have (and the better player you beat), the more points you win when winning. As in the real world we make it harder to get points the better rated you are. This insures us that inflation is cut down and, more importantly, that the top rated players really prove their skills. It also let's the newcomers obtain a more correct rating faster. Keep in mind that a player with an Elo of 1500 is an average player that knows the game. We consider a player that has more than