Points on webDiplomacy

In order to play games you must bet a certain amount of points determined by the game creator. The lowest bet to enter a game is 5 points. Depending on the scoring system of the game, you may receive more points than you bet at the end of the game if you win or draw. If you do not win or draw, you will lose the points that you bet. In unranked games, you must still make a bet of 5 points, but your points will be returned to you at the end of the game.

On your profile, you will see your available points and total points. Available points is the number of points that you have to spend. Your available points are shown at the top of your screen next to your username. Total points is how many points you have to spend plus the amount of points you have already bet on games.

Players cannot drop below 100 total points. If you lose a game and drop below 100 total points, you will be automatically topped up to 100 points again so you always have the ability to join new games. Your points are not refreshed until a game concludes, so if you are defeated but the other players continue to play you will have to wait until the game is finished.

webDiplomacy's Scoring Systems

Every game of Diplomacy is created with a scoring system. Each scoring system has its own unique traits. webDiplomacy has three supported scoring systems, which are explained in detail below.

In order to win, or solo, a Diplomacy game, you must acquire the required number of supply centers. On the classic map, 18 supply centers is a win/solo. If nobody is able to win the game, then the surviving players may vote to draw. This can be done at any time. Once every living player has voted to draw, the game will end, and the points will be distributed according to the scoring system.

Draw-Size Scoring (DSS)

Previously known as Winner-Takes-All (WTA).

Draw-Size Scoring is the default scoring system and is draw-based. In games created with Draw-Size Scoring, you win the entire pot if you win. In a draw, the points are split equally between every surviving player, regardless of how many supply centers they own. For example, if the pot is 210 points (7 players betting 30 points) and 3 people are alive when the game is drawn, each of those players receives 70 points. They gain 40 points more than they put into the pot.

Draw-Size Scoring encourages players to play for a win, but if they cannot win, it encourages players to "narrow" down a draw by eliminating smaller powers in order to get a better result. With fewer players remaining in the draw, each remaining player receives more points of the pot.

Sum-of-Squares Scoring (SoS)

Sum-of-Squares is supply-center-based. In games created using Sum-of-Squares, you win the entire pot if you win, just like DSS. In a draw, each surviving player gets a proportion of the pot scaled by their supply center count at the time of the draw. The equation for determining their share of the pot is as follows:

(SC_count^2) / (sum of all players (SC_count^2))

In a game with a pot of 210 points (7 players betting 30 points) and 4 people alive when the game is drawn, each player receives a portion of the pot based on the number of supply centers they have. If you have 12 supply centers and the other three players have 10, 8, and 4 respectively, then you will receive 93 points (12^2 / (12^2 + 10^2 + 8^2 + 4^2) * 210 = 93).

Sum-of-Squares Scoring encourages players to play to win, but if they cannot it does not drag on games longer just to get another elimination because the number of players in the draw is less critical than the number of supply centers each player in the draw owns. Sum-of-Squares is often used in face-to-face Diplomacy tournaments where games may be time sensitive.

Unranked Games

Unranked games require a bet to join, but instead of distributing the pot between players based on a scoring system, you are simply refunded your bet at the end of the game, as long as you have not been removed from the game for missing too many orders. These games are not included in the Ghost Ratings.

Unranked games are often used for special rules games organized on our forum, tournament games, practice or school games, or any other instance where point distribution is not a priority. All 1v1 games are also unranked to prevent point farming.

Points-Per-Supply-Center

webDiplomacy used to support a scoring system called Points-Per-Supply-Center, which was a supply-center-based scoring system that distributed the pot based on a ratio of the number of supply centers each player owned. This scoring system was discontinued because of the prevalence of "strong seconds," which is when one player wins because another player is promised more supply centers, and thus more points, if they help the other player win. Since this goes against the intent of the game rules this scoring system was removed.