[jcstuntman]

I was just trawling through some of my old TBCB 2.0 files looking for some of my earlier Universe rules when I came across a post I'd saved from the forum. It's regrading how you could change how the game ranked fighters.

I think it might have originally been posted by Mike Hanson but I'm probably wrong.

Heres what I found.

All numbers in the db.ini file will be devided by ten before they are being used in the program. This is to prevent trouble with decimal numbers in the db.ini. Don't use decimals in the db.ini!

- The divisor 25 in the main formula can be changed in the db.ini, it's the DIVISOR1

- The divisor 2 in the "correction" formula can be changed in the db.ini, it's the DIVISOR2

- The RATING_LOSE/RATING_WIN factors in the db.ini are added to the main formula. If a fighter fights against a high rated fighter (the overall rating 1-15), he will get extra points. The higher the rating, the more points. If he loses against a fighter, he will lose points, the LOWER the opponent's overall rating, the more points he will lose. This is in addition to the main formula.

- RankingMethod must be 3 - if it's not 3, the old ranking method will be used.

CONSTANT - This the ranking points that fighters will debut with, ie. their ranking points prior to their first fight. This number is also used as the basis for the ranking reward given to fighters for winning or loosing a fight.

DIVISOR1 - This defaults to 25 in the ini file. This number is used to determine the number of bonus or penalty points the fighter earns for defeating or lossing to higher or lower ranked oppenents

Altering this number will alter the volatility of the ranking system.

If you LOWER this number the amount of penalty for ranking differences will INCREASE so ranking points changes will be MORE pronounced. Higher ranked winners will gain less benefit than with the default DIVISOR1 however lower ranked winners will gain more ranking points.

If you INCREASE the number the rankings will be LESS volatile and movement more constrained. Higher ranked winners will gain more points for a win while lower ranked opponents will be held back a bit.

Obviously the amount in either direction will determine how severely the results will be changed. For example if we changed the DIVISOR1 number to 50 and held a fight between Fighter 1 with 1250 ranking points and Fighter 2 with 1000 ranking points with Fighter 1 winning by KO (and assuming no difference in rating) the new ranking points totals for Fighter 1 will be:

Fighter 1:
1250 + (21 * 2) + ((1000 - 1250)/50) = 1287

However if we had of left DIVISOR1 at default of 25 Fighter 1's ranking points would be:

Fighter 1:
1250 + (21 * 2) + ((1000 - 1250)/25) = 1282

As you can see with DIVISOR1 set to 50 the ranking points gain for the Higher ranked Fighter 1 was more pronounced.

However if Fighter 2 won the bout via a KO that would result in the following rankings points changes with DIVISOR1 set to 50 and 25:

Fighter 2:
1000 + (21 * 2) + ((1250 - 1000)/50) = 1047

Fighter 2:
1000 + (21 * 2) + ((1250 - 1000)/25) = 1052

Notice that Fighter 2 as the lower ranked fighter gained more points for winning with the DIVISOR1 set to 25.

DIVISOR2 - DIVISOR2 (default of 2) is used in the calculation to ensure that fighters who lose to a lower ranked opponent loose enough ranking points to be ranked LOWER than that opponent. It does this while ensuring that if the 100th ranked fighter beats to #1 ranked fighter that the #100 doesn't become ranked #1.

If this number is RAISED the higher ranked fighters will be punished MORE for a loss to a lower ranked opponent and the lower ranked fighter will NOT gain as much from the win.

IF this number is LOWERED the higher ranked fighter will retain more of his ranking while the lower ranked fighter will gain MORE for his win.

Fight Result Modifiers - These modifiers are used to adjust the amount a fighter gains/looses for certain types of victories or defeats. The factors, the defaults and short definitions are shown below (please note that Title Bout reads these numbers in as 2.1 or 1.7 not 21 and 17):

STOPPAGE_WIN=21 - KO or TKO victories
UDEC_WIN=20 - Unanimous decision wins
ODEC_WIN=17 - Disputed decision wins
DRAW=2 - Obvious
STOPPAGE_LOSE=-21 - Loss via KO or TKO
UDEC_LOSE=-20 - Unanimous decision loss
ODEC_LOSE=-17 - Disputed decision loss

These factors are used in the first part of the Ranking points calculation and will play a large part in determining how fighters are rewarded for wins.

If these numbers are LOWERED fighters will gain or be penalised LESS for certain types of wins.

If these numbers are INCREASED fighters will gain or be penalised MORE for certain types of wins.

For example if you thought the a Stappage win/less should actually be worth 1 and a half times more than a decision win/loss then you would increase the STOPPAGE_WIN and STOPPAGE_LOSE numbers to 30 (or 3.0 to Title Bout), which is 1.5 times the amount a UDEC_WIN ot UDEC_LOSE (unanimous decisions) are worth.

Hope this all helps people tinker a bit with the system. By all means try things out, the default is pretty much how I had rankings being calculated in the WWBU however you guys might have different opinions on the value of different types of wins. I just urge you to test any changes in a trial database before inflicting a test ranking calculation on your favourite universe, and please note the defulats so you can return to them later if you find that the changes don't work as well as you'd hoped.




My question is can you still edit the”db.ini” file or its equivalent in version 2.5 to change the ranking parameters for the game?

Cheers
Gary