a draw splits the pot evenly between the remaining members regardless of number of SCs.

In a finished PPSC game, you get paid according to the number of SCs you finish with according to the formula pot/34*yourSCs. So if you finish 2nd in a game with 16 SCs, and the Winner has 18, you're getting almost as much as they are. and the player with one SC get's very little. However if the 3 of you decide to draw, you each get a third. This is great for the 1SC player, but not so much for you and the 18SC player.

But if you agree to a draw with a 1SC player, then there was likely a reason for it that had nothing to do with point totals

I guess it comes down to what's important to you - points, or the win/loss stats. I would think that a draw would be better than a survived, if you cared about the win/loss stats.

My question is really two-fold: 1) From a points standpoint... I understand how a draw splits the points evenly... but does an outright win give you exactly twice as many points as the person coming in with 9 SCs, or is there some kind of bonus for the win?, 2) What is better from a status standpoint? Which is considered more representative of skill as a player - does a winning alliance wherein you, as the weaker ally, end with say 12 SCs look better or worse than accepting a draw with 12 SCs? 16 SCs? 5 SCs? Opinions?

The Points Per Supply Center concept as displayed here is unique in the hobby as it relates to the value of a win vs other results.
There is NO face to face event in the world that I know of where second place to a solo has any value compared to a three way draw even with one center.
The most common approach on the issue of a solo is that if there is a solo all others in the game are valued at ZERO.
There is one system in Face to Face play: DixieCon in Chapel Hill NC where a second place with 16 centers is equal to about 5 centers in a 5 way draw, but other than that when you take second place to a solo it is often consider as throwing the solo to the other player.
However that is OUT THERE and not in this community. Each community has its own peculiar aspects that defines it from each other and the PPSC is one of those issues that defines this community in regard to rankings and scoring systems.

This is just one of the things that I love about the hobby and this game of ours, that achievement recognition and relation is not universal.

this is not even a question - the draw is WAY better.

ah... as far as getting points per SC... I notice that there is some rounding down that happens... case in point: game of mine that ended this morning: 77 points total available... I ended with 14 SCs... I should have received (77/34)*14 or a total of 31.7 points - which should have rounded to at least 31 if not 32 points. I received 28. Apparently the calculation took 77/34 and rounded at that point down to 2 and then multiplied by 14. Small difference - but slightly annoying. Does the winner get those extra three or four points? Or are they simply gone?

They are probably simply gond.

Draws are better than survives, but if you are interested in points then the strong second is better, if only marginally. I would only ever consider it in a very large point game.

Dexter - I noticed that too, the divide operation rounds first. If it didn't do that, it would at least have a tendency to even out the rounding errors somewhat. down with ints! Use floats!

Say you're playing for second then stab the leader for the solo!

here's the thing - first off - you can only do PPSC unless the game is for more than 100 pts - so everyone grows on ppsc which encourages getting the 2nd place and totally throwing out the normal concepts of being 'good' the game usually holds.

the second problem - is that the 'good' (reliable/serious) players all play high-point games.... so when someone like me starts off and finds out that many of these low-point games have VERY unreliable players who simply put - suck (or dont even show up) - then it becomes hard to imagine how you could hold a stalemate line...

so its either - take the solo (oh - and take advantage of the fact above) or get 2nd or 3rd or whatever so you can build up enough points to be able to play with the more 'serious' players.

I still have not played a 100+ pt game ... and in my 7-8 games on here, there has been an average of 1.5 NMR's per season....

thats a retarded amount.

so - the push towards points vs draws is baked into the system and community here - and no matter how much 'better' (or true to the game) draws might be - it makes no sense to take them up front.

but higher point games with 'serious' players - then yes... winner-take-all is better...

... and hoping the rest of the players know what a stalemate line is.

So in a 102 pt ppsc game, a 17-17 draw would give each player 51 pts. If one player decided to play for the win, and got it, he would get a whole 3 pts extra and credit for a win with eighteen centers.

So is the win worth anything in ratings besides the three points, and a higher win percentage? And do the win percentages really matter?

* correction - I'm only playing 4 games here... the 8 is reference to facebook which uses the same app.

Not losing (aka a draw) is always better than losing (aka a strong 2nd place).

Though I've been burned enough by publicly stating that enough that I'm sadly forced to alter my tactics in PPSC. I'm a realist - just not happy about it.

Ugh if we started using floating point variables in the points calculation wouldn't that increase the memory that the site's code takes up? I don't think the two points' difference matters all that much...

@ Babak. You can have WTA games for less than a 100 points, the restriction is players with less than 100 points can't make them.

A DRAW is always better than a survival. It's the points system that makes a good survival so lucrative. So, unless this is a very high-pot PPSC game I would always go for a draw over survival (if this makes within the game).

Maybe it depends on how many points you have - but I at least care more about the WIN/DRAW/SURVIVAL/ELIMINATION ratio than about points.

General - floats do take up a bit more room, but were only talking about a local variable inside the function used to calculate points at the end of the game. That's nothing in the scheme of things. The rule of thumb in software, is when it calls for a float, use a float. And division by 34 calls for a float. Hell php isn't even compiled, so we're not even talking about adding to the executable size, but even if we were you'd be talking about adding 4 bytes to a several KB executable. %-wise, nothing maybe .01%

By contrast, the %error in the points for the example in this thread were 10% he missed 3 points out of 30 roughly.

So before anyone starts talking about how points aren't important, I don't really care that much - I never brought it up when I noticed it, but I'm just saying, the decision shouldn't be made based on the size difference between an int and a float.