v3arcade reduce scores to keep arcade competitive

After my arcade had been installed for while I found that all the high scores were practically unbeatable.
I wanted a way to make them beatable again.

I thought about the possibility of just removing the top 5 high scores, but that wouldn't be fair on the winners.
I thought about resetting all the scores but that wouldn't be fair on any of the players.
Then I came to a perfect compromise: Reduce the scores. All the ranks are kept in tact but the high scores are achievable again. As a bonus, it increases competitiveness when the previous top scorers get beaten.

It's all done by a single cron job.

Upload arcadescores.php to /includes/cron
Set a new scheduled task. This one runs on the first of each month:
Day of week: *
Day of month: 1
Hour: 0
Minute: 4
Log: up to you
Filename: ./includes/cron/arcadescores.php

By default the scores are reduced by 15%. If you want to change this percentage, change the 15 to whatever you like on lines 11, 15 and 19 of the script.

Important note: This script will reduce the scores by 15% each time you run it manually or on cron. That means if you install it and want to play around with it, you might want to make a backup of the arcade_games, arcade_sessions and arcade_news tables.

Version 1.01
- Updated to account for games that have reverse scoring
- Now includes table_prefix
- Made the change percentage easier to change

Version 1.02
- Fixed a tiny bug I created in 1.01: If you had no reverse-scoring games it errored.

[bairy]

Originally Posted by Breaker

great mod/idea... just one problem though. I haven't looked at the code yet, but it appears that all this does is lower the score which is great for all games but ones with reverse scoring which will, over time make it impossible to beat the scores

Oops. You're right, it will.

I'll update it later today or tomorrow so that it lowers normal games and raises reversed games.
I'll also add the table prefix in *slaps wrist*

[bairy]

Version 1.01
- Updated to account for games that have reverse scoring.
- Now includes table_prefix
- Made the change percentage easier to change.

To upgrade, just replace the includes/cron/arcadereducescores.php with the new one.

Version 1.02 (released very shortly after 1.01)
- Fixed a tiny bug I created in 1.01: If you had no reverse-scoring games it errored.

[Blittz]

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.1:

Invalid SQL:

	UPDATE arcade_games SET highscore = CEIL(highscore - ((highscore / 100) * 15)) WHERE gameid NOT IN ();

MySQL Error  : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ')' at line 1
Error Number : 1064

I just downloaded and installed the script, it seems that $reversegames never got populated, and caused that error.

also... just a tiny suggestion.. put some comments in, at least containing the version number so people know if they have the latest, and perhaps a reminder of where to go to get any updates, etc... Also give yourself credit!

[bairy]

You know when I uploaded it I just had this hunch something was gonna error. And yes, I forgot to test without any reversed games.

Sorted, tested and reuploaded.

With the comments, I've dropped in the version and thread number, good idea

[Blittz]

Ding! yup that fixed it, yay! Thanks again for a usefull script.

[lazydesis]

u named the file as arcadereducescores.php while the previous file was arcadescores.php

u might want to change the code for the cron or rename the file

[bairy]

Oops. Thanks! Renamed the upload.

[WhyDoesItMatter]

Could never get this to work properly.. seems to want to run 3 times instead of once for some weird season.

[Deadly Assassin]

Works like a charm, cheers m8 :up: