News

Today I released a new version of the ranking tracker with the additional displays. Again 21 changes were made, mainly minor ones, optimisations and fixes. Main difference for owners and users might be, that the RO En Garde Ranking Tracker is now also compatible with Beware Hax's En Garde piste, newly released yesterday. The RO En Garde Rankings Board got updated as well, so you have to replace it on your land. The RO En Garde Names Display is unchanged - you don't have to replace it.

You can grab this new version at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing.

Beside of this, there have been several changes here on this website (read previous posts), most of them in the background, so not of interest for the average user.

Please, send me your thoughts, also about how you would like the upcoming implementation of team play.

More to come!

Another new feature on this website: The table columns in the En Garde section can be sorted (except the tournament one). Just click on the table headers. Maybe this little feature is of use for those managing fencing groups.

Btw, in previous months many changes came to the SL En Garde Ranking System, most of them improvements under the hood, a duellist wont notice. The scripting of the entire project has 2359 lines of code (by using the most compact indentation style), and 242 man hours were recorded (including the mesh and texture creations, testing, releasing and discussions with users). The latest development version of the ranking system is always installed at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing. So, any duel played there, helps me improving the system.

More to come! Any ideas? Then send me an IM in-world.

Many thanks to everyone using the system and giving me feedbacks!

Here is a new feature, you might welcome: When you hover a duellist's name on the SL En Garde Rankings page, the upcoming tooltip prompts a new line with a hint, about how this duellist could improve his/her/its ranking. Either playing more duels generally, trying to win more duels or playing against more opponents.

Today I released a new version of the RO En Garde Ranking Tracker. 21 changes were made, mainly minor ones, optimisations and fixes.

Main difference for owners and users might be, that the floating text can be toggled now by the owner, and it is off by default (it had been on on previous releases for debugging reasons only, so duellists could inform me as soon they discovered an oddity).

Another difference will be, that the piste coordinates send to this website will consider now an offset of 2.5 meters, so incoming visitors will not end-up on the piste, which might disturb during running duels.

The RO En Garde Rankings Board and the RO En Garde Names Display are unchanged - you don't have to replace them.

Beside of this, there have been several changes here on the website, but all of them in the background, so not of interest for the common user. Please, send me your thoughts, also about how you would like the upcoming implementation of team play. More to come!

You can grab this new version at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing.

About 10 hours back, one of the En Garde Ranking Trackers out there sent me an error message, about a failed database access. My other websites were also misbheaving. So, not caused by the En Garde system. I instantly informed the web hosting company. While I have been sleeping, I received four more error messages via email. They sent me an email later, that there is a greater problem right now, and they are working on it.

So far I see, all duels have been properly written into database. Let me know, if you observe any hiccups.

Note: Event got rescheduled!

Feel free to join this virtual seminar on Chat Control - an attempt of the EU government and beyond to forbid/circumvent/crack encrypted communication and implement automatically scanning of user data, e.g. emails and messenger chats.

Date: 30th November 2021

Time: 10am SLT (8pm CET, 7pm GMT, 11am PST, 2pm EST)

Place: COU Red Quixote Memorial Hall in Caledon Oxbridge Village

Presenters: John Doe and ZenMondo Wormser

Full Panel participants will be published prior to event.

With panel discussion and extensive Q & A.

Summary:

"We believe that the citizens, from young to old, have a fundamental human right to privacy and self-determination. During the past few months, we have lost more rights, than since World War 2. This is why you really should participate. To gain the knowledge, know what are your rights and learn how to defend them! Join us!
 

Why should you participate? Unsuspected citizens are having their private conversations, images, messages and emails scanned under EU’s ChatControl legislation.  

Many of you don’t even know what ChatControl legislation is and its follow up, ChatControl2. They don’t make to news headlines or pinned tweets and posts in EU Commission ‘s social media handles.
 

Without knowledge what is happening to your rights in the shadows, everyhting you took it as granted can be stolen away from you."

Additional Resources:

Original announcement @hacker-ethic.flynnos.org

Why chat control is so dangerous @netzpolitik.org

Chat Control - The End of the Privacy of Digital Correspondence

If you wish more privacy regarding the rankings system, it is possible now, but not required, to hide your name from the website and also from in-world displays. To do so, go to En Garde > Your Profile and follow the instructions.

Dear Duellists

At the suggestion of our new group member, Miss Fenwitch (ecsammie), I began implementing an Elo Rating to the SL En Garde Ranking system. The Elo Rating system originally was developed by Arpad Elo as an improved Chess rating system, but later found its way into other sports and computer games. Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system

When playing on our four pistes in the fencing hall, you will receive an IM, telling your current Elo as soon you hop onto a piste. It is based upon all duels you had so far, as a registered duellist. As soon as a duel has ended, you will again get notified about your updated Elo. Give it a test: Teleport to Caledon Oxbridge Fencing

When playing at other places, your duels are already considered for Elo -  just that the tracker does not tell you the Elo yet. Those places might update soon. Additionally, there is a new page on my website, listing all duellists and their Elo. It excludes registered duellists with an Elo of exactly 1200, because this is the value a duellists begins with. The page also shows the Elo Distribution, which ideally is a normal distribution, with a slight drift to the (b)right side. See it here: http://www.pader.world/en-garde_elo-ratings.html

Please note: Whether the Elo Rating system is applicable for En Garde at all, has to be seen later on, when we have more duellists and duels done. The system was invented for Chess, a pure 'skill' game, but En Garde is for a fair part also based on 'chance'. The higher the 'chance' influence is on the Elo calculation the smaller the distribution is. As a consequence, the algorithm has to get optimized for En Garde. As soon I change the algorithm, the Elos of all duellists will get re-calculated. So, your current Elo is not gravelled in stone yet.

Other News:

• There are new Name Displays at our four pistes. For other users they will get bundled with the next Ranking Tracker.
• The upcoming Ranking Tracker version will inform the owner about available updates.
• The Ranking Tracker can now be pulled from the vendor in our fencing hall, for L$ 1.
• Team play will be implemented soon.

Sincerely yours
Ravelli Ormstein

Today I uploaded a bunch of missing albums to the gallery. I hope you like them:

• September 2017
• October 2017
• January 2018
• December 2018
• July 2019
• August 2019
• September 2019
• October 2019
• March 2020
• April 2020

Dear Duellists of Caledon

At the request of new group members and in the hope of reviving the group Caledon Oxbridge Fencing (COF), I'm now offering a weekly En Garde fencing training session every Friday at 1 pm SLT. I hope for lively participation, lots of fun and that no one gets hurt. Coming dates will be announced in-world via notices in the group Caledon Oxbridge Fencing and in the calendar.

Ravelli