It took me some time to shuffle numbers, but I finally conceived a ranking system that I'm happy with. So, I will be running the scoring that everybody is completely happy to ignore or, if they wish so, to create their own
It may seem a bit complicated, but firstly, it isn't. If you take a few moments to look into it, you'll realise that the system is pretty simple, only with a few variable elements.
Secondly, it can't be too trivial for a simple reason: the number of players will vary and that needs to be taken into consideration. A player shouldn't get the same reward if he came first in a 30-player game as if he came in first in a 60-player game or more.
Option 1
It may be a bit easier to understand all of this if you first skip the whole explanation, have a look at the example at the bottom (Level 5 game, 15 players; inspect points from bottom up, starting with the last) and only then return to see the explanation of the system.
Step 1. - Determining maximum number of points based on number of players.
A game is assigned a Level, based on number of ACTIVE* players.
Minimum level: 5, a game with 1+2+3+4+5=15 active players.
Level 6: 21 active players. (15+6)
Level 7: 28 active players. (21+7)
Level 8: 36 active players. (28+8)
...etc. You get the point.
(For those mathematically inclined:
L=sqrt(2*N+1/4) - 1/2
where L is Level and N is number of players)
If the number of active players is between those noted here, a lower number is taken into account. So, a game with 30 players is Level 7.
* I will be determining the number of active players at at roughly 5 random instances between turns 10 and 40 and take the average number of players active in the last two turns.
Step 2. - determining rank and assigning points
For further reference:
In-game points - the ones you have in your Nations screen, that are calculated by your population and achievements, will be referred to as:
Civ Points (CP).
League scoring points that are calculated here and are transferred from game to game will be referred to as:
League Points (LP).
Rank for a particular game will be determined based on players' in-game score - CP - at the end of a game. The only thing that will matter in the end is how many people have scored more and how many people have scored less than you. If you are No.1 with 1000 CP, it doesn't matter if player No.2 has 999 or 500 CP. You are 1st and he is 2nd and you both score the same number of League Points either way.
Player who ranked 1st in the current game gets the maximum number of LP:
N*(N+1)*(N+2)/6.
Here are some examples:
Level 5 - overall 15 players - 1st gets 35 LP
Level 6 - overall 21 players - 1st gets 65 LP
...
Level 10 - overall 55 players - 1st gets 220 LP
...
Other players get less LP based on the game level and the following principle.
Say, the game is Level 8, meaning 36 players. L=8.
1st player gets 120 LP.
2nd player gets (L) 8 LP less: 112.
Next 2 players get (L-1) 7 LP less than the previous one:
3rd: 105 LP
4th: 98 LP
Next 3 players each get (L-2) 6 LP less than the previous one:
5th: 92
6th: 86
7th: 80
Next 4 players each get (L-3) 5 LP less than the previous one:
8th: 75
9th:70
10th: 65
11th: 60
...etc...
Next 8 players each get (L-7) 1 LP less than the previous one:
29th-36th get 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, respectively.
If there are more than 36 players in a Level 8 game (up to 44), they get 0 (zero).
Here is an example for a Level 5 game (15 players) scoring:
Rank - League Points
--------------------------
1st - 35
2nd - 30
3rd - 26
4th - 22
5th - 19
6th - 16
7th - 13
8th - 11
9th - 9
10th - 7
11th - 5
12th - 4
13th - 3
14th - 2
15th - 1
----------------------------------------------------------Option 2
This one is far simpler. It goes by a single formula:
Points = ROUND( ("inverse rank" / No. of active players)^2 * SQRT(No. of active players)*10 )
where "inverse rank" is almost self explanatory: in a game of 10 players, the best player has rank 10, 2nd best is 9 etc. and last is rank 1.
Number of active players would be determined in the same way as in the Option 1: at roughly 5 random instances between turns 10 and 40 and taking the average number of players active in the last two turns
Here are examples of such scoring:
20-player game:
Rank - points
1 - 45
2 - 40
3 - 36
4 - 32
5 - 29
6 - 25
7 - 22
8 - 19
9 - 16
10 - 14
11 - 11
12 - 9
13 - 7
14 - 5
15 - 4
16 - 3
17 - 2
18 - 1
19 - 0
20 - 0
60-player game (shortened for clarity):
Rank - points
1 - 77
2 - 75
3 - 72
4 - 70
5 - 67
10 - 56
15 - 46
20 - 36
25 - 28
30 - 21
35 - 15
40 - 9
45 - 6
50 - 3
55 - 1
60 - 0
The topic is open for discussion.