New Leagues!
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*sam* Posted Feb 27, 2009, 10:56 am |
Valiance has proposed the following neat idea for adding some new short leagues, which I will try to get implemented in time for the start of 2049 (i.e. next Sunday).
[quote=Valiance] a rolling set of leagues round Evan, designed to be a bit like the Formula 1 circus. The principle is 6 2-month leagues. Each of them is like the Elmsfield Classic/Gateway Meltdown (4 races, all points count). Additionally, there is an overall league. You get 10 points in this for winning one of the 6 leagues, down to 1 for coming 10th. Jan/Feb: Somerset Winter Warmup (race) Mar/Apr: Somerset Spring Challenge (deathrace) May/Jun: Elmsfield Summer Classic (race) Jul/Aug: Elmsfield Two Guineas (deathrace) Sept/Oct: Gateway Autumn Extravaganza (race) Nov/Dec: Gateway Winter meltdown (deathrace) Overall: the North Evan Circuit Extravaganza. it gives a series of two week leagues, plus a meta-league. [/quote] As you can see, two of the leagues already exist of course (the Elms Classic and the gateway Meltdown) but their dates will be moving. The time that these events run will have to be set to the busiest server time, that seems to suit most players. Probably around 11pm server-time. A similar, second set of leagues may be needed later to suit the evening-USA schedule, i.e. around 4am server-time? |
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The Paranoid Tourist Posted Feb 27, 2009, 12:38 pm |
Yeesh. Love the idea, but the times really wouldn't work for me.
I'm on and available commonly from 13:00 to 22:00 server time, and sometimes again for an hour at 4:00. The problem with the time at 4:00 is that I would miss the qualifier at 2:00. (I suppose I could get the 24 hour-before qualifier, so that might work.) The times when they were scheduled this last "fall" was great for me, and apparently they worked for a lot of other people as attendance seemed high. As the times sit now it looks like you're catering heavily toward the USA audience. While I'm a part of that it doesn't seem quite right, as I'm often on with the daytime USA crowd and a good portion of the European crowd. Both of which are largely shut out of these times. Of course, I could be the only one. . . |
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*sam* Posted Feb 27, 2009, 1:05 pm |
This is always going to be the problem with 'limited event' leagues..
The Gateway one you won was 9pm, the Elms one was 6pm. I *could* push back the new leagues to 9pm (which actually suits me better too) - I was purely picking 11pm as the statistically busiest time on the server. I think 6pm is not particularly good if we want to suit many people. |
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The Paranoid Tourist Posted Feb 27, 2009, 1:36 pm |
9:00PM would be incalculably preferable to 11:00PM in my book.
(Wife's still at work, toddler's likely to be napping, farm animals are happy and fed, dinner doesn't need to be half way to done, yet) In fact, if you did do two, 9:00PM and 4:00AM would work well for me and might also be a good way to get both the Europeans and Americans during their "prime times". |
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Joel Autobaun Posted Feb 27, 2009, 5:54 pm |
Other leagues are staying? I like the semi pro, and combat leagues myself...as they are. | ||||
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*sam* Posted Feb 27, 2009, 8:01 pm |
Yes, these are in addition to the current ones. | ||||
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Joel Autobaun Posted Feb 27, 2009, 8:35 pm |
Great! I am a league fanatic. | ||||
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Joel Autobaun Posted Feb 27, 2009, 8:36 pm |
It would just degenerate into a war between you and spanky and possibly Alo if it interested him. |
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Valiance Posted Feb 27, 2009, 9:27 pm |
Sam, how about the following amendment:
There will be 8 league events, spread throughout the week. You can compete in *any* 4, and keep all points. If you do all 4, then perhaps: a) you can't compete in any others b) you can compete but get no points (dangerous for griefers) c) you compete and if you beat any of your other scores, you replace the lowest. d) if you compete, you gamble your best score away, and keep whatever score you need. The other way to do it would be for each league to run an hour later (they are 2 week leagues, after all), so jan/feb run at 7pm, mar/apr at 8, etc Just some thoughts, happy for others to chime in, obviously |
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*sam* Posted Feb 27, 2009, 9:31 pm |
hmmm maybe, those things would all new re-coding though, they're not currently supported. | ||||
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Valiance Posted Feb 27, 2009, 10:05 pm |
There are 6 separate 2 week leagues. Have each of them at slightly different times, so everyone gets a go.
Only the truly dedicated should have a chance at the meta league. If this gets too contentious, lets drop the metaleague idea, and just have 6 2-week leagues which gives every time zone a chance for some good league action at a time convenient to them. |
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BigStick Posted Feb 28, 2009, 5:18 am |
I'm keen on the new leagues. There doesn't seem to be much league type stuff on at the moment (although game wise it is nearing the silly season). | ||||
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 1, 2009, 1:09 am |
New year - but no new leagues 
Edit: I see them - but they aren't on the chart. |
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*sam* Posted Mar 1, 2009, 11:48 am |
That's right, the chart will be updated ASAP. |
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*sam* Posted Mar 1, 2009, 12:36 pm |
There was a slight problem with the yearly roll-over and for the last few hours League Combats were accidently being created. I have reset any League Combat points to 0 for 2049 - apologies to anyone affected. | ||||
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*sam* Posted Mar 2, 2009, 8:27 pm |
The league chart is now updated. If you still see the old one, empty your browser cache or just right-click the page and refresh it.
Thanks again to Dr Mathias for reworking the league chart, and Valiance for suggesting the new leagues.. |
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 2, 2009, 9:29 pm |
Awesome, thanks guys. | ||||
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BigStick Posted Mar 14, 2009, 11:11 am |
I don't suppose it's possible to accommodate the new league to run for the benefit for a few timezones?
Unless I'm mistaken, the current new leagues are run at 21:00 server time ... or 6am my local time. While it does appeal to the masses because it's run during the maximum server load (ie. the most people on at that time), some like me, never get to see them (unless I wake up before 6am). Only thing I can think of to help this, is run them as a shift work pattern. Ie. Do it every 8 or 12 hour during a 24 hour period. Or maybe at the start and end of the peak periods. For the game to expand (get more players) .. it would have to "try" to fit in with several time zone, I guess? Any other suggestions? |
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The Paranoid Tourist Posted Mar 14, 2009, 12:32 pm |
That's too bad, BigStick. Stupid movement of the sun and soforth.
And here I go, pushing for a start time an hour earlier in another thread because the current time runs across some of our American dinner times. It would be possible, I assume, to have two runnings of each 2 week league race, but then the number of players involved in each would likely be drastically diminished, and I think mass attendance in the events is what this league was set up to achieve. Obviously people could only run in one of these events, would not receive points for both, and could not try to better their placement from the first by running in the second. . . . or you could wake up at 6:00. . . 
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 16, 2009, 3:28 am |
Winter warmup is complete - the goodies have not been handed out yet. I don't think the league closed up. We are certainly in march, so it should have - I think. Or do they all close at once at the end of the year for the overall circuit closure?
Some of us a greedy competitors, blood has been spilled(preferably other's peoples) for these rare items.
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*sam* Posted Mar 18, 2009, 3:57 pm |
I'll have a look, the league should have ended with the last event, of course... | ||||
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 18, 2009, 7:44 pm |
Thanks Sam - the mini rocket pod sure is tiny. | ||||
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*sam* Posted Mar 18, 2009, 8:57 pm |
Well done BTW, that's a nice collection of badges you're accumulating.. | ||||
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 25, 2009, 7:40 am |
Thx!
The only thing the new leagues need...and the ped combat leagues need...is sponsors
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*Longo* Posted Mar 25, 2009, 12:22 pm |
Yea Joel grenaded me in GW league also. Took just a tiny penalty but almost killed ole Wyatt. We were teamates. |
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The Paranoid Tourist Posted Mar 25, 2009, 12:37 pm |
I'm all for the first idea. It only seems to make sense and builds the challenge that the leader would have to contend with.
On the second: I've never actually done any ped combat. But it sounds like Joel must be stopped! He crazy with the 'nades. |
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*sam* Posted Mar 25, 2009, 1:45 pm |
This is definitely a good idea, except for an exploit possibility - it would make it more attractive to create 'dummy' gangs and enter them into events in order to block your rivals from getting points?
Or just a big increase in the points lost? |
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The Paranoid Tourist Posted Mar 25, 2009, 2:28 pm |
It seems as though if this isn't happening already it's not much more likely to happen due to this change. |
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*sam* Posted Mar 25, 2009, 3:31 pm |
Yep.. I'm happy to just go ahead and make these changes, but past experience tells me I need to allow some discussion first, so I'll hang back until others have pitched in. | ||||
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Kime Dennory Posted Mar 25, 2009, 7:01 pm |
I agree with this, except for one thing: if the number of league points a person has is the same as the number someone else has, right now the first person to sign up is considered 'ahead' of the other.
I would recommend NOT using that as a determining factor -- e.g. if everyone is at zero, or two people are tied, don't put the last person to sign up in front, just randomize it. It'd lead to weird things like people signing up for leagues three seconds before the race goes live... -KD |
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 25, 2009, 7:26 pm |
First Latte and Longo - both were accidents. Anyone who uses grenades knows they are either spectacular or complete flop. Both hit walls, both because for some reason my grenade is side-armed rather than lobbed(would LOVE to be able to control that). With Longo back in gateway it was going great - Lob, Lob, Lob - SIDEARM-hitswall-blows up longo.
One time with a grenade it bounced off the head of an enemy and bounced back like 40 meters to nearly kill ME. It happened again later last night, you would have seen Latte. Bounced of Kime's ganger's head and nearly got back to me. My next toss dropped at my feet. This is with my 75STR LONG throw ganger 60 HG skill. Same ganger who team fragged Latte last night and longo back in the gateway league. He has also dropped some massive point scorers on the enemy, but it just seems like too wide a random chance for horrible failure and success. How about rather than assume joel is fragging his team mates we just fix grenades a bit more. They just seem too wild even when used by fairly good(50+ HG) gangers. Then after grenades are fixed - I'd go along with huge penalties for hitting teammates. EDIT: Also just so you know you can target spaces near gangers (enemy or teammate) BUT you will not be able to fire at that spot if anyone is close to it. I found that out the hard way trying to target around corners with grenades, they just won't get thrown at a targeted space near active peds(or cars). Pretty sure that was in the patch notes a while back too. |
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*Longo* Posted Mar 26, 2009, 12:40 am |
Grenades are mass point getters. If you make em more accurate, then everyone will just use grenades and nothing else. My them not being too accurate, it balances this weapon IMHO.
And Joel, I know your GW toss wasnt meant to hit me, but my guy was close enough to your target that you probably shoulda switched to another weapon, cause it was obvious you might hit ole Wyatt. I think I got even once or twice though 
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 26, 2009, 12:50 am |
Maybe just an option to control Lobbing or sidearming - not sure if it's possible. | ||||
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Marrkos Posted Mar 26, 2009, 1:08 am |
It may balance them in arena combats, but I'd hazard a guess* that it makes them virtually worthless in the wilderness. Perhaps it would be better to improve the weapon, but limit it in some way when used in arena combats? Options could be: 1) prevent its use completely (ban). 2) adjust its splash (arena provides 'special' grenade ammo) 3) something I haven't thought of * - I've only seen grenades used, never used them myself, but they need some help IMO. |
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Joel Autobaun Posted Mar 26, 2009, 2:50 am |
From what I've noticed - Lobbing grenades at cars works very well (in that at least you don't often blow yourself up). In fact ped weapons VS cars results in some kind of bonus to hit (or so it seems to me). | ||||
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BigStick Posted Mar 26, 2009, 8:05 am |
Err .. there seems to be 2 threads going here.
1) League starting grids 2) Joel blowing up people
With 1) Leagues: I'm happy to grid place the highest point guys last, especially when going against PCs. While going against other PCs is alot more fun, league point wise, it sux going against other PCs. The "real" vets seem to have 1000 point drivers (to such lowly people like me with a max 45 point driver), and this "seems" like an advantage. It feels like the rich get richer. It is starting to get the point where I "want to" just go against the NPC for a "remote" chance to win a league. Putting the highest points guys last would create a nice defacto handicap system. I believe this would be a good balance between the PC players, especially with the bonus point vet system. 2) With Joel grenading people, based on my experience playing with him, I don't think for a minute he would deliberately target fellow PC's. I agree that grenades would be hard to target (I know they are in real life because of the "throw factor". I'm presuming this is equally as hard to program. Hence, I believe we are being unfair targetting him. |
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The Paranoid Tourist Posted Mar 26, 2009, 1:42 pm |
I agree with Latte. I won a deathrace league and placed second in a race league (2 week leagues) with a sub-50 driver. (If I remember correctly he was sub-30 and was actually a gunner by trade) | ||||
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Bytten Posted Mar 26, 2009, 5:37 pm |
Grenades are weird anyway. Why is it that grenade belts are rarer than hens teeth, when the ammunition (being the grenades themselves) can be obtained anywhere?
Improvements to grenade throws shouldn't be ruled out on grounds of them spoiling ped combats - a bit of rethinking should prevent major problems, such as making grenades work on timers and become more strategic. Grenades are a joke at the moment. I took them into ped combat *once*. |
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Kime Dennory Posted Mar 26, 2009, 9:57 pm |
Right now, someone with one level of long thrower appears to be potentially effective with grenades at more than 50 meters.
That's a friggin' long thrower. -KD |
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*sam* Posted Mar 28, 2009, 12:08 am |
The league badges are completed for the new leagues... thanks to Dr Mathias for his great work! :-) |
