Training Squad Plan

[mtine]

1. fail
2. Turban trustworthy? FAIL
3. Turban <DikSuker>? FAIL
4. Two Turbans? OMG, JUST NO! FAIL
5. FAIL
6. Turban reported 1st day of dis change. FAIL

Hmm...

[Infrared]

Not much needs to be changed for this to happen. It can go something like this:

1. Turban "Applies" to doublesquad, much like a player would apply for staff.
2. Staff member reviews Turban's application, and decides to accept him because he is a long-time player and somewhat trustworthy.
3. Turban makes a second alias similar to his current name (no anonymity), maybe with a tag like "turban <DS>" or whatever.
4. A TWD Op registers "turban <DS>" for TWD, similar to the way siblings are added to the siblings list and registered.
5. Turban may now join "training squad" with his new alias.
6. If a player abuses their 2nd name in any way, staff can TWD ban them/ punish them/ whatever

[Turban]

I actually have a lot of faith in the current upperstaff, hope they can work something out after TWL season is over. Or even before it's over, whatever.

[mtine]

I say FK Staff. We take measures in our own hands. Viva la TWD-olucion!

[ogron]

Yeah I think a lot of people have had the same idea along varying lines -- it's kind of a matter of addressing the obstacles in an Occam's Razor/lowest-common-denominator way (i.e., what's the simplest, most realistic way of accomplishing it.)

There was supposed to be an Amateur league concurrent with this TWL that never materialized. Leagues take ops, programmers, a large amount of new players, a website, bot functionality. It's a good idea, but it's complicated and has a lot of moving parts and didn't pan out.

Creating a training squad is easy -- you make a squad, add it to TWD site -- all the functionality is already in place. The two major issues (imo) are 1) keeping vets/activity 2) playing opponents of similar level (not constantly getting crushed/demoralized - there is a huge skill-gap between the many of us with 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000+ hours of usage and newer/more casual players that isn't easily bridged.)

The proposed solutions to the two problems:

1) double-squadding -- this is easy, and many of us have done it over the years. It boosts activity, lets vets stay on their main squads and help out when they feel like it, and gives them no incentive to drop from the farm squad's roster. Moreover, it incentivizes them to help out when their main squad doesn't have enough persons online to play.

2) Having two training squads instead of one. With double-squadding in place, you have a much larger pool of players to draw from (who otherwise wouldn't be willing to leave their friends/teammates on their main squads) thus enabling what would other be a much harder task (it's hard enough keeping a single squads training roster inactive without point 1.) This creates a much more hospitable environment to play/learn/try-out different ships and slowly bridge the gap over time and get people excited about whatever respective league they're engaging.

Even if a good squad poaches them, they can still stay-on with an alias and continue to train or help others, rather than depleting the resource you worked hard to foster. I really think the only thing that needs doing is allowing people to register two aliases from one computer in ?go TWD so they can get an alt onto one of the two squads.

[Turban]

Ahem.

I proposed something very similar to this in staff a couple of years ago, only to have the idea shut down because they thought double squadding was a serious crime. Who honestly thinks that? If anything, allowing people to double squad would not only boost the activity of the zone, but would also help people start new squads way easier.

[Hulk]

Don't even bother arguing, all the people that never play the zone control the zone and nothing will ever change

[squallFF8]

We could allow it upto twl qualification period in twd, but then vets would have to leave roster. As it stands, there is no way to disable a squad from the twd ladder so it would always affect twl qualifications thus the previous sentence.

Vets leaving the roster is all apart of the gameplan. The goal of the double squadding is to optimize the availability/activity of these "vets" to give insight on basing strategy, to draw the average pubber into the basing world, but perhaps most importantly to boost activity amongst both squads at any given time (keeping the ball rolling so to speak).

Also, aliases would probably be the least complicated way, rather than having one name double rostered. And obviously double squadding should only be used for the purposes of training a squad. (or face concequences).

Creating a league sounds like a good plan, but a bit too much work in comparison. A league with only 2 teams, will be like a continuous .?go base game in the end. You can't know until you try, but the basic method seems more promising imo. Allow them to play against true competition, as it's the only way they can grow as players.

If only we were able to come up with a way of disabling these squads for twl.. Seems to be the only barrier here, really.

[Rasaq]

...or you could create a league specifically for ?go Pub. Don't have staff hosting retarded events while this goes on and you'll see what the turnout will be. Players from spec will get chosen on a frequency, no limit to the number of players on a frequency. Keep all ships unlocked, one LT per frequency with a higher bounty needed to attach to terr. Have this hosted AFTER TWL rather than hosting a deathmatch or a WW3.

Oh...more SQUAD deathmatches, too, while I'm on that topic.

[Rasaq]

Like always we go to the "it won't work" rather than trying it out and seeing if it does or doesn't. Try something and if it isn't successful than scrap it midway through and move on. Remember, forums consists of mainly your TWD population, so people in pub really don't have a voice on here. There's no merit to any new ideas if you don't have their opinions.

[MegamanEXE]

Just create a new league for training

"Just create a new league"? The easiest way to make people not give a shit is to try to make them do more work. Why create an entirely new league when we don't know if it's worth it?

I am not against a training league, but let's be realistic. Making two training squads requires much less effort. It still requires effort on the part of the people who would be running it, but definately not as much as pushing staff into structuring a new league, which would require bot changes, website updates, new staff responsibilities, drama, etc.

It makes a lot more sense to create training squads to see how many people are actually interested. Not many people interested? Keep the training squads to train more people into higher levels. Lots of people interested? Then it would make more sense to make a new league to handle lots of people.

[gran guerrero]

or everyone can continue about their business and not give a shit like usual

[gran guerrero]

Just create a new league for training

TWDL (Trench Wars Developmental League)

have a set amount of squads that will compete against each other primarily composed of players who have never played in TWL, captained (1-3) by twl vets who have been in multiple games/won championships and assistants (1-4) of other twl players. But Captains and assistants are limited to playing if there is available non-twl players online (like say for a dd if there's 5 non-twl players, only 2 cap/assistant can play, etc)

Run the same leagues (DD, JD, BD) but as developmental league (not apart of the TWD ladder) that competes for something entirely different (Heck why not throw pub bux to winners seeing as mostly will consist of pubbers, whatever I don't know). It will give them a chance to play, and let other squads to consider recruiting these players.

[Demonic]

I've tossed this idea around to a few veteran basers and most of the feedback was positive, although a few wanted to wait to participate until after TWL. Basically we're planning on creating two squads, call them Red Fox and Blue Fox for example, and play primarily against each other, but also vs. other squadrons.

How this differentiates itself from squads like Tenure is:
1) two squads instead of one, so the persons learning are able to play other new people and not getting massacred and disheartened every game
2) veterans double-squadding on both squads to bolster activity and teach new persons the game

So, for example, a bd might look like this:

Red Fox
pubber1
pubber2
pubber3
Shayde (TW)
Spikey (TW)
a2m (TW)
pubber4
pubber5


Blue Fox
pubber6
pubber7
Trasher (TW)
Spezza (TW)
Royst (TW)
pubber8
pubber9
SquallFF8 (TW)


What is required from TWD ops/developers:

1) not banning vets doublesquadding on either of these two learning squads (perhaps using alts with (TW) or (V) or something identical to their current TWD name in use)
2) disabling both squads on the ladder during TWL qualifications to not impact who gets in

Both important points, but especially the former -- it's extremely hard to get enough veterans to join a training squad -- and doubly so with two of them running concurrently to play each other.

I think this would be a boon to both new players as well as older ones in increasing TWD activity and helping maintain/increase league population.

Let me know what you guys think. Also a TWD op response as to the question of double-squadding would be much appreciated -- can't move forward without that element.

The idea of allowing double squadding in twd has been around for awhile, infact was recently raised again in last staff meeting. We could allow it upto twl qualification period in twd, but then vets would have to leave roster. As it stands, there is no way to disable a squad from the twd ladder so it would always affect twl qualifications thus the previous sentence.

Interesting, i expect staff to discuss these ideas, but nice to see players are thinking the same off their own back.

[mtine]

I'm a vet. Suh suh g.