TWL Season 25 Announcement

[Zeebu]

There's a couple things we're trying to fix schedule overruns while maintaining a timeline thats been accessible to the majority of our players.

We've implemented shorter scheduled round times to reduce potential downtime and get the weekend wrapped as early as possible. This allows us to squeeze an additional round in each week without completely excluding our Euro (or NA Pacific) playerbase. We are avoiding the 3 extra rounds each week that this last season used because it became harder to control timing-wise and led to some drastically late games.

Speaking just based on random sampling of twdt.trenchwars.com, the longest warbird/jav matches typically take around 20 minutes of playtime and base can of course take 30 minutes. These generally fit into our time slots, and a shortened pre-match adding time will help even more. That is definitely something we are looking to implement this season.

With the structure of our matches not being a fixed timeline, it's impossible to schedule perfectly. This is why we continue to schedule base last, as it is the most likely to run late. I don't see merit in stretching the schedule to reflect worst-case scenarios in matches. It's better to start each round 5 minutes later than scheduled rather than building in extra downtime and forcing the last rounds to start 30 minutes later than the proposed schedule.

i wasnt asking for a worst case to be represented, I was honestly only asking to put out a schedule that you think has the greatest chance to be followed accurately. If you think you can maintain this schedule and only start each round around 5 minutes late, that pushes the end of day schedule by only 30 minutes or so, not bad at all. The last game of the day occasionally being advertised 30 minutes after the scheduled time is on the edge of acceptability, but still OK. If every single week finds that last LB game starting behind schedule, you have a bad schedule.

Maybe I'm just overly pessimistic, but rather than a schedule, i think the way its set up right now will equate to nothing more than a game order list for that week.

Whether having a realistic schedule actually matters is debatable. Players that only show up right before a scheduled match will be the only ones overly affected, and only in the sense they'll have to wait longer than anticipated.

Right now, I'm just pushing for a robust schedule to guestimate when everyone can plan on being finished for the day. The schedule shows a 3 hour window to play 7 time slots worth of matches. Correct me if I'm wrong, but our standard twdt schedule (6 time slots per sunday) routinely lasted over 4 hours in actuality. We're adding an additional time slot as well as the wrinkle of alternating twdt and twl games which will likely only add to the round setup times.

I can't really fault the game order though, I know someone already suggested just playing all the twdt first followed by all the twl, but that doesnt solve anything for those wishing to participate in both twl and twdt. but its a thought I guess

[Dwopple]

Would be interesting to see some data about EU players who want to play TWDT vs TWL. I suspect more EU players play TWDT and not TWL. So TWL might be something you could run at a later time.

If anyone is waiting to signup for TWDT... please do so ASAP, thank you in advance!

[Rab]

Would be interesting to see some data about EU players who want to play TWDT vs TWL. I suspect more EU players play TWDT and not TWL. So TWL might be something you could run at a later time.

[WillBy]

25 minutes per time slot is aggressive. even if 3/4 of the games in each time slot hit their target, it doesnt matter. the schedule will move only as fast as final match in that timeslot allows. do we have any data showing that all dueling matches in a timeslot can be completed 25 minutes from arena message announcement?

I'm all for putting out a schedule, but if we dont have a line of sight or historical data that says we can support such a thing, why post an unrealistic one? Like I said, I'm not flaming it, I just dont think we have any relevant history that shows we'd be able to stick to it. Let's post a schedule that represents what will likely happen rather than wishes and rainbows. In all honesty, from 9/18-11/16 i'd put a sizable bet that the LB games in the 4pm slot will never, not once, start on time.

There's a couple things we're trying to fix schedule overruns while maintaining a timeline thats been accessible to the majority of our players.

We've implemented shorter scheduled round times to reduce potential downtime and get the weekend wrapped as early as possible. This allows us to squeeze an additional round in each week without completely excluding our Euro (or NA Pacific) playerbase. We are avoiding the 3 extra rounds each week that this last season used because it became harder to control timing-wise and led to some drastically late games.

Speaking just based on random sampling of twdt.trenchwars.com, the longest warbird/jav matches typically take around 20 minutes of playtime and base can of course take 30 minutes. These generally fit into our time slots, and a shortened pre-match adding time will help even more. That is definitely something we are looking to implement this season.

With the structure of our matches not being a fixed timeline, it's impossible to schedule perfectly. This is why we continue to schedule base last, as it is the most likely to run late. I don't see merit in stretching the schedule to reflect worst-case scenarios in matches. It's better to start each round 5 minutes later than scheduled rather than building in extra downtime and forcing the last rounds to start 30 minutes later than the proposed schedule.

[Vehicle]

+! to zeebu's post. It was especially egregious last DT with games frequently starting an hour later than scheduled. Why say games start at 4pm EST when they literally never do.

[Zeebu]

25 minutes per time slot is aggressive. even if 3/4 of the games in each time slot hit their target, it doesnt matter. the schedule will move only as fast as final match in that timeslot allows. do we have any data showing that all dueling matches in a timeslot can be completed 25 minutes from arena message announcement?

I'm all for putting out a schedule, but if we dont have a line of sight or historical data that says we can support such a thing, why post an unrealistic one? Like I said, I'm not flaming it, I just dont think we have any relevant history that shows we'd be able to stick to it. Let's post a schedule that represents what will likely happen rather than wishes and rainbows. In all honesty, from 9/18-11/16 i'd put a sizable bet that the LB games in the 4pm slot will never, not once, start on time.

[Dreamwin]

There will be a total of 16 allowed players for a combined TWLD/TWLJ team.

Thanks RaCka and LD for your answers. (and the announcement ofc)

If there is any room for feedback, my take is that the limits are too big. No one needs 16 players for dueling leagues. Top player base isn't big and this will ultimately lead into some players benching who would start elsewhere. I would suggest changing the limit to 10 and combine LD/LJ rosters.

[Riverside]

Apologies, I didn't look super in-depth, but...

Looks like leagues for this schedule will start 30 minutes earlier than normal, but TWDT matches will start / complete within their "regular" 3-hour window, no? Dual-leaguers (TWDT & TWL) will have 1 extra timeslot than TWDT-only leaguers.

Ye

For a TWDT only player, it looks like its currently scheduled:

• 2.5 hours per week (15% decrease in time, relative to the past 2+ seasons)
• Often 1 TWDT match per league (then waiting for TWL game to finish per league), sometimes 2 TWDT matches (then waiting for TWL game to finish)
• Relative to the past 2+ seasons, this reflects a 40-45% weekly decrease in # of TWDT games
• TWDTB games start at 3:35pm right now, instead of 4pm in the past.

However: the time slots on this excel image are separated by 25 mins.

Captains adding players and League Operators preparing games can and often takes 5-8 mins.

Sometimes TWLD, TWLJ, TWDT and TWDTJ games extend longer than 20 mins.

Id be excited for 1 game per league... if it meant I didn’t have to wait, every Sunday, between wb and jav games (I don't have to wait for TWLB, cause my TWDT games wud b ofir).

[Dwopple]

Imo,

Scheduling TWL games between TWDT games interrupts the flow for TWDT-only participants (that's me!).

To me, Sundays in TW have historically felt like "theres a lot going on" when 1 of these 2 leagues was happening.

As a participant of TWDT within the East Coast time region:

• 3 hours of leagueplay gaming is long imo. I compare it to the number of hours of leagueplay gaming in TW on days of the week other than Sunday: 0 mins/hours (there are no competitive leagues on other weekdays or Sat)
• 2-5pm EST Sunday (now an additional hour), every week, is a slot during the afternoon for me, of a weekend
• As a "ill prob show to 50-75% of games" participant, it becomes increasingly hard to sign up for leagues
• Im mediocre at 3 leagues so I have a chance at being added to 3 ships in TWDT. With this schedule, I would have to wait for the TWL games in each ship to finish:
• That means added time, every Sunday, where due to the expected time commitment (for me, as someone who enjoys 3 leagues), its situationally felt difficult to signup (or sometimes, see through seasons)

Apologies, I didn't look super in-depth, but...

Looks like leagues for this schedule will start 30 minutes earlier than normal, but TWDT matches will start / complete within their "regular" 3-hour window, no? Dual-leaguers (TWDT & TWL) will have 1 extra timeslot than TWDT-only leaguers.

[Rab]

+1 as a twdt-only person I hate this schedule for the same reasons

[Riverside]

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Imo,

Scheduling TWL games between TWDT games interrupts the flow for TWDT-only participants (that's me!).

To me, Sundays in TW have historically felt like "theres a lot going on" when 1 of these 2 leagues was happening.

As a participant of TWDT within the East Coast time region:

• 3 hours of leagueplay gaming is long imo. I compare it to the number of hours of leagueplay gaming in TW on days of the week other than Sunday: 0 mins/hours (there are no competitive leagues on other weekdays or Sat)
• 2-5pm EST Sunday (now an additional hour), every week, is a slot during the afternoon for me, of a weekend
• As a "ill prob show to 50-75% of games" participant, it becomes increasingly hard to sign up for leagues
• Im mediocre at 3 leagues so I have a chance at being added to 3 ships in TWDT. With this schedule, I would have to wait for the TWL games in each ship to finish:
• That means added time, every Sunday, where due to the expected time commitment (for me, as someone who enjoys 3 leagues), its situationally felt difficult to signup (or sometimes, see through seasons)

[Lock]

8 players for the TWLD division, 8 players for the TWLJ division

There will be a total of 16 allowed players for a combined TWLD/TWLJ team.

[RaCka]

Do you mean there are split rosters for wb and jav too? Or just split between dueling and basing?

There's one combined roster for the dueling leagues. You then have the option to join any basing team you want.

[zidane]

good question by Dreamwin.

also put down Evil for all leagues, get the ball rolling

[Dreamwin]

Roster restrictions for this season will be 8 players for the TWLD division, 8 players for the TWLJ division, and 12 players for the TWLB division.

Do you mean there are split rosters for wb and jav too? Or just split between dueling and basing?