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Over the past few weeks, TWL Ops have gathered for a total of two meetings. Below are the decisions that we have made thus far. I am posting this on the forums as an effort to garner public feedback on TWL Season 19. Note that though we may have arrived at a consensus between TWL Ops, anything can be changed if enough players give us feedback. In other words, please take the time to read this post and post any concerns, potential changes, or anything pertinent that you might want to see happen next season. This thread is long, for a TL;DR version, read all italicized language:
Regular Season Changes
1. Regular Season Duration
As it currently stands the regular season is in need of a resuscitation of sorts. We decided to start off these changes by extending the regular season.
The regular season for TWLD/TWLJ has now been doubled to 14 games. The amount of TWLB games will stay the same.
2. Potential Point System
We contemplated changing the conventional standing system to a system based on various point totals. For example, a win would net you 3 points and a loss would lose you 3 points. A win by 10 or more would gain you an additional point and a loss by more than ~15 would lose you 3. The idea was to make TWL more competitive considering recent season's talent hoarding (see: Pandora, Dice, Fierce). However, this idea was ultimately scrapped.
The conventional system will stand. Teams will be ranked according to their win/loss ratios.
Roster limits will remain the same. 15 for 1 league squads / 20 for 2 league squads / 25 for 3 league squads.
4. Additional Time Slots
We contemplated adding additional hours to TWL Sunday. Games under the proposed structure(s) would allow squads to have greater leeway in scheduling. However we unanimously decided that most of our player base is either tapped out or unavailable after 6 pm.
TWL will now run from 1p-6p every Sunday.
As it currently stands, I have revised the rules once. We are currently waiting for more TWL Ops to opine on certain changes. Once we have finalized the TWL structure for TWL Season 19, I will post the newly written rules on the forums. It is important that you read the rules as they were implemented last season. We need more player feedback on what to change. If not enough player feedback is given, players will be forced to play under TWL Rules that the TWL Ops see fit.
TWL Qualification Changes
In order to further revitalize next season, we have decided to do away with the current TWL qualification structure. Though we had many ideas, we narrowed them down to two possible qualification methods. One is contingent upon web dev help as well as overall feasibility.
Idea 1: Top 2 TWD teams auto-qualify. The other remaining 6 will have to duke it out in two stages in order qualify for the next season. The top 2 teams that auto-qualify would receive a bonus of sorts for auto-qualifying.
Idea 2: We would use a version of an idea posed by Mirrorim in 2008. The link to his idea is given to you below. The numbers on there are not absolute and would have to be tweaked. This idea greatly depends on feasibility. As it stands this idea is great in theory but presents logistical nightmares.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing
2. Qualification Period
A common sentiment among the TWL Ops was that the TWL qualification period runs too long. As such we decided on changing the period. However, depending on whether TWDT is implemented this period could change.
If TWDT is brought back, the qualification period for TWL will run for 2 months. If TWDT is not brought back, the qualification period for TWL will run for 3 months.
3. TWL Start Date
Miscellaneous Items
1. TWL All-Star Weekend
It is safe to say that the All-Star weekend was handled in a less than desirable fashion last season. We have decided to completely change process.
TWL All-Star voting will now begin after Round 5. Any player who has played in a TWL game will be eligible to be voted as an All-Star. For Basing, a player may only be voted as an All-Star in the ship he or she played in. Voting will be conducted manually via ?message in addition to the forums.
Additionally, we have decided to at least consider hosting TWL-DM (?go TWLDM) during the replay week. We have not made any substantive progress on this. More information should be available as the summer progresses.
2. Home/Away Games
To add a breath of life to TWL, we have decided to bring back home and away arenas to TWL. This, in our mind, adds an aesthetic dimension to TWL that was enjoyed around seasons 7-8.
Home and Away arenas will be reinstated. For an example of one please go to ?go twljsk8. When submitting a home map, squads are not allowed to make any tile changes. Tile sets may not be too bright and squads may not use .lvz files for their maps. More information regarding the submission of home maps will be disseminated as the summer progresses.
3. End of Season Awards
To further cater to the egos of our player base, we have decided to add awards to reward players for their performances in their respective leagues after the completion of a season.
As of right now we are deciding on categories for awards. If you would like to see a particular category please comment below. For ease of reading please format it as follows:
PROPOSED AWARD CATEGORY: Biggest Troll
Hot or Not is an integral part of TWL. Player reactions to games are fully encapsulated in written form. As such we are actively looking for HoN writers for the next season. Further, the with proliferation of Twitch/Youtube we are further looking for players who would be willing to record and or live broadcast TWL games.
5. TWLM / TWL Site Generally
To foster more interest in the playoffs and TWL in general, we are currently contemplating a double elimination system for playoffs. This system would not be dissimilar from the ones typically used in gaming tournaments.
Turban did the best job explaining this in a previous thread addressed to TWL Ops:
"the new system would be a double elimination bracket commonly used in gaming tournaments. let us assume that seeds #1 and #3 won their respective matches. these two teams would continue to the semi-finals where as the losing teams (#4 and #2) would fall into the losers bracket to fight for a second chance. their season would not be over after the quarter-final loss. losers bracket match would feature #2 against #4 and the winner would continue to climb the losers bracket. they would be against the loser of the Winners Bracket Semi-Final played later that day. the winner of that match would get to the Finals of TWL. due to the team of winners bracket never dropping into the losers bracket, they would have a one match advantage over the other team. series would start at 1-0 in a Best of 5 series (or Best of 3 for basing). the available time slots for the finals would be 2PM, 3:30PM and 5PM (or 3PM, 4:30PM and 6PM)."
7. Hard Lock and Soft Lock
Though we deliberated the merits of both a hard and soft lock, we ultimately arrived upon the conclusion that both were necessary as a means of promoting squad solidarity as well as a technical "must have" given the current setup between the bots and the TWL Site.
Hard lock and Soft lock will now be pushed back. Soft lock will take effect week 3 while hard lock will take effect in week 6.
Quite simply, we felt the current resolution limits were necessary to promote an equal playing field for all.
The current resolution limit remains at 1280x1024 / 1440x900 for TWLD.
9. TWL Head Op
On a general note, please understand that these changes are not final. We are actively soliciting feedback from the player base to better structure TWL. As such, please take the time to post anything you may want to see changed in this thread. I ask that you keep the criticism constructive; we all understand that last season was run in a less than ideal manner.
-Tsunami
Regular Season Changes
1. Regular Season Duration
As it currently stands the regular season is in need of a resuscitation of sorts. We decided to start off these changes by extending the regular season.
The regular season for TWLD/TWLJ has now been doubled to 14 games. The amount of TWLB games will stay the same.
2. Potential Point System
We contemplated changing the conventional standing system to a system based on various point totals. For example, a win would net you 3 points and a loss would lose you 3 points. A win by 10 or more would gain you an additional point and a loss by more than ~15 would lose you 3. The idea was to make TWL more competitive considering recent season's talent hoarding (see: Pandora, Dice, Fierce). However, this idea was ultimately scrapped.
The conventional system will stand. Teams will be ranked according to their win/loss ratios.
3. Roster Limits
Roster limits will remain the same. 15 for 1 league squads / 20 for 2 league squads / 25 for 3 league squads.
4. Additional Time Slots
We contemplated adding additional hours to TWL Sunday. Games under the proposed structure(s) would allow squads to have greater leeway in scheduling. However we unanimously decided that most of our player base is either tapped out or unavailable after 6 pm.
TWL will now run from 1p-6p every Sunday.
5. Rule Re-writes
As it currently stands, I have revised the rules once. We are currently waiting for more TWL Ops to opine on certain changes. Once we have finalized the TWL structure for TWL Season 19, I will post the newly written rules on the forums. It is important that you read the rules as they were implemented last season. We need more player feedback on what to change. If not enough player feedback is given, players will be forced to play under TWL Rules that the TWL Ops see fit.
TWL Qualification Changes
1. Structural Overhaul
In order to further revitalize next season, we have decided to do away with the current TWL qualification structure. Though we had many ideas, we narrowed them down to two possible qualification methods. One is contingent upon web dev help as well as overall feasibility.
Idea 1: Top 2 TWD teams auto-qualify. The other remaining 6 will have to duke it out in two stages in order qualify for the next season. The top 2 teams that auto-qualify would receive a bonus of sorts for auto-qualifying.
Idea 2: We would use a version of an idea posed by Mirrorim in 2008. The link to his idea is given to you below. The numbers on there are not absolute and would have to be tweaked. This idea greatly depends on feasibility. As it stands this idea is great in theory but presents logistical nightmares.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing
2. Qualification Period
A common sentiment among the TWL Ops was that the TWL qualification period runs too long. As such we decided on changing the period. However, depending on whether TWDT is implemented this period could change.
If TWDT is brought back, the qualification period for TWL will run for 2 months. If TWDT is not brought back, the qualification period for TWL will run for 3 months.
3. TWL Start Date
TWL in its current state runs into too many breaks. This presents problems for squads and TWL Ops alike. No matter how we tried to place the season, it was evident that we would have to break for Thanksgiving in November.
TWL will in all likeliness start in mid-September. However, this date may change depending on TWDT and other factors.
TWL will in all likeliness start in mid-September. However, this date may change depending on TWDT and other factors.
Miscellaneous Items
1. TWL All-Star Weekend
It is safe to say that the All-Star weekend was handled in a less than desirable fashion last season. We have decided to completely change process.
TWL All-Star voting will now begin after Round 5. Any player who has played in a TWL game will be eligible to be voted as an All-Star. For Basing, a player may only be voted as an All-Star in the ship he or she played in. Voting will be conducted manually via ?message in addition to the forums.
Additionally, we have decided to at least consider hosting TWL-DM (?go TWLDM) during the replay week. We have not made any substantive progress on this. More information should be available as the summer progresses.
2. Home/Away Games
To add a breath of life to TWL, we have decided to bring back home and away arenas to TWL. This, in our mind, adds an aesthetic dimension to TWL that was enjoyed around seasons 7-8.
Home and Away arenas will be reinstated. For an example of one please go to ?go twljsk8. When submitting a home map, squads are not allowed to make any tile changes. Tile sets may not be too bright and squads may not use .lvz files for their maps. More information regarding the submission of home maps will be disseminated as the summer progresses.
3. End of Season Awards
To further cater to the egos of our player base, we have decided to add awards to reward players for their performances in their respective leagues after the completion of a season.
As of right now we are deciding on categories for awards. If you would like to see a particular category please comment below. For ease of reading please format it as follows:
PROPOSED AWARD CATEGORY: Biggest Troll
4. HoN / Youtube recordings / Twitch Streamers
Hot or Not is an integral part of TWL. Player reactions to games are fully encapsulated in written form. As such we are actively looking for HoN writers for the next season. Further, the with proliferation of Twitch/Youtube we are further looking for players who would be willing to record and or live broadcast TWL games.
5. TWLM / TWL Site Generally
TWLM is also integral to TWL. There is no better way of showing who you really believe is good in this game by spending imaginary binary code. As such, TWLM will be brought back next season. However, this like many other things in this thread, is heavily reliant on web dev support. There are many bugs with TWLM as well as the TWL Site generally.
As such, we are actively looking for help in fixing TWLM and the TWL Site. We are currently compiling a list of all the bugs in the respective sites. After the list is completed we will have to assess what we can and can't fix. We ask that players help us in compiling this list. Players who have the ability and the will to help fix the TWL site should contact a TWL Op at their earliest convenience.
As such, we are actively looking for help in fixing TWLM and the TWL Site. We are currently compiling a list of all the bugs in the respective sites. After the list is completed we will have to assess what we can and can't fix. We ask that players help us in compiling this list. Players who have the ability and the will to help fix the TWL site should contact a TWL Op at their earliest convenience.
6. Double Elimination for Playoffs
To foster more interest in the playoffs and TWL in general, we are currently contemplating a double elimination system for playoffs. This system would not be dissimilar from the ones typically used in gaming tournaments.
Turban did the best job explaining this in a previous thread addressed to TWL Ops:
"the new system would be a double elimination bracket commonly used in gaming tournaments. let us assume that seeds #1 and #3 won their respective matches. these two teams would continue to the semi-finals where as the losing teams (#4 and #2) would fall into the losers bracket to fight for a second chance. their season would not be over after the quarter-final loss. losers bracket match would feature #2 against #4 and the winner would continue to climb the losers bracket. they would be against the loser of the Winners Bracket Semi-Final played later that day. the winner of that match would get to the Finals of TWL. due to the team of winners bracket never dropping into the losers bracket, they would have a one match advantage over the other team. series would start at 1-0 in a Best of 5 series (or Best of 3 for basing). the available time slots for the finals would be 2PM, 3:30PM and 5PM (or 3PM, 4:30PM and 6PM)."
7. Hard Lock and Soft Lock
Though we deliberated the merits of both a hard and soft lock, we ultimately arrived upon the conclusion that both were necessary as a means of promoting squad solidarity as well as a technical "must have" given the current setup between the bots and the TWL Site.
Hard lock and Soft lock will now be pushed back. Soft lock will take effect week 3 while hard lock will take effect in week 6.
8. TWLD Resolution Limit
Quite simply, we felt the current resolution limits were necessary to promote an equal playing field for all.
The current resolution limit remains at 1280x1024 / 1440x900 for TWLD.
9. TWL Head Op
Last, but certainly not least, please say hello to the laggiest TWL Head Op of all-time: Turban !!
On a general note, please understand that these changes are not final. We are actively soliciting feedback from the player base to better structure TWL. As such, please take the time to post anything you may want to see changed in this thread. I ask that you keep the criticism constructive; we all understand that last season was run in a less than ideal manner.
-Tsunami
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