some topics to talk about

[Turban]

We have a couple of things to discuss about regarding the next TWL season(s) and I would like to gather the players opinions on various topics. This is assuming that we are actually going to run another season as it solely depends on the amount of interest towards one being hosted.


1) SCHEDULE [TWDT / TWL]

These schedules should not overlap under any circumstances. This was an issue last year which gave close to no breathing room for both our hosts and players from the competitive scene. In my opinion there should be at least a one month window between the two leagues to reinvigorate the players and staff.

I would like to get TWDT started as soon as possible to not force the TWL season to run in mid-June as most of our players would rather not play during the summer for obvious reasons. As such, TWDT could start on February 1st which would mean the finals would be around March 15th although that is assuming that we would run a six league tournament with no pre-season or replay weekends. This would allow a small break from the competitive scene, and give the TWL operatore team more time to prepare.

If those dates hold true, we could start the TWL season on April 12th which should give the squads enough time to prepare after the end of the TWDT season, and the season would end on either June 14th or May 31st depending on the amount of squads, and the regular season and playoff formats. There would be a two month qualification period. The regular season itself could be made even shorter if we take drastic measures; this can be done by shortening the regular season with either a more condensed schedule, or by lowering the amount of games in the season.

The goal would be to end the season before summer starts and not have overlapped schedules.


2) QUALIFICATION [TWL]

It is time to change the age-old way of qualifying to the TWL season. We need to get some sense in the selection process, and most importantly make it more fair. To start the process, I would like to have a new rating formula which would reward squads for things such as their activity and the toughness of their opponents, and a little bird told me there are some individual player rating(s) in the works for TWD which could be added to the rating calculations. The current rating system would only work in an active ladder with tons of squads. Additionally there could be a small scale tournament to select the last remaining squad(s) to the next TWL season one or two weeks prior to the start of the regular season.

I'm willing to listen to any idea(s) that would make the process more fair, but remember to keep it simple. We have a limited amount of capable developers, thus you should not bother to propose things that have no chance of ever being implemented given the current state of our game.


3) REGULAR SEASON [TWL]

There are a couple of decisions that need to be made regarding the regular season. We need to decide the amount of squads participating in each league, and their respective TWL roster size limits. There is also things such as the soft lock and hard lock debate, and for one I would like to scrap the soft lock altogether while keeping the hard lock rule in the next season.

We have a few alternatives when it comes to the regular season schedule. We can keep the format from last season, and double the amount of games in each league. We can shorten the season by weeks by condensing the schedule or by lowering the amount of games. The ladder could also have a different point system, and games could simulate TWD conditions with TWLD and TWLJ being a best of three series each week, although to compensate TWLB would be a time race to 20 minutes. We can scrap the home arenas, or we could improve the quality of the maps with the help of map makers to make the gaming experience more fun and special for all.


4) PLAYOFFS [TWL]

We can keep the format we used last year and enhance it in some ways, or we could revert back to the old playoff format. I don't care which one we do, to be honest, but given the success of this year it would seem likely that we would not do any major changes.


5) ROSTER SIZES [TWL]

These numbers would likely need some tweaking as they depend on the amount of games and squads we have in the next season. I wouldn't mind a slight increase if we are dropping the league size to six teams.


6) BOT AND SITE ENHANCEMENTS [TWL]

We can easily bring some of the TWD features (such as displaying your current score, and having an enemy / team death tracker) to further enhance the TWL experience.

7) RULES [TWL]

Need to be updated (again) depending on the changes that we make for the next season.



I would add a couple of more things as topics, but that will have to wait as I'm in kind of a hurry. Food for thought.

[zidane]

twl in september imo, no need to speed this crap up since twl only hurts zone activity. 3 month wait period is insanely short too

[parson]

TWDT in feb sounds solid though. IS claus going to be participating in helping run it again?

[Turban]

September works, although I would still want to make all the preparations ready for the next season to make it easier to run, and most importantly more enjoyable to play in.

TWDT is apparently going to be ran by Claushouse in the near future, and I would be willing to help him set it up with the signups, drafts and help with the bot/staff side of things if he wants my help.

[Jones]

time to get this unpopular opinion out...

twl should be free for all with total games played and activity levels as the only condition(s) to be able to participate. twl isn't anymore about the 'best squads'.

the problem with the above is that it probably destroys twd even further.. i got nothing at this point

discuss

[Rab]

I have a few simple points:

1. The regular season is completely pointless, we could and should use TWD ladder position for seeding. That makes TWL purely a double elimination bracket only.
2. Roster limits were OK, but 'must play x time' was too complicated for players to know if they had played enough.
3. Resolution limit in TWLD should be removed, more below.

TWLD resolution limit
Problem: I owned in TWDTD, but sucked at TWLD.
Reason: I'm used to playing full screen. Once you force me to play in a window, my radar has moved, everything is off center, etc. All gamers get their settings just how they're used to before a tournament, if a tournament enforced weird settings - no gamer would compete.
Scope: This must apply to all TWDD arenas, to TWLD, and to TWDTD, and anything else... you get the idea.
Pros/Cons: I know I'm not the only one suffering from this. Some people disagree - IMO they're the people dominating by always playing in a tiny window. There's no skill involved in this type of victory. These players need to be forced to prove their worth - by letting everyone else compete without handicap.

[Turban]

i hate playing with and against opponents with higher resolution as it lowers the overall competitiveness by a fairly large amount. i do not consider sniping from R7 and having patience as any type of skill, and if everyone was using that resolution the games would be extremely stale as the optimal way of playing would be straying from the edge of your screen.

as for jones, there needs to be a set amount of squads in TWL in my opinion for the sake of simplicity, and most importantly to not make schedule a fucking mess with tons of bye weeks (9 team leagues suck as an example) and extra games/weeks (different amount of teams in each league).

[Dreamwin]

About TWLD resolution limit.

As Zizzo pointed out earlier, it is possible to bypass the resolution limit without anyone noticing. Now we have some people abusing this and they have edge over the rest who doesn't know how it's done.

And yeah, the edge it gives is HUGE.

[Turban]

i would like to know how its done, and if it can be detected or prevented from being abused without the need of a new client.

[parson]

Just please allow max reso as usual for it jav, and base.

[Rab]

i would like to know how its done

+1

[Rough]

i would like to know how its done, and if it can be detected or prevented from being abused without the need of a new client.

When I was on fierce years ago, I clearly remember Lasenza and Apok or Deez(one of the two) talking on the chat using a program to bypass the res limit. I even mentioned this to KATC a while back but it's hard to really know as an outsider of how these guys enable it.

Either way, I rather have a rare amount of people who try to bypass their way through res limits than have Ease literally paying few people on subspace through Paypal to join/stay thunder to win TWLB. I am glad to see that backfired on him.

[Ivf]

I ended up switching zones due to the current res limits. We're constantly doing threads on how to save the game and the zone, but tell me which players of the new generation would play with a res cap? From what I've picked up from the chaos zone player base. They wouldn't even consider playing trench wars and that's due to the res caps in place. And the majority of these players are elites, multi zone players who personally would bring skill to the zone. I can't see a major problem in giving one twl a try without res limits. What's fun about shooting a bullet and within 2 seconds a player is right in your face with enough energy to kill. At Least wiTh bigger res it opens all aspects. Players who rush will still try and rush and lure the shot regardless and the same players who are stupid enough to take it will still take it. But with bigger res, it's more tactical. Players will be able to team more efficiently. The games will be more exciting and will last longer. It's time to move forward and try to attract players from other zones who religiously play "continuum", who can quick adapt to the game play.

[Rab]

Having looked through server code - you'd probably pass the res check if it thought your res was 0x0 (e.g. using chat instead of continuum) when changing arena. Not sure how to make that the case though.

[Turban]

eh, that surely can't be the reason.

there is only one option as far as i can tell and that would be fooling the server and client through some registry editing. anyway, i will run some tests when i have the time sometime after the Christmas season to see if the glitch can be prevented from being abused. i would highly appreciate a step-by-step guide sent in private to save some time.

furthermore, resolution limit has been removed (or at least set to 1920x1440) from every arena with the exception of some extremely old events that no one hosts, twdd main arenas and twld. we can always have a vote for the next season, but i think resolution limit would (once again, for the 7th time in a row) win by a small amount.

TWDT-D should probably have no limit this season as well to get more player input.