"Testing Times" Tournament

[Sir Prize]

RESCHEDULED: At 9pm GMT on 13 December I'm going to run a tournament with a balance mod for the TENTATIVE 3637 patch. Here are the TENTATIVE changelogs as they currently stand: https://github.com/aeoncleanse/fa/blob/ ... patch-3637

There's been a fair bit of debate about whether a reclaim tool is good for the game, and the balance effects of hitbox and shield changes. Well, this tournament will help replace some of the theorycrafting with balance conversations that point to replays of how things actually work in practice. I will post a thread in General Discussions during/immediately after the tournament for you guys to post useful, constructive comments, drawing on tournament (and other) replays to make your point as much as possible. There's an avatar in it for you if you make a particularly good post .

RULES
Use the "3637 preview" balance mod.
Swiss style 1v1 tournament of up to 6 rounds, depending on signups, no entry restrictions. Maximum participants and maximum games for maximum testing!
Sign up in Tournaments tab on the FAF client when the tournament is posted. The tournament has been posted.
Scores off.
Game is drawn after 45 minutes of real time, unless I or an assisting TD can be bothered to watch the replay and decide the winner was clear or someone clearly turtled for the draw.
All ingame issues will be decided on by me or an assisting TD.
To report results : The winner PMs me or whoever's helping.
RK explosions are acceptable if both players agree. Sim mods that don't affect balance (anti-lag/other optimisations) and both players want will POSSIBLY be allowed at the TDs' discretion.
Tiebreakers for 1st/2nd/3rd will be decided by a duel. The map and any other information for duels will be decided by TDs on the day as necessary.
Any other questions, you PM me or the helpful senior TD.

MAPS
Open Waters v2
Theta Passage
Loki
White Fire v2
Daroza's Sanctuary
Eye of the Storm

Ladder versions only please.

AVATAR PRIZES
WINNER OF HEARTS for anyone that posts outstandingly helpful, evidence-based feedback in the appropriate thread, based on replays and the tournament experience in general . Also, anyone causing a hilarious upset can also win this, as per usual.
TOURNAMENT CHAMPION for 1st place.
FACTION FACE for 2nd place.
FACTION LOGO for 3rd place.
TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANT for anyone that plays all their games.

See you all there ladies and gents!

[Sir Prize]

Bumping this - we have 20 signups without me doing any promotion at all so it should be good. Crotalus tells me that the balance mod will be up pretty soon, so start playtesting when you see it. I'll post here again when I know it's up and I'll start advertising in Aeolus next time I'm on. If one of the IRC mods could put this thread in the topic or MOTD that would also be awesome.

More signups would be great, particularly a few high rated guys who will understand balance stuff better than, say, me .

I am quite tempted to purge Daroza's, it would be nice to see how the reclaim ground command works with high reclaim maps but 6 may be too many rounds and Daroza's is probably the worst/most hated map in that list. I'll make a decision when I start the tournament.

[Sir Prize]

Looks like the mod for this tournament is live. You might be able to get it using the search function in the it's called "3637 preview V2", but you may have to sort by upload date then hit server search to find it.

OP updated.

[Morax]

I am really hoping that I can participate and think that this is by far the best idea ever proposed to test a balance change before release.

Well done, guys. The concept alone is making me very happy with the forward direction of FaF

[Sir Prize]

Thanks Morax , I intend to run these tournament whenever there's a change that needs playtesting, not just balance (but mostly balance). I may re-run a 3637 tournament, I'm also trying to think of a way to get people to test some of the other upcoming changes, such as the Team Matchmaker - some kind of race/tournament thing.

Crotalus has been bugfixing the balance mod, there's a new version available now in the vault - OP and post 3 updated with the details. I'm going to sandbox it as thoroughly as I can now so it's good to go for the tournament.

EDIT: There's a few issues still with the mod unfortunately, so I'm going to postpone this one week to 13 DECEMBER, same time. Will update the OP now.

[Morax]

Blah - I can't play this weekend ; (

[Nombringer]

Hey, sorry about the late notice but I'm going to have to pull out for health reasons.

I was going to do some hunting afterwards too

[Sir Prize]

Boooo no noms:(:(

OP is updated with the 3637 changelog as it stands - as you're probably all aware visionik pushed 3636 - the exploit fixes were too urgent to wait any longer, and the rest of 3636 has gone up as well. There will be a new mod you will need to download as well soon.

[Sir Prize]

Family has caught up with Gorton, who's co-hosting this with me (they don't just let first time tourney directors loose on the community on their own ), so we're pushing the start time back one hour. OP updated.

[Aulex]

Last game tokyto vs aulex