Community Challenge Feedback

[johndramey]

I absolutely love TA, it's probably my favorite of the 3 TB games at the moment. With that said, I'm not exactly sure how we would do a TA challenge. A TA challenge would require either A)some lead time to build up a squad to the proper XP levels -or- B)A set campaign(s) to run through with a set squad. I can try to brainstorm up something for TA, but I have the feeling that we might be better off running an ST challenge and coming back for TA the month after next. If we do it that way we can think up something and give everyone time to beef up a squad for the challenge.

Another thing to consider, how many people would be interested in a TA challenge. I would be in for sure, I think we could probably talk Lt. Hathaway into it, ncaoa seems pretty primed for it. Anyone else? I guess if we could get just one or two more people we might be able to run it.

[xdesperado]

I'll participate in any challenge regardless of TB game chosen.

[grävling]

for my new tablet, I have no squads ... so only challenges that don't require a prepared one, or ones that give me time to make one have any appeal here. But do not let me stop you... I am unlocking ST awards now.

[johndramey]

So, trying to think up a decent TA challenge that wouldn't require any preparation, why not have people run through two campaigns back to back. We could score it based on honor and overall kills plus a modifier for lost templars, let's say..

0 lost = extra points x2
1 lost = extra points
2 lost = 0 points
3 lost = minus extra points
4 lost = minus extra points x2
and so on

We could allow a certain amount of do-overs, allowing the participants to restart levels x times. Maybe one do over per mission, but you can use them anyway you see fit? So if a campaign is 6 levels long you get 6 restarts (to individual missions) used however you want. e.g. restarting 3 times in the first level, 2 times on the fourth, and once on the sixth.

The final score could be honor (modified by something) + kills (modified by something) + templar modifier? Maybe have kills be weighted more? That way the players can choose between upgrading gear for more kills but less honor, or not upgrading for more honor but less kills?

Just a thought.

[Lt. Hathaway]

Sounds good, how about running a new 'Templar Battleforce' on Hard through the entire Vestmarch sequence? That gives us some of the oldest and newest levels, with the bonus that the first Vestmarch was an actual starting campaign.

The idea of 'scoring' TA is a little perverse. I suspect most of those factors are already calculated into Honor. No real problem with your suggestions, could be failure of imagination on my part.

We could really simplify things, play on Brutal, accept all deaths, and the winner could be whoever delivered the most living troops furthest, ties broken by kills. That sounds like TA.

[slayernz]

How about players can skirmish up to 10 battles prior to starting a particular double-barreled campaign (Two campaigns one after the other)?

[fallen]

Could you score by counting Honor left at the end of the sequence? Therefore, if you're buying EQ, then you're burning score?

[johndramey]

fallen - that's kind of what I was thinking, but actually Lt. Hathaway has a good idea. Maybe just run through a set amount of campaigns cold and have a "no restarts" policy. Whomever can complete the most missions with the fewest casualties wins! This would allow players to use their honor however they see fit, hopefully enjoying what the game has to offer while comparing with other players online?

[slayernz]

Using Number of Kills is a good way to score - Honor is a bit more iffy.
The 10 battles prior to entering the campaign idea was so that you could provide a bit more variability into the challenge.
If 10 players took 10 teams into their first battle of the campaign raw, you'd get 10 identical starts.
However, if 10 players did 10 battles prior to the first campaign, then they would be allocating points in 10 different ways, resulting in different squad strengths and weaknesses.

For example, player 1 beefs up ranged combat. player 2 beefs up defense, player 3 focuses on melee, etc.

You'd get some better mixed results for the challenge.

[Lt. Hathaway]

fallen: As was pointed out in the last challenge, how you score the challenge completely changes how the challenge is played. Choosing honor means choosing a particular play style would minimize squad choices like equipment and recruitment, favoring a math geeky play style that would punish newer players. I think choosing total kills or last man standing scoring leads to a more 'Cory Trese' brutal play style. I say all this as a math geeky experienced player who immediately started to mentally pregame an honor based system.
As a wise badger once said:

Jun 10, 2013 6:51:15 GMT -5 grävling said:

We are getting to the point where however you decide to score it will be fine, it will just produce different winning strategies.

So, how long does this challenge last? I'm paging back and not seeing that,

[johndramey]

Well any challenge will be next month, probably during the second week. So far the norm has been a week of real time with some game time limit imposed, but if we want to do a TA last man standing we could modify it. Maybe set it up so there is a set path of campaigns to take instead of an in-game limit?

slayernz - Yeah, I can see how having some prep could be a good thing. However! I think that it could make newer players (or new members to the community) shy away from taking part. My philosophy is pretty much K.I.S.S. so I think having a simple cold start is probably the best from a "let's try to attract new players" point of view.

Maybe to open it up we should let people take part in two different "divisions," only instead of different difficulty levels we have a set difficulty level for both and allow prep in one division and not in the other?

I realize that in all actuality we will probably only be playing against each other, but a man can dream.

[slayernz]

Happy to go for a ride on this one - you just set the course and rules. I'll target the August ST challenge

[johndramey]

I'm working on fleshing out the challenge concept and will try to get a draft posted a little later in the week. Hopefully that'll give us a lot of time to work on it and make it as good as possible.

[rsgong]

I just missed the pirate challenge, but really liked the idea. Tried on my own on crazy, but was obviously way too new for that level.  

I'm up for trying any other challenge you come up with. I think it will really help newer players start to get the hang of classes that they never tried. 

[johndramey]

Ah, totally forgot the TA challenge. I'll make something tomorrow and have it posted up for critique before bed. Give us a couple days to iron everything out and get it ready, then hopefully we can get it set up for next week!