<b>Mega-Dueling Tournament</b>

Starting mid-January, I hope to be starting a tournament of 1-on-1 player duels. The details of the tournament are written below. I will be firm on the rules as I have written them.


<b>Game Rules</b>

<u>Sign-ups</u>

1. Players can apply to be in the tournament by posting to this thread. Players are asked to only state their interest, no other preferences (such as desired nation) are to be announced.

2. The final player count is to be a power of two (2, 4, 8...), with 64 being the maximum number of active participants. Any additional players will be reserved as alternates.

<u>Selecting Nations</u>

1. When it is announced that I am accepting nation picks, I will require that each player submit 1 nation and 1 number from 0 to 99 via PM to me, areaofeffect. Nations can be from any age. Mod nations will not be allowed.

2. Anyone who picks a nation nobody else has picked automatically wins that nation and can add it to their list of nations. Any duplicate picks will be settled with a random die roll of 0 to 99, with the player closest to the roll winning that nation.

3. It will be announced which players and nations are not matched so that the selection process can be repeated amongst them.

4. At the end of every round, the victorious player gets to add the defeated player's list of nations to their own. They may choose to begin the next round with any nation on their newly expanded list.

Note: If you have any questions about this method, please first refer to the "reasoning" section further in the reading.

<u>Match-Ups</u>

1. Players will be matched in the order of their readiness.

a. For the first round we will be distributing nations in a series of rounds as discussed above. Those who have a nation but not a game at the end of each round of picks will be paired up based on the order in which they sign-up for the game. Therefore the first ready player who signed up will fight the second ready player who signed up. The third will fight the forth and so on.

b. For following rounds, players will be pair up with awaiting players who have also finished their previous round and won.

Note: If you have any questions about this method, please first refer to the "reasoning" section further in the reading.

<u>Alternates</u>

1. Players who sign-up beyond the current maximum player count will be used as alternates. The alternates will be selected in the order they joined the game.

2. Defeated players will join the list of alternates and be given a higher priority then all previous alternates.


<b>Game Settings</b>

Game Server: llamaserver.net

Number of Starting Provinces: 1
Strength of Independent: 5
Special Site Frequency: 40
Money Multiple: 100
Resource Multiple: 100
Supply Multiple: 100
Random Events are Common
Score Graphs are Enabled
Hall of Fame Entries: 5
Magic Research is Easy
Standard Victory*
Master Password is Disabled
Renaming is Allowed
Cheat Prevention is Active

Mods: CBM 1.6
Maps: TBA

*Changed from my original choice.

Note: If you have any questions about these settings, please first refer to the "reasoning" section further down in the reading.


<b>Checklist</b>

This is a list of things I will need/want to secure before the game starts in mid-January.

* A minimum of 16 players. 31 players so far. (Ideally I want the full 64.)
- One well balanced land-vs-land 2 player map
- One well balanced land-vs-water 2 player map
- One well balanced water-vs-water 2 player map
* A server willing to host the tournament. Use of the llamasever has been confirmed.
- Additional Admin support #1
- Additional Admin support #2

Note: Anyone willing to help with the maps should post a contribution to this thread.

<b>Reasoning</b>

<u>Initial Nation Picks</u>

In the past I've seen people use a method of distributing nations in mega-games that involves the players submitting five initial picks. I've noticed that this method places a big burden on the organizer to satisfy players with limited information.

Many nations are very popular and some players are unfortunate enough to choose popular nations for all five of their picks. The complexity of the affair often means the organizer has to go back to the players for additional information spite them receiving five initial picks. By going back to players after every round of picks, I avoid the redundancy of secondary picks being the same as nations already chosen.

<u>The Expanding List of Nations</u>

Though it may not be clear within the rules, each player will begin round one with one nation available for selection. When a player wins a round, their options for the next round expands to include the nations available to their defeated opponents. They will still only play one nation per round.

This means that a player will have the option of 2 nations in round 2, 4 in round 3, 8 in round 4, and so forth. The objective is to focus the tournament on the skill of the player rather then the strength of a particular nation.

Those nations that didn't get selected for round one will not be an option for the remainder of the tournament as that adds more complexity to the game then I am willing to deal with.

<u>Match-ups</u>

I've decided to pair player's based on the an order of readiness. The point of this is to reduce the lag time between rounds up until the very late rounds which should be full of our most devoted and invested players. The system also has the quirk of semi-randomizing rounds. (Call it a feature.)

It may have the side effect of pairing the highly popular nations against popular ones and the less popular nations against the other less popular ones, for the initial round at least. I consider this a nice balancing feature. In later rounds the pairing will ideally pit the quick winners against each other. This will likely also diminish the number of rush nations after the second round. Another neat little feature.

This is of course all my hopes within an ideal outcome. The only way to see if works is to practice it. All in all, I think its obvious benefits out ways its obvious flaws and fits the with the amount of focus and time I want to put toward such a game.

<u>The Game Settings</u>

The settings are configured to match the default setting of a middle-age game, with some variations. The middle-age is the intermediary age and isn't too radical for early-age and late-age nations to cope with.

Graphs are on so that game organizers can have some means to monitor the progress of games as it proceeds. It will help an intermediary decide on a victor should a game hold up the entire tournament.

The Hall of Fame is set to 5 as it is only a two player game. 10 would just be excessive.

Research is set to easy as it will help balance the game away from rush tactics. Normally the presence of other players will keep rush nations in check. Yet in a 1-on-1 duel, that check goes away. I wouldn't want the tournament to be reduced to who has the better rush tactic/nation.

Standard victory because its a duel after all and matches shouldn't be that long. So the games will all be to the death (or concession). Plus, it seems to be what many player's prefer so far.

Renaming is on due to popular demand.

CBM 1.6 seems to be the standard of today. Last I knew, QM was the most devoted person at making Dominions 3 a balanced multiplayer game. This devotion goes well above those of the developers, who have many other things to worry about. Therefore I will use his mod for this tournament.


<b>Confirmed Players List</b>

01. Frozen Lama . . . . . . 02. Alpine Joe
03. Baalz . . . . . . . . . 04. WraithLord
05. WingedDog . . . . . . . 06. Nihil
07. Cidi. . . . . . . . . . 08. Meglobob
09. Psycho. . . . . . . . . 10. Stretch
11. Ink . . . . . . . . . . 12. chrispedersen
13. Trom. . . . . . . . . . 14. LDiCesare
15. Squirrelloid. . . . . . 16. llamabeast
17. yandav. . . . . . . . . 18. Bananadine
19. Belac . . . . . . . . . 20. Raiel
21. Aethyr. . . . . . . . . 22. thunderbird
23. KIM . . . . . . . . . . 24. slMagnvox
25. Jarkko. . . . . . . . . 26. Apsophos
27. AdmiralZhao . . . . . . 28. Lingchih
29. Swan. . . . . . . . . . 30. Stagger Lee
31. ghoul31 . . . . . . . . 32. Graeme Dice
33. zlefin. . . . . . . . . 34. Kheldron
35. Xanatos . . . . . . . . 36. shard
37. Sir_Dr_D. . . . . . . . 38. Hadrian_II
39. vfb . . . . . . . . . . 40.

Alternates
01. sansanjuan

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I will never play in any game that has renaming off, as I refuse to have to check every single mage every time I want to forge or cast something or when I'm scripting spells.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

intrest stated. i assume opponents will be chosen randomly

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

What if the players pick the same number? I suggest adding a +drn -drn roll onto the numbers given in case this happens :D

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

This isn't really the place for me to express this, but players out there really need to be informed about the 'F1' function. Press the damn button and view all of your mages' paths at once. Stop telling the opposition what paths your bringing into battle before the battle starts. [Self censored comments.]

Frozen Lama, thanks for playing. The pairings were going to be in the order people sign on. I could randomize it, but either way some people won't be happy. At least by letting the order be determined by when you signed up, you get some semblance of control, rather then it being pure chance.

rdonj, I planned on rolling an additional roll in situations that led to a tie. Choosing the same number would apply in those circumstances. I will consider the dominions DNR rule.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

It's incredibly inconvenient, and forces you to switch between modal screens. It's hardly a replacement for renaming, which is only the easiest way to deal with the UI's lack of refinement.

Oh come on. It's trivial to take a look at each mage once you're in battle, and it might give information to your opponent on two or three of your commanders at most.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I am interested

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

You just have to get into the habit of renaming your most experienced indy commander "D7BoneGrind" or "S9MasterEnslave". Yay! Your foes will flee in terror, frightened by your awesome name.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'll play.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

As far as I understand, a duel map has 30-40 provinces, so 70% of territory is 21 - 28 provinces, which is not that big advantage and could be siply gained via mass cloud trapezed thugs in one turn.

It happends and pretty often.

It's a small map, why don't just fight to the death.

Another important game condition is missed:
Is it a blitz or PbEM?

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Shameless self-promotion of my Duel map.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Yeah, I agree with WingedDog, play until somebody concedes...or dies. With a 1 on 1 match there's no obligation to keep playing once the end is clear.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I agree and would like to join.
However I want to clear one thing: this is not planned to be a blitz, right?- so for example, if I had a busy day at work and need extra time that would be ok, yes?

( Archae, you can join this if you like :) )

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Since it seems most want a full blood match, I suppose I won't deny people that. The settings will be changed to the standard.

Changes will be noted in the original post soon.

My hope is to use a PbEM. Which in turn would make it alright by me if an individual match was delayed, provided the delays were not excessive enough to hold back the tournament itself.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'd like to participate, but it depends on my free time in the middle of January.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I would also like to participate, please count me in :D

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I join
Thanks

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'll play.:)

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

What is the timing for the games? (sorry if that's posted and I missed it)

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Psycho, haven't worked out the timing yet. I would assume the turns won't go above 48 hours without some exception. I would like to keep as many turns as possible at 24 hour limit.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'll play. I'm just worried that January may turn out to be extremely busy for me. Will you be playing?

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I've written to llamabeast and I've confirmed that we have every right to play the tournament on his beloved server. I'll update to original post to indicate this.

I've considered playing. If I do, then my number pick will be -100 to ensure I lose all toss-up nations. Its the only to avoid issues with me rolling the random digits.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Assuming PBEM, I'm in. I've only got 3 full MP games and 4-5 subs under my belt, but will give this my best.

What do we do when someone decides to start staling/drops out?

I vote for graphs off. They give too much insight into what an opponent's doing, and we don't have to worry about someone growing out of control against lazy neighbors like we would in a big MP game.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Glad to have you join us Stretch.

The original post already accounts for stales and drop outs. We'll hopefully have a pool of replacement players.

The original post also discusses why its very important for graphs to be on for these games. The decision wasn't arbitrary.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

count me in.

also, how do you do the monospace font like that in the OP?

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Interested.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Ahhh, so it is. I got more interested in the selection mechanics and forgot to reread the OP when I was done. Thanks.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Hello,

May I play?

Trom
Ç:-)

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Expressing interest with a caveat: I won't play against a water nation.
Also, I fon't get your method of choosing a number between 0 and 99. Unless you consider 0 to be closer to 99 than to 98 (i.e. numbers wrap), then 50 has the highest probability of being closer to any random number, and picking anything but 49 or 50 is a losign strategy.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Please make it 48h for hosting schedule. 24h can be rather stressing. On a small map there's no real MM of any sort but since it's a tournament turns will require extra deliberation :)

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Not strictly true - if more than 2 players need to compete, the player choosing 50 is likely to get sandwiched between 49 and 51, and thus be virtually guaranteed to not get it.

Honestly, the nation should just be randomly assigned so there isn't some crazy game theory based on n-person number picking where n is a variable going on. (My guess is 40 or 60 is optimal with 3 people, 35 or 75 with 4 people, etc... - but at some point choosing centrally becomes a winning strategy if everyone follows the above strategy, or if everyone else unluckily picks the same side of 50).

Oh, expressing interest.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I wonder if it would be a good idea to exclude water nations? Well actually, I think it would. Land v water is no fun at all.

I'm tentatively interested, but I'd rather not commit for certain quite yet as I may have a very busy January.

I assume this will last quite a few months in total? Sounds pretty fun actually, because the time commitment in a 2-player game should never get too heavy.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Alas, mid-Jan is probably too soon for me to start another game. However, I wanted to post so you'd know there is interest in this mega-duel format beyond those who have signed up.
-ssj

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Count me in.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

It's probably too soon for me to start another game, but sign me up anyway. This idea is too cool. :)

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I am in. I figure to be eliminated quickly enough that it won't be too much of a timesink.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'm in.

I noticed quite a few players mentioning time constraints related to January and ongoing games. Perhaps it would be worth postponing the start to the end of the month or the beginning of Feb. Just an observation - it should all work for me.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Ink, first make sure your click on the "Go Advanced" button when making a reply to a thread. Then select the text you want in monotext. Use the 'Fonts' drop down menu and select a monotext font. I'm currently using Courier New. Alternatively, you could just wrap the text with FONT tags if you know how to use them.

LDiCesare and Llamabeast, I agree that water nations can be difficult to tackle. However, it comes down to numbers. As I see it, there are 62 land nations and 7 water nations in total. If we end up with 64 players, then we'll need the full set. I'll agree to a all land duel if we don't reach that mark though.

LDiCesare and Squirrelloid, a wrap around would solve the issues with probability. 0 will equal 100 and 99 will be closer to 2 then 7. As for why, I'm the sort of person who likes a semblance of control over randomness, even if its just an illusion. Besides, its more fun this way.

Wrathlord, a static 48 is fine. Quickhost will of course be active.

sansanjuan, If you would like, I could place you down as an alternate. Perhaps you can step in for someone post-mid-January.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

48 hours is fine because who the hell wants to bend their life around Dominions, but I did want to make sure people do try to keep things moving along as the tournament is going to move at the pace of the slowest player. With 2 players people should really aim to knock out several turns per day for the first several turns...if people really take 2 days per turn then this tournament is going to take 2+ years. It might be good to define a time limit in days, and an official way to determine the winner at that mark so that everyone isn't waiting an excessive time for one or two games.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'm in.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

We'll make a point of keeping an eye on which games are behind. With graphs on, outsiders will be able to see if a game is close to victory. I'll have to thank Llamabeast for that recent feature. Its true, under the worse circumstances the tournament may go on for over a year. Hopefully people won't drag things out and treat it more like a blitz with emails.

I just want everyone who signs up to understand that this game will require the same commitment that normal mega-games would require.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I'm interested.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

An Alternate sounds fine. Thanks.
-ssj

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I would like to play as well. Thanks......

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

I´m in

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

This sounds very fun. I would like to join.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

Please do sign me along :)

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

AreaOfEffect, I assume pretender design, and in later rounds nation selection, will take place before knowing the nation you will be facing in the duel? If nations will be announced prior to pretender design, in later rounds who will announce their nation selection first?

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

slMagnvox, I hadn't got that far in the explanation, but I have a plan.

The plan is to have players submit their choices via PM to me. The picks would then be announced so that the players can adjust their pretenders accordingly. If we end up playing with water nations, I would have to have players confirm what nations they are playing before I set up their game page anyhow.

Re: Mega-Dueling Tournament - Rules, Settings, Check List, and Sign Ups
 

If we get 32 players total, why not give both groups of 16 players access to the same nations? By the time we're at the final match, both players will have amassed quite a list of nations. At that point, if they both pick the same nation and send it to you then you will announce that they picked the same nation and that it is no longer an option, and to re-pick nations from the remaining nations available to them. Simple enough and allows us to avoid getting stuck with too many of the crappier nations.