Players,
Round 2 signups are almost complete. Four more players to join. Some of you that have joined also need to get your empire files uploaded.
If you were paying attention you may have noticed I hinted at some possible format changes a few days ago. I am ready to tell you what that is now. It's not anything too drastic, but they are changes.
There was some in depth discussion about ways to speed the tournament up. Mainly the suggestion was made to keep the players separated into two Groups, and allow each group to start the next round as soon as they completed the current one. While this is not a bad suggestion, and it is one I considered prior to the start of round one, I decided against it for two reasons.
First and foremost, I wanted you to be able to pick which game you are in as long as the tournament is large enough to force more than one game. This allows you the maximum flexibility to play with, or against, or to avoid particular people if you wish to in the early rounds of the tournament.
The second reason is while the current format is likely to be a small amount longer in total, the difference will be not that great, and the amount of time any one particular person would have to sit idle would be split up into smaller, more manageable chunks between each round. Instead of half the players sitting idle for weeks or months between rounds 10 and 11.
That being said I am making some changes to hopefully compromise a bit and speed things up somewhat, without radically altering the tournament format or taking away your freedom of choice.
First of all, starting now and until further notice if you are going to miss more than THREE consecutive game turns, you must notify me by email AND the other players by posting something in the game forum. The old rule was five turns. That is now THREE turns.
PLEASE NOTE, this DOES NOT mean you can't miss more than three turns. I understand people have lives, have vacations, get sick, etc. I am not being unreasonable. All I am saying is you have to miss turns, let us know so we don't wait all that time wondering if you are coming back, only to have you never come back. It happens. It happened twice in the first round.
The second change is this. I call it the "second chance protocol". Starting with round 2 and continuing until further notice if a player is eliminated due to abandoning the game during the first 20 turns, we will continue playing that game until one of the following occurs:
A second player is eliminated due to abandoning the game.
or
One or more players are eliminated through actual in game annihilation/surrender.
Once the next player is eliminated from that game either before or after the 20th round, that game will end.
If a player is eliminated due to in game annihilation/surrender prior to round 20 and no one in that game has been eliminated due to abandonment prior to that point, the game will stop at that point.
If more than one player is eliminated by any means on the same turn, that game will cease at that point.
If a player leaves a game due to abandonment before the 20th turn and the game excersices the "Second Chance Protocol" I will take over that empire and eliminate them in game by scrapping ships and abandoning colonies.
I am aware this may result in slight discrepancies between games as far as the number of players are concerned. I do not think it is critical as at most it will result in one extra person being eliminated from one game. I think that slight discrepancy is worth the time that will be saved off the end of the tournament.
One other thing. This isn't really a change, but a clarification. I mention it because it almost happened in round 1. If a player is eliminated due to abandonment (excluding the conditions detailed above), the game is declared over at the moment the turn commences processing the third consecutive turn missed without notice. If an in game elimination were to occur during that turn as it processes, the person that would have been eliminated will be deemed not to have been eliminated. The reason is that none of the subsequent processing of the turn is relevant due to the fact that the game was declared over the moment the turn commenced processing. (That's a fancy way of saying, "Ties go to the runner.
)
Let's get those empires loaded. And have fun!
Geoschmo
Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
this way they can make it happen.
Linear Mode
