So, seriously. Wow, right? Everyone who worked on the new character sheets did a pimptastic job. I'm sure Shadow will have much bending and thrusting for them in the next few weeks.
Yep, these new sheets and changes affect the ACC. How? Well, for starters, new Attributes mean new stuff. Force issues are no longer weighed off of Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma directly. New powers mean new stuff; the old powers should no longer be used, and the new ones need to be put into the ACC Compendium. So much new stuff means new stuff; the ACC needs a new Compendium. Wow, lots of newness and changes needing to be made, right? Yep.
So here's the thing. I'm just going to quickly go over what's in store.
1) Qualification. I want to make it as easy to qualify as possible for a quick holiday give away-type competition. The ACC, by way of Sarin, Muz and myself, want to give you your qualified rank quickly, and hopefully with as much fun as possible. To that end, starting next Friday and going until one week prior to the release of the GJW, you can request the Vendetta rank and fight anyone within your own Clan. All you have to do is show that you have basic skills and understanding of the ACC (which means writing skill, the ability to compare stats, and the ability to write realistically according to Star Wars), and you qualify. Yay, right? Battles must be 4+2, but only a minimum word count of 400 words per post needs to be met. I want to see some work put into it, but not too much. Just have some fun. Make the fight whatever you want. Does it have to be serious? Nope. I will be creating a "Clan Qualifying Give Away" Hall in each Clan Hall, and that is where you will be qualifying at. Start talking to your Clan members now.
2) Rules. A bit of an adaptation will be made to the rules. Writing Quality, Realism and Continuity are out. Writing Quality, Realism and Creativity are the new standard. More details on how they will be judged for your fights will be released. Continuity is related to Realism; if you're not following post continuity, you are not writing according to the realism for that fight. Stuff like that. Should you worry about it? Not really. But having a grading criteria that rewards you for being creative and thinking outside the box should help, in my opinion.
3) Write-ups and such. I'm going to be talking to Sarin and Kaek about what rewards should be given away, but I'm going to allow people to help write up pieces of the new ACC Compendium and get rewards of varying levels for varying amounts of work. Anything from a Dark Cross to a Grand Cross is what I'm thinking about right now, but will be tempered by input from those gentlemen.
4) Training and Qualification After the GJW. What I want to do is get in touch with the Consuls (and I will this afternoon), and start working on turning the majority of Training over to the Clans. Your Summits know what is desired in Training, and each Clan has experienced members who can, and want to, do the job for their Clan. No "junior trainer" stuff. Actual Trainers that only take battles from their own Clan's members. There will still be a couple of ACC-wide Trainers who want to help out when one Clan's Trainers are swamped, or whatever. More info on this later.
5) ACC Competition. I've got stuff in the planning. Due to the proximity of the GJW, what I had wanted to do as a Holiday Blowout Give Away will be put on hold. However, in the future after the GJW, there is probably going to be a cooperative competition within the ACC, hopefully with some killer prizes for Clans and Individuals.
Yeah, lots of changes to the ACC, but now is really the proper time to either implement them, or start them. The new sheets allow for so much, it's just cool to be able to make use of it. I'd also like to change how ranks are handled, as well as championships, but that's still in the works. I don't think we need so many ranks, and I think steps between ranks should come with more than a single point. Championships should be contested regularly, and you should gain bonuses for "keeping the belt."
So, lots of stuff in the works. But have some fun and stay away from Shadow's corner. It's likely a big sticky mess by now.
You need to be logged in to post comments
Excellent. Very pleased to see that qualification will be simplified from here on out. Way to go!
What with the easier to qualify rules... do people still have to complete the ACC Initiates exam?
I think the exam became obsolete about 2 days ago when the site came back up :P
Someone will have to write a new one or at least modify the current one heavily.
Go figure. I have been in the process of writing a new one since I became CM. The easier process? Well, here's what I'd rather have happen. I'd rather not have people have to go through several "failed" battles to qualify. I'd rather not have people need to take weeks to qualify.
This "holiday give away" competition isn't meant to "take it easy on initiates," just help them qualify in a different way. Anyone who is obviously needing work will not be qualified. There's rules that will be posted. But I'm hoping that, by having people team up with their own Clan members, it will mean a veteran Clan member will take an interest in getting another Clan member qualified, give them pointers, work with them, etc.
That will then come into play with Clan Trainers taking on their own Clan members for qualification and training, having a vested interest in these new members. And, since I have faith in members who will be selected as Clan Trainers, and complete faith in the Clans' Summits knowing how to oversee it, I don't worry too much.
The new Initiates Test that I am writing is going to be a comprehensive test. It will require people to actually go through, evaluate stats, critique posts, learn the rules by having to "judge" test battles by them, and then writing up a few posts based on those battles, and those characters. My desire will be that anyone scoring a perfect 100 on the comprehensive exam will be automatically qualified.
Will it work out that way in the end? No idea. But that's the idea for now, and we'll see how it turns out. I don't want to "dumb down" the qualification process at all. What I do want to do, however, is speed it up, and make it more useful and purposeful, and keep Initiates flowing into active membership as steadily as possible. There's always room for advancement and improvement, so that's where I'm trying to head with this. Hopefully it works out.