Ektrosis QUA Report #16 - Above and Beyond?

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Ektrosis QUA Report #16 - Above and Beyond?

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The End is Nigh!

What end you ask? Why, the end of Fading Light! There is only about 4 days left to get all of those entries in. I have been sending out daily e-mails to the Taldryan mailing list, but if you’ve missed them you can catch all of that information along with a little more at the Fading Light Folder.

We will have a nice rest once this is all done, so push yourselves for that last mile. Victory is completely in our hands. We can win this thing outright. All of you need to play a part in this, so get those submissions in!

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A New Knight Rises

Catmatui, or just Cat to the rest of us, has been an active member of Taldryan from the moment she joined. As such, it is a great pleasure to announce that she has reached the heights of Dark Jedi Knight! Her activity has been astounding, and her Master, Raist, has done a great job in preparing her for this moment.

Once again, congratulations go out to Cat and I know I’m looking forward to seeing her get into those Equite ranks next!

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Buy the Greatest Game Ever!

It’s been thrown up on the DB site, but this news should be repeated ad nauseam. TIE Fighter, the greatest game ever, is now available for download from the website Good ‘ol Games. Along with TIE Fighter you can also pick up the original X-Wing and even Knights of the Old Republic. While old, these games are honestly fantastic and they’re all DRM-free if bought through here. I am very much looking forward to getting reacquainted with TIE.

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Wide World of DB

The position of Professor of the CORE courses is now open. Head on over to the Headmaster’s Report to find out more information on what you need to apply (and no, 8 hour-turnaround is not a real thing).

A lot of gaming information was updated in the latest Fist Report. I guess the biggest news is that Destiny is now a platform for the DB…but SW-specific platforms will get nerfed to balance things out, apparently.

There was also some news about match dodging and what not during Fading Light. Like in most Vendettas, people get overzealous in things. Just remember, don’t dodge a match if someone asks you specifically to play, but also don’t act like a dick to others just because you’re losing. No one likes a sore loser.

So, apparently the DC were on a drunken-bender and decided to give Yacks the job of Tribune of Recruitment. Honestly, Yacks has a lot of great ideas for this important role and he’s already started getting things implemented. It’s great seeing someone with specific plans and goals working on a project such as this. I’m sure he’ll be releasing something to the public soon.

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Reports: Above and Beyond?

We here in Taldryan-land are always preaching communication. We believe one of the key tenets of leadership is ensuring that we are communicating effectively with our members. One of the tools we use in communicating with others are regular reports. As such, I was really please to see a report writing competition. It seemed fairly simple too. Each week the DGM would choose the “best report” and give them a crescent. Apparently, we are all so terrible that it took 4 weeks for there to be a report worthy of a crescent (even though no criteria was given to base anything on).

Week 1 (Sept. 28 - Oct. 4)
Scholae QUA Report
Taldryan CON Report
Shar Dakhan AED Report
Devil’s Shroud BTL Report
Karness Muur AED Report
Ektrosis AED Report
Scholae AED Report
Disciples of Dreypa BTL Report
Taldryan PCON Report
Marka Ragnos QUA Report
Odan-Urr AED Report
Arete BTL Report
Marka Ragnos AED Report
Ektrosis AED Report

Week 2 (Oct. 5 - Oct. 11)
Disciples of Baas BTL Report
Plagueis CON Report
Caliburnus BTL Report
Harbingers BTL Report
Wardens Report
Soulfire BTL Report
Dinaari QUA Report
Taldryan PCON Report
Tarentum QUA Report
Nighthawk BTL Report
Ajunta Pall QUA Report
Naga Sadow CON Report
Dark Forge BTL Report

Week 3 (Oct. 12 - Oct. 18)
Harbingers BTL Report
Naga Sadow RM Report
Ektrosis QUA Report
Knights of Allusis BTL Report
Arete BTL Report
Plagueis RM Report
Arcona CON Report

Week 4 (Oct. 19 - Oct. 25)
Wardens BTL Report
Tarentum RM Report
Harbingers BTL Report
Odan-Urr RM Report
Ektrosis AED Report
Soulfire BTL Report
Qel-Droma AED Report <- We have a winner!
Naga Sadow CON Report

So, in the first 3 weeks of the competition (as per the competition page) there were 34 reports, and not a single one met the invisible criteria for the report competition. It took the 4th week for a winner to be crowned. While the report that won was very solid and well done, I also believe that within those other 34 reports we could find a few that would at least match the same level as the first winner. However, apparently that is not the case. When asked about missing the previous 3 weeks, the DGM responded with “Malik, I'll only award reports when I view them as above and beyond. So to answer your question, no. But thanks for the spot check, I appreciate your dedication to keeping is all honest.”

So, I guess this means almost all of us are doing a bad job at reports. I guess we all need to try harder so that we go “Above and Beyond”.

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All the Activity!

Catmatui
* Promoted to Dark Jedi Knight!
* Awarded a Cluster of Fire x9
* Earned a Dark Maven
* Passed Combat Tactics I
* Passed Advanced Lightsaber
* Passed Hand-to-Hand Combat

Howlader Taldryan
* Awarded a Crescent with Ruby Star
* Awarded a Crescent with Sapphire Star
* Awarded a Cluster of Fire x67
* Elevated to GMRG VII

Kenath Zoron
* Awarded a Crescent with Emerald Star
* Awarded a Crescent with Sapphire Star
* Awarded a Cluster of Fire x5

Raistline Majere
* Awarded a Crescent with Topaz Star
* Awarded a Cluster of Fire x136
* Awarded a Scroll of the Master
* Passed Combat Tactics I

Halcyon Rokir Taldrya
* Awarded a Crescent with Sapphire Star
* Awarded a Cluster of Fire x6

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All the Competitions!

Fading Light
* Nicht Ka - Fiction
* Nicht Ka - Trivia
* Nicht Ka - GFX
* Nicht Ka - Puzzle
* Nicht Ka - Gaming

Clan Taldryan
* Hunt the Jedi #16

DB-Wide
* Cap This 2
* Halloween: Star Wars
* General Gaming: Loot Cave Simulator
* Monthly Mobile Gaming: Ninjump

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Le Fin

As always, feel free to e-mail me any questions or comments you may have, or alternatively, just bug me on IRC if I’m around.

Signed,
DP Halcyon Rokir Taldrya
Quaestor of Ektrosis

I call bullshit. Rax's reports were brilliant. :P

Time to go abover and beyonder!

SWL Malik Sadow says: Time to go abover and beyonder!

To...infinity and beyond? :P

Balancing Pazaak to meet the same award per time spent rate as JA (another Star Wars game which is our CF baseline) is kind of different from nerfing it. Unless you're a glass half empty person, I guess.

Regarding Destiny... Sorry for giving the Clubs gamers a new platform they like? Not really :p

Concerning Pazaak and JA...there is not that much of a discrepancy between the two to warrant a "balancing". While on average Pazaak would be faster, it is not to the point that it truly hurts those playing JA, especially the more skilled players. It just seems like an overcompensation due to the current Vendetta and having some people be able to win it by spamming Pazaak over other games. The time differential between the two is small. It's not the same as when balancing needed to occur for things like Battlefront and Empire at War. And because JA is used as a baseline, it means Pazaak does get "nerfed" in comparison to all other games (including non-SW ones) since they too use JA as a baseline. I think Pazaak, an honest-to-goodness Star Wars game getting a handful more CFs over the course of a lot of games is fine and dandy.

As for Destiny...my issue is why even limit games then? Why choose one game over another? There are a lot of other popular games out there for all sorts of platforms..why not play those too? Why not play everything? OR, just get rid of all gaming in general. Honestly, we're not a gaming club. People will play games they want to play. I'm all for making squads and groups and such for people to play together if they wish since we do spend so much time together, but it doesn't mean we need to award everyone for what they do in their spare time. Just...do away with "general" gaming for the most part. Everyone once in awhile run actual gaming competitions for SW games (mobile, PC, whatever). A ladder here, a bracket-thing there, etc, etc...when new SW games are released, run competitions around those. TOR and the Guild should still be a thing, but that's a very unique type of game and would need to be treated differently in general. I just believe an actual shake-up of how gaming is done in this club has been needed for a very long time.

However, if you want to keep things as-is for the most part, then again just change how all these non-SW games are accounted for. Rather than trying to compare them to our baseline, just make a general rule for things. If it's PVP related, then just follow general PVP rules of JA (regardless of game). Stick to only games that have PvP functionality and do away with "mission-based" CF awarding. And do away with PoB awards for these games. I've personally found some of these games cater to a select group, who are then able to earn a disproportionate amount of CFs and PoBs for them. Just make it simple, straight-forward and open it up to all the things if the goal is to offer choice to people.

But yeah, not going to debate things further. That's my two cents. Take it as you will or just throw some snark back at it. Either/or is fine. Used to both :P

12 JA matches takes an average of an hour to play.

12 Pazaak Matches take an average of 30 minutes to play.

That's more than a small time difference. It's rewarding at double the rate of baseline. Check over DB Gaming logs if you think my times are off. Or ask Dante, Delak, or anyone else who has played many JA matches during this event if they feel it's even with Pazaak.

I'm too "new" to really comment much, but I noticed that playing D3 vs Pazaak; I get way further with playing 4 - 5 games of pazaak over 2 - 3 hours of slaving in D3 for CFs. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Seems as though it's an easy balance; knock pazaak to half... but what do I know.

The difference between Diablo 3/Destiny is that they're not star wars games - and yeah, for a Star Wars club? That matters.

I think Val's done a good job differentiating them with the different between Tier 1 and Tier 2 gaming.

^ Agreed. While it's important to encourage any games that brings DB members together, we remain a Star Wars club and should highlight those more. This sucks right now since no new Star Wars games have released in a while, but......Battlefront Holiday 2015!

Wooo for an outsider lightie throwing their two cents in. What happened to the ability to use EaW and BF2 as tier 1 games? I assume it was due to the centralized MP server going offline. If that is so, GameRanger has set up servers used for those. Also I enjoy playing D3, and the fact I can get CFs in it is great. If you took out the CFs for it, I would still regardless, but it makes it nice that you can have a broad platforms of games to play.

I dont think we need to limit ourselves gaming wise at the risk of alienating those who are here to game. We arent solely a "Gaming group" or "writing/RP group" more of a brotherhood that exists off both those.

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