Gaming Update #33

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Gaming Update #33

Another long report. Contained within are some of my thoughts on Gaming, ROC Gaming Ban Clarification, and updates on many other projects. There's also some followup information on the hotly debated D3 CF change I mentioned in my last report. And the first of the Tier 2 Platforms to hit the retirement chopping block. Standard Competition Listings and Results as always!

Some of my Random Thoughts on Gaming

I posted this in a recent thread related to the new Dark Sage degrees, but thought the first part of the writeup gave some insight into how I view gaming within the Club so I figured I would repost it here.

I agree that large quantities of CFs are generally gained through PVE, instead of PVP. I think part of this is because the general mindset of the club at this time is more in favor of PVE games than 1v1 PVP battles. Newer games tend to provide more incentive to play co-operative PVP Battles when they are implemented (Warzones). Consider TOR, is there any real in game incentive to dueling? What about Diablo 3 Brawling? So the only reason a person would duel is either for bragging rights or they really enjoy it. Chances are the battles will end up pretty one sided and there will be no gear / exp gained from them to advance your character, so how many people would duel for 4 or 5 hours if caps were even removed for matches? Groups will often play for that long when facing PVE content together though. There's generally no in game carrot for 1v1 Dueling, the only thing is CFs and the weekly PoB.

My honest opinion as a gamer is that 1v1 dueling is slowly fading away. Team PVP is where its at now, what games typically reward, and where games will continue to move as they are developed, Destiny doesn't even have a dueling mechanic. With current game Matchmaking set the way it is (you can only organize your Team, not pick the Team you face) the vast majority of new games do not support Team PVP in a way that the Club traditionally views it. That creates a problem for us.

I also think the popularity of PVE over 1v1 PVP right now is because our most prolific PVP Platform (JA) is 10 years old. Unfortunately I can't design a "Next Gen" Lightsaber Dueling game for us. I hope that Battlefront 3 will bring us something, or anything, that will fill this gap for 1v1 duels or organized Team battles. My fear is that even if it does the system requirement and pricetag on Battlefront 3 will be set at a place which make it unrealistic to expect to replace JA within the Club, as basically any computer can run JA right now and $10 price won't be beat.

Projects Update

ROC Gaming Ban Clarification

The ROC refers to a Gaming Ban on several topics, this is a fairly simple concept related to how we do Club PVP Gaming however it hadn't been defined how a Gaming Ban would impact PVE Gaming. So, after gaining alignment with the Justicar and Hands, the following explanation will be added to the ROC:

Gaming Ban Definition
  • PVP Gaming (i.e. Club Member Duels) - No PVP Gaming will be permitted for the duration of the Gaming Ban.
  • PVE Gaming - No CFs will be earned for the duration of the Gaming Ban. The member who has been banned will not count as a second member for others to earn CF with when grouped. Examples follow:
    • DJK Joe is banned. DJK Joe and JH Tom complete a TOR Flashpoint. Neither of them can earn CFs from this activity.
    • DJK Joe is banned. DJK Joe, JH Tom, and DA Slick complete a TOR Warzone. JH Tom and DA Slick will earn CFs from this activity.

The simple version is that for purposes of earning CFs the banned member should be considered as if they were not a DB Club member while gaming in PVE.

DBGaming, Gaming Nights, and Dbb0t

Coding is underway for improved Dbb0t. As all of his systems come online I have a change to the way Gaming Night PoBs will work until he is fully operational.

Starting today the Weekly PoB will be awarded for matches from Sunday to Friday. A second PoB will be awarded for Saturday matches, consider this a "Gaming Day". Time will be based on GMT just like competitions, so Friday at 7pm EST the "Gaming Day" will begin and conclude at 7pm EST Saturday.

The requirement for at least 5 members to compete on Saturday for a PoB to be rewarded will remain though, if it's not met the matches will be rolled into the rest of the week.

ROC Rule Clarification (aka Operation "Play JST 4 Fun")

We have focused around clarifying and providing examples around the Unsportsmanlike Conduct section of the ROC to accomplish this project. As the CoJ's case load is atypically high this project is taking a bit of a back seat until things calm a bit. More updates to follow in the coming weeks.

Non-GJW Games/Platforms during a GJW

The most popular suggestion on the Forum thread was to create a new IRC Channel specifically for Vendettas. I'll be pursueing this option as we move forward, and clearing up some of the GJW / Vendetta sections of the ROC to reflect that once we have an established channel.

Diablo 3 CF Table Review

This was a hotly debated topic last report. After some discussion and testing (details follow) it looks like we need to take a much different approach here.

There were concerns that my numbers were based on a highly geared minority of Club members in Diablo 3. They absolutely were, frankly my main goal was to nerf myself to be in line with the CF rewards from other games. That had the unintentional side effect of crushing any normally geared person's CF earning potential. With TOR we've tried to normalize based on a character with a set of "Basic Commendation" gear. So between my last report and now I attempted this in Diablo 3.

My "Basic" gear was defined as a full class set of lvl 70 gear, with non-ideal rolls on it. Luckily I have a Crusader who is geared exactly like that. After some testing I found some surprising results. Torment 6 Bounties destroyed me, Torment 6 Rifts were impossible, and I was able to run solo up to Greater Rift 14 or 15. Compare this to my Demon Hunter who can clear a Torment 6 Rift in 3-4 minutes, the gear disparity is huge in Diablo 3.

Ideas were proposed around new Soft Caps for CFs. Where the number of elites killed gave diminishing returns on CFs. I've considered this, but ultimately this will just create a higher cap for geared characters than ungeared. My Demon Hunter will be able to maintain a faster CF generation rate for longer than my Crusader, allowing him to earn more time viable CFs than a ungeared character.

I heard ideas related to modifying the amount of CFs earned based on the Paragon Level of a person, with higher Paragon earning less CF per elite. That focused around the assumption that higher Paragon meant better gear and that a person would never switch characters and need to re-gear.

Ultimately I ended up in a place where I've been thinking about lowering the 210 CF Weekly Hard Cap for Diablo 3. I'm yet to find a way to keep CF earning even between moderate and high geared characters. I honestly am fairly certain it doesn't exist. By lowering the Hard Cap it creates a more attainable number for moderately geared folks, and keeps highly geared folks from crushing their way to a very high cap like 210 CF.

As of now I'm thinking about a 33% to 50% drop in the cap, so between 105 CF and 140 CF as the new cap. I'm open to other ideas, but right now I'm planning for this to be implemented on April 1st. If we can find a better way to even rewards I'm all for it, but this will help to keep things from getting out of hand until we do, or in case we never find it.

February's Gaming Stats

  • Total PVE Activities Reviewed and Approved by Fist Staff: 111

    • Diablo 3: 41
    • Star Conflict: 32
    • TOR: 29
    • Destiny: 9
  • Total PVP Activities Reviewed and Approved by Fist Staff: 322

    • Pazaak: 300
    • Jedi Academy: 13
    • X-Wing: 8
    • Empire at War: 1

The Tier 2 Chopping Block Gaming Platforms

As a refresher, for anyone who's missed it: Any Tier 2 Game (except Star Wars Games) which has no matches submitted in a 12 month period may be removed after notification of this game's "Near Retirement" status in a Fist Report and no earlier than one month after the Report is published.

As of today Alien vs Predator and Path of Exile are on the Near Retirement chopping block. If there are no matches played on either of them within the next month they will be retired.

March Gaming Competitions

MOAR Gorefest!

Due to the GJW taking up most of January and February I postponed some Gorefest Events. Now we're playing catch up. There is one Gorefest left in March (for February) and two in April (for March and April). Dates are as follows:

  • Friday 27Mar2015 - Sunday 29Mar2015: February Gorefest
  • Friday 10Apr2015 - Sunday 12Apr2015: March Gorefest
  • Friday 24Apr2015 - Sunday 26Apr2015: April Gorefest

Gaming Competition Results

GMRG Gorefest: January 2015 (in March)
  • 1st Place - JH Artorias
  • 2nd Place - DJK Drake Starfire
  • 3rd Place - DJK Anahorn Dempsey
Mobile Gaming: Ice Rage
  • 1st Place - PAD Justin Wayne
  • 2nd Place - GRD Chrome
  • 3rd Place - DA Strategos
Star Wars Commander: Secret Alliances
  • 1st Place - DJK Ulfsark
  • 2nd Place - SW Misium
  • 3rd Place - SBM Evant
Star Wars Commander: Galactic War Tournament 5
  • 1st Place - DJK Ra'gnar
  • 2nd Place - OT Talon Drear
  • 3rd Place - DJK Aule Jr
Star Wars Galactic Defense: Legends of Endor
  • 1st Place - SBL Montressor
  • 2nd Place - SR Seraphol Ceartas
  • 3rd Place - SBL Raiju Kang
Star Wars Galactic Defense: Fierce Enemies
  • 1st Place - SBL Montressor
  • 2nd Place - SW Kenath Zoron
  • 3rd Place - SW Misium
Star Wars Galactic Defense: Jedi Hunt
  • 1st Place - SBL Montressor
  • 2nd Place - PAD Jabis Ravenhawk
  • 3rd Place - SBL Raiju Kang
Star Wars Commander: Roolan's Wrath
  • 1st Place - OT Talon Drear
  • 2nd Place - DJK Ulfsark
  • 3rd Place - SW Misium
Star Wars Commander: Galactic War Tournament 6
  • 1st Place - DP Telaris "Mav" Taldrya Cantor
  • 2nd Place - DJK Aule Jr
  • 3rd Place - DJK Landon Cruise

Pendants of Blood

  • 01Mar2015 - 07Mar2015: OE Frosty Romanae Tarentae of Clan Tarentum, PVP Score of 30.63 (49 Matches Played, 39 Matches Won)
  • 08Mar2015 - 14Mar2015: JH Artorias of Clan Taldryan, PVP Score of 41 (41 Matches Played, 41 Matches Won)

Woo dbb0t!

Very informative report Val!

Ernordeth is paid to make that comment after each report... ;)

Gaming looks great man, really happy with the changes being made. I can't wait for the games from this year to be further incorporated for use.

Also if you could teleport into the future and bring us all back a few copies of Battlefront that would be great...

Who wants to save AvP from retirement with me? :D #saveAvP

Heh I played it before but don't have it anymore

I also hope Battlefront modernizes DB gaming, but it will be priced high (there are already rumors about the Ep 7 DLC they will be releasing within the first month) and we still don't know how multiplayer servers will work (will I need to buy the PC version when I own an Xbox One?). Still, exciting times ahead!

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