Global FL tournament !!

Global event are allways funny, but they’re pretty hard to plan and manage. If we really want to get this thing real we need to get this message to all freelancer players and (thats the harder part) we need to find a stable server to do this. But I see another problem. If pilots from all over the world connect to one server and fight in a tournament some of them will start to flame because of lag (that simply is going to appear, no doubt there). I don’t want to critizise you idea but we as a community need to plan this thing really good or it is going to collaps without the chance to start.

It is a good idea but past events failed at this scale because if people lose you get flame about

a) Ping
b) Ships used, no one gets their favorite modded ship and using vanilla favours vanilla players

What about goal based team events instead of free for all? So like ]Imperium[Thrawn suggested but with a goal bedsides just killing everyone. In fact, you could allow respawns and let everyone continue to participate until one team wins.

We’ve tried a few goal based team events on the Ioncross server and in my opinion they shift focus from twitch skills to tactics. My explanations is that distracting a player is just as useful as kill if it keeps him from helping with his team’s goal, and by harassing multiple attackers instead of getting into a concentrated fight with one of them a single light fighter can significantly reduce how much attacking ships can focus on their target.

So far the goal of the events has always been to destroy or protect a player in a heavily armoured capital ship, but we’ve discussed other goals such as search and rescue/destroy, station blockades, convoy escort, and nomad invasions. The difficulty with some is that they require an impartial player to fly a target ship, so they don’t just hide in a station or off 1000k above the system. And others require some modding, which we’re not willing to do for a one day event.

Just something for whoever can host a tournament to consider.

@Roo:

You need to balance the Tournaments for Modder ships and Vanilla. Why? Because some players wont join unless they get to use their favourite ship. But if you use modded ships, does this show favourtism to certain mods? Will you get permission to use those ships? Will certain servers not take part because you have missed some of their ships? Will you include events for Traders? What about races? Whats the prize (people will want one)?

You can’t please everyone. I know it sounds like an asinine thing to say, but it’s the truth - how do you ‘balance’ a tournament for modded ships and players? The number of Freelancer mods available, and the things that they change and tweak are near infinite.

How do you balance it? Simple. Create a new mod from scratch with 1 ship and 1 gun. Make the gun fire two missiles that explode after 0.1s, do -1 damage, and have blast radii of 10000m. See, perfectly balanced. ;D

Also, not very much fun.

Actually…
On second thought, that might be kind of fun. I guess I’d be willing to host a small tournament like that where players start in separate bases and have to hunt each other down and the last player standing (or players if there are two) move(s) on to the next round. Don’t suppose anyone would be interested?

@Tunicle:

It is a good idea but past events failed at this scale because if people lose you get flame about

a) Ping
b) Ships used, no one gets their favorite modded ship and using vanilla favours vanilla players

A good way to counter that would be to somply have a Home and Away type. same rules for both events, and the end scores are added up. simplez.

The ping part would be solved with this too.

@Sion:

@Roo:

You need to balance the Tournaments for Modder ships and Vanilla. Why? Because some players wont join unless they get to use their favourite ship. But if you use modded ships, does this show favourtism to certain mods? Will you get permission to use those ships? Will certain servers not take part because you have missed some of their ships? Will you include events for Traders? What about races? Whats the prize (people will want one)?

You can’t please everyone. I know it sounds like an asinine thing to say, but it’s the truth - how do you ‘balance’ a tournament for modded ships and players? The number of Freelancer mods available, and the things that they change and tweak are near infinite.

Thats exactly my point.

I was attempting to highlight the issues that would need addressing. Obviously I need to word my responses more clearly.

Guys, I also mentioned that instead of filling the thread with ideas, we should first wait to see what servers would be interested.

I know there are plenty of server tat will join in this, but like me i expect they re pessimistic about the idea until we actually see something more than just a discussion which will no doubt end in no results just like it has the last 4 times this idea has sprung up.

I really would like to see this happen, but theres so much to do to get it right.

@cheese:

@Tunicle:

It is a good idea but past events failed at this scale because if people lose you get flame about

a) Ping
b) Ships used, no one gets their favorite modded ship and using vanilla favours vanilla players

A good way to counter that would be to somply have a Home and Away type. same rules for both events, and the end scores are added up. simplez.

The ping part would be solved with this too.

Now this seems to be the best solution for the problem with the modded ships, but it will be hard to convince those who play on vanilla / slightly modded servers to PvP with modded ships since they might have no experience at all with them. The other way round it’s more likely that those who play on modded servers already used an eagle before.

A global tournament sounds good until you think really hard a moment about the differences between all the MODs and Vanilla Freelancer. Yes it is quite correct, I have used an Eagle on a vanilla before I discovered mods made the game much more interesting. It has been a really long time since I have, and I have not missed it.

But I have to disagree on the rest of the point as there is a lot more difference than the way the ships look. We all know that the handling, speed, aim and as a result tactics all vary from MOD to MOD and defiantly to vanilla. Maybe you should look instead to a New Unfamiliar to everyone Modified Compromise, so that no one group is so intimately familiar with it. Then we all learn about the new set of physics at the same time. Otherwise your just being unfair from the start to expect one group or other to adapt to the others familiar world quickly and compete.

Just my thoughts on a very interesting and possibly exciting event.

:evil grin: give everyone a coffin (starflier) and see how they go with that ;D

Why dont we do something like

make a single custom ship, everyone HAS to use it, the ship is made by one person alone and coded into to function, then we simply host that ship for everyone to use (maybe some other perks?) and a single server is used to host. This way it boils down to player skill, over the “im used to my ship”, this way everyone is in the same ball park =]

And the person whose ship most closely resembles the “default” ship would immediately gain advantage. No matter what ship handling/speed you give it, you’re bound to end up with a bracket of players having an advantage, if only due to it being similar to a ship they fly. This is a lot more true on modded servers because most of the people in vanilla fly Eagles or Sabres.

You’d also have to make custom weapons, etc. >.>

Granted, but that bracket of players is probably going to be the smallest it will get…

never really considered the idea - but i have seen it proposed…. after a little bit ( very little because i’ve never really stopped to consider it…) of thought, how about a small mod - single ship - waves of attackers - eventual destruction - most kills wins. At least in the beginning stages.
post the mod for practice for a while ( with a nice forum to get to know folks on and post regulation sized mod ads…) before the competition so all get the same amount of time for practice, let the competition go as long as needed for all interested to compete.
obviously this wouldn’t be pvp but it would be a judge of overall piloting skills,and it would avoid the team aspect - which maybe would attract those without enuff players for a team. It would keep players around the server watching (perhaps bringing folks together a little ), avoid server bragging rights ( which would perhaps splinter the community further ) and if there were upcoming contests for traders, clans, pvp, you name it… it could become a regular event where folks get to know others from other servers, and perhaps spread the freelancer fanatics out a little ( i know some will like that idea and some will not ) so folks get the desire to taste other mods. the whole " if i was in my **** ship i woulda won" inevitability could work in freelancers favor.
overall I think the idea could be used to inspire a more community feel to freelancer, and knowing there was another competiton coming could possibly avoid too much flaming ( especially if those who indulged in flaming had to sit out for a competiton or two…)
just my thoughts folks… whatever is decided - count on Lancerquest to advertise in great big letters - The Fish would gladly make and post some ads around the gaming community !! ;D
I’m not sure about the prize idea beyond sig badges for the winners… hate to see it all happen once then disappear cause noones coughing up for prizes…
Bring on the THUNDERDOME … lol

@Grey:

Maybe you should look instead to a New Unfamiliar to everyone Modified Compromise

I think forcing people to make use of completely unfamiliar weapons while flying completely unfamiliar ships with unfamiliar handling and similarly unfamiliar mechanics would be a major downer for most of the potentially interested parties…

It has been mentioned several times before in this thread, but I think it bears repeating: the scope of changes made to the game in the various mods that have surfaced are near infinite - to the point that I’ve seen one mod (the name escapes me) that made reverse thrusting impossible, which as I’m sure any experienced PvP player could tell you, changes combat dynamics a whole floogin’ lot.

Instead of agonizing over what is, in my opinion, the search for an answer that does not - can not - exist, I believe it’d be much simpler and much more sensible to simply organize any potential global tournament into brackets. One bracket for stubborn old militant Vanilla FL nazis like myself, and one bracket for each mod that is able to scrap up a minimum of X players willing to dedicate themselves as being willing and able to participate… desertion may be punished with death, etc. I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but I’ve spent years honing my skills on my platform of choice - just as followers of the Discovery mod/etc have done on their respective servers… if I’m to participate in a tournament, I’d much rather be able to participate using the full extent of the skills that I’ve spent so long acquiring than grope around in a configuration that is unknown, and potentially unwanted.

Of course, even with that there still remains the issue of lag and other such problems… for which I am much too tired to even ponder at for a single fleeting moment.

Just my take on the matter.

Hmm i have to look at the hardware i have currently availeble… but i do believe i have a spare 100mbit lying around somewhere wich i could put availeble for a contest enviroment.

I think the best i can offer on hardware is a old 2.8 p4 i think.

I like Sion’s take on this. A single mod can’t possibly be selected, but seperate brackets could be fun. Perhaps, in the end, the winners of each bracket would be paired with someone else in another mod, and those two would have to take turns fighting in each mod (“home game” and “away game”, heh). If nothing else, it’d probably be fairly interesting.

There is one other option worth consideration as well. Let this be a type of Grand Prix event that goes for several weeks or a few months if needed.

Every MOD and un-Moded Server that can and is willing to participate provides a Single System, Single Pre-Configured Ship Challenge. All agree to referee and accept a equal number of outside impartial umpires for the event to remove any cloud of bias for local players. The referee(s) and Umpire(s) then grant points based on number of kills, and or additional other items, so long as it is identical criteria that is used across all servers.

Then all players whom wish to compete join and obtain the exact same ship setup at each competition. Set dates and times for each respective Server Event, use care to allow participation in all events - no overlapping or closely spaced times. Maintain the ongoing Points Standings on a leader Board on Starpot for example. And declare winner at end of Grand Prix based on the overall points gained.

Maybe this or a modified form of it would work?

It would certainly expose a lot of participating players to a wide variety of Freelancer servers and MOD’s. Many will see that as a exciting part of competing.