STATE OF ALTEIL, JAN 2010

[DWildstar]

Question DWildStar. If we discuss the point card / FM lotto stuff in those threads, will the GMs make any comment on them?

My point is that posting it in here doesn't make it any *more* likely that there will be a response so we might as well keep it on topic. Some people seem to think that making new threads about old issues draws more attention, and that replies to old threads aren't read at all but we read everything.

[icewolf33]

Beginner's Packs, sweet! What would be really awesome is if there was a "beginner's pack" per set that contained the MVP 1* and 2*s for that set, or something similar. Really looking forward to this either way.

I had two ideas for tournaments. If there is more discussion, maybe I will kick into new thread. Both ideas are to make a more level playing field, just for the tournies. First idea is obvious: rarity-limited tournament, players can only use 1*s and cards that appear in starters (okay if they're not shielded in your decks, ofc).

Second idea is: tournament with unlimited access to cards! I know, I know, this might have to wait until programming support for tournaments kicks in, but maybe there is some kludge you could do with shielded cards. (Make a starter with shielded versions of all the cards, let all players switch to it for the tournament, and then let them all switch back after? I guess the third part might require programming to catch exploiters.)

What formats have there been for tournaments in the past? Or is it usually just like Folrart, but with a bracket structure and so on?

[Arakis]

The official tournaments we ran in 2008 followed one of two formats: all cards, or sealed deck. Some of these were run using the star system, in which everyone starts with 5 stars, and winners of matches take 1 star from the loser. The ultimate winner was whoever had the most stars after X amount of time. Some of the tournies were pure win %-based.

The GM-sponsored player-run tournaments have largely been based on the concepts put forth through Arakis' Quest, such as only 1* cards (so that one's been done once already), only AGI 3 cards, etc. These tournaments were run on a winners/losers bracket system.

[Tendo]

Hope there will be regular tournaments in the future: just grinding folrat is boring anyway. Some people like me only play folrat like 1-2 times a week for the bonus gran.

I really like the tourny with stars back in the day: the only thing I would change is the amount of matches you can play. You could limit it to 10-12 matches for a weekend and count the stars and winning percentage on monday for the results. I really like the automated tournys using the ingame option instead of player organzied ones (they are to confusing at times and are limited to 1 day, where you have to be there for several hours...)

[neviscus]

I like it! I have liked the idea of achievements since someone brought it up! can't wait to see how this year goes.

[Cytrik]

D-d-d-d-diggin' what I'm reading, Arakis!

Although I would like to see some more mini-games with gran-based rewards that are neither poor to give nor so insanely hard that only unemployed psychopaths (YAHTZEE!) can get the daily "grand" prize.

I'm not too excited about Beginner's packs, but meh. However, I think more and new EX packs would be super sweet. Heck, maybe even late summer another EX lottery should be put up. That idea seemed to shine to me. Day of I saw some EX cards I didn't know about because I only joined the game a month before. Kinda glad about fewer releases since The Internet at my college is so slow (like molasses in January in Alaska) that I can't even run the shop program. But I can give Alteil money... How does this evil prevail?

ORGANIZED PLAY!!!!!!!! ... ... ............... Huh? *Reads posts.* Ah, tourny stuff. Super cool. I'm in. Hopefully.

Secret Projects? Tasty.

P.S. I love my Bringer. He's so deadly and cuddly. Right, Person-I-beat-using-him-and-came-back-to-win-when-I-had-1-LP-versus-your-4-LP?

P.P.S. Horray for new stuff. Go, !!! When is Alteil II coming out?

[Arakis]

I agree that if we have another star-based tournament, we should limit how many times any one account can enter. In the one(s) we had in the past, players could just re-register (the star tournies had no entry fee) as many times as they wanted if they lost all their stars. Because of that, whoever had the most time to play that weekend could just grind away and take stars from the same players over and over. I think that if there are only 5 stars per account, period, it would result in more of a true sense of there being a winner at the end.

I also agree that using the Tournament section of the game has advantages, for the reasons mentioned in an above post. Brackets are fun, but when they're done by hand it involves a lot of waiting around and possibly confusion for most of those who entered. I just hope the Tournament interface can be customized to accept different parameters (like only 1*), because that would eliminate having to rely on the honor system when it comes to contestants following the rules while the tournament is underway.

As for Alteil II, hopefully it will never need to come out for US Alteil. The main reason it was released in Japan was that, given the massive power creep original JP Alteil was suffering, the folks running it decided it made more sense to revamp the backend and interface, and at the same time start over from scratch. Or close to it, as only a few Alteil I cards were imported to Alteil II. With US Alteil, the goal is to never reach a point where the game is so broken it needs a reset. That's why we incorporated some of the Alteil II system improvements last summer. Hopefully our version is here to stay, and will only continue to expand over time.

[ANIMEniac]

The tourny system really hit a sour spot for me. Tournament are usually known for pitting the "best of the best". However, the tourny system allowed favored those who played a lot or were "sneaky" enough to pull wins.
The High star collecting of course favors those who can play and gain as many wins as possible.
The best ratio is a bit trickier, but not far from being "dodgy". At the start there is a big competition over the arena. However, as the time went on, less people played. Generally the first few hours are packed by the high competitive players. Once they have knocked most of each other out, some joined later to try again in a much less competitive field. Not to mention you can try to avoid certain players by looking at who is fighting who.

The organized tourny are more "fair'. Everyone plays the same number of games and players of equal rating are paired with one another. This keeps the tourny based on merit rather than lucky match-ups and/or grind.

[Peralisc2]

Question DWildStar. If we discuss the point card / FM lotto stuff in those threads, will the GMs make any comment on them?

They do read them, although they forget who posted and also forget a bit what exactly was posted?

I’ve been going through the suggestions in the forum, and something like a limited “File Rental” system might be good. I also like the Mini-boss idea, but in reverse. Maybe instead of high level players being mini-bosses, a low level player could take on the role (and the File) of a powerful and unusual mini-boss for a short time to challenge some high level players. (Note, I’m too tired to look it up right now, but if the above were originally your ideas, feel free to claim credit in this thread)

I thought you completely ignored those. But glad to see you guys thought a bit about it.

Don't know what exactly multi suggested and don't want to discredit him or anyone else, but here's what i suggested in case you didn't take good notes and want to remember:
- being able to pay say 5 - 15$, to rent for an entire month certain cards. Just examples: They can be all 1-3 stars of a certain set or sphere (with limitations to 3-5 sets).
It's something very common in games, you pay for example monthly fee for wow or in F2P games you rent some pimp item(s) for 30 days.
Oh and i suggested you add some Premium symbol on them or something. To avoid confusion. Have a red P on a yellow circle or something like that as emblem. It's a good trend to have good items for rent these days for sure.


The miniboss idea is a very old one. It was in the chat for a long time a while ago. Darklogos was still playing the game, he probably was the first to bring it up on the forum, but issue was he wanted some gains for low levels only, which i found and still find very silly. So over time few players here and there suggested that again, but with gains for all levels from what i remember.
After the batora event it was clear we could make use of players that are given certain cards to fight with in folrart, to take the roles of minibosses with some low gains or something, since you cant be a GM and give out 3 stars. And the idea was to have high level players play those decks so there aren't too many give aways, but i guess this is very good too, since it makes the game more grindish?!



OH! and i suggest you have some mini bosses by easter, if you put up some mini bosses with bunny and evil egg cards or something it sure will add up more to the good easter mood imo.

[Multi]

Don't know what exactly multi suggested and don't want to discredit him or anyone else, but here's what i suggested in case you didn't take good notes and want to remember:

http://www.alteil.com/forum/index.php?f ... =viewtopic
is what I suggested. But your suggestion sounds more like something they'd use, since it'd make them profit instead of increasing the versatility of our useless FM.