A Proposed Plan

[falconeer]

The focus needs to be moving to ASSS right now.

Practice in pub requires ASSS and a module that has a ton of features including a ?vote kick system and ?lagcheck system
The module has to be able to create teams that are even, based on a rating that is skill based.
The points system has to change from 150 to 50-80pts.
The map is already made by me.
Then pub needs its own gameplay and module added.
And then scores for both pub and practice need to be recorded on the website.
Squad size and performance determines private frequency size.

It requires a bit of work, ASSS being the most important.

[jim the chin]

The "Proposed Plan" started in a discussion with a former staffer, worked over by me for doability, and put before other staff members for approval. Its become more of a process then a plan, but the plan is what sparked it, so i thought id point that out. So, no plan just a process. It breaks down to building something for pub similar to the prac arena, but designed to accommodate more players, and promotes interaction between vets and noobs.


Main objectives:

1) Pub that mirrors league.
2) More activity in the main arena.
3) Interaction between vets and noobs.


Skipping ahead to what has been done. Upper and lower map are spilt, think of pub as two arenas. Upper map will host the league style game, it can host a combination of sectors. Bot has a method that can activate sectors (based on player count maybe other factors). It dose this using doors, and a bool active or inactive value for each flag. The flag poles them self are highlighted red or green to indicate there state. In reality the doors are not even needed, but they do serve to funnel noobs and stray into the sectors being played. And, yes there will be noobs and strays to deal with because it is pub, also unlike the prac arena players will have to fly in from the outside nkz (those two facts should be pointed out). The core flags are never doored off, but inactive (highlighted red) unless west is being played. I ended up using the old league map and swapped out the tileset with the one currently use in the prac arena (it looks good), and there are many unused tiles to develop the lower map with. So, now we can play sector prac in pub, games can start with as little as 2vs2 or as many as 15vs15, and we retain the iconic death star. This setup also make switching back to normal pub as simple as a staff !command. The bell flag league game is relatively simple to code, but the scoring system really doesn't make sense imo, and would prefer something different (strait forward clinical i think might be best). The lower map will be developed over time and will be free to enter by anyone at anytime, unlike the upper map that gets locked when a game starts.


What is needed:

1) Scoring and Ratings - Everything related to scoring, ratings, stats, weekly/monthly achievements (the whole system).
2) Graphic Designer - Design of two new nkz's, and general purpose.
3) Mapper - Development of map/tileset - http://s23.postimg.org/jdz8fxncr/publeague_map.png

Development can be found (with all its lose ends) at ?go #publeague

-Fly

Oh, this should be considered plan b, or on hold, as the results of other debates are sorted out.
And, I can be convinced of something else, so this is open to debate.

Ok, I've gotten around to reading this and had a look in ?go #publeague. A few points:

1. Once the game is 6v6 or more, do away with the doors.
2. To allow for a most interesting fight in east, link the south and east tubes like some of the recent league maps have done.
3. I disagree with putting the NKZ outside. Putting safes in the SE and NW corners of core will get people into the fight quicker, and stop the situation of newbs flying around aimlessly wondering what to do. At the very least, use Ent's system where people spawned inside when the population was low. If you must have an NKZ outside, move it so it's North-east of the DS. Flying a massive distance to get to the action is a deterrent.
4. Are you suggesting that pracs will require flying from an NKZ too? Don't feck with pracs too much please... you could lose the only real population this zone has. I don't see an "upper and lower" map in ?go #publeague though... am I missing something? To be honest, your post is very confusing. Are pracs going to be in pub or not? Falconeer would have them in the "lower" map, and that looks like the best option for several reasons (see his posts above).
5. How does the pub game actually work though? Is it just flagging and killing for points like pracs? I think we tried something like this didn't we? You know, the "active sectors" game we had for a while? That didn't work. What would work is if there was a 60 second countdown once all the flags in the sector have been captured. That would be exciting enough to be interesting, but similar enough to pracs to allow newbs to gain all the skills they need.
6. Do you really want to include the core flags in any West game?

Anyway, this was all very confusing to me, but what I see in #publeague looks promising enough. Good job.

[falconeer]

An nkz should never be in the deathstar or any base. Enter any zone in existence, no NKZ in the bases.

Warp function is best. Thats actually one good thing ent did.

[Fly Swatter]

An nkz should never be in the deathstar or any base. Enter any zone in existence, no NKZ in the bases.

Warp function is best. Thats actually one good thing ent did.

I actually removed the inside spawns and put in the warpbox, !ds function.

[Fly Swatter]

Anyway, this was all very confusing to me, but what I see in #publeague looks promising enough. Good job.

I'm more confused. I can assure you.

[falconeer]

Well that's good fly, good idea, i like the warp ds function.

[jim the chin]

Well whatever then. I'll just wait and see what you come up with.

On NKZ's, has any zone had a single base as big as the DS; a base that is the only focal point on the map? So don't compare it with other zones please. I see no reason to make people spawn 20 seconds away from the only object on the map. You could at least move the NKZ closer to the main entrance.

When DSB was 12v12, you could just attach, but for the moment we're lucky to see 3v3. That means a lot of locks and a lot of needless flying about. Do many people know how to use !ds? I'd never heard of it.

If people want to fly outside the DS to fight, let them fly outside... there's nothing stopping them. But don't cater for the minority that will want to do that.

[falconeer]

!ds is just better sever.

You type !ds and it warps you randomly inside. It can be designed to only be available when the whole team dies, otherwise you just attach. Can easily adapt it to a goal oriented game by making only the flags in a sector count, so you can warp people in core, and they'd still have to break into east for example. If they accidentally touch another flag, it won't matter.

NKZ inside the deathstar is just wrong on so many levels. Aesthetically, functionally, etc.

It won't look good. People can hide in the nkz when they are low on health. They can shoot from the nkz, then you'd need mods to moderate it. NKZ perimeter killing shouldn't even be illegal but it would have to be if you did this. If the NKZ was outside the deathstar then NKZ perimeter killing could remain legal. I'd rather the NKZ was outside, and it had warp doors on it. So one could enter door one, and it would spawn you in core. You could even give people 10 second shields, to protect them from being spawn killed.

The only way we could put NKZs close to the deathstar is if continuum had one way doors. So you could fly through a wall one way, but not the other. Then you could have two NKZs right on the outside of the deathstar, one on top of north, and one on the bottom of south. They would have 1 way doors, and you could just fly into the deathstar from the NKZ, but can't re-enter the nkz.

[Fly Swatter]

For the sake of time and effort etc. Maybe a change of plans. Keep the map the same as it is now, same nkz everything same as pub is now, no doors etc. Add the league style game, bell flags, scoring all the same as in prac or about the same.

Bot says "Get In!"... bot waits.. checks player count until a game forms etc..
Bot says game will start in 20 to 25 seconds..
Bot, based on player count sets up a game..
Bot selects groups of flags, not whole sectors but flag groups relatively close to one-n-nother..
note: flags would be activated by flag poles, in other words if a flag pole is activated all four of the flags would be as well.. other flags would be dead flags..
Bot displays a flagradar (i still need to create this) that shows which flag poles will played. Players will have a !radar command to pull it up if needed.
note: active flag poles will have green flag pole (image lvz) as in #publeague, and red for inactive (its really easy to understand once you see it, might even send the player a private msg if the touch a red inactive flag or a buzzer sound).

Everyone might have a different opinion on how many flags should be played relative to player count. It could be for a 1 vs 1 game just one flag pole (4 flags), or two flag poles (8 flags) maybe even more. 5 vs 5 could be 5 flag poles (20 flag) or as many as 10 poles (40 flags). Its easy to just randomize it a bit, 7 vs 7 there would be atleast a minimum 7 active poles (28 flags) and a maximum of 14 (56) active flag poles. The number of active flag poles would just be different each game, but always within 1:1 2:1 ratio per player. It might just be easier/better to just hard code groups of flags, that way we can setup some interesting groups. Letting the bot decide randomly might suck.

80 sec bell dings just like in prac, and no half time switch or anything just fast 15-20 min games (maybe just 10 80sec dings).
Bot warps all players back to nkz after game, process repeats..

The warpbox !ds function would stay, just modified so you spawn to a random point in core only.

I could explain it better i guess but hopefully you get the idea. This is about 20-30 build (with the new !radar taking up a chunk of the time) and can be done by mid december. Then we can gauge what works and what doesn't.

-Fly

[Fly Swatter]

Falconeer's short term solution is/will be to add prac to the lower map, and to make this work by removing the flags from the death star. The death star pub game will be killing only no flags etc. This is ok on some levels, it puts everyone in pub etc..

-Fly