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Jangles
05-26-2011, 08:53 PM
I've recently began playing SW on Vassal after reading the excellent tutorial herehttp://www.plaidhatgames.com/sum_forums/showthread.php?t=841 and I've found it to be a really fun way to play and watch others play from all across the world. And then I got an idea that it would make a great venue to have a tournament for everyone who can't make it to Ohio or to one of the other great events held across the US. I had an idea to call it the Master Tournament, in honor of the soon to be released Master Set. (hope that's shipping soon by the way) And to hopefully live up to this idea of it being a "Masters" of SW we could make it a longer tourney, with multiple rounds, leading to a finals, maybe even a best of seven.

So I propose:
1st round:
Round Robin tourney, everyone gets to play everyone once,factions randomly assigned, and most importantly STOCK, with no reinforcements or mercenaries. This is to show your ability to adapt to unfavorable matchups over a longer play time and your "Mastery" of the basic faction sets. (see how that word keeps popping up?) depending on the # of players we could have a cut or not then proceed to...
2nd round:
Seeded tourney. Players with higher win ratios play lower ranked players, ties being randomly broken. 1st round through quarter's of seeded tourney; best of three with any tournament legal deck. Lower ranked players get the advantage of knowing what faction they will play against before they select their deck. Tied players both go in blind. Semi's; best of five with any tournament legal deck, each player can change their faction or deck once between games during the match. Leading to...
Finals:
The last two players have a best of seven slugfest for the title. Any TL decks, both players go into first game blind. Every game after, each player can choose to play an entirely different deck, with the winning player of the previous game getting to choose his deck after the losing player reveals which faction he is going to play. This will allow players to show their skill at tailoring their decks for specific factions, and at overcoming adversity in the face of a disadvantage.

This tourney could take place over a long period of time, using the forums for announcements(scheduling games, winners losers brackets ect.). Because Vassal allows spectators, people could watch games, we could even have referees if needed. It could be a way for really strong players who never get to meet in real life to get a chance to play together, and maybe even declare a Summoner Wars "Master" (couldn't resist). Obviously we would have to alter some tourney rules for online play, but i think if everyone plays in good faith, it could be a lot of fun.

Concerns:
Does Colby want these forums being used to support a game format that doesn't necessarily help his business to grow, and could possibly harm it? Giving people an alternative to buying his game to play it could be bad for sales, and I definitely don't want to see that.

The makers of the Summoner wars module haven't had a chance to add the Master Set cards yet, nor should we expect them too really quickly after the set is released, so we would have to limit the options to the released factions as of right now.

Anyway, it was just an idea. Please let me know what you think of it, and if Truth wants to chime in and tell me it's a horrible idea I totally respect that. after all it's his intellectual property we're playing with.

airdroppers
05-26-2011, 09:07 PM
There actually is a Vassal tournament going on right now. By the time it is finished I am sure everyone will have a Master Set with tons of plays with it...

airdroppers
05-26-2011, 09:10 PM
I asked Truth via PM to answer what he thought about Vassal in his podcast. He didn't seem to like the question, I thought it would be an interesting question to answer because everyone wants to know what he thinks.

That kind of makes me not want to ever ask a question for the podcast...

Sera Eldwyn's boyfriend
05-26-2011, 09:11 PM
Your question about Truth supporting the game on Vassal is a good one. It is also one that doesn't have an official answer either. Some of his playtesters play on Vassal now, and they had to get his permission to do that so I figured that it was his way of saying it's okay.

Marroking1
05-26-2011, 09:28 PM
Also Keep in mind that there will be a Summer League that you will be able to join. It will be started at the beggining of June. Which Reminds me I have to start to start Sign-ups for that. It will be a laid back kinda of league. It will be like this.

"Oh look Airdroppers is on. Lets play a league game. Since he also part of the league" Then report back with the report of who won. Then at the of the summer will have Single-Elimination til we have our winner.

Elcor13
05-26-2011, 09:49 PM
Another tournament is an interesting idea. I'm not sure I'm in favor of a best of 7 slugfest because that could take a really long time if people's schedules don't work well >_<

And concerning Vassal, its a neat tool if you already have the game and have things like the numbers of cards and the starting set up. If you don't, its a little harder. But its not impossible, so you could do it if you really wanted and knew someone else who had it. That said, if you like SW enough to play it online, hopefully you like it enough to help Colby out so that he keeps making the game >_<

I think if he really wanted to Colby could probably take SW off Vassal anyway. So be nice to Colby, buy the game if you like it, but if you really want to play someone far away then you can!

Note: These are just my thoughts, I have no idea what Colby's thinking, so if he says no he doesn't like Vassal then just ignore all of this.

Sera Eldwyn's boyfriend
05-26-2011, 10:10 PM
Anymore questions about Vassal, just ask Elcor :D.

Jangles
05-26-2011, 11:05 PM
I definitely support the game, I've bought everything they've released so far (which is why I'm so anxious to get my Master Set) But I live in a rural area and Don't get to play face to face as much as I would like.It's still my preferred method of play, nothing beats playing the cards out and getting to trash talk your friends while beating up on them. Vassal allows me to scratch that itch and get to play with some stronger players, which teaches me how to play much better than a strategy article ever could.
As to my proposed format, I think a longer series of games can help to remove some of the luck factor inherent in SW by showing skilled players overcoming misfortune through strategic play. Now obviously we can't gather for a solid week of summoner wars tourney, we all have jobs, school, family ect. but online, scheduled through the forums, over like a month, it would have the flavor of sports playoffs. I even got the idea from watching the NHL playoffs. you can even watch the games online, which is actually pretty fun. it was just an intellectual exercise anyway.
P.s. Summer league sounds really fun, how do we get involved?

Kaiser Cat
05-27-2011, 06:48 AM
Right now the "Anti-theft/piracy system" in place is the fact that people won't know the starting setups for factions they do not own.

Unfortunately, you can find them on this website.

PePe QuiCoSE
05-27-2011, 08:32 AM
But some are wrong/old and by experience I can tell starting set up changes a LOT of things. Actually, some games I played on Vassal with the Cloaks against Orcs I misremembered the forward Scrapper (put him 1 space forward) and 2 games were dictated by that opening move.

On the Vassal thing, it generates buzz and helps people play the game more, which is good for the product. I am sure there are people on the forums who got hooked a lot more because of it. If you have a moral question about it, just play only what you own. If PHG ever thinks something is wrong about it or if there is a better option it will be surely known.

For another tournament, what I think will be a lot less work for everyone and still get a similar feeling would be a King of the Hill format. Which is Pick a KotH which defends it's position each week against a chosen contender, later have some report on how the game went. I'm sure there are several who will like to be up to defend it's favorite faction's honor.

KCU Master 2007
05-27-2011, 08:41 AM
I know I would...you sig is very upsetting for me ;)

Elcor13
05-27-2011, 12:52 PM
No one misunderstand me, I'm not saying Vassal is a bad thing or anything like that, nor am I saying that the people on Vassal don't buy it. Just a friendly reminder that while you can play without the cards to help Truth out! Because I like this game :( And want it to keep being released!

Sauam
05-27-2011, 01:06 PM
No one misunderstand me, I'm not saying Vassal is a bad thing or anything like that, nor am I saying that the people on Vassal don't buy it. Just a friendly reminder that while you can play without the cards to help Truth out! Because I like this game :( And want it to keep being released!

cosigned!

I am trying my best to get my local game shop to support this game, I believe it would be much easier for that to happen once master set arrives

anyways, vassal should be here to stay, it gain popularity this way... I guess PHG and co. just need to limit it somehow... like maybe no master set on it??

That should spread the game, player gets to play with the pre-MS faction and PHG gets the cheddar! We all know cheddar is good for ya

prometheuslkr
05-27-2011, 01:34 PM
Hey it might be nice if each real-life set came with a product code so you could download it onto vassal.

chardris77
05-27-2011, 02:53 PM
Or idevices.