The league is facing a rocky time at the moment, with an unclear direction for season 2 and a growing despondency amongst the clans involved. Now is the time for us to decide where this league is headed, and we need this community to help us to do that. Please let us know your opinion of the format ideas below by voting in the poll and, if possible, making a post. We absolutely value the feedback of every individual, and the results of this poll will have a direct impact on the future direction of the league. Thankyou. EDIT: The "Both Formats" option means running both the ladder and the global domination game-types in parallel. Format 1: Ladder Clans take part in a classic ladder-style tournament, according to an established format (such as the ELO rating system). The objective is to establish which clan is the best. Format 2: Global Domination Two factions are at war. You might have heard of them before; they're called the Northern Faction and the Brenodi Empire. In this game style, you will be taking a side in this war. But you're not alone: players operate in teams of 10, and all the teams put together make up the two factions. Each team must elect an Officer, and out of these each faction must elect a General. These people act as representatives in all official business. So what are you fighting for? Well, the game takes place on a map, in a similar style to strategy games such as RISK. But don't let this put you off, this is nowhere near as complicated. The map is divided into territories, and in the beginning each faction owns half of these (literally, BE would own the East, NF would own the West. The starting territories aren't scattered). Factions take it in turn to attack territories (attacks are simply matches on the official league server). If the attackers win, they get to take control of that territory. If the defenders win, then everything stays as it was. The ultimate goal is to fight a path to the other faction's capital, which is a special territory lying deep within their starting area. If this is lost, then the season is over, and the winners declared. Then the whole thing can start all over again! Unlike the current season, territories are no longer tied to maps. This means that any match can be played on any map. Each faction can also choose any of their teams to represent them in a match, which means that any team can play any other team (provided they are on opposite factions). Matches can take place at any time (provided they are scheduled according to the official process), and new teams can also join the action at any time. There are still some creases to iron out, and the format is still under development. If you want to take part in the discussion, visit the official league forums.
It is my personal opinion that a ladder is BORING. Counterstrike is FPS only. They use a ladder. There is no strategy to it. They just play matches to find the "best clan". Empires is both RTS and FPS. We can make it so the league season is more about a "league" of clans (alliance) fighting as NF / BE against the other team. More fun.
I opt for two leagues, one with format 1 and one with format 2. Format1: Classic clan-based league. Format2: "Free for all" league games? Players or groups of players choose their allegiance. Said officers and generals put together their team for the matches. Risk style map as a coconut layer ontop.
@Drag: Format 2 will not be interesting if it isn't clans competing. Random teams will not be invested in the outcome EDIT: Format 2 proposed here would be clan warfare. Not "free-for-all"
Frankly the risk style in league one has enough issues. A ladder system would be the best, as it would as you said, "Find the best clan." That, and good hard matches is all I look for in the league. All this risk style is just bad. As stated in JPL forums, "They want something big and cool. They forget no one will play it." Yes ladder is boring looking, but it gets the done the most effectively and keeps the clans happy.
OMG! The second format is just like the one in the Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds -game. You are either Martian or Human and you have to fight your way to the enemy's capital to destroy them completely. I so like at that kind of form. It feels so much different than plain ladder where you fight and either get eliminated or survive and continue. BORING! Edit: Cyber-Kun we already know which clan is the best. BSID. The end of the ladder format's story. BSID would just keep on going and win the ladder. BORING! The second format gives people a chance to be together and mix people among each other (at least I got it so) and have different members from different clans fighting in one match and that way it is more interesting. I GOT AN IDEA. What if you have like 4 and 4 clans on BE and NF's sides and when there's a time for fight, each clan would pick two or three players of theirs in that match and there would be a 4 clans vs 4 clans against each other, sort of. For example BSID, SEEU, Z4G were on BE's side and CW, JPL and KEU would be on the NF's side. BSID, SEEU and Z4G should choose 3 or 4 players among their own clans who would fight in the match so BSID would have 3 or 4 players in the match, SEEU would have 3 or 4 players in the match and Z4G would also have 3 or 4 players in the match. Same thing would happen on NF's side too. CW, JPL and KEU would pick their players as the see the best and then would also have 3 or 4 members from each clan in the battle. So it would be like this: BE side: 3x BSID 4x SEEU 3x Z4G NF side: 3x CW 3x JPL 4x KEU In one match. That, if what, would be very interesting mixed with the second format's territory thing and all. (And sorry if I just repeated the idea in the first post but I'm sooo tired. |P)
For those of you who are voting for "BOTH FORMATS", do you want two leagues in parallel? Would your clan sign up for both?
Anyone who can field 10 players can take part in the Global Domination format. Please don't be put of by the word "clan"; if you currently play as a individual, we can help to put you in a team of like-minded players for the purpose of participating in the league.
I opt for a Shogun: total war like gameplay... which is very similar to the "War of the Ring"-mode in LOTR:BFME2.. meaning the current league system with turns.. The ability to build "units"(fielding more people), creating buildings (like a VF at start) and researching (which will not be possible untill krenzo codes in a cvar to control researches in a better way)
I would like to see two formats. The plain ladder to simply find out who is the best. And the risk style map. The risk style map I would like to see teams pre-register, but not nessicarly have any clan allegiance. At the moment my clan isn't interested in any formal competition. However I would like to be involved in the league, and I would hate to have to leave my clan just so I can participate. This would also allow a clan to field multiple teams based on the geographical location of their members, making schegualing of matches, that much easier.
Clans can already field multiple teams if they want to. The problem with two formats is it's harder to run two. We'd need more referees and more rules. One format would be much simpler.
im thinking format 2 would be better seeing as there will be more clans and in the current season each clan only got 2 provinces which is hardly anything also: badlands should be added as one of the maps to be playable in league
Not that kind of ladder system. A Elo ladder system is a ranking system, and no one gets eliminated. Also, the game is supposed to be fun. Adding an other complicated game on top of a complicated game is bad. Also, saying blankly, BSID is the best isn't true. They haven't won yet. Winning one round against us and winning against you guys doesn't make it them the bestest ever. They could be, but we don't know yet.
empires just isn't popular enough for format 2. We have enough clans, but the clans all like have 1 or so members THAT'S WHY JOIN FREEDOM FIGHTERS (see clan thread) I say stick with format 1 except with a league. But format 2 sounds a hell of a lot more fun. Format 1 until we get 100 more players in clans
cyber-kun is keeping his hopes up good to see also season 2 probaly won't start for a month or more so we'll see then how many clans and people that will participate, i still say format 2 would be better and more fun format 1 is to common, plain and boring imo
This poll does not contain sufficient responses. I would vote *Neither : Need more ideas on how to do it. The ladder someone said sounds boring, the world domination sounds too complicated for clan tourneys. Lets not make this anymore complicated than it needs to be to be fun. Need more maps. Why not wait for season 2 until theres more maps? My emp dirs list more maps than looked to be available.
I agree with evan that a ladder is boring. Empires is one of the few hybrid games out there so i think it should have a nice and fun league system. However i felt the same about the current system before it started, but because of the limited amount of maps, clans and the huge time between battles it was not nearly as fun as i had expected. The new domination system however does fix the current problems if more maps are used. More battles will be fought because it only takes one clan on each side to be willing to have a fight, and the clans that fight can chose the map they want to play. So i would prefer this over a ladder system because it's something different. But while it fixes the current problems, it introduces new problems. If the commander of a team decides to sent the same clan into battle all the time, the other clans will not see a single battle. Going after the hq of the enemy is nothing more than literally going towards that region in a straight line, since it's the shortest way to win. Instead of a global domination map you'd actually have a straight line of for example 10 points, where the 2 outer points are the hq's. Also with this system clans will have to work together. If one clan loses a region i can already see the other clans getting mad at them. This can't be avoided. While i don't like the ladder system and probably wouldn't participate in it, it IS perhaps the only system that at least works without problems, even if it is boring. I would prefer a fun and working league system over a ladder system any day, but creating a new rts-style league that works under all conditions for all clans no matter what idiots participate isn't nearly as easy as it looks. Now i didn't read the topic on the league forum, so i might be wrong on some things. If the problems can be solved i vote for total domination. Also can 1 clan for example have 3 teams of 10 people, or maybe even 2 teams on NF and 1 on BE?
lol yes bsid is the best!! lets just not even have a league and say bsid won! and then we can all leave our clans to join bsid because we dont want a challenge we just want to be winners!
You are exactly the kind of player we are trying to attract. Teams are not tied to clan membership in any way, and like I said before: if you don't currently have a team to play with, we will do everything we can to try and line you up with one. Indeed, they could. The topic does elaborate on some of the intricacies of the format, like the issue of match-hogging that you mentioned. I deliberately excluded many of the details (e.g. the scheduling process, the assignment of teams to factions, etc...) in favour of keeping the explanation as concise as possible, for those who merely desired an overview. If you are interested in these details, I would encourage you to take a look at the league forums. Like I said, it is still under development, and many of these issues are still being tracked down and worked out. That said, we have yet to come across anything unsolvable.