Fist Report #9
Message from the Fist
Hello DJB. Quick update on Galaxy of Heroes, Heroes of the Storm, some Pendants of Blood, a teaser for a GJW event, and a list of competitions.
Before we get to that, I want to reiterate the comments posted by the GM this past month. As you are all aware, there were some questionable activities this past month that caused me and my staff to take a hard look at a couple of our supported games, specifically Gorefest, Console-based Diablo 3, Destiny, and the Galaxy of Heroes competition (which I will discuss in detail below). In short, there were some holes in our systems that allowed for exploits that while not specifically forbidden in the ROC, clearly went against the intent of how our supported platforms should be played.
Absolutely nobody was punished for these infractions, but I did have to make a couple of very tough calls. For Console-based Diablo III, it’s still business as usual. I acknowledge that the platform is slightly flawed. My staff and I will keep a watchful eye on any submissions for PoBs and Greater Rifts that come from consoles. If anything looks strange (specifically, completely unrealistic paragon levels), we will reach out to the member who submitted for further information.
For Destiny, see my earlier post.
For Gorefest, see the GM’s post.
For Galaxy of Heroes...read on.
On Galaxy of Heroes
I’m going to discuss this upfront, because I know a lot of you are wondering why in the world all of the Galaxy of Heroes events were cancelled.
Here’s the bottom line up front: There is absolutely no way for me or my staff to truly validate when a screenshot was taken, or if any effort was made to play the game over the course of a given week.
For the past few weeks, there have been a couple of submissions that looked exactly the same as ones submitted in previous weeks. And I mean 100% identical. I tested this by playing a match or two myself. Even with playing the same amount each week, my screenshots were different. Top players shift around. Even my placement shifted with minimal playtime (I’m talking a max of 3-4 games over a two week period.
This, plus the duplicate screenshots submitted led to my decision to abruptly end alll remaining GoH Squad Arena competitions. As I am aware that this is an extremely popular game, I asked the staff and some of our GoH players if there are any other options in the game that allow for metrics that are easily verified. We looked at the raids, but since those can take a day or a couple of weeks depending on the difficulty, I can’t very well run a competition for that. I looked at # of normal and hard PvE battles. That gave me a metric that would operate like the old Diablo 3 Mob Kill method. The issue there? A player that uses sim tickets or auto play or is willing to spend real money has a massive advantage over a member who plays each battle individually. Ship Arena? Same problem as Squad Arena.
In short, there is not a single mode in the game that provides balanced metrics that support fair competition and incentive cluster earning. I thought we got it right by removing the weekly diamond crescent. Then the duplicate screenshots started popping up, and I realized we still didn’t have a balanced system.
As I’ve said before, it’s not only my job as Fist to provide as many opportunities for you all to game and compete, it’s also my responsibility to ensure that the games and the system is balanced and fair across the board.
I also know that a good number of you play and enjoy Galaxy of Heroes. I want nothing more than for that game to have a mode that you want to play and that works within the confines of our current gaming and competition system. And when that mode becomes available, I will gladly re-start the Galaxy of Heroes events. But without definable metrics, a way to tell WHEN someone played, and a sure-fire way to negate the benefit of spending real money, I can’t and won’t run events for the game.
I will still tabulate the results for the quarterly GoH competition. Those events were closed, awarded incentive CEs, and represent a contract I made with all of you to provide first-level crescents. I will not violate that contract. Ranarr will tabulate the results of the parent competition soon.
I appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding in this matter.
Heroes of the Storm
HotS 2.0 brought some pretty interesting changes, specifically on player levels. With a clearer method for leveling up, I am considering adding Pendants of Blood for specific level milestones.
Edgar (my baller praetor) has taken the lead on the proposal, and once he’s done I’ll submit it to the GM and DGM for final approval.
I’m a big fan of games that bring the community together and Heroes of the Storm has really surprised me with how popular it is with everyone. It seems to have taken the place of Overwatch as the most played game in the club. And that’s pretty cool.
GJW Event: The Wargame
This will be my first GJW as a member of the DC. As such, I wanted to bring something new to the club that isn’t the same old JA and Pazaak win/loss event. While standard gaming events will take place, this one will be something unique that will give you all a chance to utilize your Clan Fleets in a galactic battle either against or for the forces of GM Pravus!
So, what is this event all about? I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so i’ll just give you the historical context. The wargame will be loosely based on Kriegsspiel, which was a war training system used to train officers in the Prussian and German armies.
The game utilized a large map split into grids to track the overall battle, with smaller maps for the players that only displayed their ‘controlled’ section of the map. Each combatant controlled an army or task force comprised of different types of ground combat units. Movement actions were controlled in a turn-based model, using dice to determine success or failure of an action.
During each turn (limited to two minutes to simulate the requirement to rapidly make sound decisions), the players had the opportunity to issue orders to move, recon, or attack based on proximity to the enemy. Each unit type was given a set range of vision and movement limitation, as well as a bonus against specific opposing forces (artillery was useful at suppressing infantry forces, but moved slowly and was weak against cavalry, cavalry could move quickly but was vulnerable to attack by infantry forces, infantry was the most balanced but limited in range of attack).
+The game master was the only individual who could view the entire map. Combatants had access to the same map, but were limited to what their units could actually see. At the end of each turn, the game master would update each player’s map with newly visible terrain features, as well as the locations enemy or ally forces within the player’s span of visibility. This “fog of war” concept ensured that players made tactically sound decisions, but did not react to the pieces on the map that would in a real-world setting not be visible due to range or terrain restrictions._
So. Consuls. Ensure your fleets are finalized. I will be sending a message to the Clan Summits in the coming weeks with further details. I’m looking forward to bringing something new to the Great Jedi War event lineup, and I hope you all enjoy it!
Retirement of Games
Last month, I announced that some of our supported games were on the chopping block. I gave a one-month timeframe for those games to see some kind of activity. Since none of the below games were played, i have removed them from the gaming activity submission portal.
Member vs. Member Category
- Halo Series
- Killzone Series
- Resistance Series
There are no additional games on the chopping block for now.
FIST Sponsored Gaming Competitions
[FIST] 2nd Annual Mobile Gaming
[FIST] Quarterly Gaming Challenge Q2 2017
[FIST] Star Wars: Force Arena - Cluster Race Stand-alone Force Arena competition! Looking to see more activity for our lone mobile game!
[FIST] Diablo 3 Season 10 Greater Rift Ladder Remember these? Bringing them back due to popular demand. Pay attention to the competition details here!
[FIST] Diablo 3 Season 10 Greater Rift Solo Tier How good are you? Test yourself in the highest possible solo Greater Rift you can complete. Highest tier completed wins!!!
DB-Wide Gaming Competitions
MAA Puzzle #8 Howie has more puzzle goodness for you!
May Weekly and Saturday Pendant of Blood Awardees
Congratulations to the following individuals on earning Pendants of Blood for the highest overall PvP score for the weeks/Saturdays listed!
Weekly PoBs
30 March to 5 May: Rasilvenaira Isatri'Zara StormRaven
7-12 May: Aurora Ta’var
14-19 May: Evelynn Wyrm
21-26 May: Andrelious J. Mimosa-Inahj
Saturday PoBs
6 May: Artorias
13 May: Kelly Mendes
20 May: Edgar Drachen
27 May: Edgar Drachen
Helpful Links
[DB Gaming on Telegram - Log in to view join link] on Telegram. Come be part of the discussion in the one and only official gaming channel of the Dark Jedi BRotherhood!
Ask the Fist Google Form. Post a question here anytime, day or night, and either I or a member of my staff will try to answer it for you.
Send us an email at [Log in to view e-mail addresses]
TL;DR
1) Play by the rules. Rules are good.
2) Galaxy of Heroes is on a hiatus. We will keep an eye out for ways to bring it back. I promise.
3) We retired some games. Nobody played them anyway!
4) Wargame teaser! GJW hype!
5) There are still FIST-run competitions! Do them!
Even with the concerns raised this past month, I am still proud of where our gaming communtiy has gone over the past few months. It is hard for me to believe that this is already my 9th report as FIST. Thank you all for making this community strong. I’m getting excited for the upcoming release of Battlefront 2 (yes, I know this will be the 2nd Battlefront 2) and Destiny 2: The Quest for More Loot.
I will be out of town for the next three weeks for a training exercise. I should have signal, but if not Edgar will be holding down the fort. Be nice to him.
-Drac
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Wooho first!
Awesome report as usual, Drac!
Two words: Rainbow. Fleet.
Game on ;P
Great report Boss #2 :)
I know i know get back to work.
Sooooo, when do I get to start getting things for Pokemon Go again? ;p
Destiny 2! Battlefront 2!
The hype train has no brakes.
Interesting news to be sure. Many thanks indeed for this update.
is it the Chinese Year of the Sequel or something?
I am so angry that Drac continues to be a rational person who discusses issues with the DC and membership in a clear manner.
Wait, did I say angry? I mean I love him for it. :)
So, there are issues with console Diablo 3, but that's ok, yet GoH (an actual SW game that's free) has something wrong with it too, therefore ban until it meets some other level of merit? Ok!
I'm missing something here. There's nothing imbalanced with that. It's the fact that people cheated (knowingly or accidentally, it doesn't matter for the point I'm making) and submitted the same proof for two separate events, which has always been against the rules here.
The issue is that we can't know for certain when the screenshots were taken, correct? Isn't that essentially the issue that came up with people hoarding submissions for events? Very few of our games actually have a method by which to confirm 100% that a game occurred when our member claims it did (ie - server logs or witnesses) . If two or three people want to get in on it, they can all vouch for each other and there'd be some difficulty in proving deceit there. Leave your Xbox or PS4 privacy settings jacked up so that no one else from the clan can see if you're even online and good luck proving that the games didn't happen during timeframe ABC.
The argument that the game is imbalanced because people can spend money on it is one that's existed since the start of the events. I started on my shard very early into the game - I have tons of whales and players who are in Heroic guilds (ie - Han and General Kenobi) on my shard, so I know I'll never place in a Crescent position. New DJBers who start fresh today and spend about $10, maybe $20, will regularly out-rank me in arena because they are in a new shard and can take advantage of this game's "snowball effect" of rewards in arena widening the gap between each arena tier every day in addition to jumping into a guild that's feeding them extra gear daily.
I'm not offended by that. I contribute to the guild most days and submit my screenshots when I remember for my clusters and say "thank you" for the 5 or 10 CEs that I got for playing a mindless game.
If the goal is to still reward people for playing the game and contributing to the guild, have it be a screenshot submitted via the gaming portal at the end of every week with the CEs rewarding along the same scale previous. Remove the Crescents from the equation altogether if you want, but don't throw out the baby with the bath water because some people cheated.
If you want to ballpark if the person's submission was legit, check their SWGOH.gg profile - it's not perfect (because it doesn't show peak ranks, only the rank at the time of the data-pull), but it should be good enough for our purposes here, unless you'd like me to submit an affidavit that each screenshot I submitted was taken within the time window required.
Swgoh.gg has a graph, I think, that shows your arena rank over time. It's based on the server turnover each day, but maybe that's when our screenshots should be based. You can require a browser-based screenshot that includes a time stamp in the image. I could show you my whole week and highlight the Tuesday when I was highest.
Whilst i enjoyed the galaxy game, i found it hard sometimes to get a screenshot and i may have unintentionally submitted a different or copy of previously submitted screenshot. If so, i apologize.
As for the ranks, it is a fluctuating game, except for fleet ranks, where i am in top 10 for 5 weeks now, the squad jas seen me from 400s to 140s. It's pretty difficult to maintain a rank there with thousands vieing for my spots.
Only suggestions i can make is the creation of a djb guild that only us can be in and a fist staff member to run it and verify players info, as i can see other's stats in guild i am in.