Community Metroid DS Tournament - Forum Pride and Playtesting

[M3D]

A forum call to action: Playtesting tournament for Metroid Prime: Hunters


I'm not making any official announcements or anything so nobody get you boxers in a bunch. As a student of competitive gaming and game design I’m very interested in Metroid Prime:Hunters for the Nintendo DS. For those of you that don’t know much about it, please feel free to check out my review and our article on MLGPro.com. For those of you that already know all about this and would be interested in helping an MLG staffer out by playing in an online tournament, read on.

So I really want to test how well this game holds up in a competitive tournament atmosphere and what strategies and techniques are important and which ones won’t be successful. Casual play can help with some of that, but only a tournament brings out the best and worst in players and stretches a game to its limits. That’s the sort of environment I’d like to test MP:H in. So I’m announcing a 2v2 tournament to be run this coming Saturday.

The concept is simple. You register your team of 2 as a representative of your community. I’m posting this across four different sites and initially allowing 8 teams from each community to sign up (with reserve spots open in case one site fails to get 8 teams or teams drop out at the last minute). These teams will be split up across a double elimination bracket and the community that has the best MP:H players will come out the champion. The sites this is being posted on:

MLGPro.com – the leader in competitive console gaming in the US and the home of the worlds best Halo players

Smashboards.com – the home of one of the largest independent fan communities for Nintendo gaming, specifically focused on the Super Smash Bros game, but full of Nintendo DS enthusiasts.

GameFAQs.com – one of the most active gaming communities on the web and the home for thousands of MPH players looking for strategies and games

Nintendo.com forums – Home Base. The place for Nintendo news and information and where you can find Nintendo’s best and more dedicated fans.

May the best community win!

::Tournament Information::

2v2 Online Metroid Prime: Hunters Tournament
Starting Sunday, April 9th

To Participate you need:
- A Nintendo DS and your own copy of Metroid Prime: Hunters
- Internet access and a wifi connection so your DS can get online for matches
- A digital camera with reliable means of taking pictures, saving them to your computer and transferring them over the internet.
- AOL Instant Messenger software and an account
- A Teammate (and lots of practice!)
- To register with me before Saturday the 8th of April or before your community spots fill up


To Register you must submit your:
-- Team Name
--DS Nicknames
-- Metroid Prime Hunters Friend codes
-- AOL Instant Messenger accounts
-- Email addresses
--What community your representing
-- Any posts not meeting these guidelines will be ignored.

Your Registration Post should look something like this:
*_*_*_*_*_*

Team Name: MPH Champions
Community: Nintendo.com forums

Player #1: Metroid Guy 1
Friend Code: 1111-2222-3333
AIM: MetroidGuyMPH1
Email: metroidguymph1@emailemail.com

Player #2: Metroid Girl 45
Friend Code: 2222-3333-4444
AIM: IloveNintendoMetGirl45
Email: IloveNintendoMetgirl@emailemail.com

*_*_*_*_*_*_*


Tournament Rules:

1. Double Elimination bracket, seeded randomly by community
2. Best of 3, Finals best of 5
3. Seeds will be generated randomly and evenly spread between communities
4. Highest seeded team in a match will host the game, lower seeded team will choose color.
5. All players will be given friend codes for their opposing team, the game number and player designations for saving their digital pictures in an email to schedule the first match.
6. The email sent with all the information will allow the players to contact one another and schedule a game. A deadline for the match will be posted in the email and if players do not play their match and report their scores to the tournament host by the deadline all players will forfeit.
6. The host will wait until all players have signaled ready before they start the match
7. Disconnecting will result in the forfeit of the match.
8. After each match, all players must take a picture of the post game stats with their digital camera within 30 seconds and before selecting “play again.” At the end of the 3 game series all players will save the pictures to their computer and send them to the tournament host through email. If email isn’t working for transferring files for whatever reason, they may be sent via AIM at the tournament host’s discretion.
9. The winning team advances in the winners bracket. The losing team is placed into the losers bracket. A loss in the losers bracket eliminates you from the tournament.
10. If a team wins 2 games in a row they are the winners. The third game is not played.
11. Failure from both teams to report scores from their games will result in both teams being disqualified from the tournament.


Digital Camera Pictures File Guidelines:

1. Each file will be saved using the same format.
Tournament Name: MPH_
Match Round and Number: Win1_ or Los1_
Game Number for the Series: Gm1_
Player designation: A, B, C or D

2. Finished file names should look something like this: MPH_Win2_Gm3_A.jpg
3. Examples:
Info: Winners bracket match #13, game 2 out of 3, from player C
File Name: MPH_Win13_Gm2_C.jpg

Info: Losers bracket match #8, game 1 out of 3, from player B
File Name: MPH_Los8_Gm1_B.jpg

Info: Losers bracket match #22, game 3 out of 3, from player A
File Name: MPH_Los22_Gm3_A.jpg


Gametypes:
Any rule setting not listed should be set to default.

Team Battle Pro
1. Point Goal: 15
2. Time Limit: 10
3. Team Play: On
==Advanced==
4. Show Hunters on Radar: Off
5. Friendly Fire: On
==Stages==
High Ground
VDO Gateway
Transfer Lock
Outer Reach

Team Battle Affinity
1. Point Goal: 15
2. Time Limit: 10
3. Team Play: On
==Advanced==
4. Show Hunters on Radar: Off
5. Friendly Fire: On
6.. Weapons Available: Affinity
==Stages==
Harvester
Alinos Gateway
Data Shrine


Capture 3 Pro
1. Octolith Goal: 3
2. Auto Reset: Off
==Advanced==
3. Show Hunters on Radar: Off
4. Friendly Fire: On
==Stages==
Harvester
Sic Transit


Capture 5 Pro
1. Octolith Goal: 5
2. Auto Reset: On
==Advanced==
3. Show Hunters on Radar: Off
4. Friendly Fire: On
==Stages==
Data Shrine
VDO Gateway


Team Defender Pro
1. Time Goal: 3 Minutes
2. Time Limit: 10 Minutes
3. Team Play: On
==Advanced==
4. Friendly Fire: On
==Special Rules==
5. No player may use Trace as their hunter
6. No use of the Imperialist (sniper) is allowed
==Stages==
Council Chamber
Alinos Gateway


Gametypes by round will be posted soon

 

[M3D]

space reserved for more tournament info

 

[SonicZeroX]

What happens if there is a game lag out, or we have unstable internet connections. >.<

Oh and SMASHBOARDS FTW!

 

[M3D]

That will be explained in your email. Don't worry.

 

[Aftermath]

Wow.... what terrible rules... Radar off? Double Trace team FTW, ggnore.

Oh wait, you're even banning Trace and the sniper for Defender.... sounds like someone's never heard of alt-form...

Also, I'd say that Data Shrine is far too camp-favorable to even allow it, but given the other rules, this is probably the least of the problems. Although, this stage coupled with Radar off (the only way of ever finding someone here) will certainly make for some camptastic and utterly garbage matches.

uhh... yeah... I'll fill out the info later once I contact my partner. Can you explain the rule choices to me though, as I'm completely stupified by the choices you settled on.

 

[M3D]

Crunch, I'd be glad to hear your concerns. I'm more than willing to edit my rules to accomodate the greatest number of players.

As for Trace + the Sniper in the Defender games... well, my concern is that on small levels Defender is FAR too chaotic for any reason measurement of skill for two reasons: First, the hill never moves so there's just a mad dash at the hill like crazy on spawn and Second, there is no respawn waiting period, so it's almost impossible to really create any kind of moderate control or strategy. It's just rush and kill. Even if you take the time to set up a strategy, they can spawn right away and screw you up pretty badly.

So that leaves us with medium levels, which almost every single one has a hill in a ridiculous place like Ice Hive where it sits back in the snow room with only ONE approach and a sniper spawn right outside the door. Or it leaves us with Large levels... Large levels can work somewhat because you can kill both their attackers and grab some hill time while they spawn and have to approach you again. It allows you to work a strategy to get both of their players defeated and then accumulate time and set up a reasonable counter strategy to their next attack. Unfortunately the sniper allows you to sit and watch the spawn points (which are all outside and in the open) and nail people as they spawn. Even if they make it into alt-form they have to approach from a long ways away, giving you lots of opportunities to hit them with the sniper in their alt forms (I've done it many times) and then pepper them with rockets.

In the end, I feel the Defender gametypes are the absolute weakest, but I'd like to see how they hold up. If you and the other that register still feel its not a good restriction then I'll drop them, but from the matches I've played I was able to easily control both hills and constantly kill the spawning opponents.

And yes, I know about potential abuses in Alinos Gateway with the lava hiding tactics. Here's the thing about the team games though. Spire is not generally that powerful by himself. He's slower and his alt form is not spectacular. So if a team goes double Spire they're going to be at a severe firepower disadvantage from the beginning, especially against Trace, Sylux and others. It will be extremely difficult for them to grab a reliable lead and then camp it out without somehow beating the faster characters to the snipers. In Defender it won't matter if they camp because that causes you to lose anyways. In Team Battle Affinity a there is potential for abuse, but it's highly unlikely to be a dominating strategy when there are more powerful slayers out there.


As for my guidelines for choosing stages and gametypes: Hills for defender need multiple approaches so a team cannot completely lock something down. There must always be some risk vs. reward.

For Team games I generally don't like radar on because it eliminates the ability to set rushes and strategically surprise your opponents and on the flip side, it prevents good aggressive play from overcoming campers and traps since they can stand still and be invisible but always see you coming. Having radar on encourages camping but perhaps this game will balance out differently. I don't think you'll miss radar on VDO Gateway, Outer Reach, Transfer Lock or Data Shrine much anyways. The only stage + gametype it might really be frustrating on would be High Ground Battle Pro.

Meh... feel free to respond and I'll comment back, but in general the competitive shooting game players I've talked to have been all for most of the changes. I will however, consider allowing Trace and Sniper in Defender games if you can present a good arguement for them to be included.


Register up! I've got 8 teams already signed up across the various forums and this is only the first night!

 

[Aftermath]

Yeah, about having radar on favoring campers, I don't follow your logic. If radar is off with double traces, that team can go find a nice corner and alt-form, and without the opponent being able to look at radar to find them, Trace is at an advantage because not only can they see, but they can't really be seen since the alt form transparecny is pretty high. As for preventing rushes, I can't imagine rushing being all that great of a strategy, as if the opponent is caught of guard, they'll just alt-form, pick up health, and go hide somewhere, at which point hacing radar off would be a huge disadvantage. Not to mention that the winning team would most likely already be camping somewhere with a good view of the level, already undermining most rushing possibilities.

With radar on, it's true that the Trace can see the opponent approaching on the radar, but that's really a moot point, since the Trace probably has better line of sight against a moving opponent who isnt' cloaked at all, and the fact that that's probably the only way the opponent is finding the Trace in the first place. And if you're having levels like Data Shrine on, where virtually the only way to find the opponent is by looking at the radar, there's no way a team could come back if it lost the lead early to a Trace team. But yeah, if you'd like to play me sometime before the tournament with radar off, I think I'll be able to show you how hard it is to find a camping Trace. AIM me at 'Aftermath rar' if you want to.

Yeah, I don't know too much about Defender, but from what it sounds like, do you think that this would be a good mode to even consider for tournament play? Unfortunately, I've never played this mode with 4 people, so I can't really speak on it too much.

Also, a post I had in the other thread concerning the lag issues that I think needs addressed:

"and M3D, do you think that 4 player matches will really work out best, considering that anytime 3 or more people are on screen, the framerate drops like mad and if you add that to online lag, it'll get pretty bad. I know that it's far worse than FoD lag in smash, and tournamments ban that stage because of that occasional lag. As it is in Hunters, if I play Trace against someone with bad lag, getting a headshot or any shot is just a matter of luck, as I have no idea where they really are, just what is on my screen.

A few examples, I was playing someone last week who I thought had a good connection, when I shot him, it always came up and said I got the kill within half a second or so. At the end of the match though, I saw him about to run off a platform, took a bit too long to aim, and ended up shooting when he had almost hit the ground. Because of lag though, even though my shot was 3-4 body lengths above him, it said I got the headshot ftw."

Yeah, I'd say drop the Defender and add a 1v1 battle or survivor. But yeah, there is no way you can have a good tournament in hunters with radar off, it makes Trace broken on nearly every level.

For the potential Alinos Gateway tricks, as far as I've found, you can't actually get inside the rocks, just behind them. For teams, you'd be able to get both people positioned in some way to get a good shot off on them, so I wouldn't think that it'd be a huge problem, but again, I haven't really had too much experience with a Spire that abuses that.

 

[M3D]

I will definitely consider turning radar back on... will be playtesting tomorrow for sure.

 

[Sinz]

Dang it, why does it have to be on a sunday?

M3D, I am with crunch on the radar, it makees trace way broken. The spire abuse isn't much of a problem at all. Both of my friends play spire and only choose alinds, while me and my other friend just kick their spire buts. BUt, this is because of his lack of speed, also There are few areas in Alinds where spire can pretty much be godly, trace's can take care of that.

I have to say that I am actually against defender due to it's simplicity and the amount of cheapness and also, it isn't as fun as the other IMO. Campers will rock defender but, heck almost everybody can camp. The use of the 4 area's can easily be used as targets for Trace's.

I am with the 4 player play, it isn't that much lag if u are at a hotspot. I am for the 4 player.

MPH FTW!!!!(good meaning)!!!!!

 

[Bread-Butterer]

M3D, concerning your review, just thought I'd let you know that you can zoom with the imperialist by holding down the stylus on the infinity weapon icon.

 

[M3D]

Dawnroyfire... the tournament is not just on Sunday. I send out emails to the registered teams and get them connected and then they schedule a match together when they get the opportunity by a certain date. Then scores are reported to me and we set up the next round of matches and we move on. It'll probably take about 2 weeks for the tournament to conclude! So don't give up ! It works around your schedule for the most part. Grab a partner and enter.

EDIT: Also, to remove some barriers to entry... I'm only asking one person from each team to report scores using a digital camera, but I'm not necessarily requiring it from anyone. If you want to make sure there's no confusion, make sure one of you is taking pictures since pics will mean more than anyone's words when I'm doing results. If neither teams takes pictures and they start arguing over who won I'll either force you to play again or DQ you all. But in the end, it's not gonna be required to make sure we get some extra teams entered.

 

[SonicZeroX]

For the potential Alinos Gateway tricks, as far as I've found, you can't actually get inside the rocks, just behind them. For teams, you'd be able to get both people positioned in some way to get a good shot off on them, so I wouldn't think that it'd be a huge problem, but again, I haven't really had too much experience with a Spire that abuses that.

From what I've seen and tested, you do actually go INSIDE of the rock, not behind. Once your inside you can move around in the rock and snipe noone will know that you are there as long as you don't move out of the rock. There is no way around it other than to enter the rock with Spire, which is dumb since the lava will kill you.

The spire abuse isn't much of a problem at all. Both of my friends play spire and only choose alinds, while me and my other friend just kick their spire buts. BUt, this is because of his lack of speed, also There are few areas in Alinds where spire can pretty much be godly, trace's can take care of that.

Agian, if the spire knows the tricks for walking into rocks, not even Trace will be able to stop it.

If you just ban Alinos Gateway then the problem is solved.

 

[M3D]

Sonic Zero... I have been unable to copy the walking INTO rocks. Can you explain in detail how to do it so I can try to replicate it? If it really is a major problem we'll fix it by removing the stage or gametype but I want to be sure this is really verifiable and not a rumor.

 

[SonicZeroX]

Sonic Zero... I have been unable to copy the walking INTO rocks. Can you explain in detail how to do it so I can try to replicate it? If it really is a major problem we'll fix it by removing the stage or gametype but I want to be sure this is really verifiable and not a rumor.

Sure thing
First of all use Spire and bounce along the jump pads untill you reach the ledge with the imperialist, or just jump up the platforms, or climb up there. Once you've grabbed the imperialist, fall directly downwards and turn around so that you face the wall. You should see a crevice between the wall and the rock pillar. Walk into there was Bio form and when you cannot advance into the hole anymore, transform into alt and roll right. You should enter the rock.
One in the rock, you can unfold and start sniping. You can walk around in the rock in any direction. Also, walking out of the boundaries of the rock causes you to leave the rock and so you are nolonger protected by it.
The thing is all Spire has to do is grab imperialist, walk in the rock, get 1 headshot and then stay there for the rest of the match.

There is acually another spot you can walk through but I haven't tested it. It's somewhere in the lava fall that you can walk through with spire.

Although this strategy can be beat by standing on the opposite side of the large platform in the middle, that means the battle can only result in either Spire winning, or a tie.

Edit: It MAY be possible for other character to enter the rock as well, but the lava + dialanche will surely get then out of it quick.

 

[Sinz]

Holy crap. That was easier than I thought. thanks for showing this to us.

 

[M3D]

I managed to replicate it... good explanation. It wasn't hard at all.

Defender was the weakest gametype anyways, maybe I'll just replace that with like, Nodes:LevelX and see how Nodes fairs as a tournament game. Although we could always try to just ban getting outside the normal boundaries of the stages or glitching yourself through geometry. It is, afterall, just a test-tournament to figure out if this game is tournament worthy, right?

 

[SonicZeroX]

Oh and in space areas (like outside of headshot), you can fly UPWARDS with sylux's bombs. I'm not sure if this can go on forever, but if it can, it warrants a ban.

Oh and one of those spire hiding places have been found in COMBAT HALL.
Man this game is glitchy. :s

 

[M3D]

The anti-grav levels aren't designed very well anyways. Head shot is pretty awful since there's only one approach to the lower level which can be camped with 'Lux traps, the sniper, deathhalt, etc... And the weapons complex one where the hill is outside but the rest of the stage is inside is poorly shaped for good competitive play. I think Outer Reach is a low-grave stage but I've tried to fly on that stage and it doesn't work like it does on the others.

I think we've decided to go with Radar ON for Battle gametypes and Radar OFF for objective gametypes since the objectives themselves are indicated on your screen anyways and there's very little competitive advantage to camping someplace undetectable when you'll just have your opponent slip away from you anways.

How does that sound to everyone? Think we can give this a try? Please post your registration posts or at least PM them to me if you're worried about your AIM/email being posted. I've got 6 teams signed up already with at least 3 more I know of in the works. I expect to get 12-16 by the end.

 

[Aftermath]

I'll go ahead and sign up ChRed and me, but is it ok if I'm not available this weekend, I will be next week though.

SWF Team #1

Team Name: Team Rocket
Player 1: Aftermath
AIM 1: Aftermath rar
email 1: aftermath229@hotmail.com
Friend Code: 5197-5853-5756

Player 2: ChRd2AKrsp
AIM 2: ChRed2AKrisp
email 2: ?????????@??????.???
Friend Code: ????-????-????

I'll fill in the Friend Code when I'm with my DS next, or if ChRed posts the info I'll edit this.

Flying should work on every stage the exact same way. when you hit the invisible ceiling in low-gravity, it stops movement but not momentum, so in theory, it should always work. Unless you're talking about the one with like the low-grav place out in the center with the whole, and the couple cloak spawns, which is a terrible level on its own. When you get above the slanted ceiling on that place, it's no longer low-gravity. You can tell pretty easily by standing up there and jumping.

 

[M3D]

Good stuff... just found out that one of the guys registered from MLG is in the top twenty on the leaderboards. Also, Jahordan, one of the top 10 might be joining from GameFAQs. It's looking to me like we might have a good tournament even if we don't get a lot of teams. Sign up now and I promise none of you will face Jahordan first round.

 

[ChRed2AKrisp]

My e-mail is tedbrandt@verizon.net,i'll get back on my FC.

edit: FC is 2792-4051-4123

and my user name is actually ChRd2AKrsp, my real SN doesn't fit.

 

[M3D]

Ok, you guys are signed up. You should be playing one of the GameFAQs teams first roun I think. Anyone else joining up? Please do so by Midnight TONIGHT (saturday).

 

[SonicZeroX]

I highy doubt that I will have time for this, so I won't be signing up.

Oh and I found a new glitch in Combat hall, Although unlike the other ones this is not a hiding spot.
I was having a Triskelion battle at the top of the level where the missiles were, and I attacked and the momentum sent me THROUGH the wall and into the oblivion. This lead to me losing the match. >.>
But yea everyone should watch out for this, or it might cost you the match as well.

Edit: 500 Posts! I'm a Smash Apprentice now lol

 

[M3D]

emails went out early this morning with all your info for your first round matches. Good luck!

 

[ChRed2AKrisp]

thanks. smashboards vs mlg first round. Team Rocket ftw!!

Cap'n Crunch, I'll se if you're on AIM later today, i havesome work right now.

and if we don't do the match today or tomorrow, i'm gonna be in a hotel from tuesday to friday morning. so unless the hotel has wifi, and we pray that it does and set a match time on tuesday or wednesday, we'll have to forfeit. so get on aim or something, or even e-mail/pm me. I'll contact the other team and see what's good for them.

 

[M3D]

Ok... since this is just for fun and there's no money on the line and we're testing things out, I've decided that I'm gonna make a change to one of the gametypes. Defender just doesn't work. Small/Medium stages just create utter chaos since there's no respawn time and alt forms can buzz all over the place and on the big stages spawn camping can become utterly ridiculous with a good Trace player or Imp user (yes, I've decided to call the Imperialist (sniper) the "Imp," so no ?s).

Nodes fairs a lot better since you have to work out a strategy to control all three locations and there's some serious teamwork involved. There's also significantly less chaos than the un-moving hill defender gametypes as people spawn and rush the hill over and over. So here's the proposed settings:

Team Nodes Pro
1. Point Goal: 70 Points
2. Time Limit: 15 Minutes
3. Team Play: On
==Advanced==
4. Friendly Fire: On
==Stages==
Ice Hive

I'll test some more stages for this later, but for the time being, be prepared for Ice Hive since this is showing up in round two of the tournament. Don't hate. Just practice up.

Also... posted the brackets over at the MLGPro.com thread. They're attached to the first post. If you're interested in who you're playing, click on the link below and download.

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58089

 

[Aftermath]

Hmm... I highly question your playtesting.

 

[M3D]

Well, I'm playing with guys who are top 20-50ish on the leaderboards plus a few others on top of that. So it's not like a bunch of n00bs running around here. Maybe we're missing something that you've figured out but please explain further than that you "highly question" this stuff.

Do you question the problems with Defender? Or the choices for Nodes? Love to hear your feedback.

 

[Aftermath]

Some of the stages just seem weird. Like on Ice Hive, the beginning will always be a mad dash for the death-alt, at which point that team has a huge upper hand for about 30 seconds. I haven't played nodes much myself, but I have a feeling that there has to be somewhere that doesn't have a deathalt while still having good node placement.

But yeah, guessing from how you wanted radar off after playtesting, I would call your tests into question. And yeah, I was ranked like 18th before I stopped playing everyday, and like if I was up that high, rank really can't mean all that much.

But yeah, we'll have to see how it all works out, since this is just testing.

 

[M3D]

Honestly I know about the deathalt and I'm very curious to see what kind of effect on the game that powerup actually has. It could dominate, or it could just be a nice powerup to have for a short period of time. Considering it only spawns once every 5 minutes it really cannot be the deciding factor for too long, but there will be a bit of a rush for it at the beginning I think.

Of course, it really could be that easy to say "no deathalt allowed" considering it's tucked away in a little nook and you really have to intentionally go in there and grab it. It's not like it spawns out in the open where you're likely to run over it on accident. So far, the games I've played have indeed involved the players rushing for the deathalt at the beginning but by no means has that determined the overall outcome of the game. In fact, sometimes the first guy there gets blasted by both his opponents on his way in and out of the little cove and dies before he ever gets to use it for anything.

I'm more than willing to change any rules based on the input of the players and the results of the matches for sure, so feel free to continue to give me feedback. I'm just trying to get as much of this game solidly playtested as possible. And of course, if you're worried about it you can always agree with the other team before the match to not use the deathalt. I don't see any problem with that.

 

[SonicZeroX]

Of course, it really could be that easy to say "no deathalt allowed" considering it's tucked away in a little nook and you really have to intentionally go in there and grab it. It's not like it spawns out in the open where you're likely to run over it on accident. So far, the games I've played have indeed involved the players rushing for the deathalt at the beginning but by no means has that determined the overall outcome of the game. In fact, sometimes the first guy there gets blasted by both his opponents on his way in and out of the little cove and dies before he ever gets to use it for anything.

In Headshot it's pretty much in the wide open. The only way to get shock coil is to go to it. Even if you are Sylux.

 

[ChRed2AKrisp]

sad as this is to say, crunch and i will have to forfeit. Unless he thinks he can take on 2 people at once.

Problem is, he gets back from school at around 6:30 EST. but the only opponent we can contact(since M3D only had information on one of the players when he sent the e-mail), MMaster, works night shifts(i think) because he got home at 1:30 am on monday, and sent an e-mail saying he'd be free after 5 oclock. ie-mailed and said to be on around 7:00 since that's when crunch was getting home. we got on at 6:30, and I stayed on aim with crunch until like 9:30. the guy never turned up. so i'm guessing he left for work, before 6:30. Either that or he forgot.

I don't blame him if he had to go to work. In that case, we just got unlucky cuz there was no time wse could possibly play.

But if he forgot, i told him that i'm leaving today, so i'm sorry, but that's not our fault. we waited at least 3 hours for him, crunch might have waited another 3 hours(since he's on PST).

M3D, if you decide to host another tourney, make sure you tell everyone to post

a) what time zone they're on. I never got info from MMaster except one e-mail, so i wasn't sure if the meeting times he was talking about were EST or what.

b) when they're usually free. for instance, this guy would have said he works nightshifts and is unavailable from like after 6:00 pm, and usually wakes up around 10:00.

crunch would have said he gets home from school around 4:00 pm PST. That way we could immediately.

Looking at those times we normally would have said we have to do this on a weekend. in this case, that meant only one day was available, sunday. But maybe somebody already has something planned that day. one day chance is just not enough. M3D, in this case you could have noticed it wasn't going to work for the first match for this particular match up, and found match ups that did work.

c) You need to make sure you have ALL the info on players before this started. you sent us INFO PENDING for the fourth player, so we had to depend on player 3 for match start up. MMaster only contacted me once through e-mail, and didn't tell me who his partner was. this makes it practically IMPOSSIBLE to set up a time.

so next time, just have more information.

oh and next time, don't staart on a sunday? so that if something like this happens again, we'll have 2 days to contact eachother rather than only the day we got the info?

If you do this stuff i'll be happy, but i've devoted most of sunday and monday to getting this match started, and nothing came of it. Now i'm going on vacation today, and i'll be leaving before 6:30, which is when he gets home from school. My hotel doesn't have wireless, so basically crunch and i have to forfeit. Being the nice guy he is he oesn't balme me. I'm really pissed off.

 

[Aftermath]

Actually, he meant to say that they forfeit. I waited until like 2:00 AM PST, so if he was ever going to get on AIM and try and contact one of us, I would have seen it. In the e-mail, they didn't even have all of their info, and judging by their unresponsiveness, they should be the ones to be DQ'd, if anyone is. I'd say that there should be a week to get the matches done, and if they aren't then the team with the least effort put into getting them done receives a loss.

It'd be super nice if someone could make and host a DC++ MPH hub, and for videos or whatever I have a pretty good set up for capturing and sharing if people would want some of those.

But yeah, we tried pretty hard these last couple days to get the matches started, but they flaked out, not our fault.

 

[SonicZeroX]

^Ouch that's gotta suck.
I guess M3D forgot how people living all over the globe in different time zone are participating.
Well as he said, it IS more of a learning experience then an actual competitive tourney.

 

[M3D]

I left it up to the players to schedule matches because when I initially suggested having set times, people complained about varying schedules. One of our first round matches is being delayed until Saturday, which I am more than willing to do for you guys if you can make that work. I'll try to contact MMaster myself and get this thing sorted out. The reason why his partners information wasn't listed was that his guy bailed on him last second, and I was giving him a chance to secure a second partner without DQ'ing him right off the bat. But yeah, if you guys can schedule a match by Saturday night and have the results to me sometime on Easter sunday I can hold the match up, otherwise we'll just have to sort the rest out.

As for the deathalt... lolz... Headshot is a AWFUL stage. I'd never use it for competition. The death pit under the stage that only has one entrance and you can only exit by alt-form is a campers dream. Not to mention that 'Lux can get a lead and they fly out in space for the rest of the match. Definitely not using that stage... any others where the deathalt is an issue we'll address it. But yeah, don't worry about headshot.


Also, Aftermath (Crunch) I'd love to talk to you about how you're capturing video off your DS. Is it a camera in a rig or did you find a way to pull video off the DS itself? Let me know. I've got some things in the works and your information might be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Aftermath]

I have a camera rig at the moment, and there's a video of mine up on You Tube with a mediocre CV: DoS boss rush, mainly showing The Aftermath Trick more than anything else, that you can watch to see the quality of it, I'd say medium VHS quality at least. I've been toying with the idea of a homemade PSP2TV type device for my DS once I pick up the DS lite, won't know much about that until I really look into that morre and see if it's plausable. Otherwise I just keep e-mailing places like IGN and asking if they could sell me something under the table (no responses as of yet, as one would most likely guess).

Ok, as long as we're getting some sort of extension then I think our match will work out fine. Yeah, headshot is a crazy terrible stage. I'll try doing some questionable playtesting with bots, just to kind of see where the nodes are in 4 player and how camping/other stuff will work.

 

[M3D]

Aftermath, I know you're playing your tournament match either tonight or tomorrow. I would love to see it if you don't mind taping while you're playing the match. I've been playtesting a lot, but I'd love to see things from another persons screen. It would help me get a feel for how other people are playing and give me a better grasp of the game in general. Think you can do it?

Also, I posted the gametypes by round in the MLG thread:
http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58089

I'm pretty pleased with how Nodes: Ive hives is working out. Stasis Bunker is the next stage I'm gonna give a try for that gametype. The nodes are well-seperated enough that it really requires some teamwork and strategy to hold them down for any significant amount of time. Good stuff...


but yeah, #1 most important thing from this post is: Aftermath, if you can tape your matches I'd love to see them. Thanks!

 

[ChRed2AKrisp]

yay, dealyed!
MMaster said he leaves for work at 10(in the morning) in an e-mail, so i'll hook up with hom maybe before hand and crunch, you'll be on at around 6:30 to 7. so maybe this'll work today, almost definately tomorrow since crunch won't be at school all day.

Me n' crunch would have this in the bag if we didn't keep jumping off the stage. /

 

[Aftermath]

Uh, sure, I'll record. Save me the hassle of finding a camera with which to take pictures. One thing though. Like, if I get into it, I won't be looking at the TV until I die or have a peaceable time, so at some points the DS may get out of line. I'll see what I can rig up to steady it though.

 

[ChRed2AKrisp]

crunch, i'll get you on AIM when you come on, but i'll post this. THe match is at 8:00 EST, 5:00 pm your time.