[Complete] PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

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Horus2
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[Complete] PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Horus2 »

Pick Your Recruits Armageddon Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The II. PYRA Tournament


1. General

PYRAMID is a 1v1 tournament played in Pick Your Recruits Armageddon, advanced mode. For the tournament the latest version required for both Wesnoth and the era (1.10.7 stable version and PYRA 1.6.0).
Certain elements of the rules are taken from The Grand Tag, the rightly famed 2v2 tournament.
New to PYRA? It doesn't really matter. Learn all the rules in literally 2 minutes!:
Changes done to standard and advanced units' attributes::

2. Timing

PYRAMID will begin after the recruitment phase, that is since closing the list (30 of April), and expected to be finished about the middle of July.
Starting time may be adjusted by some days if the number of players at deadline makes it desirable.

3. Tournament system

The PYRAMID tournament's first round will be a round robin, second round will be a winner's round robin, and then a final. Organisers will make four groups of equal number of players. In all four groups, players have a round robin, where they play one match against everyone else in the same group, then first and second place proceed. Remaining players then once again have a round robin. After that, top two plays a best of 3 for the first place. If two players have draw, order is decided by the match they played against each other; in the rare case it is draw, by the match they played against the known highest ranking player, then second highest ranking and so on.
In case the first round robins count five or less participants, each player have two matches against the opponents instead one.
In case the first round robins count seven or more participants, the best three players proceed instead the best two, and second round will feature two seperate groups. The best two of both groups go to semifinals, then winners of semifinals go to the final.
Matches can result in win, loss or draw for a player. After 30 turns one may propose draw. Also counts as a draw if none of the players can complete his/her objective. Win is 1 point, draw is 1/2, loss is 0.
Rounds last for 21 days, but if all matches are finished and participants agree on it, it may be shortened.

4. Settings

Timer: No timer on this tournament! - The reason is that picking for the recruit list, all this according to a random starting time and the enemy's leader takes a lot of time. Also there are large maps like Cynsaun Battlefield and Arcanclave Citadel which require much more time than others, especially in this era.
Use Map Settings: On! - This also means Time of Day has to be random (except on Tombs Of Kesorak).
Shuffle Sides: Off! The era does not go on well with shuffle sides. If turned on, there is 50% chance for one of the leader shapeshifting to the opponent's leader. It's a very silly glitch and unfortunately it makes side randomizing more difficult. You either have to set up a game previously just to decide that and start a new one according to the result, or have to reach agreement on who goes where.


Turns: Unlimited
Village gold: 2
Experience modifier: 70%
Observers: On

The rest is defined by map settings.

5. Map pool

The map chosen must be accepted by both players, P1 in every round will be chosen via computer program that will randomize it (shuffle sides).
Every player can play on every map only once during the whole tournament! (Except for the final and semifinals, see below.)
If players can not agree on the map to choose, they can randomise it as far as result wasn't played before, or they can ask for a neutral admin decision.
Players may choose from the following PYRA-compatible maps, with PYRA prefixes, found in the add-on:

PYRA_Aethermaw, PYRA_Arcanclave Citadel, PYRA_Astral Port, PYRA_Blacksmoke Crater, PYRA_Caves Of The Basilisk, PYRA_Claudiuss, PYRA_Clearing Gushes, PYRA_Crescent Lake, PYRA_Cynsaun Battlefield, PYRA_Den Of Onis, PYRA_Elensefar Courtyard, PYRA_Fallenstar Lake, PYRA_Garnet Gamma, PYRA_Grand Houde Mountain, PYRA_Hamlets, PYRA_Hornshark Island, PYRA_Howling Ghost Badlands, PYRA_Mining Colony, PYRA_Rime Grotto, PYRA_Ruined Passage, PYRA_Ruphus Isle, PYRA_Sablestone Delta, PYRA_Scarred Foothills, PYRA_Serpent Ford, PYRA_Silverhead Crossing, PYRA_Sulla's Ruins, PYRA_Swamp Of The Dread, PYRA_The Freelands, PYRA_The Walls Of Pyrennis, PYRA_Thousand Stings Garrison, PYRA_Tombs Of Kesorak, PYRA_Weldyn Channel

Maps that are allowed, but not wholeheartedly recommended:
Arcanclave Citadel - the castle-megacomplex is already a pain to deal with in default, with the unit combinations of PYRA suddenly popping up in every corner of the map, this is increasingly the case here
Crescent Lake - this map is featuring a newly included starting gold difference to compensate p2, therefore counts as a highly experimental map, use with caution
Ruphus Isle - this map is tailored for default, but due to short distances p2 may not withstand the rush of mixed PYRA units; i have no data collected about the issue

Maps that are misleadingly packed with the rest but actually forbidden:
PYRA_Dungeon_Wars - the remnant of the past, the only reason for this being still here is that i have plans for a renovation, and if that happens, you will notice the map suddenly being six times bigger
PYRA_Fast_To_Madness - with 30 units added to both sides on first turn, it may serve as a fine casual PYRA experience, but not suitable for serious matches

In the final and the occurrent semifinals, if 1:1 happens, the third match has to be played on a 2v2 map, with one player controlling two sides, and using the same unit twice in the two sides is not allowed. Do not forget to set the starting time to random by manually! The valid pool of 4p maps for these matches:

4p_Blue_Water_Province, 4p_Castle_Hopping_Isle, 4p_Clash, 4p_Geothermal, 4p_Hamlets, 4p_Loris_River, 4p_Path_of_Daggers, 4p_Ruins_of_Terra-Dwelve, 4p_Underworld, 4p_Xanthe_Chaos

6. Game validation

players are obliged to inform when they will play the game in this topic and allow observers to join their games. Games played in the tournament system has to have a "PYRAMID" acronym, number of the game, number of the round, and players!
Player who is opening the game should be aware of the correct settings. If game is being played with wrong settings or even when it has been finished, other player or admins may force game to restart (although this is a minor fault and players tended to be lenient in the previous tournament, better watch out and double-check the map and settings, especially the random starting time).
While it is very unlikely, if you find a bug or error in the era, contact me as soon as possible! Current match can be continued if players mutually agree, but preferred to restart and play with the patched version.

7. Cheat and other abuses

Cheating is not allowed, and cheating players will be banned instantly from the tournament. Flooding, giving hints are also strictly forbidden and may result in a quick ban. Verbal insults come with warning and yellow card first, but if the player is keep behaving unacceptable, may be banned, too.
if one side has technical problems, it has a right to postpone the game once, to continue it after fixing the problem but the side, that asks to postpone has TO contact the opponents immediately and make an appointment to continue the game in the next 3 days and opponents are meant to find a time to continue the game during this period of time. After this period, if postponing player won't contact the opponents, it will automatically lose the game. It's lex specialis to the rule below:
Both sides can continue the match another day if all players will agree to do that.

If someone picks or accepts a map he or she already played on, thus abusing the rules described at point 5 "Map pool", verdict will be to play the wrong map until victory, draw, or surrender - however if the guilty player wins or draws does not earn point for that, only the opponent. If culpable player won or achieved a draw, the players have to play a new game, but now with a proper map. This essencially means that the player who opened or suggested an inappropiate map have to win twice for 1 point.

Rules are never perfect, thus bona fides (good will) should be visible in players' behaviour, if the players will find some part of the rules not precise , malignant behaviour will be punished by official warning. If the players will still act in malignant way, it can be banned.

8. Filtering quitters

Unfortunately, one of the frequent abuses is avoiding games and not responding to the organisers' PMs. Therefore in the first round, everyone should play at least two matches on the first 7 days, else he/she will be warned, and if not responding before the 8th day ends, disqualified, and reserve players in the order of registration can take their places. If one is unable to play 2 matches due to outer circumstances, by previously contacting with the admins and informing opponents about the inability to play, he/she is exempted from the rule.
If someone quits the tournament prematurely, there can be two different outcomes. If it happened on the first 7 days of the first round, reserve players can take his/her place as stated above, otherwise after the 7th day all the quitter's wins are erased, and points are given to his/her opponents.

9. Ethics

Consider time restrictions before signing up - getting the players to play at the same time isnt always easy, especially if some of them have really limited time options.
Be active while setting the game date - from past experience we know its always important to set the date as soon as possible to have a reserve in case of some unexpected situation.
Be tolerant to one another, to the admins, respect the rules and the admin decisions - not everything can be treated in the general rules, so in those cases, the admins have the decisive word. We promise not to take sides.

10. Registration and organising

The Registration Phase starts today (11th of April, 2014), and you can join the tournament sending me a PM. Players have to be registered on the boards to secure fluent communication between the groups!
The tournament is planned to have 20 places, despite this, players can still register themselves if four of them come together, up to a max of 36 participants. This way they can be divided into equal groups. So, if you are out of the 20 places, the best you can do is to invite other players.
After this, a short (about 2 days) organisation period will come, where the tournament admins set the rounds and make everything ready for the great event. Round 1 starts after this, and the official announcement.

11. Generic bug solutions

a)Movement points bug
Once in a while, when one of the players drops from the game due to technical problems & rejoins, may find out that all his units have 0 movement points, it's very serious bug regarding tournament rules, thus following procedure has to be applied when it happens:

Disconnection bug HOWTO:

tiboloid wrote:
1. save the game
2. open another Wesnoth client and load saved game as a replay (check the "Show replay" checkbox at the bottom of the Load Game dialog box)
3. check the "Skip animation" check box at the top of the screen
4. run the replay by clicking on "continuous replay"
5. when you reach the turn of the side before the disconnected guy, click on "pause at the end of turn"
6. save the game and reload.


b)Corrupted replays from reloaded games
It's a well known fact, that replays from reloaded games are usually corrupted and can't be watched. This problem hits particularly a high level games that tend to be long, thus probability of saving & reloading the game is higher in their case. Still, such a corrupted replay can be repaired:

repairing reloaded games corrupted replays HOWTO:

alpha1 wrote:
From what I’ve figured, the corrupted replay bug is caused by the fact that the after-reload game information is stored in the beginning of the replay file and that wesnoth client fails to recognize that the pre-reload info (which is stored in the end of the replay) must be read first. So in order to fix the replay, those two parts must be brought into the correct order.

1. Extract the replay file from the .gz archive
2. Open it in a text editor (I used Microsoft Word 2007). There will be 2 pairs of [replay] [/replay] –tags. (The after-reload game info between the first pair, the pre-reload between the 2nd)
3. Search for the 2nd [replay]-tag, cut everything between the [replay][/replay]-tags and paste it into the beginning of the file (don’t forget to delete those tags afterwards)
4. Search for the [replay_start]-tags (there will be 2 tags if you reloaded once) and delete everything between 1st and 2nd [replay_start]-tags. (If I understand correctly, that is the game info of the after-reload) This way wesnoth client will not be confused by it and will use the game info of the pre-reload part instead
5. Add the edited version of replay into the .gz archive (you may need to download 7-zip, a freeware archive program, in order to edit .gz archives, which can be find here http://www.7-zip.org/)
6. Have fun

(All players have to turn auto-save on for this, if rehost from replay-save somehow won't help, use last available autosave & accept different outcome.)

Enjoy!


12. Questions

In case you have any reasonable question concerning the rules, feel free to PM the admins or post on this thread.



Good luck! The choice is in your hands!

Horus
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Horus2
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Horus2 »

Registration phase has been started by now!

This is the list of players who have already joined and the maps they played:

Horus2 - Ruined Passage, Crescent Lake, Tombs of Kesorak, Walls of Pyrennis, Scarred Foothills
abhijit - The Freelands, Caves Of The Basilisk, Aethermaw, Silverhead Crossing, Fallenstar Lake, Sablestone Delta
amikrop - Caves of the Basilisk, Weldyn Channel, The Freelands, Silverhead Crossing, Aethermaw, Fallenstar Lake, Ruphus Isle, Sablestone Delta
NanRoig - Caves of the Basilisk, Weldyn Channel, Swamp of Dread, Sulla's Ruins, Tombs Of Kesorak, Rime Grotto, Silverhead Crossing
iceiceice - Swamp of Dread
Blop - Caves of the Basilisk, Hamlets, Den of Onis, Silverhead Crossing, Mining Colony, Den of Onis
Mint - Swamp of Dread, Sulla's Ruins, Ruined Passage, Mining Colony, Scarred Foothills, Caves of the Basilisk, Elensefar Courtyard
Oook - Sulla's Ruins, Tombs of Kesorak, Aethermaw, Sablestone Delta, Thousand Stings Garrison, Ruphus Isle
szdik570 - Hamlets, Claudiuss, The Freelands, Caves of the Basilisk, Den Of Onis, Sablestone Delta
ikomizo - Den of Onis, Silverhead Crossing, Weldyn Channel, Tombs of Kesorak, Clearing Gushes, Hornshark Island
thefish - Elensefar Courtyard, Aethermaw, Den of Onis, Thousand Stings Garrison, Serpent Ford, Tombs of Kesorak
Danniel_BR - Swamp of Dread, The Freelands, Rime Grotto, Hamlets, Fallenstar Lake, Thousand Stings Garrison, Ruphus Isle
snowman - Elensefar Courtyard, Thousand Stings Garrison, The Freelands, Ruphus Isle, Weldyn Channel, Hornshark Island
SalsaRocoto - Sulla's Ruins, Crescent Lake, Sablestone Delta, Rime Grotto, Caves of the Basilisk
Abstract - Weldyn Channel (x2), Hamlets, Ruphus Isle
Madmoo - Aethermaw, Weldyn Channel, The Freelands
mumma - Caves of the Basilisk, The Freelands, Scarred Foothills, Silverhead Crossing, Grand Houde Mountain, Den of Onis
Kira1 - Claudiuss, The Freelands, Scarred Fotthills, Aethermaw, Silverhead Crossing, Fallenstar Lake, Grand Houde Mountain, Mining Colony
Duthlet - Sablestone Delta, Rime Grotto, Mining Colony, Tombs of Kesorak, Walls of Pyrennis, Elensefar Courtyard
nagafono - Silverhead Crossing, Serpent Ford, Ruphus Isle, Weldyn Channel, Clearing Gushes


Current standing of Round 1:

Image

yellow = matches won
purple = matches played



obsolete information:
Last edited by Horus2 on June 26th, 2014, 5:23 pm, edited 18 times in total.
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NanRage
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by NanRage »

Sign me in mighty magyar ;)
Velensk
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Velensk »

I am very interested in this tournament but I can't commit to it at the moment.

I am however curious about the comment made about Crescent Lake having extra gold for player 2. Why was this change made?
"There are two kinds of old men in the world. The kind who didn't go to war and who say that they should have lived fast died young and left a handsome corpse and the old men who did go to war and who say that there is no such thing as a handsome corpse."
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by abhijit »

It is very hard for p2 to defend well against a properly executed p1 rush on crescent lake. With pyr, the effect is enchanced much more.
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Velensk
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Velensk »

I havn't worked on Cresent Lake recently but would it not be easier to modify the map than to try to balance it out with extra gold which p1 has no way of recovering?

I remember that both p1 and p2 could do a decent rush depending on faction match-up and I'm sure that PYRA would make for a much more aggressive game but I am still skeptical that the problem is so bad that giving one player extra gold would make things better. It sounds like the kind of thing which would either unbalance things further or force p1 to rush.

Also, for my own curiosity, where do these rushes typically target/do you have a replay.
"There are two kinds of old men in the world. The kind who didn't go to war and who say that they should have lived fast died young and left a handsome corpse and the old men who did go to war and who say that there is no such thing as a handsome corpse."
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tekelili
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by tekelili »

Velensk wrote:I havn't worked on Cresent Lake recently but would it not be easier to modify the map than to try to balance it out with extra gold which p1 has no way of recovering?
Just a little touchy note :whistle:
A player can along a game recover from gold deficit in several ways (like unit killing, village control, and better upkeep managament); from wich a player wont ever recover is from be allowed to move only when his oponent has moved one extra turn already (every turn in game!) or from be the player wich moves right before tod changes. If you are kk with a game wich has those two perma-imbalances, you shouldn´t be worried for 2 gold, imho.
Be aware English is not my first language and I could have explained bad myself using wrong or just invented words.
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Velensk
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Velensk »

Ah, so what was meant was that p2 gets an extra village at start. That makes a lot more sense. For some reason I was thinking that p2 would start with an extra click on the starting money slider (25 gold).
"There are two kinds of old men in the world. The kind who didn't go to war and who say that they should have lived fast died young and left a handsome corpse and the old men who did go to war and who say that there is no such thing as a handsome corpse."
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Blop
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Blop »

I'm in, obviously :)
I can work as a Co-Admin (or referee), but only if I'm not the only one. I can't promise I'll have time whenever you don't.
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Mint
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Mint »

Mint signing in :)

Also, is PYRA version 1.6 going to be released before the tournament starts?
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Oook
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Oook »

Back from a bit of a break, so kind of rusty. Also, I've only played one game of Armageddon. On the obviously sound basis that those two factors will cancel out, count me in ;)
ShadowVeil
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by ShadowVeil »

Man Horus I thought we had to send you PM... I wrote to you days ago and my name still not registered :annoyed:
ShadowVeil
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by ShadowVeil »

Oh wait, my fault lol I sent a message to Horus.... Its Horus2!
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Horus2
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by Horus2 »

ShadowVeil wrote:Oh wait, my fault lol I sent a message to Horus.... Its Horus2!
Yes, watch out for that, i'm Horus2 on forum and official server and Horus on alternate servers and ladder. If you are waist-deep into sending PMs to that scoundrel, would you ask him for me why did he took my name if he is not even using it actively? :D
Velensk wrote:Ah, so what was meant was that p2 gets an extra village at start. That makes a lot more sense. For some reason I was thinking that p2 would start with an extra click on the starting money slider (25 gold).
We will leave the slider intact, gold difference will be coded into the cfg file. ;)
I have seen PYRA_Crescent_Lake with two different amount of starting gold, but none of them worked, and i felt very incapacious afterwards the I. PYRAMID for making it one of the finalists' map. It is told that the issue exists in default as well; given the open plains nature of the map, p1 can swarm both sides, and since the recruit flow is present only on one of the sides, can break in the other, take the villages or coldcock the desperate defenders, or both, in any order. This is especially crushing when p1 gets a faction with a fitting preferred ToD. In PYRA, you can adjust your team to fit for the first skirmish, and it does not really matter that p2 can as well, because there is still the numerical advantage and the PYRA combo rushes with cheap, village-taking and -holding units (DAOG, i'm looking at you). P1 simply gets there first and the whole action is happening on the upper half of the map.
Now about setting things right. I have talked with some players about this map recently and we all agreed on that p2 needs a buff. Toying with village-castle distances is questionable, because that one solution requires a shipload of feedback and testgames to prove its worthiness, while in the end it may result in a deserted mid and a fortified line of villages deep inside, just like Hamlets, but five times the effect. An assymetrical village pattern favoring p2 in the long run is also an option, but it requires even more attention. So, there is extra starting units and extra starting gold. We have seen the former on certain maps already and while being ingenious solution, the receptions are mixed, some thinks it feels a bit artificial and rigid, and more importantly i do not want to overuse this tool, else it will lose its charm. I am rather going with the extra gold, which is a new frontier in high-level Wesnoth gaming. We agreed on a boon of about 20 gold, and we are somewhat sure that it will not prevent p1 from getting early village or kill advantage at all, but in the next two weeks it will be tested semi-intensively nevertheless. IMO the different kind of starting advantages for the two players will serve as a great casus belli and add to the dynamics of the map.
In case you have a suggestion, i'm all ears. The 1.6.0 which will be used during the tournament is not done yet (will be released on this week, before weekend), so i can still implement some changes.
ikomizo
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Re: PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

Post by ikomizo »

Ok then I'm here to play with u some pyra :) If I can I wanna join.
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