Moderator: Tournament Directors
Night Strike wrote:I'm really liking the new graphics for the newsletter. Great work.
MEK wrote:I like the new graphics, good job Sir Ricco.
Gozar-you do a great job with the newsletter, I always enjoy reading it.
Nice work to all of you.
Twill wrote: Goz, love the new style.
White Moose wrote:
Map Foundry Gone Wild!
The Map Foundry has been running hot lately! Maps are coming out faster than a rabbit on crack! There have been all kinds of maps coming out, from Treasures of Galapagos to Iceland to Egypt: Upper.
Did you by mistake miss a map? Well then, keep on reading and you might get enlightened!
The reason new maps has been coming out so fast lately is a change in work pace, done by Lackattack, the site owner, who changed from large updates with lots of maps at once to small updates with one at the time. This change has become a great success, all players who has been longing for map for weeks, maybe months
will not have to wait longer than a few days now! But really, what new maps have come? Let's have a look.
Iceland
The first map of this new map frenzy is Iceland. A map of the country of Iceland, by RjBeals.
All the 36 territories are named exactly as they are in the Icelandic language. Which has been reported to be annoying for some, but entertaining and educating by others. It's sure to become a favorite map for many ConquerClub players.
This map came in use for a couple of tournaments just a day or two after it came out.
It's been chosen as the final's for the "Final Point Grabbers" by Optimus Prime, and in "Foundary Update 4.0" by Natewolfman.
High Seas
Water covers 2/3's of the Worlds area, so here is a map where you fight at sea. This 16th
century inspired map was made by Oaktown. Oaktown really took in the 16th century in the map and you really get the vibe that this is how the world looked like in a time of World Sailing.
The pictures which catches your eyes around the map is early 16th century engravings by Albrecht Durer, a German painter who's watercolour paintings mark him as one of the first European landscape artists.
High Seas is a classic gameplay map, with no gimmicks or tricky rules. Which makes it great for anyone to play.
Egypt: Lower
A map inspired by Ancient Egypt, made by the huge map maker cairnswk, who has a total of 18 (!) maps quenched!
As you look at the map, what catches your eye is the Sphinx. A Sphinx is a mythological figure, which is depicted as a lion with a human head. The river that catches your eye is the River Nile, which the Egyptians were very dependent upon to survive in ancient Egypt.The map is quite normal gameplay, but with a little twist. The Egyptian Cities gives a 1 army
autodeploy each round. This gives the map unique tactics and tricks to use. The map has quickly become a hit to speed gamers, as cairnswk forsaw before the map even got out to play.
Those who like the map, and other maps in the Egypt Series should check out the tournament "A Trip up the Nile".
Sydney Metro
Another map made by cairnswk. Map made from the City of Sydney and it's public transportation, as in buses and ferries. The map has a lot of small countries with big bonuses, but with all the different connections between the territories it makes it difficult to hold them. The different territory names are as they are called in Sydney, which actually gives you some fun facts about the city of Sydney. Also, the famous Opera House got a picture in the maps legend.
Treasures of Galapagos
Yet another map by cairnswk. The map comes from the Island of Galapagos, which is located east of Ecuador in South America.
You start off in a Diving Reef. The key to the map is capturing Luggers, Fresh Water and Treasures, all giving bonuses. The Lugger and Fresh Water gives you a bonus for each Diving Reef you own. So the more reefs, the more bonus per Lugger/Fresh Water you
receive.
The map has had a few problems. Many has complained about the map being unbalanced. However, the map has been changed and is under change as this is getting written. So a final edition with even balance perhaps isn't far away.
Egypt: Upper
Guess who made this map? Yes, you are correct. carinswk!
The map is quite similar to Egypt: Upper. It has the 1 army auto-deploy on the cities as well. However, it's very unique in one way.
The left side of the map sits atop the right side. It's a very clever way to make a long thin map work in the image size which is required for maps here on ConquerClub. The Nile is present in this map as well and also the boats which helps you travel across the
river.
Night Strike wrote:From the desk of the Tournament Directors:
Hello again fellow organizers. Things have been fairly crazy ever since school started back up, but hopefully we're all managing to stay afloat. As many of you may have noticed, Optimus Prime has chosen to step down from his position as Tournament Director. He has always been dedicated to his tournament organizing and used that dedication and the Director position to bring prominence to the tournament forums. Today, we average around 50 threads in the Create/Join forum and 250 in the Ongoing forum. Much of this growth can be attributed to his dedication and support for the tournaments.
This change has thrown myself and Steelhorse for a bit of a loop, but we feel that the tournaments will still be the best place in the forums. In light of this change, we are not looking to add another director at this time. Gilligan and Natewolfman have been great Tournament Assistants, and we will be looking to them to help us out with some of the bigger projects. When the time comes to add another director or assistant, we'll come calling (so please don't ask before then).
As a challenge to everybody: now that Optimus is no longer a Director, you all had better keep up with the great tournaments we know he'll provide.
~Night Strike & Steelhorse
Night Strike wrote:From the desk of the Tournament Directors:
This has been a crazy last 7-10 days in World Domination. Forums have disappeared, a director has stepped down, terminologies have changed, and our Classic map has undergone a makeover. I thank all of you organizers and players who have kept our tournament forums clean from the constant complaints that plague the other forums. You all help keep Steelhorse and me closer to sanity. I also thank those of you who do not like the new map for not spamming my inbox (and please don't get any ideas from that).
I think that the tournaments should be the first place to take advantage of the new classic and centerscape maps. If you don't like the new ones, I challenge you to design tournaments that are "out-of-the-box", to choose a theme based on other maps. Now that there are two classic maps, you could do a war between the classics. Continue to put your creativity to good use and look on the bright side of these changes. As always, the ideas for tournaments are endless. As a housekeeping item, please be sure to use the new site terms such as Spoils and Reinforcements when listing the settings for your tournaments.
Thanks for all the tournaments.
~Night Strike
Twill wrote:Bravo all of you!
a true milestone indeed. Gozar, special congrats to you for really bringing this to what it is - it is amazing. Sir ricco, I love the new limelight. Moose, best of luck to you wherever you end up. And Gilligan, I don't know how you have the patience for listing the tournaments but bravo!
You guys are a true asset to the community, I look forward to reading the next 52 editions!
Twill
Sir. Ricco wrote:Hello all American CC players,
Well, Thanksgiving is coming up, and we all know what that means. Food, football, and friends. We at the Newsletter would like to do something special for the Thanksgiving newsletter.
So, all you readers send us a short PM about what you are thankful for. Hopefully we can get a big responds from you. The newsletter staff and I will wade through and find our favorites. So send the PM to Sir. Ricco.
Thanks,
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Lately I've noticed that may you be an experienced organiser or newcomer in the amazing tournaments' world, there are things that are made according to following saying - why use the shortcut when you can go around. I've decided that I should share the experience that I've gathered when running my tournaments and hopefully it will become a dialogue between myself and readers of the newsletter. This is not meant only for organisers, I would also like to hear thoughts from players who have played in tens, maybe hundreds of tournaments but never run one. You have different views and perspective that might be hidden from myself and other playing organisers. Everybody, please contact amazzony with your questions, problems, ideas and thoughts!
Today I've decided to concentrate on Inbox. Optimus Prime has made a great job with a small guide that locates in Q&A subforum of General Discussion: Powers of the Inbox: How-To. Though a lot is explained in there then I would like to bring out a few things.
- First and most important thing for TOs is the improvement that came with new forums awhile ago - chance to send a PM to many people at once. It's a blessing I tell you. I'm sure we have readers who don't remember the times when you could send message only to one person. Of course, it never stopped crazy people from running big tournaments but I'm very thankful (and there are surely others) that I can send one message to hundreds of players at once. It has opened new doors to updating tournaments, sending out games and pushing the limits to bigger and more complex tournaments.
- Every saved second is a second that can be used in improving the tournament, I like to think. I've lately discovered that there's a cool button "Compose message". So, when you are sending several messages in a row then you don't have to return to Inbox and click "NEWPM" but you can save a click or two time to time. Might not seem much but when you are sending hundreds/thousands of messages then it saves you just a bit of time and I've found it quite handy.
- Last but not least, a quick explanation what's the difference between "Add" and "Add [BCC]" buttons. When you use "Add" then everybody can see who the message has been sent. If you push "Add [BCC]" button then you won't share with others who else has got the same message. It's good to know when sending tournament invites or other messages that include tens or hundreds of names.
Have fun in discovering your Inbox and its possibilities! Don't forget to send me what you've discovered and what should be shared with the others in newsletter. In next issue we'll look a bit more into Inbox and if there are any questions by you then I'll find answers to them.
Wishing you happy messaging,
amazzony
News Hound wrote:Hey oaktown
oaktown wrote:Hey back at ya... glad to be of service.
News Hound wrote:What is the purpose of the foundry competition?
oaktown wrote:Most of us wouldn't be here on Conquer Club if we didn't have a healthy competitive side to our personalities, so bringing some friendly competition into the Foundry is a good thing. And since past competitions have been won by Foundry regulars, we wanted to get a competition going that would bring in new blood. Just as we were ready to announce it we were given the thumbs-up for a Centerscape revamp, so it seemed like fun to run side-by-side competitions - one for the Foundry veterans, and one for new mapmakers.
News Hound wrote:How will this benefit the tournaments forum?
oaktown wrote:New maps! You tournament guys are so busy (read: popular) that you have to be running out of ideas. We'll end up with a brand spanking new map of Central America, and a Centerscape replacement that doesn't look like balls. Plus, I suspect that even the losers of this competition will be able to use elements of their designs in future work; our last revamp competition produced some beautiful work, and the ideas that came out of that competition will result in more than just an update of the Brazil map.
News Hound wrote:Can anyone get involved?
oaktown wrote:Absolutely, and by setting up one competition that is not open to our veteran mapmakers we are hoping it ill be more attractive to novices. Even if you've never wandered into the Foundry you'll be on even footing with your competition. That said, I'm certain we're still going to see some very high quality work - there are a lot of Photoshop junkies out there, and the bits and pieces that I've seen so far look quite good.
News Hound wrote:If there was one piece of advice you could give to amateur mapmakers, what would it be?
oaktown wrote:Ugh, only one? I guess it would be to keep your eyes on the prize. Most mapmakers will agree that the first project is a lot more work than they'd ever imagined. If you're serious about making a map you'll get it done, and we're there to help you, but you need to go into this with the understanding that you aren't going to be able to whip up a ready-to-play map in an hour or two using the Paint application that came with Windows. Oh, and my second piece of advice would be not to use that Paint application that came with Windows. We recently had a good discussion as to why in the Foundry.
News Hound wrote:As a person who has had a map quenched, how does it feel when you see people making tournaments out of your map?
oaktown wrote:I'm routinely shocked to see that the map that I put together two years ago (which is by no means my best) still has over 100 active games being played on it - and even more surprised to see it being used for the occasional tournament! It's a good feeling to create something that becomes a part of the site, especially at a site like CC where the expectation and standards are pretty high.
Now, if I could win some of those tournaments I'd like it even more.
News Hound wrote:Thankyou for your time
oaktown wrote:My pleasure, and I'm looking forward to seeing your competition entry, samuelc.
This time, amazzony's tournament advice will be short because I was hoping to get some feedback and questions from readers but it seems that everybody either know their inbox really well or don't understand at all so no questions came. I would like to say that this part of the newsletter is mostly to help organisers and players to understand and learn some aspects of the site and other things that are related to tournament organising. I won't be giving hints how to win tournaments because for that there are way better people like BaldAdonis, Godd and killmanic who are in the top of winning tournaments.
As promised in last issue, we'll look a bit more into inbox and this time I would like to turn your attention to messaging etiquette. I'm not sure it's the best word for the following but it's the best I could find.
- First thing, after deciding who to message, is to write a subject. For that, I would recommend not to use Hey or Hello but something more specific about what the message is about. It's especially important when messaging people who get many PMs a day and might not have enough time to read them always (people like myself ). If you are writing about a tournament then always include the tournament name in the title and after it you can write more specifically what your message is about (in brackets for example). Add "results", "question", "mistake" etc.
- Secondly, after subject, you'll write your question or problem or whatever is on your mind. There's not much to follow in there IMO, just make sure that you make yourself understandable. Though, I have a few suggestions. When you are writing about some certain game, make sure that you add the game number. If you are having trouble with some certain player, make sure to add the player name (correctly written). Little things like that can save a lot of time.
It seems that this is it for today. If you have any comments or questions about Inbox and how I presented it then don't hesitate and contact me. Next week we'll be looking more closely to BBCode and tags, if you are interested in something specific then let me know about it.
Happy messaging and cya next week in Amazzony's Advice!
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