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CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

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CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

Postby gimil on Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:08 am

Issue #10:

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Hi Conquer Club,

This week our beloved and hard working editor samuelc812 has taken a well earned break (for the most part) in putting together and running the CC newsletter. Instead this week (and next week) I will be bringing you the usual newsletter with all the trimmings!

Firstly a little bad news, InsomniaRed was unable to bring the community this weeks community opinion article on the map foundry. I can only assume many would be looking forward to this article. However, I have it in good faith that InsomniaRed will have the article ready for the next issue!

On a better note this week we have an interview with our head chatter and a long time CC friend of mine, James Vazquez and the very first article from ubersky who will be reporting on recent suggestions and bug reports!

Thanks for reading,
gimil

p.s. I apologies for this issue being a little late. We had a mixture of broken images and late articles. However everything is here now and working. Enjoy the read!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Fast News
  • Tournament Interview with...
  • Current Signups
  • Editor's Note

FAST NEWS

  • Tournament Newsletter, a new issue released. (here)
  • Do you speak a language derived from Latin? From International Forums, PepeAtila, Acores2005 and jricart are organizing a tournament on a global scale for all those who speak these languages. Currently they are searching a French Organizer. If you're active on these forums and want to participate to this project or simply want to play this tournament, go here.
    More information will be available in our next issue.
  • Last "Tournament Hall of Winner Update" by Night Strike
  • lackattack announced the "random map" (here). Could this new option be a source of inspiration for tournament organizers?
  • Interview with coded - submit your questions (here)

TOURNAMENT INTERVIEW WITH...

HighlanderAttack

Q: Hi HighlanderAttack, talk about you...

    It has been almost a year since I started playing CC. I started playing in tourneys about 7 months ago. I started running tourneys about 6 months ago. I am very addicted to this and you will find me playing most of my spare time. I play it when I am not working well into the early morning until I pass out . I hate when I wake up and realize I was in the middle of a move when I fell asleep. I probably should take my PC off the floor--lol.

Q: How did you find out about Conquer Club?

    Searching for Risk on Google.

Q: How long have you been organizing tournaments?

    About 6 months

Q: Which type of tournaments have you organized?

    Mostly singles. I have organized a lot of the AACM's , I do tourneys associated with each holiday. I have a new round robin series and a 4-3-2-1 series which is a gradual drop off until you get to the finals.

Q: In your opinion is more difficult organizing a successful tournament or taking the victory in one of them?

    More difficult to win. I have been to a lot of finals and for a while thought I was the Buffalo Bills of CC losing 6of7 finals.

Q: What is your favorite map currently up for live play? Why?

    Arms Race! It will always be my favorite. I have now played over 1200 times.

Q: In your opinion,what are the three most important things to organize a successful tournament?

    Timeliness which I have been slacking on.
    organization
    ability to make fair decisions

    I wonder how some of my answers will have changed since my first interview. I had an interview when I first started running tourneys so I am sure my perspective has changed some.

Q: Who is your favourite Tournament Organizer? Why?

    I have to say I really have two of them.

    flexmaster33 and JoJo123

    The themes they put out and the organization and time they put towards tourneys is awesome. I hate when I miss out on one of their tourneys.

Q: What was the best tournament have you ever played?

    I guess I have three:

    My first was a great experience. Captian Moo's Challenge Tourney (got me addicted and was my first)
    Scrabble CC style by JoJo123-I just had a dominating tourney
    NCAA tourney where I made the final four by flexmaster33

Q: Have you some new projects in mind?

    Right now I just want to get caught up. Once I am caught up I will continue having my series and then I have thought about doing a "There can be only one" theme based on Highlander. Whatever comes to my crazy mind will probably end up on a CC tourney.

CURRENT SIGNUPS

Here below the last week current signups:

The Medal Head Invitational 10
Organizer:killerpit4e
show: options

KP's Feudal Wars Dubs
Organizer:killerpit4e
show: options

LxDS: Pollice Verso
Organizer:Lindax
show: options

Wimbledon – Ascending Doubles
Organizer:DJ Teflon
show: options

Random Tournament
Organizer:caymanmew
show: options

Lany's Feudal Triples Bracket Tournament
Organizer:lanyards
show: options

Initech Invitational III: North America Mixed
Organizer:Peter Gibbons
show: options

World Regions
Organizer:Black Friday
show: options

Top of the Class
Organizer:Tupence
show: options

Five Elements - Shuffle
Organizer:Kinnison
show: options

Evil Crosby's Tournament of Champions
Organizer:Evil Crosby
show: options

Utterly Unpredictable!
Organizer:john9blue
show: options

Bart's Second Birthday Bash
Organizer:barterer2002
show: options

No Sun, Just Fog
Organizer:conquerAce
show: options

Just Win a Game 4
Organizer:coded
show: options

Singles all over the world
Organizer:aselwyn1
show: options

Mr.classic IV
Organizer:caymanmew
show: options

EoGE's Randomest Randomly Random Randomness
Organizer:EagleofGreenErth
show: options

Assassin07s Aor2 4Player Classic
Organizer:assassin07
show: options

b00060's Classic Shapes Tournament XI
Organizer:b00060
show: options

Triples DOUBLE Elimination
Organizer:FrancisBoyle
show: options

Free for all
Organizer:OliverFA
show: options

Through the Ages
Organizer:Jace22
show: options


EDITOR'S NOTE
If you have some interesting ideas or suggestions about, please contact me with a PM.
Thank you
Thenobodies80

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Alo again. A good flow of maps came out this past fortnight, but not really any news. Foundry Newsletter was a huge downer, as well. So anyway …

TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • Recently Quenched & Beta Maps
    • Greenland
    • Castle Lands
    • Indian Empire
    • Poison Rome
  • Foundry News & Announcements
    • The Foundry Newsletter: Issue #21
  • Author's Note

Recently Quenched & Beta Maps
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Greenland — Maker: the.killing.44
    After 3 months in the Foundry, my first map was released! Based on the world's largest independent island, Greenland goes by its chilly-blue theme, and a polar bear to top it off! So far so good on the gameplay feedback front — a small bonus was recently coded with starting positions, and that helped out drops much! She went live very quickly after quench like the others in this set (save Poison Rome), which is a good sign ;)
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Castle Lands — Maker: pikkio XML: thenobodies80
    The second map from this great duo, Castle Lands, based off of an RPG/pixelly-style graphical theme executed brilliantly, has gone live in the set and is for your enjoyment! The map's currently under gameplay discussion on neutrals, starting positions, drops, and bonuses (aren't all maps nowadays ;) ), and as the discussion continues (do take part!) we're sure the map will only get better :)
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Indian Empire — Maker: oaktown
    Former CA oaktown has given us another great map to play on, this one of 1800's India under British rule. Originally oak's submission in the Brazil REVAMP competition, the book style was taken from an attempt at Japan onto this, and it looks simply incredible! The only post-quench/mid-Beta discussion so far has revolved around drops, but that comes with any map and it looks like this standard-style map is going to be a great success!
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Poison Rome — Maker: cairnswk
    Whatta ya know, cairns has made another map! This one's a bit tricky, based off the Julio-Claudian family in Ancient Rome, as it's filled with connections and bonuses — certainly makes for a wild ride! It was subject to some heated debate after reaching the Final Forge stage, as some critics came out in force against the map, maintaining it "wasn't up to cairns' standard." After a short vacation period, and upon return filled with update and although a bit of semi-private argument between cairns and someone who won't be named, it was quenched last week. Still awaits uploading to live, however!

Foundry News & Announcements
Foundry Newsletter: Issue #21
Well, this issue of the Foundry Newsletter is one that comes sadly, as:
  • Proofreader & Layout Editory inkl0sed retired
  • wcaclimbing received 0 entries in his WCA's Tablet competition — his last we're afraid
  • There was no response to the Community Opinion looking back on the past year
Sad times over there, but let's hope we can push through to keep delivering the Newsletter …

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Got any ideas? suggestions? Want to write a piece? Just shoot me a PM by directly clicking my signature in the line below. Thanks,
.44

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Clans and their current impact on the Conquer Club Site - Part 1

While clans are still only a minor part of everyday CC life, it is one of the fastest growing areas of the site. In early 2007 there were approximately 5-10 legitimate clans and about half of those remain active and competitive to this day. There are currently about 40 competitive clans (not including international teams) and of these, about 25-30 are very active.

The average clan is 25-28 members, the smallest is currently 10 members (current requirement to make a group) and the largest is 63 members of the Black Sheep Squadron. Total clan participants is approximately1100 players site wide and growing.

The Clan Leaders Associations started with 7 clans, and now is up to 19 clans and currently recruiting a few others that have qualified, while another 5-8 clans are working on challenges to help them qualify for entrance to the Association. Many have been lured by the wish to enter Season 2 of the Clan League which is nearing completion of Season 1.

Some Challenge Stats:
  • From Jan 2007 to June 2008 - 8 Completed Challenges [ 1 every 3 months]
  • From July 2008 to December 2008 - 20 Completed challenges [1 every 1.5 weeks]
  • 2009 To Current - 22 in about 5 months. Final 2009 is estimated to be 75 (45 regular plus 30 from League) [1 every 5 days] Not to mention that the second season may also start end of this year.
Average size of Challenge is 38 games (most challenges are either 40 or 20 games) which would mean there will be over 3000 clan games played in 2009. [45 * 38games + 1350 league = 3060]

Part 2 of Clan Impact next Issue.

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show: Interview with James Vazquez

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Well our first Community Competition has come to it's conclusion, and we have ended up with joint winners. Both Serbia and Tripitaka will both receive a Contest Medal for their magnificent effort in not getting a single question wrong (and trust me there were some tough ones).

I'd also like to thank dittoeevee8888 for her participation in this competition, she has shown great perseverance in this competition from week to week and unfortunately came up just short.

We will be hosting a similar contest a little later on in the year for those of you who missed out this time ;)

show: Community Competition Scoreboard


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Greetings from the Sugs/Bugs part of CC. This is the first report, so we'll cover some long running sugs that have been around for a while and still have activity

TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • Long-Active Sugs
    • Adjacent Attack
    • Medals
    • Wild Card
  • Author's Note

Sugs
Adjacent Attacks
Suggestor: n00blet
Summary: Disallow advancement from a conquered territory until player's next turn.
Implementation: Game Option
Thread: Adjacent Attacks
Notes: This suggestion has a decent amount of activity to it (28 pages and over a year on the forum). It has a small core of players that actively play staged AA games (the players police themselves per the rules since the engine can't). This style of play tends to appeal to players that like to take alot more time playing, likely avoid Escalating or Speed style games. Since you can't advance out of conquered territories until subsequent turns, it slows down (but doesn't eliminate) wildfire advancement.

New Medals
Suggestor: Night Strike
Summary: Running thread with new medal ideas
Implementation: Site Enhancement
Thread: Medal Suggestions
Notes: There is a decent amount of activity and Night Strike is keeping a running list of medal suggestions such as FoW, Freestyle, Win %, Unique Map, Total Wins, etc.

Wild Cards in Deck
Suggestor: jaydog
Summary: Add 2 wildcard spoils that can enhance spoils cashing in
Implementation: Game Enhancement / Game Option
Thread: Wild Cards
Notes: Like other sites and certain unaffiliated board games, this sug describes adding 2 possible wildcards that would count as no country, but any color when being cashed in.

I will try to document more sugs for next issue and expand the content.

ubersky

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Stay Tuned for the next issue of the Conquer Club Newsletter for an interview with Tournament Director Gilligan! Post the questions for Gilligan's interview in this thread (clicky)!

Submitting Your Own Articles

If you have a story you think the Conquer Club Community would find interesting, you can submit your articles to samuelc812 or gimil. If the CC News Team enjoy it than you may just see your article published in the Newsletter!

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If for any reason you would like to receive a past issue of the Conquer Club Newsletter, all you have to do is fill out this simple form and send to gimil via PM.
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Conquer Club News Team

gimil - Editor
samuelc812 - Vacation
thenobodies80 - Tournament Reporter
the.killing.44 - Foundry Reporter
jpcloet - Clan Reporter
ubersky - Suggs and Bugs Reporter
InsomniaRed - Community Opinion Reporter
Last edited by samuelc812 on Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:31 am, edited 12 times in total.
What do you know about map making, bitch?

natty_dread wrote:I was wrong


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Re: CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

Postby owenshooter on Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:09 pm

where is the slice of fruitcake? that is the only thing i read... sigh...-0
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makes it ever so much more erotically thrilling"
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Re: CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

Postby bedub1 on Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:23 pm

Where is the interview with James Vazquez? I wanted to read it....
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Re: CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

Postby jpcloet on Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:29 pm

bedub1 wrote:Where is the interview with James Vazquez? I wanted to read it....


Just after the clan section.
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Re: CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

Postby owenshooter on Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:31 pm

jpcloet wrote:
bedub1 wrote:Where is the interview with James Vazquez? I wanted to read it....

Just after the clan section.

yeah, it is kind of short and easy to miss... he didn't seem to get many questions...-0
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Thorthoth,"Cloaking one's C&A fetish with moral authority and righteous indignation
makes it ever so much more erotically thrilling"
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Re: CC News [Issue 10: 9-6-09] - Interview with James Vazquez

Postby bedub1 on Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:36 pm

owenshooter wrote:
jpcloet wrote:
bedub1 wrote:Where is the interview with James Vazquez? I wanted to read it....

Just after the clan section.

yeah, it is kind of short and easy to miss... he didn't seem to get many questions...-0

Thanks guys....it was hidden..i saw the other interview up top and just thought the newsletter was messed up etc...
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