The Great War

[Dukasaur]

Hi Duk,

I just tried to join neuve-Chappele, and was refused because "player joined another in the series"....I noticed no one else has joined either so perhaps there is a flaw in the system?

Fixed (I hope).

[shoop76]

It worked. I t also has the finals as a best of 11 on classic. Think that's incorrect.

[Dukasaur]

It worked. I t also has the finals as a best of 11 on classic. Think that's incorrect.

Should be fixed now also.

[Dukasaur]

A note about timing.

As you may know, we have since the beginning endeavored to bring this event into real time. In other words, we are marking the 100th anniversary of the Great War, and each tournament was meant to come out on the 100th anniversary of the battle or event it commemorates. In this endeavour we have mostly been unsuccessful.

First, we started six weeks late, so we were behind right from the opening bell. Second, we ran up against the fact that the Great War was "front-loaded" in the modern parlance. The first year was just so eventful. There was an event of some significance almost every day in 1914. Eventually, once the early offensives ran out of steam, a lot of fronts ran into stalemates and became less interesting. We simply could not keep up with the incredible pace of 1914. Thirdly, the fact that I was brutally busy at work this winter and had very little time for Conquer Club also slowed us down.

Anyway, to get to the point, we are finally closing in on our elusive target. You've probably noticed that new tourneys have been coming out very quickly lately. We had Worldwide Warfare Week, where there was a new tourney every day, and since then we've been keeping up with two or three new tourneys every week. This pace is not easy to maintain, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. We expect to finally be caught up and be in real time by June 23rd. That will be the 100th anniversary of the First Battle of Isonzo, and the tournament commemorating that battle will come out on June 23rd.

Until then, there are still five weeks of pushing hard, of putting out two or three new tourneys every week. Everything will change after June 23rd. In the summer of 1915 the war really slowed down. All the action was in the south -- Gallipoli, Italy, and the Balkans were the main centres of activity -- while the really big war zones along the Western Front and Eastern front were almost quiet. We will finally be in real time right around the time that there will be relatively few battles to commemorate.

What this means for you:

1. If you're one of the hard-core fans of this series and have been trying to join every tournament, you have five more weeks of a brutal pace. There are 12 more tournaments to come out in the next 5 weeks. After that things will slow down considerably.
2. If you have been sitting on the sidelines and not joining very many of these tourneys, you don't have much time left to get involved. Right now you still have a lot to choose from. After June 23rd it will be much slimmer pickings.
3. If you've been waiting for more non-tournament activities, I think this is good news. With fewer battles to commemorate and less pressure to crank out more tournaments, I'll be able to spend some time on some of the other activities that we've talked about.

Anyway, I know everyone likes to get a heads-up and see what's on the road ahead.

[mookiemcgee]

Are you already planning a WWI event from 2037-2045?

[Dukasaur]

Are you already planning a WWI event from 2037-2045?

If I live that long, I'll be glad to...

[takman2k]

http://www.amara.org/en/videos/MerYm370 ... 6-minutes/

[Dukasaur]

Our next two tournaments come to us courtesy of waauw.

show: togoland campaign may 23rd to 30th

show: shaiba may 25th to june 1st

[Dukasaur]

Togoland should have launched today, but I was busy with a family matter and didn't get it coded in time. I've coded it now and sent it off to BW; it should be launching soon.

[Dukasaur]

show: shaiba may 25th to june 1st

[/quote]
Made some changes.

[BUDMAN]

why are freemium games so extremely rare?

[Dukasaur]

why are freemium games so extremely rare?

It's difficult to write good tournaments for fremiums, with their game restrictions. If a tournament is any more than 1 game per round, you find that freemiums either don't join it or don't reserve enough game slots to fulfil their obligations, but 1 game per round is a very restrictive format.

Still, I'll keep trying. I know you've been very good about following this series despite being fremium. I wish there were more like you. I'll have some more coming up.

[waauw]

why are freemium games so extremely rare?

You can always ask Dukasaur to write one yourself. That should guarantee a freemium tournament.

[Dukasaur]

Tomorrow, an all-Polymorphic bracket marks the first Canadian victory:

show: second ypres may 28th to june 4th

[kkelly]

I can't seem to join any tournaments in this series anymore due to a "Player is not allowed to enter this tourney due to Entry Rules: Membership=P, Templates:!2722, Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" error.

What is the new "Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" rule? Does that regard attendance/percentage of turns taken?

[Dukasaur]

I can't seem to join any tournaments in this series anymore due to a "Player is not allowed to enter this tourney due to Entry Rules: Membership=P, Templates:!2722, Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" error.

What is the new "Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" rule? Does that regard attendance/percentage of turns taken?

Yes, that is correct.

Due to a lot of complaints about deadbeats in the games, we've created a minimum turns-taken rule and set the benchmark at 96%.

I realize this isn't a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing.

[Dukasaur]

As of now, there are still 5 spaces left in the current iteration of the Attempt to Force the Narrows tournament. This is the last iteration of said tournament, so get in there while you can -- it will not re-iterate again.

Attempt to Force the Narrows is about the second naval attempt to secure the Dardanelles. Meanwhile, with the imminent failure of the Navy, the Dardanelles campaign momentum shifts to the Army and the landings on Gallipoli. We already had a commemoration of the landings themselves, with the ANZAC DAY tournaments, and now we get the first tournament based on the fighting after the landings.

Here is DoomYoshi's latest, which will be launching at this time tomorrow:

show: battles of Krithia May 31st to June 7th

[morleyjoe]

So many great events, and still struggling to get tokens, no matter how many games I join....

[Dukasaur]

So many great events, and still struggling to get tokens, no matter how many games I join....

Yeah, it's been a lot of tourneys lately. Kudos to you for keeping up!

If it helps, I've started some more of the 12-player Australia games and invited you in. These are really reliable token-droppers.

Anybody else who needs a token, don't be shy:
Game 15698560
Game 15698561
Game 15698562
Game 15698563
Game 15698564

[Dukasaur]

We've had several tournaments in this series that allowed freemiums. Tomorrow, June 4th, for the first time we will launch a tournament that is only fro freemiums.

For freemiums only:

show: Eski-Hissarlik june 4th to 11th

[NCPFL]

How do we sign up and does it allow us to go over the four game limit as I am still in the big tournament that has me tied up with three games this round. Thanks!

[waauw]

How do we sign up and does it allow us to go over the four game limit as I am still in the big tournament that has me tied up with three games this round. Thanks!

On the left of the tournament description you'll see the requirements to join the tourney, in this case 1 great war token - cannon and 5 violet conquer stars. Only when you have such tokens and stars available can you join the tournement by clicking the 'join'-url. To check what tokens and stars you have go to the 'Inventory' tab.

And no it does not allow you to surpass your 4-game limit. You'll have to keep a spot open at all times as long as you're still in the tournament. The Eski-Hissarlik tournament only has 1 game per round to make it as freemium-friendly as possible.

[Dukasaur]

How do we sign up and does it allow us to go over the four game limit as I am still in the big tournament that has me tied up with three games this round. Thanks!

At the top of your Central Command page, click on the Great War box. You'll see the currently-open tournaments. Select Eski-Hissarlik, scroll down to the button that says "Join".

[kkelly]

I can't seem to join any tournaments in this series anymore due to a "Player is not allowed to enter this tourney due to Entry Rules: Membership=P, Templates:!2722, Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" error.

What is the new "Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" rule? Does that regard attendance/percentage of turns taken?

Yes, that is correct.

Due to a lot of complaints about deadbeats in the games, we've created a minimum turns-taken rule and set the benchmark at 96%.

I realize this isn't a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing.

Why not set a minimum score too? How is having someone who misses turns in a tournament different than having someone who takes bad turns?

[Dukasaur]

I can't seem to join any tournaments in this series anymore due to a "Player is not allowed to enter this tourney due to Entry Rules: Membership=P, Templates:!2722, Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" error.

What is the new "Rounds/Rounds Begun < .04" rule? Does that regard attendance/percentage of turns taken?

Yes, that is correct.

Due to a lot of complaints about deadbeats in the games, we've created a minimum turns-taken rule and set the benchmark at 96%.

I realize this isn't a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing.

Why not set a minimum score too? How is having someone who misses turns in a tournament different than having someone who takes bad turns?

Personally, I don't disagree with what you're saying. However, it seems that bad play is accepted without too much agitation, while deadbeating drives people nuts. I honestly don't know why this is. If some guy wants to deadbeat and give me free points, I have no problem with it, but do a quick search of either the forums or people's ratings or game chat, and you'll find that deadbeats seem to drive people absolutely nuts.

I don't pretend to understand all of what motivates people. I just try to respond to it.



Starting today:

show: gorlice-tarnow june 14th to 21st

I will lower the attendance threshhold to 95%. Lower than that there's not much point in having a rule at all.