Game Balancing...

In the archery club of all places. But it makes sense since a tournament is essentially a game of skill. I could use myself, an Olympic Recurve shooter, as an example since I shouldn't name names here. A breakdown could make things easier to envision. There are currently 4 categories the shooters can compete in: Novice, Instinctive, Olympic Recurve, Open. Each one of the categories has their own little rules that that define them.

Novice

• <1 year experience
• King's Pawn only
• 60cm

Instinctive

• no sight
• any bow allowed
• 60cm

Olympic Recurve

• sighted shooters
• no scopes allowed
• 40cm

Open

• compounds
• crazy people
• anyone else that would qualify
• 40cm

Doesn't look like there would be much of a problem, right? It wouldn't be a problem if everyone was locked to their main category, which we can't do. So here's the first exploit of the system: shooters are allowed to shift around in different categories to maximize their chances of a medal. I can move from Open, where I willingly placed myself, to either Olympic Recurve or Instinctive. Moving between Open and Recurve is perfectly legal for me since I don't really qualify for Open in the first place (I'm doing it for the challenge). Moving to Instinctive could be seen as unfair, especially since my equipment can be considered superior (it would be if it were tuned), but since I haven't practised that style in quite a while, it would actually serve as a handicap. The same can't be said for a lot of other shooters. Plus, the mere presence of a more advanced or experienced shooter is enough to give the impression of "cheating" to the newer members. The only way to settle their (not necessarily) unfounded fears would be to announce that we would not submit our scores.

The second exploit that requires some patching came about because of the introduction of a promotion policy: score 225+ and you'll be moved to Open for the next tournament. I think there's also the second requirement of winning a medal, so anywhere from 1~3 will be shifted. Now, this can be seen as incredibly unfair because the Open category houses all the compound shooters. Compound shooters are made fun of because they apparently require less skill to use, and that it looks like they're using a bow with training wheels (they're great for efficient high poundage shooting, which is perfect for hunting). That's actually not the case though. They happen to have a higher minimum score when compared to all the other styles. The maximum is still the same and requires the same amount of skill to achieve. The skill set is different, too. Oh, and Instinctive shooters moving there would be completely obliterated, so I don't think they'll be moved if they meet that requirement.

See the problem? This encourages those with relatively high skill to score below 225 but still high enough to get a medal to prevent themselves from being shifted to Open. Moving to Open is essentially a death sentence for nabbing another medal, ever. Unless you're a provincial/national/international level shooter. Which none of us really are. So... no chance. A few have already admitted that if that policy was enacted, there's no reason to score as high as possible if they're going to be "punished" by being promoted to Open. I'd agree if I was a medal hunter.

There have been a few suggestions on how to deal with this, discussed over dinner a few nights ago. Unfortunately, all of them have little details that make them unfeasible. Like mine, which involves tracking attendance and performance, then applying a suitable handicap to their score if they're not competing in their main category. Another solution, which requires a massive amount of tracking and essentially an honour system for shooters to score regularly, is to normalize based on their category. But then we might not have enough sample data to even bother with finding the Z-scores.

The most feasible so far has been to have a raffle alongside the medals. The problem with this one is getting it to pass with the higher-ups, and that it heavily favours the high-end shooters. But that second point can be considered moot since we're playing a game of skill. If you don't have the skill to compete with the best, then you have no argument for even qualifying for the raffle. So. The cutoff point? I think was discussed that it would be around 230+ or 240+. So the shooters would still end up promoted, but they also have a chance at a prize should they not win a medal in Open. Of course, the medal winners with 225+ will also be entered, which can be seen as unfair. Not entirely so since while they're also part of the draw, it's completely random as to whether or not they end up winning. Leaving everything up to the RNG is totally fair, right? As long as it's a 1-RN game, should be fine~

There was one other solution that I've heard, but it's really more of a joke: break everyone's arms. That would work in the sense that no one can participate so that no one wins, and because there are no winners, there are no losers either. Too bad that would also mean that we suffer as a team when the IUAT rolls around. Great idea... if you want to break the team.

Still need to figure out what to do with the Instinctive shooters though. Can't, and shouldn't, pressure them to change to using sights just to improve. It's their shooting style and no one should force a change just for improving scores. Adding intermediate categories is just a bandage solution, so we need something more long term. Wonder what would work though... Adding another category or 2 would also mean that the raffle idea becomes that much harder to implement because of budget concerns. Well, we still have a while to discuss. The medals aren't going to be won until the second tournament anyways.


And I really hope that one guy falls flat when he shoots. I have a feeling that he purposely removed his sight to practice instinctive shooting to (re-)gain an edge for a high score. If a certain guy shows up, I don't think I'll be worried all that much. He's pretty damn good at instinctive. Oh, and there's another guy too, from another campus. As long as he doesn't lose his landmarks, he'll do very well~ I'll be participating, not scoring. And since I'm a coach/range officer, I should be there to help out with dealing with scores. And maybe record them. Getting records would be nice, ね？

This turned out to be a rather long post, didn't it? Well, archery is one of my interests and tournaments are a kind of game! It goes here. Could also go on the other blog, but I doubt many read that anymore. Don't know if I can get the stats on it either.


ETA: Turns out that he really did end up sending back his sight... after 2 months of use. He didn't realize that it was broken until he had used it. As another said, "Russian roulette with sights". He really should be more observant of his equipment.

Another thing. Seems like the systems they were proposing won't be implemented for the time being. Mostly because we don't have enough shooters that quite hit the required 225 yet. Need to focus on running the IUAT smoothly first. We're hosting again this year.

Just rounding up a few things

Well, that was nice. There was a decent spurt of activity over on the PC LasRem boards. Nothing too hard to answer, but at least it was something to stave off boredom. After all, I'm not a Fire Emblem expert, seeing as how I haven't exactly played most of the series, so answering those questions is really only limited to FE13. I should probably play FE4 and FE5 at some point, but the Judgral setting doesn't look all that appealing. Don't care enough about Elibe to do much more than FE7, although I should go through FE6 as a formality. Own the art book after all.

Anyways. The boards. It was mostly discussion about class changes and getting through the first half of the game. I think most of them should be pretty well off now to deal with the rest of it. If not, well... The board's always open for questions. The X360 side pretty much died off. Expected, since the game's coming up to its 4th anniversary now. I think a lot of them are using the Wisdom's Echo grind because it makes things a lot easier. I don't really like it, but I'll use it if I have to. Like I did with the AGO run because of half the team being missing until I closed the quest (it's because the ones in the Third Committee also counted for the run, but were locked until "The Fated One" was finished, which was dependent on "Wisdom's Echo" being successfully finished). Which reminds me, I need to get going on compiling the rest of the quest dialogue at some point, along with all the rumors. Too bad a bunch of the rumors can't be dealt with until you finish "For Love the Bell Tolls" and "The Silent Soul" in Balterossa. But if I have the patience for dealing with all that, it shouldn't be a problem. At least I know that they're being cycled in a set order. Just a matter of visiting enough times to get through them all... This is going to take a while since there's till Undelwalt to unlock and all the earlier quests will more than likely have rumors reaching that forsaken town. At least I gathered all the ones associated with David's quest ("The Distant Promise"). A few funny little real-life references here and there. Don't want to transcribe the JP since I'm pretty sure that it's going to be different in a fair number of places. Localization and all. That, and I can't really transcribe JP text without taking an ungodly amount of time doing it. I need lessons, dammit. At least I'm almost through with converting the formation pages to a format. Also caught a rather glaring mistake on the Trident page. Stat mods were off... Hopefully nothing else will pop up, but it's not too big of a deal if it does. I'll just cross-reference with the tool and correct whatever needs correcting.

On the FE front, not much about my files has changed. Still stuck on Ch.6, still bumming around with the extra Lunatic file, still haven't done anything with the Normal file's pairings. There should be just 1 more DLC episode left, which is the last Ultimate Training and it's priced at 300yen. My guess is that Minerva is the reward since the Whitewings were featured for the other 3. Hopefully there's going to be something else because of the slightly higher cost when compared to the other Ultimate Training maps. It's going to be one hell of a map... I doubt that I'll get a team ready in time since I haven't exactly been training anyone lately. Too lazy to do so, and it looks like it almost requires using the children because of their much higher modifiers. It seems that it's an Anna that'll be the boss. Wouldn't be surprised since she can travel on a multi-verse scale...

Still haven't downloaded the Biohazard 6 demo, but that's because the PS3 can't seem to connect to the net. Going to find out what's wrong since I also want online access while playing Journey once I get around to it. Although that's also going to come with the little "good luck staying connected" because of the distance between the system and the router. Maybe it won't be that bad since all the other systems (save for the 3DS, but that's the 3DS) don't have much of an issue connecting and staying connected for long periods of time. If I can get it connected, going to grab the E.X. Troopers while I'm at it. The 3DS demo was actually really fun so I want to see how the PS3 version holds up.

Speaking of which... E.X. Troopers definitely has an arcade feel to it. I'm not exactly fond of how the mini-map works. The directional FOV cone doesn't rotate with the character smoothly, only changing its direction if the camera has rotated enough. Kinda annoying. At least the map is fixed. That much I liked. Also, you can toggle the zoom by tapping on the -/+ on the bottom screen. Just make sure that you don't accidentally press the big yellow one, or else you'll use their special attack (メテオ or Meteor? in Bren's case). The controls aren't too bad either. It takes some getting used to using the d-pad to change the camera, but that's fine. It's not like the system has a second analog stick to help with that. Might be a tipping point for getting the PS3 version instead. But I do want to tag it along for short bursts since the gameplay and mission-based setup lends itself well for that. The demo's pretty short, and can be finished in less than 10 minutes. Consists of a tutorial (you can't die) with a short "boss" fight, and a mission where you have a real chance of dying if you flounder around a little too much. You also have to defend Julie to proceed in the mission since she's vulnerable while hacking an entry point. It can get a little bit hairy if you don't watch where all the bullets are coming from. Oh, and getting turned into a snowman sucks. You have to mash B to get free... Pretty sure that it's not going to be localized.

Oh, and I watched an entire playthrough of Operation Raccoon City. Eh... doesn't really look like something I'd want to play. Plus, some of the missions don't look all that well designed. Facing off against 2 Tyrants with only their faces as their weak spot with weak player AI? Yeah, no. Even worse with the DLC, where there are 4 of them running around and already mutated. Have fun getting stunlocked! And that final boss for the Spec Ops missions? It took forever to get through. Was not that fun watching/listening to the guy cuss his way through the battle because the Tyrant-parasite thing would. Not. Go. DOWN. In a reasonable amount of time. I guess that's why they give you "unlimited" ammo during those kinds of fights.