Tournament Idea

[Cates]

I've been wanting to play MUA a bit more lately, so I got to thinking of doing a single-player "tournament" in the style of the old Single Player Diablo II tournaments I used to play in. But before I launch anything, I thought I'd get a little feedback.

The idea is something like this:
-One character (no teams), on hard level.

-You can choose any character from Vanilla MUA, the official characters pack, the XML pack, custom characters--it doesn't matter, the point is having fun anyway.  Some characters will be harder to solo than others, but, again, the challenge is part of the fun.

-You die, even once, whether you get punched to death, fall off a bridge, or grab the wrong Asgardian spear, you're out, though you can start over with a new character (or, I suppose, the same one if you like).

-If your character has a Sim Mission, they can play it ONCE and once only. You get whatever rewards you earn that one time through. Characters with a Sim Mission can also play all but one "VS" Mission one time. The Vs missions must still be played solo. Characters without a Sim Mission (such as, say, Venom) can play all the "VS" missions ONCE. This way, every player gets the same amount of sim missions.

-Players would regularly update their progress and describe near-death experiences, etc. Current progress would be maintained on an overall "standings" list or something, either in the first post or updated by the players in their posts. It would rank players by how far they've progressed in the game. Something like this:

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PLAYER          CHARACTER             LEVEL             AREA
Fakeguy         Hulk                  40                Murderworld
Notreal         Iceman                35                Omega Base


My one question is this: My initial thought was, play on Hard using the default statistics provided by the game. That's pretty tough to solo, as I found I died a couple times before even getting to Fury testing out a couple characters. That would be OK, as the challenge is part of the fun, but it would be tough to get a character going that way.

The other option would be to allow players to take their character solo all the way through Normal, gaining all the powerups and bonus skill points and stuff that you get along the way, then use that character to take on Hard. I'd be OK doing this option, though I'm not sure how many players want to play through the game twice with the same solo character.

One more note: Obviously, tournaments like this are played on the honor system. No one will know if scorpion killed your Moon Knight six times before you advanced. You could, of course, lie about stuff.  However, If you lie about your progress on a computer game in a tournament where the only reward is the satisfaction of completing a challenge, well, that's just plain said.

So . . . anybody interested in a little single player challenge tournament?

Also, any thoughts? Particularly on the questoin of "default stats" vs. "going through the game twice Normal/Hard?"

[whiteking]

I do, sounds fun.
I say hard level with default stats, but since I don't want to play twice (on in normal level and then start on hard) what about to increase your defense skill with the "money" cheat? I mean get enough money with the cheat and then upgrade only your defense so would have enough health to at least reach to Nick Fury. Just an idea.

Anyway, my choice is (obviously) my own mod of Emma Frost ^^

[Dihan]

I'd do this with Iceman if I get him finished before this starts.

There are some places that require the use of two characters to progress so there will have to be some leniency for that.

[whiteking]

There are some places that require the use of two characters to progress so there will have to be some leniency for that.

He's right, also we should talk about how long we will have this turnament, if there should be a limit on the time...
Have the game finished could take one week or one year my friend

[Gevth]

I'm in for Hard+default stats. But how about instead of having the Diablo "hardcore" rule (aka: you only live once), we post how many times we've died?

Like this:

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PLAYER          CHARACTER             LEVEL             AREA            DEATHS
Fakeguy         Hulk                  40                Murderworld       3
Notreal         Iceman                35                Omega Base        0



PS: Another challenge: play Hard as far as you can importing stats from a normal save with lvl 1 characters. I've only been able to reach Bullseye.
PPS: http://www.kongregate.com/games/raitendo/you-only-live-once

[Cates]

I do, sounds fun.
I say hard level with default stats, but since I don't want to play twice (on in normal level and then start on hard) what about to increase your defense skill with the "money" cheat? I mean get enough money with the cheat and then upgrade only your defense so would have enough health to at least reach to Nick Fury. Just an idea.

Anyway, my choice is (obviously) my own mod of Emma Frost ^^

Oooh. Good solution with the money cheat. 100,000 credits can fill up all but five spots on costume passives, so I think it needs to be limited. You can fill up your Defense for 45,000. Maybe the rule is you can spend 45,000 on your defense, and the rest of the cash from the cheat must be dumped into a character that you won't be using. Then everybody starts with zero dollars.

I forgot to mention: switching costumes is OK. Might provide some strategy element for players. Thus, you could dump all your initial "defense" points into one costume, or spread it out among the four.

I think it would be cool, too, if a character is only being used by one player at a time. Thus, we won't have sixteen players being wolverine or something. If a player "dies" and decides to switch characters, Wolverine (or whoever) would become available again.

As for the "two character" moments, you just get them out ASAP after you flip the switch or whatever.



Sound good?

[Cates]

He's right, also we should talk about how long we will have this turnament, if there should be a limit on the time...
Have the game finished could take one week or one year my friend

The way the DII tournaments used to go was this: Once no one had posted a progress update for a week or two or another set period of time, the tournament was declared over. Thus, the tournament could be "active" for two months, but once no one has posted a progress update for a week, it's over and whoever had made it the farthest is the winner. This way, as long as there's interest, the tournament still goes on.

[fox456]

This is a great idea, Cates!  Count me in.

Once everyone's input has been gathered, be sure to spell out the steps and guidelines to set up our characters.  For example, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get cheats activated.  I've only used the All Costumes and All Powers cheats.  I checked around and found the Money Cheat (100,000 gold coins):

Up, Up, Up, Left, Right, Left, Enter at the team menu or hero management screen

So, are we saying that the first person to complete the game solo is the winner?  When will the official start time be?  Should there be a penalty of some sort for each "death" a character suffers?  That way, someone who finishes first with lots of deaths wouldn't be declared the winner if someone else finishes later and has fewer deaths....

[Gevth]

Just finished a test run through the helicarrier with Dr. Doom. If you pick most of the coins, you'll be able to buy 2 costume points before Scorpion, around 5 before Bullseye, and 9 of them before Radioactive Man/Winter Soldier. No level-up though.
It's possible to do this without spending points in Defense, but then again Doom's Shield reflects all projectiles. Beware of enemies with Enhanced damage.

[Cates]

OK, this sounds like people are interested. I'll type up an "official" rules thread once I put my kids to bed this evening, and we can begin! 

Now, let's see, who will my first character be . . .

BTW: In response to Gevths idea about noting deaths, I don't think that's a bad idea, but maybe for the next tournament. Unless there's overwhelming support in the other direction, I'd kind of like this one to be a one death and out game. It was always more fun in the DII tournaments when you were playing Hardcore, and one death meant you lost your entire character.

Nothing says you can't keep going on your own after you die, of course, but for the tournament you'd be done after your first death.

[Dihan]

Are we allowed to start again if we die?

[Cates]

Are we allowed to start again if we die?

Yes! As many times as you like. You can stick with the same character, or try someone new. No limit on the number of times you can enter.

One more note: I think that, when starting with default stats, players should be able to redistribute those stats when starting their character. (i.e., delete skill points where you can and put them where you want them). Any problems with that?

[Dihan]

One final question: Does a mod have to have a final release? I want to use my Iceman mod but it won't be released for a while.

[Cates]

One final question: Does a mod have to have a final release? I want to use my Iceman mod but it won't be released for a while.

I don't think it has to be a final release. I think you should get to use whoever you want. It's all about challenging yourself with a character you want to play with, to me.  One of my initial thoughts was to exclued booster stuff, but why? Let people play with the character in the form they enjoy. Not like there's big bucks on the line here.

If it turns out one of our custom mods is ridiculously overpowered (such as some have claimed my Apocalypse mod is), well, then I say that's a positive to come out of the tournament, because we can fix those things later on.

[Gevth]

One more note: I think that, when starting with default stats, players should be able to redistribute those stats when starting their character. (i.e., delete skill points where you can and put them where you want them). Any problems with that?

Yes, let's allow redistribution of those skill points. It allows people to play the different characters the way they want to.