***WoF 2010 Suggestions and Stuff***

[Hurrikane]

***WoF 2010 Suggestions and Stuff***

Hi, this is the thread where you get to tell me what you think of things so far, and what you think we could do differently next year.

I welcome any input on the Moblists already played, the Rules in general and the sort of Mobs you'd like to see. Feel free to comment on anything you like.
I might not use all of your ideas but I will read them and put more popular ones to a vote later in the year.

Next year's WoF is intended to be a return to the pre-recession days; I want 40 Teams in the Qualifiers!.

Things already mentioned which I intend to incorporate in some way:

Merchandising (Soon in place for this year and next year... yes, Team England, this does mean the T-Shirts and Mugs have not been forgotten and I apologise again for my inability so far to produce them)

Advertising (In-Game and otherwise)

Publicity (Local and National Press)

Early Warning (The build-up to WoF 2010 will begin in October/ November this year and hopefully include Friendly Matches and Training Camps etc)

Live Radio commentary

There are also questions of whether earlier stages might feature shorter rounds of 2 hours, whether the Support Cap needs lowering and to what, and methods of scoring.

I've often asked MA/FPC for an auto-scoring system but this year I've decided this is not the way to go. The Judges are an integral part of the whole WoF experience and I'd much rather find ways to make their job easier, not redundant. For a start (LOL) I'm asking for some snazzy starting pistols and actually thinking about letting other Judges "Rule the Roost" on some weekends instead of myself.

Looking forward to your responses, I know a few of you have a lot to say on this

Hurrikane

 

[Miss Scarlett]

Limited numbers of people in support teams would help the smaller countries a bit.

 

[Oleg]

OK, let's see...

Promotion - there are a lot of reasons why fewer people are participating this year and I know it was all a bit rushed this year, but more promotion is going to be valuable to get more people involved. In particular I would suggest focusing on the point that almost anyone can take part in WoF. The perception seems to be, to some, that WoF is for skilled players and costs a lot, which is not the reality (in support at least).

Mob list - Getting MA involved in providing the special spawns etc is great in theory but let's be honest, it hasn't worked out all that well so far. Unless they can up their game I would advise against this approach next year, and just stick to the normal mobs and spawns instead.

Round 1 - needs to be a lot easier, I think a lot of people were put off by such a tough round to start with.

Support Cap - Introducing this was a good idea but I think the bar has been set much too high. So far it's only been feasible to get the cap in the Fresco round, and I doubt anyone will hit the cap for the rest of the competition. Maybe a 100 PED limit right through to the semis or final would be better?

Prizes - we don't care about prizes, concentrate on the competition.

Judges - anything that makes it easier is worth looking at but this year the judging has been excellent, despite recent criticism

Scoring - the sweep bonus has been a good introduction, keep that in and perhaps add some further scoring opportunities, though I don't have any particular ideas on what they might be at the moment.

Great job so far Hurri

 

[Tsag]

I think the points made above by Oleg are right to the point, but let me reinforce them a bit through my first WoF experience:

1) First of all let me point out that I am a noob - and the difficulty of the first stage really put me off, if it wasn't for the others to talk me into more I would probably have quit Woffing

2) The notion that WoF is costly - well that can be said for anytime you go hunting, so I think it should be pointed out and made clear that the cost is the same as always, as is the potential profit

3) Being a member of a smaller team - the cap was a good idea - but hard to get due to the size of our support team. Limiting the support team member cap/match could be a good idea (I have no idea really how mamny members the big teams manage to get). This could be done though only for the first 3 stages, as as you have mantioned in latter stages teams are expected to gather a following

4) Prizes - I really don't think that prizes are an essential means by which to attract a higher number of teams, as in the end we all know which are the teams that are going to fight for them - exception to this is the SCAR award which has a lvl of luck into it (lathough stronger teams have an edge)

5) Within the scoring part - A “penalty” could be introduced based on the previous years standing, in order to make competition more intense. I.e. lets say that team A last year gathered 1000 points in total and team B 800, in there in between match team A to be penalized with 5% of the scoring difference (5% * (1000-800). The actual % can vary depending on the scoring difference. If lets say their difference is more then 500 the % could increase to 7.5%. This can be applied in earlier stages in order to attract smaller teams that might consider the WoF pointless as they st4end no chanse.

Overall, my first WoF impression is great.

Thank you Hurricane, and all the rest that have worked for it. Keep up the good work!

 

[jod]

My only request so far would a be a live scoreboard.

Perhaps there is a way to integrate the spreadsheets judges use into a website that updates on the go.

I know I'd be watching more than just our matches if I could and it would let anyone interested to follow the excitement as it happens.

This could include a ticker with Raynes records,a current leaderboard,coming fixtures etc.

Ofcourse it will provide a little advertising space for sponsors as well


and lets not forget that by the time WoF roles around again it could well be inter-planetary too

 

[Aly]

My only request so far would a be a live scoreboard.

Perhaps there is a way to integrate the spreadsheets judges use into a website that updates on the go.

I know I'd be watching more than just our matches if I could and it would let anyone interested to follow the excitement as it happens.

This could include a ticker with Raynes records,a current leaderboard,coming fixtures etc.

Ofcourse it will provide a little advertising space for sponsors as well

Oh GREAT idea! love it

If it's not doable tho, maybe some commentry and score updates on something like Atlas Haven radio?

EDIT: note to self read opening post PROPERLY But yes would love to see live radio commentry Good thinking Hurri

Cheers,

Aly

 

[Rapido]

but this year I've decided this is not the way to go. The Judges are an integral part of the whole WoF experience and I'd much rather find ways to make their job easier, not redundant. For a start (LOL) I'm asking for some snazzy starting pistols and actually thinking about letting other Judges "Rule the Roost" on some weekends instead of myself.

Looking forward to your responses, I know a few of you have a lot to say on this

Hurrikane

Autoscoring whould be nice, but it whould be better if MA could let you make it a Worldwide Events instead, with scoreboards

And radio ofc

Rapido

 

[Parlog]

WoF has become a bit out of bounds concerning the peds spent per run. For me it seemed like that it has become a Apis Dante minimum + a decent fap(ur125) or faper + everything that makes hunts comfy(many sets of plates/armor, not to speak of high dps-guns etc.). So thats at least 1k ped each round/each serious player.

Usually i dont have anything against this, but the devil is in a certain detail. When i go out on a full Apis Dante hunt, i check whats hot, i choose the mob, can choose to wait or to go, which is not possible in WoF. You got your moblist, you got your timeframe, you got to hunt sick loots (this year) on mob thats simply overpowered for the average player and you got to waste peds in a speed that really pisses me off. Even though i had some nice swirlies during WoF i lost hundreds of peds each and every hunt, this drives me off. I know this is a problem to many, many players, especially now in bad times. And well, to see England, USA or Sweden win each and every year i dont have to spend hundreds of peds. I can have that for free. As many players i cant cope with their skills and equipment, see i dont need this, when its no fun.

You want a reason why germany/swiss/austria are not participating this year? This is it!

 

[Hurrikane]

WoF has become a bit out of bounds concerning the peds spent per run. For me it seemed like that it has become a Apis Dante minimum + a decent fap(ur125) or faper + everything that makes hunts comfy(many sets of plates/armor, not to speak of high dps-guns etc.). So thats at least 1k ped each round/each serious player.

Usually i dont have anything against this, but the devil is in a certain detail. When i go out on a full Apis Dante hunt, i check whats hot, i choose the mob, can choose to wait or to go, which is not possible in WoF. You got your moblist, you got your timeframe, you got to hunt sick loots (this year) on mob thats simply overpowered for the average player and you got to waste peds in a speed that really pisses me off. Even though i had some nice swirlies during WoF i lost hundreds of peds each and every hunt, this drives me off. I know this is a problem to many, many players, especially now in bad times. And well, to see England, USA or Sweden win each and every year i dont have to spend hundreds of peds. I can have that for free. As many players i cant cope with their skills and equipment, see i dont need this, when its no fun.

You want a reason why germany/swiss/austria are not participating this year? This is it!

I'd say there were at least 4 other teams with a chance at the Final from the scores we've seen so far, more if luck shines their way.

Keep the opinions coming

Hurrikane

 

[Oleg]

For me it seemed like that it has become a Apis Dante minimum + a decent fap(ur125) or faper + everything that makes hunts comfy(many sets of plates/armor, not to speak of high dps-guns etc.). So thats at least 1k ped each round/each serious player.

Why on earth would you think that? I'm a support team leader and one of the strongest players in our support squad, and I haven't been using anywhere near that much.

There are mobs on the lists that can be hunted with Pixie and Opalo.

This is exactly what I was talking about - in my opinion this is a complete misrepresentation of WoF. Why do people have this perception?

 

[aridash]

....So thats at least 1k ped each round/each serious player.
... and you got to waste peds in a speed that really pisses me off.

this confuses me: thats the cost of hunting intensivly for ~9hrs in EU what ever the conditions. killing at high speed is simply one strategy, you dont actually have to.

i do think the level of the early round support mobs has been rather high (though not in a team...), with strange contrast of an easy main team mob. im really not sure what limiting support will achieve and you cant limit non-scoring support, unless you are going to enforce no assitance rule with multiple judges per team. So far 2 WoF have seen 2 winners yet theres an assumption its a forgone conclusion already

as for prizes, id rather not see anything beyond winners jackets. if there is to be others it should be novel new items, not pure ped. though you could ask MA to sort out the loot returns on the mobs being targeted each round

 

[Nadie]

Mob list - Getting MA involved in providing the special spawns etc is great in theory but let's be honest, it hasn't worked out all that well so far. Unless they can up their game I would advise against this approach next year, and just stick to the normal mobs and spawns instead.

Round 1 - needs to be a lot easier, I think a lot of people were put off by such a tough round to start with.

Support Cap - Introducing this was a good idea but I think the bar has been set much too high. Maybe a 100 PED limit right through to the semis or final would be better?

Totally agree with the above. I'm rather annoyed to see yet another round relying on MA spawns, which have not worked well yet. Please go back to last years types of mobs and leave MA out of it! For a start it was far more fun. For me, this year hasn't been at all enjoyable to take part in.

Round 1 was ridiculously hard and the TI Round wasn't much better when the Hoggs didn't spawn at the correct maturity but mainly Prowlers and Stalkers (I realise that wasn't Deathifiers fault btw). Surely the point is to encourage people to take part not scare them all off at the first few obstacles?

As for the support cap I agree with a limit of 100 ped + bonus' as well and keep this until at least the semi-finals. If support reach their cap they can then stop (so saving them ped and probably making more people want to take part) or jump in and help the main team if required.

Teams late at the start. I seem to remember this being discussed last year. It's incredibly annoying when a team is ready to leave at the start time and then have to wait another 10 minutes for someone who is missing on another team. Start at the start time and any incomplete teams have to wait until they are all present at the start, so, if they are 10 minutes late they lose 10 minutes of hunting time. Either that, or deduct 10+ points from that team for each minute they hold everyone else up and give the points to those who are ready.

I know there has been lots of comments recently about the judging but I have to say having 1 person judging 2 main teams + all their support teams seems absolutely crazy. The PM judging sounds very time-consuming. If you need more judges recruit them from the teams and put it in the rules that each team must supply a judge for the duration they are in WoF. I'm sure a few of us out there would be willing to help out for a session.

 

[Frigid]

This is exactly what I was talking about - in my opinion this is a complete misrepresentation of WoF. Why do people have this perception?

By battlecry for the WOF has always been "Eco be damned!". It's a question of kills/minute...more kills...more chances to global. It's an excercise in luck skewed by your ability to kill mobs quickly and stay alive. That is the nature of the WOF. The only way around this is to simply have each team pick, say, 20-30 mobs. This is your quota. You kills them and accept the number of globals you get. Cheaper, more fair to smaller teams and those with shallow wallets, harder to monitor and vastly less fun.

This is the WOF....if you want to figure out soem kind of "ECO-WOF", then by all means, go ahead.

MINI-WOF...snables and such...


It's a fact of life that the best, most skilled, biggest, strongest, best equipped, and best funded will typically win most competitions...that is why that make solo computer games like Fallout 3...

 

[Frigid]

Teams late at the start. I seem to remember this being discussed last year. It's incredibly annoying when a team is ready to leave at the start time and then have to wait another 10 minutes for someone who is missing on another team. Start at the start time and any incomplete teams have to wait until they are all present at the start, so, if they are 10 minutes late they lose 10 minutes of hunting time. Either that, or deduct 10+ points from that team for each minute they hold everyone else up and give the points to those who are ready.

We have a start time, we have an end time. Barring any huge ISP interruptions covering wide areas, everyoen should be there. It's not fair to have one team holding up, literally, hundreds of people.

Likewise, the same should apply to judges. You have backups judges and other people who can start the matches. I recall last year Hurr having some connection problems and we had to wait for him to come back to start.

I agree. The start time is the start time.

 

[safara]

Start time.
I am all for having the matches set off at the advertised and agreed to start time (taken via the MA clock)

And teams that are late getting their team together etc can either start with the 3 members they have at the start, at the start - or forfiet the 10 minutes of time or however long it takes them to get their team together. All teams still finish at the advertised Stop time.

I fully agree with this.
It would mean that Hurrikane or whomever is setting the teams off, gives the GO signal on time, and the manage any teams that are short and waiting so they dont go disappearing off into the distance etc.

Judges
I rather like the idea of every team have 1 or 2 nominated members of their team that are scorers. They can be a single point of contact between the multiple country teams and the Team judge.
From the teams point of view, they will still have one person to ask for score updates etc, but for the judges point of view, they only have one person to keep in coms with.

They can concur back and forth during the match to keep the tally correct. Any disputes sorted in the normal fashion of Screenies submitted etc, and the judges verdict is final.

But having said this, I dont really see any problems with the judging set up as it is at the moment, as long as are enough judges for the matches in progress.

Prizes
Other than stuff like Winners jackets, and maybe WoF veteran Berets for support teams etc etc, I dont see the need for anything of monetary value to be awarded. It is nice that Hurricane is doing his Scar thing etc, but the more actual money that can be won, the further away from the original concept the WoF becomes IMO.

Will pop back later

 

[Rayne Jade]

...Teams late at the start. I seem to remember this being discussed last year. It's incredibly annoying when a team is ready to leave at the start time and then have to wait another 10 minutes for someone who is missing on another team. Start at the start time and any incomplete teams have to wait until they are all present at the start, so, if they are 10 minutes late they lose 10 minutes of hunting time...

I am torn here. I do lean more toward Nadie's point of view that is WoF is set to start at 1800 MA Time, then that is when the GO is given. Teams not prepared at that time will simply have to hunt for less time (end time is the same) or hunt short of people until the others check in with the Judges. On the other hand, shit happens. While shit does indeed happen, and it had happened to us all, should all the other teams be forced to wait..? Good call.

MINI-WOF...snables and such...

Funny you should mention that. Stay tuned...

It's a fact of life that the best, most skilled, biggest, strongest, best equipped, and best funded will typically win most competitions...

True, if someone is willing to blast through 20K ammo in the 3 hour hunt that is their call. They are upping the stakes from their end in the hopes of a reward. Those that already have the gear, skills and PED to really go nuts will do so (as would I). But Oleg has a point as well... if the WoF is to grow the myth that only the ubers can compete must be dispelled. Both of you can be correct without the other being wrong

Regarding the Support Cap:

1000 EFD to the first person to post the number of instances where a support team hit the cap For example, if WoF Antartica did it in Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3.3 then that is THREE right there.... I am looking for the total in the WoF so far.

 

[Pirx Danford]

This is exactly what I was talking about - in my opinion this is a complete misrepresentation of WoF. Why do people have this perception?

Because to have any realistic sort of chance you need a main team willing to spend 500-1000 ped per player on the hunt.
Yes the support is also important and yes you CAN play low level.
But that is not the way Germans tick, we don't have a chance to win we don't play.
Of course there are exceptions, for example even being last years team captain would not have prohibited me going opalo hunting or only being support in other ways cause I have to be careful moneywise at the moment.
But there just ain't enough German people that would be happy "just competing for fun".
So if we don't find some Ubers for Germany next year we will surely not appear again.

 

[Oleg]

By battlecry for the WOF has always been "Eco be damned!". It's a question of kills/minute...more kills...more chances to global. It's an excercise in luck skewed by your ability to kill mobs quickly and stay alive. That is the nature of the WOF. The only way around this is to simply have each team pick, say, 20-30 mobs. This is your quota. You kills them and accept the number of globals you get. Cheaper, more fair to smaller teams and those with shallow wallets, harder to monitor and vastly less fun.

This is the WOF....if you want to figure out soem kind of "ECO-WOF", then by all means, go ahead.

MINI-WOF...snables and such...


It's a fact of life that the best, most skilled, biggest, strongest, best equipped, and best funded will typically win most competitions...that is why that make solo computer games like Fallout 3...

I think you missed my point.

Of course the top teams will have big guns and spend a lot of ammo, and yes hunting eco is probaby not the best strategy for winning WoF.

However not everyone HAS to spend a lot of money. It's perfectly possible to contribute to the team with low-end weapons and eco hunting. I would be delighted to have an extra member on my team even if they only spend 5k ammo in 3 hours. But in general people don't seem to realise that this type of contribution is possible, and desirable, and I think any promotional campaign should try to change this perception.

 

[Oleg]

Regarding the Support Cap:

1000 EFD to the first person to post the number of instances where a support team hit the cap For example, if WoF Antartica did it in Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3.3 then that is THREE right there.... I am looking for the total in the WoF so far.

In the Fresco round a few teams hit the cap - England, Sweden, USA and Australia all did it iirc.

I don't think it's been done in any other rounds yet, so my answer is 4

 

[sherwood]

For my italian point of wiew (little in number number and gear) a lower cap in support could help and also some restriction in the main team members... don't know if it's possible or doable but let's cap the total amount of agility for example, without any restriction on fappers and helpers ofc, but see a main team that make 350 points every match while the average is way under 200 points is a very big brake of our, little teams, dreams

 

[aridash]

By battlecry for the WOF has always been "Eco be damned!".

thankyou for bring this up. yes, it was born of FoF: go hunt with plasmas and other high damage and bollocks to the cost. the problem everyone seems to have is with the support, which was an attempt to open it up from those who could get involved for 500ped a match to those who could afford 100ped. so do we want to remove support and have main team only? will that make it better? i dont think so.

 

[safara]

For my italian point of wiew (little in number number and gear) a lower cap in support could help and also some restriction in the main team members... don't know if it's possible or doable but let's cap the total amount of agility for example, without any restriction on fappers and helpers ofc, but see a main team that make 350 points every match while the average is way under 200 points is a very big brake of our, little teams, dreams

A fair point Flu

And yes, for the smaller teams, seeing the top 6 or so get scores over 300 every match is disheartening, and serves as a statement of fact that we will never reach the final.

But, this is life, this is the game, and the big boys and girls will always score the bigger points - cant restrict them because they have put the time and money in the game to get where they are.

Little teams like us, will still 'ave a go and see if one day we can progress past the initial round and have a hoolie trying

 

[Rayne Jade]

For my italian point of wiew (little in number number and gear) a lower cap in support could help and also some restriction in the main team members... don't know if it's possible or doable but let's cap the total amount of agility for example, without any restriction on fappers and helpers ofc, but see a main team that make 350 points every match while the average is way under 200 points is a very big brake of our, little teams, dreams

Not to nitpick... there have been 56 completed hunts in Stage 3 so far with 11,434 total points scored. That is an average of 204 points per hunt per team. I see your point of disparity, but the average is not way under 200 points

There are 12 hunts remaining in Stage 3 and 4 hunts that were interrupted by the server crash.

I will do the math again once the field for Stage 4 is known... so we can see what the average score for the teams that advance is.

 

[WoenK]

The cap was a nice idea to integrate and should be kept.
Looking at the mob list of Round 4 for support, I am a bit disappointed, those are a bit too high for my taste. Nothing really surprisingly will happen in that round, take a look at the highest score teams and you know who will get through.
The difficulty level should rise from round to round only little until the semifinals, would make things way more interesting.

SCAR is a nice addition, although only interesting to the big teams, smaller countries which struggle to even get a main team together and maybe 2-3 people in support got no chance.

Live commentary is one thing that should be definately done, as well as visual realtime score. And because software is soooo "unfailable" the judges are surely still needed, who else is going to confirm that the scored global was really scored ?

 

[Frigid]

I think you missed my point.

Of course the top teams will have big guns and spend a lot of ammo, and yes hunting eco is probaby not the best strategy for winning WoF.

However not everyone HAS to spend a lot of money. It's perfectly possible to contribute to the team with low-end weapons and eco hunting. I would be delighted to have an extra member on my team even if they only spend 5k ammo in 3 hours. But in general people don't seem to realise that this type of contribution is possible, and desirable, and I think any promotional campaign should try to change this perception.

No..I didn't miss your point. What I was stating is a reality of WOF. Higher DPS usually means higher rates of ammo burn, which mean higher rates of kills/minute, which gives you your best chance of a higher rate of globals...statistically. OF COURSE you can hunt at an eco-level with a very moderate burn rate...that is fine...but that would also require a team-captain who:

1) doesn't mind a lower-damage player hunting in the main team or
2) doesn't have the depth in his roster or schedule to put any higher damage DPS/burn rate players in the main team or
3) The team doesn't care that much about winning and is just there to have fun and hunt at their own rate, at their own rate oi burn. They just want to hunt within their means and hope for the best.

Furthermore, some mobs are so tough you will need a large rate of burn just to be able to kill them, but you don't *have* to go for the high-point mobs.

Sure, you don't have to hunt in the high-burn rates or use high gear, but don't be surprised when you don't make it past round 3...


As the WOF stands now, it's a balls-to-the-wall killfest...if you want to win, that is. However, Jayde has hinted there might be a more...moderate...version coming, though.

 

[Oleg]

No..I didn't miss your point. What I was stating is a reality of WOF. Higher DPS usually means higher rates of ammo burn, which mean higher rates of kills/minute, which gives you your best chance of a higher rate of globals...statistically. OF COURSE you can hunt at an eco-level with a very moderate burn rate...that is fine...but that would also require a team-captain who:

1) doesn't mind a lower-damage player hunting in the main team or
2) doesn't have the depth in his roster or schedule to put any higher damage DPS/burn rate players in the main team or
3) The team doesn't care that much about winning and is just there to have fun and hunt at their own rate, at their own rate oi burn. They just want to hunt within their means and hope for the best.

Furthermore, some mobs are so tough you will need a large rate of burn just to be able to kill them, but you don't *have* to go for the high-point mobs.

Sure, you don't have to hunt in the high-burn rates or use high gear, but don't be surprised when you don't make it past round 3...


As the WOF stands now, it's a balls-to-the-wall killfest...if you want to win, that is. However, Jayde has hinted there might be a more...moderate...version coming, though.

Yeah, what you say is all true for the main team and I wouldn't expect it any other way, but it doesn't have to be that way for every support member.

The "Snable WoF" sounds interesting, I'll look forward to hearing about that

 

[Jimmy B]

No..I didn't miss your point. What I was stating is a reality of WOF. Higher DPS usually means higher rates of ammo burn, which mean higher rates of kills/minute, which gives you your best chance of a higher rate of globals...statistically. OF COURSE you can hunt at an eco-level with a very moderate burn rate...that is fine...but that would also require a team-captain who:

1) doesn't mind a lower-damage player hunting in the main team or
2) doesn't have the depth in his roster or schedule to put any higher damage DPS/burn rate players in the main team or
3) The team doesn't care that much about winning and is just there to have fun and hunt at their own rate, at their own rate oi burn. They just want to hunt within their means and hope for the best.

I think Oleg was pointing out that you don't have to be an uneco maniac to take part in WoF. Support players have no need to go crazy, better to have 20 eco hunters in support who last the duration than 50 maniac hunters who turn up for two matches, realise they've spent too much and give up.

You need players in the main team who are happy to hunt at high-turnaround, sure. Complaining about that is like complaining about the fact that you need bread to make a sandwich. WoF is about killing mobs as fast as you can. That's what WoF has always been about.

 

[Frigid]

The cap was a nice idea to integrate and should be kept.
Looking at the mob list of Round 4 for support, I am a bit disappointed, those are a bit too high for my taste. Nothing really surprisingly will happen in that round, take a look at the highest score teams and you know who will get through.
The difficulty level should rise from round to round only little until the semifinals, would make things way more interesting.

There is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" aspect here. If mobs are too high powered, they will favor more powerful players, sure...but consider that lower-powered mobs will still be killed by those some players...just at an incredibly high rate.

Every round has it's "money" mobs...the mobs that may not have the highest point value, but you can kill and global on more easily...or so you think

In the end, this is a competition, and without some hard-coded limits like those built into the "Mayhem" event, the best and most powerful are always going to be statistically favored to do the best. Perhaps someday we'll have the means to control it so that everyone has the same equipment for a competititon, and skills are are temporaily normalized among all participants, but until then, the cream will always rise to the top, much to the chagrin of the milk...

 

[WoenK]

There is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" aspect here. If mobs are too high powered, they will favor more powerful players, sure...but consider that lower-powered mobs will still be killed by those some players...just at an incredibly high rate.

Every round has it's "money" mobs...the mobs that may not have the highest point value, but you can kill and global on more easily...or so you think

In the end, this is a competition, and without some hard-coded limits like those built into the "Mayhem" event, the best and most powerful are always going to be statistically favored to do the best. Perhaps someday we'll have the means to control it so that everyone has the same equipment for a competititon, and skills are are temporaily normalized among all participants, but until then, the cream will always rise to the top, much to the chagrin of the milk...

My point was, that it should be not to apparent to see, who is going to be in the finals.
Some low end and hard to global mobs like Rippersnappers or Sabakuma are something fitted for support. Warriors or Formidons ?
Not something that a small support team could hunt and most will think more about the costs for that hunt per hour and the chances of their loot return.
I remember the first stage and that I lost quite a lot on those Thorio and Thorifoids, way too much above my level, wasted too much PEDs because I had no chance in killing them.

I think the support mobs in the first stages should be exactly on the other side of the scale rather than too high, a Gibnib globals is something that is surely a rare "bonus" and anyone can kill it

 

[Dusk]

I've a few ideas that could perhaps be controversial, but I feel could be worth considering.

Firstly, perhaps WoF should happen every two years, rather than annually.

Is it possible that the lesser numbers of teams taking part this year is because people within the game are "WoF fatigued"?

Think about it: The qualifiers commenced in (I think) early February, recruitment was if my memory doesn't deceive me from early last December, and the final is in July. That's a huge slice of the calendar taken up by an ongoing WoF event, and people hearing about the WoF. Hurrikane is thinking of an even earlier start for 2010, but this gives this year's winners less time to bask in the glory of victory before things get going again.

If in a non-WoF year teams want to hunt as nations then perhaps they can have friendly hunts against other like-minded nations to a set of unified rules, or perhaps mini-tournaments.

Meanwhile, nations for who funding might be a problem get time to get their finances together during an "off" year.

Another thought I've had is that maybe the WoF is too big for it's own good. Maybe it should be trimmed to eight, twelve or sixteen qualifier teams, and the actual competition played out over a much shorter time period.

This would allow the anticipation of the event to build up over time, perhaps making it more attractive. Imagine if in real life the football (soccer) FIFA World Cup was played every year. Or if the Superbowl was every three months - people would get bored and the spectacle would suffer in popularity as a result.

If less teams can qualify for the event proper then it may have the effect of making them more determined to qualify when given the opportunity. The places are made more valuable rather than having a scenario where 24 out of 28 team qualify. As it stands a team has to be essentially unlucky to not make the cut.

There are perhaps better ways for me to articulate the above ideas, but there is a saying that I think encapsulates all of them: Less is more.

Anyway, thanks for listening. It is clear the EU community appreciates your efforts to bring this event to life.