24 replies to this topic

[TheMagician]

At long last, I still don't have a new web site to reveal. But that's okay. I am going to start sign ups anyhow. If your team is interested in joining the NA or EU league, please send an email to themagician93 @ gmail dot com, indicating your team name, leadership contact information, and if you want to join the NA, EU or both.

RHOD Rules:

League format:

The exact division format (and playoff method) will be established once we know how many teams are interested. It could be either round robin within a division, or with enough teams, we might switch to playing each team in your division twice, plus each team within another division once. If there are multiple divisions, there will be a playoff. Regular season will last no more than 8 weeks. Any playoffs will be single elimination.

All matches are played using the assault mode.
Drops will be based on 12v12

620
660
700
740
780

Teams can be no more than 40 tons under the max tonnage.

The weekly drop order will be posted.

Match determination:
Winner of the match is the team that has the most mechs standing at the end of the match or wins on base capture.

If both teams destroyed the same amount of mechs (i.e. have the most mechs still alive), the winner is the team that captured the base the farthest. If still a tie, and one team has not won 3 out of 5, then a 6th drop will be played to determine the winner (for the 6th game, play the first drop dec for that week). If ti remains a tie, then the match is a tie.

Match Restarts:

If a team has 1 or more mechs disconnect, or otherwise have a bug preventing reasonable play before play-starts (before countdown hits 0), then it is re-dropped.

If a team has a disconnection within the first minute of play, then the team with the disconnected player may request a restart.

Player Roster Changes:

Once a person is registered to a team, the person can only change teams once during a season. (Players are allowed to play on separate teams within the NA and EU leagues, and changes by the player in one league, do not count against changes in the other league.)

Roster Unlock Schedule

Rosters are open to add and remove members from Saturday through Monday (11:59pm est). These players are not eligible for the current match week, but are eligible for the following week. See below for exceptions. Roster lockdown will be determined at the start of a league, as this will be based on the length of the season as determined by the number of teams and sizes of divisions.

Changes in rules
Additional rules may be implemented to clarify and address issues. Further, rules and league format may change due to subsequent patches and changes in game, including, but not limited to, changes in matchmaking, and game modes.

Match Scheduling
Matches are to be scheduled and played during the assigned week. Teams have a one week grace period to complete the match. If an extension is needed, both team captains should message the league officials for permission. Failure to schedule and play any event match by the deadline day could result in forfeit losses for both teams.

Team Captains (or other team official) are required to contact their opponent through the RHOD forums prior to the match deadline date to establish the match time. While communicating via other third party applications (IRC, Skype, STEAM, etc.) is a commonplace, RHOD will only accept communication logs from the RHOD forums. Any team having trouble scheduling a match within these guidelines needs to contact an Official immediately for assistance.

Teams must be prepared for situations where all required drops are not able to be played during the same night due to the matchmaking system. Teams should plan accordingly, and it is recommended that teams set a backup date as a part of the scheduling negotiatios.

Match Scheduling After the Deadline Day

Teams are NOT allowed to schedule or play their matches after the match deadline day without explicit permission from the an Official. Teams that require an extension to their match deadline day, should contact an Official no later than 5 days prior to the official deadline day of the match. Permissions are given by on a per-case basis

Teams have fifteen (15) minutes after the agreed upon (or default) time to be readied up and ready to launch (as well as between each round). A team failing to comply will be subject to penalty. Forcing a team to wait for players is disrespectful and unsportsmanlike.

Sportsmanship
Members must meet MWO's Terms of Use & Code of Conduct. See: mwomercs.com/terms and mwomercs.com/conduct

Modification of game files:
Changes permitted--
Draw distance: (e.g. e_MaxViewDistance = 1990)
e_MaxViewDistSpecLerp = 1
]e_ViewDistRatioCustom = 100)
Time to zoom: (e.g. gp_mech_view_zoom_transitiontime = 0.05)
Keybindings
Field of View
Mouse sensitivity, smooth, accel

Changes not permitted--
Removing trees
Changing thermal or night vision settings
Removal of film grain
Enhanced zoom fidelity (i.e. clarity)
Aimbots

Recommended Procedure:

Have both group leaders on the same voice communications server, and have someone who is not a group leader count down for launch (example, "Three, two, one, DROP"). On the word "DROP"; both group leaders hit launch.

Confirm in All Chat (or voice coms) that you are facing the correct opposing team.
When the counter ticks down, the game is live.

If a team loses one or more players to disconnection (or other non-reasonably playable issues, such as 4FPS bug, and yellow hud) before the match goes live, call a TIME in All Chat and report the situation to your opponent. This drop will not count, and will need to be re-dropped.

If there are disconnects during the live match, that is unfortunate. The match will still count.
Teams will report the results n the appropriate thread in the forum.

FAQ:
Q: Does a team have to field the same 12 people every drop?
A: No, feel free to rotate any pilots on your roster into the drops.
Q: I played in the Euro League, can I also play on my team in the US league?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I stream my matches?
A: Yes, but best practice is to confirm with your opponent if they are okay with you streaming.
Q: Is there a max size to a roster?
A: No

Edited by TheMagician, 01 August 2013 - 08:42 AM.

[TheMagician]

Please note, that if you have indicated your interest in the past, you need to still send me a message, as I don't know whether those teams still exist or are interested.

[Deadfire]

This looks awesome SJR, hit me up if you need any help with things..

[Skadi]

This makes box cat happy.

Box cat approves.

[Moku]

I like league play but why should we join RHOD again when there are other leagues that are probably run much better and don't talk about segregating teams into an Elite and B league. We went through season 1 and only forfeited one match and a rescheduled drop due to my fault of scheduling them on the absolute wrong night for my team. We promptly scheduled and interacted with all of our active match teams. A good quarter or more of the teams just dropped out with no repercussion or care about the league. Not interested in dropping with leaders without much tenacity for sync-dropping, giving up, or making things work.

As far as maintaining a roster we probably can't handle it since the turnover of pilots is ridiculous. Either boredom, losing, sync-dropping, ***-backwards game design or whatever. We had one of our main guys literally break a leg and never come back and that's how it is in this game with each patch. You got to throw out maintaining rosters until it's the playoffs. Too much work and in the previous season nobody cared until then.

Not really interested in playing tag finding team leaders who don't read their messages or emails everyday. Don't really care if we get rolled by good teams, but if the league is run like **** and teams that stick around trying to make it work don't feel welcome why bother?

Moku 10SR

[TheMagician]

There won't be an elite league this season, since many of the top teams have left the competitive scene. But it was intended to create the highest quality competitive play for the top tier teams, and a way for other teams to play against those who were similar skilled. If you have any knowledge of competitive sports/esports, you'd know that that is an important factor in creating a high end competitive enviornment.

As for teams dropping out, that happens in any game, particularly a new game. Nothing the league can do about it. Every MWO league faces this issue, just look at LMS, Proxis, and Marik. 10th Solaris Rangers were an active team in the league, and you guys did schedule your matches. The division you were in had some of the most active and responsive leaders, so I'm not sure why you faced issues there. But I did give your team props, because unlike many other teams who dropped out after losing a few matches, you guys stuck it out the entire time. Good luck to your team in the future of MWO.

[MaxFool]

There has been remarkably little buzz about RHOD this time. And I see so far complete lack of timetable here. How is this turning out so far?

[TheMagician]

RHOD Season 2 Preseason will start on the 25th. Sign-ups will remain open until the following week, when Season 2 goes live. There will be no replacement teams this season, unlike the previous season, so if you are interested, sign-up now.

---
The NA league is coming together. There are a lot less teams interesting in competed at this point. At the start of season 1, a lot of teams had hopes for MWO to provide the tools necessary for competitive matches. But we are about 9 months later since Season 1 originally started to get organized, and many players are not interested in trying to to synch up anymore, or deal with all the other troubles caused by a lack of lobbies. Still, I'm happy with the teams we have thus far, and even if we don't get another team signing up, I'm comfortable with the number to start up the season.

[Hylius]

Pardon for the late response, I didn't know this was here until it was linked on our recruitment thread (frankly I avoid the MWO forums in general for the most part). I'd suggest PMing old team captains or something to drum up interest. Right now I'm checking internally about whether we have enough guys and girls willing for this, so hopefully you'll hear from us before too long.

That said, I do have one question/suggestion about the drop weights. They seem very... well, bland. They're all basically the same and teeter a bit on the heavy side of medium (the lowest averaging over 50 tons per 'Mech). Why not make the lower and upper ones extremes? Say, 500 tons for the lowest (average of about 42 tons each) and 900 tons for the highest (average about 75 tons each). Would provide some good variety to the play I think. I guess there's concern about having too much variety, less the drop order favor one team's playstyle over the other, but I think it's worth consideration for the sake of it. Honestly some of the most fun I've had in the game has come from furballs of lights dancing around each other, and the fun of a dozen Atlai going head to head definitely shouldn't be left out either.

[GrimlockONE]

I just want to know if the use of cat memes/gifs will still be permitted.

AS will be in on the fun for season 2

[TheMagician]

Hylius, I think there will likely be a change to the drop dec weights prior to the start of the regular season. I wouldn't expect anything that is 8 lights or 8 assaults, but I do want more distinction between the tonnages, and some people want to see at least one that is a bit heavier.

[Funbags]

I think it would be great that you post times you expect people to drop. RHOD original was the best, had a blast, ZERO drop problems. RHOD Season 1 - 90% of the teams in our league wanted to drop at and or before 8PM EST. Thats great if you either A) don't have a job B ) don't have family obligations C) live on the east coast AND points A,B. Ideally, if there were enough participants there would be different time zones of acceptable drop times. Clearly having a JUST a US and EU league doesn't work, in addition to having EU teams playing on the US leagues expecting us to drop at 5PM EST. With that said, I have nothing else to offer except a funny and health worthy video for you to enjoy. Shoot straight, workout, have fun.

Edited by Funbags, 12 August 2013 - 08:46 PM.

[xMEPHISTOx]

Shake Weights

FTW

[Peiper]

Reading this gets me excited, and I almost signed us up, but I'm not sure I want to go through the experience again. Just keeping my unit intact, along with my own enthusiasm for the game has proved to be quite a challenge. We're all waiting for community warfare to blow our socks off, and I fear that is the only thing that's going to get us back into the swing of things. The league was run fairly and openly enough, and took a lot of hard work on the part of the organizers and the teams. Sync dropping 12 mans with weight limitations seems like a nightmare to organize. Recruitment is not keeping up with attrition. PGI has been sabotaging and is pi$$ing on the community since the end of closed beta and they have shown no signs of turning around. I have very little faith that private lobbies will come soon enough to help us along in our community tournaments either. I wish you all the luck in the world with RHOD. It was an overall positive experience for us last season, but I'm not going to push my guys into another season while PGI simultaneously keeps stabbing the community as a whole in the back.

It's kind of like scheduling a ball game between friends, only to arrive at the field to find it's sporked. And with this sync drop nonsense, it's as if we arrive at the field with our mitts, bats and balls ready, hoping to play a game against our opponent at 7pm, and then signing up on a sheet of paper with a dozen other teams, and every match is determined by a lottery. You could play all night long waiting for a sync drop, and by the time you get your opponent, your team has to go to bed.

I know, I'm on my soap box, and I hope PGI is listening, though I doubt it. They only needed us traditional gamers to crowd fund the game, knowing all along that their target audience was pimply faced twitchy kids who know nothing of loyalty, friendship, honor, courtesy, and respect that makes up the personalities of the core of the old guard. Well, the kids will come, consume like locusts for a season and then move on to the next twitch game and us old faithful guys will be so fed up that MWO will be dead by next fall. Why? Because they hate us, or at least laughing all the way to the bank. Because they really don't understand what brings us together, and keeps us playing for years at a time.

And if they really do understand the community: well shame on them. Give us our private lobbies, or find another business: PGI - because RHOD is friggin fantastic, and you crap on it like you do every other community initiative except maybe Sarah, which got you a lot of great publicity. Those guys who bought Sarah are probably the same guys who bought into the founders and phoenix packages, those who believe that this game could be what you promised us. 10,000 people bought Sarah. Ask THOSE 10,000 PEOPLE what they want from the game. I bet none of them are the twitchy, pimply faced kids that you seem to be designing the game for. And THAT is why MWO is on the edge of the abyss.

Magician, sorry if this diatribe derails this thread. I just hate to see such a great idea not reach it's potential. All those teams not signing up probably would if PGI would support the community like they should. But we're fed up, tired of the BS, and unless PGI pulls a gold jackalope out of their hat in the next couple months... I don't know. I still can't believe founders money may have went into Mechwarrior Tactics... Another example of a finger in the jello instead of on the pulse of the community. And how did crap like 3rd person POV take priority over lobbies when they could have put in an obstacle course in the testing ground to teach people how to steer their mechs. And ECM? MONTHS to fix that? ELO helps teams how? Oh, that's right, it only helps pugs. Teams = community, and you don't like us.

The community has been waiting patiently for lobbies since closed beta, and they're still on the back burner. Shows that you, PGI, really do hate us. If not, prove it: start honoring us instead of pi$$ing on us. We're investing in your game. It would be nice if you treated us as well as your shareholders. Or at least hire a community manager, who goes out and visits all the various units out there to get feedback and answer questions. There's thousands of us who would speak if we thought you gave a sh#t about what we had to say.

Edited by Peiper, 13 August 2013 - 05:00 AM.

[shadowwolf jerricho]

We could be interested. Let me talk to the guys and I will get back with yall.

[Karpundir]

I think being concerned over sync-dropping is overblown considering less teams are out there doing 12-mans these days. Even random practices are yielding a small handful of teams to drop against. The league refs can coordinate the teams playing out matches in the RHoD queue to minimize mis-syncs. If being worried about sync-drops is the reason to not partake in any player run leagues, that's a load of bull.

As for the drop weights, it was my impression that they were too close in weight, as well. A 40 ton change between each drop likely means an assault drops to a 50-60 ton mech or drop to a lighter assault and a heavy.

I also anticipate that sniping/range will remain the dominant approach to winning, so perhaps varying some weapon or equipment restrictions on 2-3 drops would assure people the matches don't become monotonous in game play.

Let's face the facts about CW for those who think it is going to solve player apathy right now. It's coming in at least 3 phases (unless that changes) and the competitive environment we want won't exist until the final phase, which is likely sometime in 2014 at the devs' current pace. Lobbies are coming, but the competitive players out there aren't going to be here anymore if we wait for CW phase 3. RHoD and the other leagues are our only purpose for playing beyond the level of grinding/plugging. It is about playing your best and being truly challenged, both tactically and skillfully.

[SilverlightPony]

TheMagician, on 01 August 2013 - 08:37 AM, said:

Changes not permitted--
...
Removal of film grain
...

Film grain is evil and its removal should be required. This is bad, and you should feel bad.

[TheMagician]

If you are interested in joining, pleas sign up by the 25th. Currently we have 15 teams in the NA league, and 7 in EU. This is a solid turnout for the 2nd season, but we welcome more teams joining.

[TheMagician]

RHoD Season 2 currently has 18 NA teams and 10 EU teams. It is looking like we'll have a great season ahead of us. Remember if you are interested, email me - themagician93 at gmail dot com by the 25th.

[Heffay]

TheMagician, on 23 August 2013 - 02:40 PM, said:

RHoD Season 2 currently has 18 NA teams and 10 EU teams. It is looking like we'll have a great season ahead of us. Remember if you are interested, email me - themagician93 at gmail dot com by the 25th.

I'm glad someone is still trying to #savemwo. I'm sure DHB will be participating in this. Best of luck!