Outer Rim War III old

This page is merely a holding page that contains old information from the official Outer Rim War III page.

Note that the first four concepts have been reconciled into Concept 5, in an attempt to reduce weaknesses of the various proposals.

Concept 1

This version divides the sector into three sections — outer section, middle section, centre section — and distributes the worlds thusly: three in the centre section, four in the middle section, and five in the outer section.

Pros

• Natural-looking configuration

Cons

• Unbalanced distribution — two of the factions have the same distribution pattern (1 centre, 1 middle, 2 outer) while the other has a different pattern (1 centre, 2 middle, 1 outer). NOTE: It is not known if this is a real issue or not, unless we were to give different weighting or emphasis on the different sections, in which case it would be a true competition imbalance.

Concept 2

This version divides the sector into three sections as with Concept 1, however the distribution is symmetrical, with three systems in the centre section, three in the middle section, and six in the outer section.

Pros

• Equally-balanced configuration with no natural advantages

Cons

• Looks less natural than Concept 1

Concept 3

This version moves away from the sector divisions idea, and instead opts for a 'front lines' idea, where factions have to battle through defending systems on the front lines, which will fluctuate, rather than capturing worlds at random in the sector. Each faction begins with one world arrayed against one world of each of the two other factions.

Pros

• Strategic systems, with front line worlds requiring capture before being able to access worlds deeper into a faction's territory

Cons

• Does not look like a naturally-forming configuration

Concept 4

This version is a modification of Concept 3, and moves the starting cluster of faction systems from a diamond shape to a squared one. The main difference with this is that instead of each faction having one system being contested by both factions, it has each faction with one system arrayed against each faction, so instead of two factions battling over the one system, each of the front line systems per faction is only arrayed against one faction.

Pros

• Same as Concept 3
• Features two front line systems: one against each faction

Cons

• Same as Concept 3, insofar as it is not a natural-looking configuration

• The number of worlds to be fought over can be one of two options:

1. 3 only
2. 3–6

• Option 1 uses one world per faction per round, with any incursive matches against each team being against the world denoted of that team for the battle (i.e. if Rebel challenges Imperial in battle, the Imperial player is fighting in defence of their world — this might make players more proactive, by encouraging them to pick fights rather than wait for themselves to be challenged by others)
• Option 2 allows the possibility of having up to two worlds per faction to be defended each battle, with enemy factions striking at different held worlds

Clubs not invited or not participating

Club name	Status	Contacts	Type	Past wars	Notes
Imperial Directorate (ID)	Not contacted	Imperator Nyykl Orzon, Grand Moff, gmf@imperialdirectorate.org; Tribunus Salth "Wil" Khan, Prime Minister, pm@imperialdirectorate.org; Equite Destavol A. Gin, Minister of Operations, add_r_us@yahoo.com	Imperial-affiliated		DB ally; formerly of the EH
The Defenders of Sovereignty (DS)	Not contacted				BattleStats club: most games (30 members); ER club
Tie Fighter Alliance (TFA)	Not contacted	Fleet Admiral ExarKunONe, Commander	Imperial-affiliated		BattleStats club: XvT, XWA (60 members)
The Rebel Alliance (TRA)	Not contacted	Fleet Admiral Pilotbaby64, Commander; Commodore Highlander01, Executive Officer	Rebel-affiliated		BattleStats club: XvT, XWA (59 members)
Imperial Ground Forces (IGF)	Not contacted				BattleStats club: JA, BF2 (132 members)
Rebel Ground Forces (RGF)	Not contacted				BattleStats club: JO, JA, BF2 (49 members)
Republic of Independent Systems (RIS)	Not contacted				BattleStats club: BF, BF2 (36 members)
Galactic Warfare Alliance (GWA)	Not contacted				BattleStats club: GB, EaW (33 members)
Brotherhood of Selected Sith (BOSS)	Not contacted	Dark Lord of the Sith Cobra; Dark Lord of the Sith Suntear Keeper	Dark Side-affiliated		BattleStats club: XvT, XWA; (4 members)
Sith (S) and Sith Apprentices (A)	Not contacted				BattleStats clubs; A: 5 members; S: 3 members
Brotherhood of the Sith	Not contacted				EH ally; Polish club, entire site in Polish, no English version available
BURN	Not contacted				ER club
Dragon Warriors	Not contacted				ER club: most games
CRS Morning Star	Not interested	CRS Morning Star Command Staff, cmd_staff@crs-morningstar.net			Comprised of Red Squadron and and Blue Squadron. Rob "Biggs" Baden responds that this group is not interested in this type of competition, as it has a different focus.
United Confederation of Free Planets (UCFP)	Not interested / inactive	Syndic		ORW2	Website down; Syndic is around in the RS B&G, and reports that he is unable to sign his club up due to lack of participation.
Neues Imperium (NI)	Not interested / inactive				EH ally; German club that does not currently qualify as "active", and the leader(s) have been contacted but are not interested in this competition.
Orion Strike Fleet (OSF)	Apparently defunct				No updates since 2004
New Republic (NR)	Apparently defunct			ORW	Website down
Last Starfighters League (LSF)	Defunct	Admiral Ghent, Commanding Officer, ghent@starfighters.com; Captian Zorro, Executive Officer, zorro@starfighters.com; Pallos, Executive Officer, pallos@starfighters.com	Multiple factions	ORW	Ghent informs us that the LSF ceased to be active around 2002 or so, although the website is still active.
Galactic Imperial Order (GIO)	Defunct				DB ally; Website down; Morone informs us that the club no longer exists.
Elite Republic Commandos (ERC)	Defunct				Website down; Morone informs us that the club no longer exists.
Antagonist Wing (AW)	Defunct			ORW	Website down; Morg informs us that this club was an offshoot of the Star Vipers that no longer exists.
Imperial Order (IO)	Defunct	Emperor Larsen, emperor@imperialorder.net, Grand Admiral Wulfman, Chief of Operations, chief_of_operations@imperialorder.net	Imperial-affiliated	ORW2, ORW	TJ informs us that the club is no longer active, due to the Emperor retiring from active duty.

Scoring

Players will be able to earn points simply by waiting for matches, which will hopefully serve the dual purpose of making waits tolerable and drawing more people, thereby lessening waiting time.

• • 1 - 20 minutes on the waitlist [patrolling territory] [max 12 per day] [change to 15 minutes if competition is only one day per week]

This only applies when 50% or more of the number of participants are signed up (example: 1 person for 1v1, 2 for 2v2, etc.)

• • 1 - connection failure (unable to connect or lag-out) [scouting territory; orders not to attack, or a brief skirmish]

After three lag-outs in one day, a person can no longer earn patrolling points that day, to prevent abuse.

• • 2 - win by forfeit [enemy turns tail]

A forfeit may be called for any of the following reasons, if the other party so desires: No attempt to play the match by one of the participants within 15 minutes after the match is assigned; Departure mid-match for reasons other than connection problems.

• Bonuses:
  • 2 - 25 points or higher in a week & mention in The Outer Rim Times
  • 5 - 50 points or higher in a week & paragraph or news flash in ORT
  • 10 - 100 points or higher in a week & at least half article in ORT

ORW Time options

• • Option B: Saturdays only, 2-week battle periods. Less intense. This has been the format for past ORWs.
  • Option C: Sundays only, 2-week battle periods. May or may not be easier for most people to make than Saturdays.

Website stuff

Consider making highly customizable ladder/standings: ability to view particular game statistics, vs. particular club, vs. particular player, specific match times, vs. particular factions, 2v2 with particular teammate, etc. This will create a significant load on the MySQL server, but using static ladders may resolve such a problem.

We will be purchasing a domain name for this competition, such as orw3.net, when the name of the competition is finalized.

Old Coding Section

The remainder of this page concerns technical details of the ORW3 website and IRC bot.

IRC bot (currently unavailable)

• Coder: Mystic (from scratch)
• Announce all activity in the main channel
• Signups for 1v1 and 2v2, to be done via PM !signup; will require a handle and password to do so
• Removes for 1v1 and 2v2 upon parting channel or quitting, or via !remove
• Topics - Checks for updates to the score every 5 minutes and updates topic accordingly. (Or, the website can notify the bot to change the topic when necessary.)
• Turning on/off - Websites are more reliable than IRC connections, so the bot simply needs a local on/off button.
• Interfaces with the ORW3 website to obtain data.
• For the sake of the competition, Empire at War is being treated as two separate platforms: ground and space. The competition bot will need functionality for !signup EaWGround and !signup EaWSpace

Website (mostly available)

• Coder: Mystic
• Graphics: Terrak
• The code for assigning and reporting matches will be PHP, instead of mIRC as before.
• Place controls for admin match modifying and turning the competition on/off.
• Pages:
  • Reporting - drawing from list of active matches
  • Disputes - a form that emails to the admins egroup
  • Rules
  • Ladder - Individual achievement; allow for display of any given week as well as cumulative (LIC-style)
  • Standings - Club standings, by week or cumulative
  • Newsletters (or "The OR Times") - containing news, maps, etc.
  • Updates - Non-fictional updates, such as changes to the rules, website, staff, or admins.
  • Clubs - Listed by faction and activity, this will contain brief info on each club.
  • Home - Hub of information: brief "about" section, factions' planet holdings, top 3 or 5 players from each club, top 10 overall, top 2 clubs for each game,
  • Contact - List of contacts for each club, list of ORW3 admins, including an email form to contact them
  • Profiles - a player profile for each person: name, club, IRC nick(s), link to profile at club's site, email address, other contact information (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Xfire)
  • Matches list
  • Login/logout
  • Register
  • FAQ
  • Active matches - includes those waiting on the signup list
  • Admin controls - edit report, turn competition on/off (for a particular day or week)

Coding Progress Note

Please be aware that at this time, the above two entries on webpage and bot are not valid. Work on these will continue, but for now ORW3 will use a modified version of the ICTE bot combined with manual score-keeping. This system proved successful at the skirmish and will continue to be our main system of moderation during the competition. The ORW3:The Subterrel Conflict webpage is complete with graphics, rules, and fictional background to the competition, but does not currently have the ability to login or record individual matches.