Outer Rim War III

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This page contains planning for Outer Rim War III (ORW3). Nothing on this page should be considered as definite, as the event is still in the planning stages.

The War

ORW3 will follow roughly the same format as the two previous ORWs, with some important innovations. For those who have not experienced ORW before, this is a multiplayer gaming competition involving many SW clubs fighting over territory in the Outer Rim. The War ends when one group has captured all of the planets.

This ORW, rather than featuring all of the clubs at odds with each other, will use three "factions" of clubs that have formed temporary, uneasy alliances with each other whose enemy are the other two factions. The three factions are "Rebel", who are affiliated with the New Republic; "Imperial", several remnants of Palpatine's Galactic Empire; and "Sith", Force-using followers of the Dark Side who are gradually conquering the galaxy.

Clubs may join the war at any time, pending a majority vote by the ORW Council, if it is possible to keep factions balanced. Clubs may also switch factions, pending a 2/3 vote by the ORW Council, although this is not recommended except to rectify any major unbalanced factions.

Fictional background

Twelve planets in the Outer Rim have been occupied by the three factions, and events have led to war. Who will emerge the victor of this fight?

(Full story TBD.)

Planets

  • The Subterrel Sector is a possible staging area.
    • This region of space is viable for a number of reasons.
  1. It is beyond the Outer Rim (beyond civilised space), out in Wild Space (mostly uncharted).
  2. It's nowhere near any major trade routes.
  3. The galaxy at large don't know or care about the region (we can have a war there and no-one will know/care).
  4. Due to its lack of importance, there is practically no canon information avaialable, so we cannot be contradicted by canon material (the only major event of significance was that Luke and Leia Skywalker were born in this region, but not even they know that).
  5. It is a fair distance from RS space, but not prohibitively so (it's halfway between the Rimma Trade Route -- our location -- and the Hydian Way . . . I think that's the other one).
  6. It's neutral ground, where none of the clubs have a foothold.
    • Storywise, this is really easy to set up:
      • Imperial activity on RS borders has backed off significantly lately.
      • Patriot Battle Fleet and Retribution Wing forces are investigating pirate activity in the Minos Cluster (hardly World War III material, as far as the Galactic Civil War goes).
      • Vigilance Strike Fleet (the reformed Renegade Fleet and Intrepid Battle Group fleets) and the Righteous Indignation Division can start their first tours out as an expeditionary force to this region of space.
      • We just need to figure out a reason why the sector's worth fighting over, without actually making it inherently valuable (perhaps merely to deny other factions from having outposts might be reason enough?).
      • The Imperial Super Star Destroyer Blade can be leading Imperial forces there (storywise for the RS campaigns (VSF Tour 1 and RID Tour 1), so RS forces are countering its threat abroad.
      • The VSF and RID campaigns can be planned solidly with details kept loose to account for changes in the competition climate (i.e. regarding who's winning, and what worlds are possessed by which factions).
      • We will have free reign to create our own planets and star systems in this area, as it's a largely uncharted region of Wild Space.
  • (names here, TBD)

Possessions

  • The three factions will begin with four planets each.
  • After each week, the faction who scored the most points that week will capture one planet from the faction with the lowest score and at least one remaining planet.
  • A faction without any remaining planets may continue to play, but must achieve the highest score in any given week to recapture a planet.
  • The war is over when one faction has captured all twelve planets.
  • The planets will be divided among the faction according to their fraction of total points earned during the competition.
  • The determining of exactly which planet is captured and occupied each week by which club, under the restrictions above, will be determined by a small number of people, who will announce the result in the ORW NL.

Games

(*) eligible for double merits

Not used:

Newsletter

  • The ORW newsletter, tentatively called The Outer Rim Times, will be published each week and will highlight the main aspects of that week's competition.
  • Staff should be drawn from all three factions, and may include any number of members from each club.
  • The name should be The Outer Rim (something): Times, Gazetteer, Chronicle, etc.
  • Each week's newsletter will contain the current map of planets owned as a centerpiece.
  • The newsletter will be entirely in-character and will involve a fair amount of fictional extrapolation from numbers. No numbers from the actual matches are likely to be used.
  • The NL aims to be as unbiased as possible and not be centered on any particular club. Individual clubs or factions may produce their own newsletters from a different point of view.

Staff:

Clubs

Club name Status Contacts Type Past wars Notes
Rebel Squadrons (RS) Confirmed Rear Admiral Licah Fox, Fleet Commander, fc@rebelsquadrons.org; General Leonard Cable, Executive Officer, xo@rebelsquadrons.org; Colonel Eric Skrevski, Operations Officer, EMW1824@hotmail.com; Vice Admiral Spokes, Assistant Operations Officer, spokes_rs@comcast.net Loosely affiliated with New Republic ICTE, CF, ORW2, ORW, Minos DB ally; BattleStats club: most games (29 members)
Dark Brotherhood (DB) Unconfirmed Grand Master Jac Cotelin, JacCotelin@gmail.com; Dark Jedi Master Xanos Sadow, Deputy Grand Master, xanos.sadow@nagasadow.org; Templar Lucius Xerxes Entar, Tribune:ICTE, nevergood@gmail.com; Duga, DugaArkarso@gmail.com Dark Side of the Force (Sith, Obelisk, Krath) ICTE, CF RS ally
Force Elite Soldiers (FES) Unconfirmed Rasr Culdan (Rage), Head Ambassador, Rage@fesgaming.com; Winfil Motti (Motti), Multi-Club Ambassador, Motti@fesgaming.com; Kalra Jessorn (Kalra), Multi-Club Ambassador, Kalra@fesgaming.com Dark-affiliated ICTE RS, DB ally
Emperor's Hammer (EH) Unconfirmed Grand Admiral Astatine, Fleet Commander, fc@emperorshammer.org; Sector Admiral Cyric, Executive Officer, xo@emperorshammer.org Imperial-affiliated ORW2, ORW, Minos BattleStats club: most games (11 members)
New Republic 5th Fleet (NR5F) Unconfirmed Grand Admiral Michael Simon, Fleet Commander, manfred.simon@t-online.de; High Admiral Commskywalker, Fleet Executive Officer, commskywalker@hotmail.com; Rear Admiral Mattias Gustafsson, Republican Diplomatic Corps Commander, the_tax_collector@hotmail.com New Republic-affiliated ICTE, CF, ORW2, ORW RS, DB ally
United Pilots Alliance (UPA) Unconfirmed Supreme Council, upahq@upahq.org; UPA_Falcon, Head of UPA Website, falcon@upahq.org; UPA_GoldLeader, Head of Expanded Universe, goldleader@upahq.org presumably New Republic-affiliated CF BattleStats club: 6 BF members, 8 XvT/XWA members
Star Vipers (SV) Confirmed Sector Admiral Phoenix Berkana, Fleet Commander, phoenix@crimson-net.org; High Admiral Gaius Horn-Berkana, Executive Officer, keldorn@btinternet.com Imperial-affiliated ICTE, CF, ORW2, ORW RS, DB ally
Vast Empire (VE) Unconfirmed Grand Moff Kadann, Head of the High Council, kadann@vastempire.com; Grand General Talon, Operations Officer, talon@vastempire.com Imperial-affiliated ORW2, ORW RS ally
Last Starfighters League (LSF) Unconfirmed Admiral Ghent, Commanding Officer, ghent@starfighters.com; Captian Zorro, Executive Officer, zorro@starfighters.com; Pallos, Executive Officer, pallos@starfighters.com Multiple factions ORW
Galactic Empire: An Empire Reborn (GE) Unconfirmed Fleet Admiral Sirus Polanski, Supreme Commander, polanski@blueyonder.co.uk; Admiral Tiberius Fel, Strategic Development Director, fel@empirereborn.net; General Jacob Jansen, Ambassador, jansen@empirereborn.net Imperial-affiliated ICTE DB ally
Imperial Directorate (ID) Unconfirmed 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
Imperial Dominion (ID) Unconfirmed Admiral Drax Remlinger, Fleet Commander; Admiral Erryc Lasitter, Executive Officer Imperial-affiliated Related to the EH
New Republic Navy (NRN) Unconfirmed Fleet Admiral Das717; Admiral Mother New Republic-affiliated BattleStats club: XvT, XWA (12 members)
Crimson Mercenaries (CM) Unconfirmed BattleStats club: most games (25 members)
The Defenders of Sovereignty (DS) Unconfirmed BattleStats club: most games (30 members); ER club
CRS Morning Star Unconfirmed Comprised of Red Squadron and and Blue Squadron.
Tie Fighter Alliance (TFA) Unconfirmed Fleet Admiral ExarKunONe, Commander Imperial-affiliated BattleStats club: XvT, XWA (60 members)
The Rebel Alliance (TRA) Unconfirmed Fleet Admiral Pilotbaby64, Commander; Commodore Highlander01, Executive Officer Rebel-affiliated BattleStats club: XvT, XWA (59 members)
Imperial Ground Forces (IGF) Unconfirmed BattleStats club: JA, BF2 (132 members)
Rebel Ground Forces (RGF) Unconfirmed BattleStats club: JO, JA, BF2 (49 members)
Republic of Independent Systems (RIS) Unconfirmed BattleStats club: BF, BF2 (36 members)
Galactic Warfare Alliance (GWA) Unconfirmed BattleStats club: GB, EaW (33 members)
Brotherhood of Selected Sith (BOSS) Unconfirmed 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) Unconfirmed BattleStats clubs; A: 5 members; S: 3 members
Neues Imperium (NI) Unconfirmed EH ally; German club
Brotherhood of the Sith Unconfirmed EH ally; Polish club, entire site in Polish, no English version available
BURN Unconfirmed ER club
Dragon Warriors Unconfirmed ER club: most games
United Confederation of Free Planets (UCFP) Uncertain Syndic? ORW2 Website down, but Syndic is around in the RS B&G. He reports that his members all left for college, but he may be able to bring them back for an ORW3 competition.
Imperial Order (IO) Uncertain Emperor Larsen, emperor@imperialorder.net, Grand Admiral Wulfman, Chief of Operations, chief_of_operations@imperialorder.net Imperial-affiliated ORW2, ORW This club may not be active. The last forum post was in 2004, and the latest site update appears to be 2005.
Galactic Imperial Order (GIO) Apparently defunct DB ally; Website down; Josh says Morone is or was the leader.
Elite Republic Commandos (ERC) Apparently defunct Website down
Orion Strike Fleet (OSF) Apparently defunct No updates since 2004
Antagonist Wing (AW) Apparently defunct ORW Website down; Morg says they were an offshot of SV that no longer exists.
New Republic (NR) Apparently defunct ORW Website down

Not invited due to size reasons:

Factions

Rebel

  • (*) Rebel Squadrons
  • New Republic 5th Fleet
  • The Rebel Alliance
  • New Republic Navy
  • United Pilots Alliance
  • Last Starfighters League

Imperial

  • Emperor's Hammer
  • (*) Star Vipers
  • Tie Fighter Alliance
  • Galactic Empire
  • Imperial Directorate

Sith

  • Dark Brotherhood
  • Force Elite Soldiers
  • Brotherhood of Selected Sith

(*) Confirmed participant in ORW3

Scoring

(# points - item [fictional equivalent])

  • 1 vs 1
    • 6 - win [victory on the battlefield]
    • 4 - tie [stalemate on the battlefield]
    • 3 - loss [defeat on the battlefield]
  • 2 vs 2 & more
    • 4 - team win (per person) [large victory]
    • 3 - team tie (per person) [large tie]
    • 2 - team loss (per person) [large defeat]
    • # players through 1 - individual performance [damage dealt to enemy]
For example, in a 2v2, #1 receives 4, #2 gets 3, #3 gets 2, #4 gets 1.
  • 1 vs 1 vs 1 (FFA: Free-For-All)
    • 8 - 1st place
    • 5 - 2nd place
    • 3 - 3rd place
  • Certain games (EaW, BF2, BF) will earn the players double the merits for all of the above, due to their longer length of play.
  • Other points
    • 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

A club's score will simply be the sum of all of its members' scores.

Possible club strategies:

  • Attrition: Fielding a large number of lesser-skilled players who nonetheless overwhelm -- by scoring more overall points -- one or two excellent players on another club, by utilizing the "patrolling territory" bonus. Counterpart: Massacre. This was a strategy not available in Celestial Fury.
  • Massacre: Fielding one or two highly skilled players who defeat every player they encounter, from a variety of clubs, and play continuously. Counterpart: Attrition. SV utilized this during Celestial Fury.
  • Balanced attack: Fielding several players each in a wide variety of games, to damage forces of all types and win through sheer numbers. Variant of Attrition.
  • Concentrated attack: Focusing on one particular game and fielding large numbers of players just for that game, of a variety of skill levels, that carry the club to a victory in that game and, possibly, the event. Variant of Attrition.

Rules

  • Meta-rule: Rules, factions, and the scoring system may only be changed in between the overall battles.

ORW location

  • Channel: #outerrim on irc.undernet.org
  • Time: 12pm-12am EST. This allows for 12 hours of gameplay each day and is easy to remember.
    • Option A: Saturdays and Sundays, 1-week battle periods. More intense.
    • Option B: Saturdays only, 2-week battle periods. Less intense.
    • Option C: Sundays only, 2-week battle periods. May or may not be easier for most people to make than Saturdays.
  • Bot operators (ORW3 admins): Anyone available that is known to be trustworthy; there needs to be an admin on hand at all times, if possible. More than one person can operate the bot per gaming period.

Matchups

  • Only one match may be played at a time; all participants must re-sign up after a match to play again.
  • Combatants may only play against members of their own faction three times per week. [Fictionally, this is akin to squabbling allies.]
  • Combatants may not play against their own club.
  • A person may only play the same opponent configuration three times per week or less.
Example: Person A may play Person B 3 times in a 1v1; AC vs BD may additionally play 3 times, but AE cannot then play BD that week.
  • In 2v2s and higher, if three factions are present, two factions must ally against a third.
Example: AB may play CC, but AC may not play BC.
  • In free-for-alls, all three participants must be from different factions.
  • If a person is in multiple clubs, he or she may only play for one club per week.
  • After a lag-out, the same opponents may not play each other again that week.
  • After yielding two forfeits, a person may not sign up again that day.
  • If a person's lag-out total is three or higher and 50% of matches or higher, that person may be asked to stop playing until the connection issues are resolved.

Post-match

  • Any participant may report the results of a match.
  • It is highly recommended to take a screenshot of the results screen of every match. The host must stay at the results screen for at least 5 seconds to allow all participants to take a screenshot.
  • Disputes are to be filed on the ORW3 website for consideration by the ORW3 admins.

Coding

IRC bot

  • Coder: Dessan (note: have not asked him if he can do it yet)
  • 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.

Website

  • Coder: Licah
  • Graphics: Terrak (note: have not asked him if he can do it yet)
  • 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)

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.

To do

Clubs to be invited

  • Ecliptical Realms clubs (there are a ton)

Contacting clubs

  • Set up orw_alliance egroup for use by the new ORW Council.
  • Contact the leaders of the other clubs when proposal is ready to be presented.
  • Discuss some important points on the Council: time of active competition (currently: 24 hrs/week); faction memberships and balance; games available to be played; other issues

Other

  • Code the IRC bot
  • Code the webpage (incl. ORWNL)
  • Make graphics for the webpage (incl. ORWNL)
  • Find staff for the ORWNL
  • Determine fictional background & planets for the competition
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