IRONMAGE Competition

[Zardulu]

Want to get feedback/suggestions on an idea I’ve been thinking about today for a user-managed competition. Of course, we’re months and months away from something like this being possible – but it’s just so fun to think about all the new things we’ll be able to do in Orbus, activities that wouldn’t make sense in traditional desktop MMOs.

So, here are my disjointed notes on the thing. I would love to hear whether you think this sounds fun, feasible, how you’d address problems, etc. Thanks!

IRONMAGE

A multipart competition among runemages, possibly with entry fee and prizes.

Parts

1. Cast
   a. Each contestant is paired with a referee. Referee calls out a series of spells. Contestant must cast each as called.
   b. If they fail a single cast, they must go back to the beginning of the series.
2. Kill
   a. Contestants stand in a zone with appropriately difficult nearby enemies.
   b. Each mage will have to kill x mobs.
   c. How to monitor/judge? Completion could be based on mob drops, with each contestant having to turn in x drops specific to the mob. Tricky to ensure fairness?
3. Race
   a. Mages start at one location. A referee announces the portal destination.
   b. As each arrives, a referee is waiting to announce the next target portal.
   c. Continues for x portals.
   d. Final portal destination is the competition finish line.

[OtherReality]

Im planning to be a mage main and this sounds awesome.

[Damage_Da_Mage]

This is a really fun idea and, as an aspiring mage, I’d be very interested in competing in this or helping judge/referee if you need additional hands. I do have a couple questions/concerns about the rules you have posted though.

For part 1, is the goal to complete a series of spells before the other competitors or just to gauge the competitor’s understanding of spells? If it’s the latter, perhaps it would be easier to score by just having the judge give a series of spells and giving a point for each successful cast?

Part 2 seems really difficult to manage. If it’s a competition between mages of all different levels it becomes difficult to find monsters for everyone to kill that would take the same amount of time. If you go the mob drop route then you have to find mobs that everyone can take down and that have similar drop rates on items. It’s a good idea, but difficult to ensure fairness as you said. Perhaps playing the game will reveal a more mage-oriented gathering option that this part can be replaced with?

I love the idea of ending with a race to the finish. My only concern with part 3 is that I think you would need a good amount of communication between the judges/referees to make sure no one skips ahead, either intentionally or by accidentally casting the wrong teleportation spell. As long as that’s worked out this sounds good.

Sorry if my response seems negative, I really do love the idea! Just trying to identify potential issues early so the competition runs as smoothly as possible

[Zardulu]

Not negative at all, I appreciate the comments (and the offer to help when the day comes!)

For Part 1 - Yes, I was thinking of it as a test of memory and accuracy “under pressure.” If the competition is a race, then you want to complete this segment as quickly as possible - but the restart-on-miscast penalty necessitates a balancing of speed with caution. However, judging the winner on a point system is an interesting idea and may end up working better, especially in conjunction with Part 2.

For Part 2 - I definitely don’t know how to do this part fairly. Mob vs player levels is an issue, plus we don’t know how common tradable drops will be; after rereading Riley’s post about soulbound vs tradable items, I’m now thinking that tradable item’s might be very rare - though in that case, the test for completing Part 2 might still be “turn in 1 of tradable drop x.” Ultimately, I’m with you in hoping that we’ll identify more mage-oriented tests down the road.

For Part 3 - I’d forgotten something: Riley’s statement that in the released game, portal spells will be expensive to cast, in that they will require a rare reagent. So a segment requiring each contestant to cast multiple portal spells is not likely to be practical. Depending on the rarity of the reagent, it could even turn into a situation where most contestants don’t bother to finish; why burn a rare item if you know you’re already out of the running? So, this segment of the competition may end up being the least practical of all.

Some tricky angles to consider, but as the game evolves further, I want to keep brainstorming ways to put our abilities to the friendly test. And I’d love to broaden the discussion to include other classes. Archery competitions for rangers, precision sword-throwing for warriors? Endlessly exciting to think about an MMO that takes abilities off the hotbar and into the embodied world, where the grind for gear won’t be the final word in a player’s effectiveness.

[Damage_Da_Mage]

Good, I’m glad my criticisms weren’t too harsh.

Part 2 - I’m really against a competitive component that relies on RNG. That’s probably my biggest concern with this segment. If we could find several different level mobs that all had a 100% drop chance on a tradable item I’d be completely fine with it, but that seems pretty unlikely.

Part 3 - Ah, good point. I had overlooked that as well. Perhaps this segment would rely on funding from fellowships? A competition of this sort would be good publicity and would help them identify talented magi within the community that they may want to recruit.

Perhaps there’s a way to combine Parts 2 & 3 by creating teams of magi based on their scoring in round 1 and sending them after a stronger opponent to take down together. The group can then teleport to the area, take down their opponent and teleport back. Each group getting scored based on their speed and efficiency, receiving penalties for each team member death, etc. and combining that score with the score from Part 1. This would probably be easier to judge from the sidelines as well.

All-in-all I definitely like the idea and would like to see similar contests between other classes as well. An archery competition would be a ton of fun if there were a target dummy or similar object that we could set up for them to shoot at. I’m also a sucker for fishing and would love to see a fishing tournament.