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3rd FCOL Tournament Draft Rules
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JimDauphinais
Commander


Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Posts: 769
Location: Chesterfield, MO

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:41 am    Post subject: 3rd FCOL Tournament Draft Rules Reply with quote

D R A F T


Rules for the 3rd Federation Commander Online Tournament


Tournament Signup and Empire Selection Deadline: June 24, 2011

Final Player and Empire Selection List Posted: June 26, 2011

Ship Selection Deadline: June 28, 2011

Start of 1st Round: July 1, 2011

Completion of 1st Round: July 28, 2011

Future rounds begin on the 1st of a month and conclude on the 28th of that same month.


Signup via E-mail to: jimdauphinais@aol.com and gar1138@yahoo.com (GM Note: I Still need to check to see if Garrett can assist this time around.)


It is highly recommended that players use Skype voice chat while playing their matches.


1. CORE TOURNAMENT RULES

The 2010 Origins Federation Commander Tournament Rules (http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2900) and their associated clarifications apply except as clarified or amended by the rules which follow below.

The SIXTH Edition of the Federation Commander Rules will be used for this tournament including all updates and clarifications of the Sixth Edition rules that have appeared in Communique.



2. FC SHIP AND WEAPON PURCHASE RESTRICTIONS

All normal Federation Commander ship and weapon purchase restriction rules apply in addition to all other tournament purchase restrictions on ships and weapons.

GM Comment: This should be obvious, but just in case it is not, I am explicitly stating it.


Note that AEGIS and Special Sensors are no longer Borders of Madness rules. The AEGIS rules WILL be in play for this tournament. However, the Special Sensors rules shall NOT be in play.

GM Note: Special Sensors will not be in play because only the Federation currently has a laminated ship card with Special Sensors.



3. FC: WAR & PEACE

To the extent their ships are available in FC Online prior to June 24, 2011, the ISC and Vudar are available for selection as an empire by players.

GM Comment: Other than possibly not being included in FC Online, there is no longer a reason to hold these empires out of the online tournaments. The Andromedans will not be available as an empire in this tournament, but will hopefully be available as an empire in the next FC Online tournament.



4. FRAX

The Frax are available for selection as an empire by players. Since the Frax are currently only available via e23, players selecting the Frax as their empire may treat the following Frax ship cards from e23 FRAX Packs #1, #2 and #3 as if they were laminated ship cards: BCH, CA, CC, CF, CW, CWD, CWL, DN, DW, DWD, FF and POL. Frax Submarines and ships with Axion Torpedoes are not in play.

GM Comment: It is not likely this simulator empire will make it to laminated cards anytime soon. However, this interesting empire's manifest of ship cards has been nearly fully filled out via e23 and it does not require any special rules to play. In addition, many of its ships are already available on FC Online.



5. LDR

The LDR will only be available as an empire to the extent its ships (with the correct weapon mounts) are available in FC Online prior to June 24, 2011.

GM Comment: Unfortunately, the LDR are not quite yet in FC Online. However, hopefully they will be available by the ship selection deadline.



6. HYDRANS

Players selecting the Hydrans may freely choose between Fusion and Hellbore armed ships.

Note that a workaround must be used if you want to use the pre-game arming option for Hellbores as the pre-game arming option for Hellbores is not currently implemented in FC Online (see http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=43155#43155).



7. WEAPON LAYOUTS

For ships that have multiple possible weapon layouts (e.g., most Orion Pirate ships), players may only purchase ships with weapon layouts that are available within FC Online prior to the start date of the tournament.

GM Comment: This is to minimize the amount of manual tracking needed in order reduce the chance for confusion or misunderstandings between players.



8. PLASMA G, S AND R TORPEDO TUBES

Note that players will need to use a workaround in FC Online in order to manually setup starting a scenario with the second turn of P/S/R plasma loading complete (see http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=43155#43155).



9. POINT VALUE FACTORS

For purposes of this tournament, the printed point value of all ships and weapons are adjusted by multiplying those values by the following factor for each empire (retaining all fractions):

The factors below are still being worked on for the 3rd FCOL Tournament.

1.10: None
1.05: Federation and Kzinti
1.00: Frax, Hydran, ISC, Klingon, LDR, Orion Pirates and Vudar
0.96: Gorn, Lyran, Tholian and Wyn
0.92: Romulan and Seltorian


These modified point values apply for all game purposes, including, but not limited to, purchase cost and victory determination.

Example: If the factor that applies to the Federation for the tournament is 1.05, the point value of a Federation CA will be 154.35 points rather 147 points. It will cost 154.35 points to purchase and will be worth 154.35 points for victory determination purposes.


If after all players select their empires more than 25% of the participants select the same empire, the GM will boost the factor for that empire by one level and give all players who have selected that empire the opportunity to select another empire. If this still results in more than 25% of the participants selecting the same empire, once again the affected empire's factor will be bosted one level and the GM will once again give all players who selected that empire the opportunity to select another empire. This will continue until no more than 25% of the participants have selected that same empire.

GM Comment: The purpose of this rule is to help minimize the empire selection bunching that dominated the 1st FC Online Tournament. In general, the idea is that the empires that are both popular and viewed as difficult to defeat in the tournament setting have the largest factor applied to the point value of their ships and weapons. Empires that are unpopular and viewed as difficult to prevail with in the tournament setting have the smallest factor applied to the point value of their ships and weapons. Hopefully, this will reduce the likelihood that the final rounds of the tournament devolve into a civil war to determine the final winner!

I expect that from tournament to tournament the factors applied to each empire will move around as players gain more experience with various empires and new tactics are uncovered. In particular, I expect if all the players who picked a particular empire are the top placers in a given tournament, that empire's factor will move up one level for the next tournament. Conversely, if either no player selects a particular empire in a given tournament or none of the players who have selected particular empire win any of their matches in a partciular tournament, I expect that the factor for that empire will fall one level for the next tournament. Other adjustments may also be necessary depending on what experience with this rule reveals.




10. SHIP SELECTION

The GM of the tournament shall set a dedline for ship selections (June 28, 2011 for this tournament). Only ships available in the Federation Commander Online Client as of June 24, 2011 are available for use. All purchased ships and selected weapon layouts are subject to final approval by the GM and Assistant GM. Weapon layouts may not be changed over the course of the tournament.



11. STARTING LOCATIONS, CLOAKING AND OTHER MAP RELATED RULES

The combat will take place on a standard SFB map (42 hexes by 30 hexes). One force begins in or within one hex of hex 1701 and the other begins in or within one hex of hex 2530. This map is fixed, it does not "float" in any manner. Any ship which leaves the map as a result of the player's own movement (or the movement of a ship he tractored) is considered to have been destroyed. Any ship held in a tractor beam that will be forced to move off the map as a result of the opposing ship's movement is immediately released from the tractor in the last hex of the map (and does not leave the map). If its facing is such that its next movement would force it to exit the map and it cannot turn by any means to avoid doing so, it immediately stops (Speed Zero) in that hex; it otherwise will move normally (subject to its own speed plot) from that point. Drones, shuttles, and plasma torpedoes whose movement would force them to exit the map are destroyed.

Ships with cloaking devices can use them for a total of 48 impulses, including the fade impulses, in any given game. At the end of the 48th impulse, the cloaking devices fail and will no longer function for the remainder of that game. Note that this is done for each individual ship. This applies whether the opposing ships have cloaking devices or not.

GM Comment: The starting points have been moved back to their traditional locations because the Sixth Edition rules now allow P/S/R Plasma torpedoes to be fired on the first turn of the game.



12. TIME LIMIT

There is no time limit in terms of hours played. Instead, each match between players shall last for ten (10) turns or until one player concedes. You don't have to play all ten turns at once. You'll have 28 days to get the game in, and it should be possible to save the game in mid-game. In general, player match ups will be provided by the GM in consultation with the Assistant GM by the 30th of each month and results must reported by players back to the GM and Assistant GM by the 28th of the following month. When a concession is made, the conceding player will be awarded a "loss". The conceding player's opponent will be awarded a "win" if he has scored at least 15 points for every turn that has been fully played. Otherwise, the conceding player's opponent will be awarded a "draw".

GM Comment: Based on feedback, we have increased the turn limit to 10 turns. This is expected to reduce the effectiveness of defensive tactics relying on single use weapons (e.g., suicide shuttles) and help the empires that rely on tactics involving slow attrition. Note that most games should end in a concession before the ten turn limit is reached.



13. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GM AND PLAYERS

The GM shall post deadline and match-up information on the federationcommander.com site. The GM shall also email players with this information. Announcements may also be posted on the starfleetgames Discus forums and/or the ADB, Inc. Facebook page. While the GM shall make every effort to ensure that players are adequately informed, it is the responsibility of the players to make sure they know the deadlines and matchups, and understand the rules. The GM shall post deadline and match-up information on the Federation Commander Forum.



14. EMAILS TO THE GM AND ASSISTANT GM

All emails to the GM and Assistant GM must have the name of the tournament in the subject line (e.g. "FCOL Tournament #3") or else the email wasn't sent. (This is to make it easy for the GM and Assistant GM to find the email(s) later.)

GM: jimdauphinais@aol.com

Assistant GM: gar1138@yahoo.com



15. SIGNUP

Players sign up by sending an email to the GM and Assistant GM by no later than June 24, 2011 indicating the player's real name, username on the Federation Commander forum and the player's choice of empire. Once all the players have signed up for the tournament, the GM and the Assistant GM will as necessary resolve any oversubscription of empires by players. On June 26, 2011 the GM will post on the Federation Commander forum the final list of players and empire selections. Ship Selections will then be due to the GM and Assistant GM by no later than June 28, 2011.



16. PLAY DEADLINES

Once the Players are informed of their match-ups, they must arrange between each other a mutually agreeable time to play the game on FCOL. The Players shall have approximately 28 days to make these arrangements and complete the game. It's up to both players to actively pursue the match; if one player makes a reasonable effort to arrange a game and another does not, the first player is awarded a win. If neither does, both are awarded a loss. "Reasonable effort" is in the judgment of the GM and Assistant GM. All emails between players attempting to arrange a game should be carbon-copied (cc'ed) to the GM and Assistant GM so that the GM and Assistant GM have evidence that players are actively pursuing the match-up. If both players are actively pursuing the match but circumstances beyond the players' control prevent it from happening, the GM and Assistant GM will adjudicate a result. If the GM and Assistant GM do not have a consensus on the adjudication, the game will default to both players earning a draw result.



17. NUMBER OF ROUNDS

The number of rounds will be a function of the number of participants. For example, if there are five to eight participants, it will take three rounds to determine a winner. If there are nine to 16 participants, it will take four rounds to determine a winner.

This will be a Swiss-style tournament. As such, all participants will play in each round and all players will be ranked at the end of the tournament. Points will be awared to players as follows: "Win" 2 points, "Draw" 1 point and "Loss" 0 points. Except for the first round, when a "bye" is necessary due to an odd number of players, it will be awarded as a "draw" to the player with the lowest score at that time. If there is a tie for the lowest score, it will be awarded to the player with the lowest score that has received the lowest number of "byes". If there is still a tie, it will be awarded to one of the tied players by random selection by the GM. If a "bye" is needed for the first round, it will be granted as a "win" to the player in this tournament that ranked highest in the 2nd FC Online Tournament.

If at the end of the tournament there are any players that are tied for points, the final ranking of those players will be resolved by comparing the tie breaker points earned by each. Each player's tie break points will equal to the sum of the all the points earned by all of that player's opponents in the tournament.



18. RULINGS

Federation Commander rules questions will be resolved on the Federation Commander Forum by Mike West when possible. When this is not possible, they will be resolved by consensus of the GM and Assistant GM.

All tournament rules questions will be resolved by consensus of the GM and Assistant GM.

For games involving the GM, the Assistant GM will resolve all tournament rules questions for that game.

For games involving the Assistant GM, the GM will resolve all tournament rules questions for that game.

In the event the GM and Assistant GM face each other in a game, another participant in the tournament will be recruited by the GM and Assistant GM to resolve all tournament questions for that game.



19. MOVEMENT ORDER TIES AND SEEKING WEAPON LAUNCHES

FC Online does not currently support the simultaneous plotting of moves for ships which are tied for movement order on a given Movement Sub-Pulse (2A5).

When two or more ships are tied for movement order on a given Movement Sub-Pulse, use the following method to address it:

Step a. Both players roll a die (reroll on ties).

Step b. The higher roller moves any one of his tied ships.

Step c. Then the other player moves any one of his tied ships.

Step d. The movement of individual tied ships continues back and forth between players (using Steps b. and c.) until all of the tied ships are finished their move for that Movement Sub-Pulse.

This method can also be used when more than one player is launching Seeking Weapons during the same Impulse (4F2a).
_________________
Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/


Last edited by JimDauphinais on Tue Jun 07, 2011 4:58 pm; edited 6 times in total
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storeylf
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Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What are you doing about the draw-loss result that is possible.

Currently that is not as good a result for the person getting the draw as a draw-draw result due to the way the tie-breaker is working.

I'd argue that you should be rewarded for forcing a loss on the other player even if you still only end up with a draw yourself. At the moment as Paul indicated in his game, it is risky even shooting at the other guy unless you are sure you will win, in case you end up with a draw-loss and therefore reduce your tie-break score compared to a draw-draw.

You could:
Remove that result, so there is no draw-loss possible.
Adjust the scoring - 3 for a win 2 for draw-loss, 1 for a draw-draw and 0 for a loss.
Adjust the tie breaker
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The_Rock
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Joined: 16 Jul 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

GM Comment: The starting points have been moved back to their traditional locations because the Sixth Edition rules now allow P/S/R Plasma torpedoes to be fired on the first turn of the game. The Cloaking limit was lowered from 48 impulses because the old rule appears to have been based on SFB impulses which correspond to FC subpulses. The number of resuting impulses was doubled from 12 to 24 to provide a little bit of help to the Romulans.


48 impulses is not based on the SFB impulse chart. In tournament SFB, the cloak limit is 128 impulse (4 full turns). If you are drawing SFB equivalence, at a minimum, cloaking should be allow for 4 turns (32 impulses). I am not sure I see a reason to reduce it at all, since you are already nerfing a weak race.

For disclosure, I am considering the Rom (not likely, but I am considering them), but the decision on this one way or the other won't effect my choice.
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gar1138
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm happy to be the Assistant GM again. I am unsure if I will play or not due to a busy summer schedule (time will tell). Thanks,

Garrett
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Paul -- Thanks for the clarification. I have no problem with changing it back to 48 impulses if nobody else has a serious issue with doing so.
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/


Last edited by JimDauphinais on Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Garrett -- Thanks.
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My intention is to retain the draw-loss possibility from a concession. However, as propsoed above, I am reducing the likelihood of such an outcome by reducing the threshold for a concession "win" to a minimum of 15 points per fully compelted turn.

I need to add language regarding how tie breaker points are calculated. The language will work the same way as int he last tournament. In other words, your tie breaker points are equal to the sum of the final total points accumulated by all of your opponents (regardless of whether you win, lose or draw against them).
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/
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storeylf
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 7:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So in a tight game that goes on for 10 turns and ends in a draw for you it is still bad if you inflicted a 'loss' on the other guy as it reduces your tie-breaker score whilst giving you no extra points?
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ericphillips
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why no Axions for the Frax? They are in the client now.
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pinecone
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why would you want to use Axions when Submarines are not allowed?
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Axions are available for some of the non-sub Frax ships. I will post a poll regarding them.
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The draft rules above have been updated to:

1. Restore the cloaking limit to 48 impulses.

2. Incorporate tie breaker points.

3. Explicitly allow AEGIS.

4. Explicitly disallow Special Sensors.


I will need to wait on the poll results for Axion Torpedoes.


Thanks,

Jim
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/
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ericphillips
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay then, why no Frax subs?
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
So in a tight game that goes on for 10 turns and ends in a draw for you it is still bad if you inflicted a 'loss' on the other guy as it reduces your tie-breaker score whilst giving you no extra points?


You still earn a full regular point for the draw. The loss for your opponent means you earned a draw against a weaker opponent opponent than in the case when you both draw. Therefore, IMO, it is appropriate to earn 1 less tie breaker point for a draw-loss result than for a draw-draw result.
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/
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JimDauphinais
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eric -- Get folks to agree to the Axion torpeodes and I'll consider asking them about Frax subs.
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/
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