New Ranked FA Ladder (3603 Changes) and Cash Tournaments

New Forged Alliance Ranked Ladder and Cash Tournaments
Ranked Ladder
Members of the Forged Alliance Community are attempting to revitalize the game by developing a new ranked ladder that will use 3603 patch mod and all custom maps. With the help of programing guru Moritz, all games will be launched directly through GPGNet and reported to http://www.fa-ladder.com with an ELO rating system identical to the one currently used in GPGNet. This ladder will be the foundation for a cash tournament to be held every three months.
Cash Tournament
The tournament will take the top 16 players in the ladder and seed them 1 through 16 accordingly. In the event someone is unable to participate in the final tourney, everyone will slide down a seed to replace the missing person. The tournament will be setup in a bracket format with the 16th seed playing the 1 seed, 15th playing the 2nd, etc. Each match will feature the best of three games, except for the Finals and Semi-Finals, which will be best of five. The lower seed (Higher ranked player) will pick the first map, while the following maps will be selected by the loser of the previous game. This results in the higher ranked person getting to pick an extra map, and is part of the incentive to compete on the ranked ladder. Each Tournament will have a Cash prize of 200 Euros, 150 for 1st place and 50 for 2nd.
First Tournament and Ladder
Our first ladder will be up and running this week and will feature sixteen custom maps. In order to take part you will need to go to http://www.fa-ladder.com and download the fa-ladder program and the fa-ladder map pack. Install the program and unzip the maps in the "My Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\Maps" folder. Make sure to overwrite any existing maps you have to make sure the correct version is being used.
This fa-ladder program includes all the changes from the 3603 patch mod, as well as a no score mod. After that it is as simple as hosting a custom game and selecting "yes" on the ladder game option. The program will take care of automatically selecting the appropriate settings. It will also make sure both players have all maps installed, and will randomly select one to be played after the game launches. You will see the fa-ladder icon in place of the map if everything is working correctly.
Important: The winner of the match must zip the replay (Right click on the replay file and select sent to....compressed "Zip" file), then upload the zipped replay to http://www.fa-ladder.com . The website will take care of the rest. There is no sign up needed, just upload your first replay and you will recieve your first ladder rating.
We reserve the right to ban any members that are caught cheating or attempting to manipulate the ladder. We will find you....
Also, because the ladder will decide the 16 person tournament, please refrain from using any smurfs.
Maps:
Sulphur mounds
Cluster Freak
Two Peaks
Moonlight
Coast to Coast
Desert Joust
Dusty Grounds v1
Corsica Duel
Sleipnir
Niflheim
Open Waters V2
Loki
Last Oasis
Johns Pass
Zorg Rampage
Resevoir
Community - Long Term Goals
At the end of the Tournament we will reset the ladder and start the entire process over. During this period, the maps will rotate as well as any changes to game play or balance. Our goal is to have the community develop new maps, balance tweaks, and mods so we can maintain and patch the game for competitive ranked play. This will keep things new and interesting for each 3 month season.
We have already put in enough money that will allow us to host the site and tournaments for a year ( 4 Tournaments ). We hope that everyone will get involved and spread the word. We are open to any ideas or suggestions that we can try to implement in the future, so let your voice be heard.
Right now we would like some volunteers to do live casts / announcing of the ladder games next weekend to help us kick off the new ladder.
We also need some avatars / awards made so we can use them as rewards for members that excel. We are working on a general FA-Ladder avatar that members can put up in GPGNet to signal they are looking for a ladder match. It will make it easier to find opponents this way. Anyone that is interested should take a crack at designing this avatar, or any of the special reward avatars (along with an idea on when they should be given out)
We will also need plenty of help running the tournament when the time comes, so let us know if you would like to be involved when the time comes.
We know that not everyone will be happy with all the changes in the patch , map selection, or all of the ideas we are currently implementing...but it is only the start!
We will listen to the community and make changes accordingly. The good news is that we don't have the restrictions of a giant company that is bound by QA issues. We will be able to make changes quickly and keep FA alive and active. We hope you all join in!
Please post or e-mail us at Proyjr@gmail.com and Rock@tagods.com if you want to help out with any of the volunteer positions I mentioned, or have something else you want to contribute.
TAG_ROCK
CrazedChariot|||YES!!|||Crayfish|||janez|||_Remmy_|||GREAT IDEA!! this may help gpgnet get kicked back into action!, u have EZE full support |||You still get to choose your opponent?
For example, only playing against ppl of certain rank and refusing to play someone you think you will lose against?|||When players submit their replays, will you be keeping them on the server, or just analysing them and discarding?
It would be cool if there was an integrated system to browse and download the replays to watch, for both the tourneys and the ladder.
(it would be even cooler if the tournament replays were nicely organised on a page, so you can click on a bracket/match and get the replay.)
Anyways, nice work guys.|||Replays will be stored on website and available to download.
I like the idea about the tournament page. We will build something like that, and also feature live replay links and casts.
As far as knowing your opponent and / or refusing to play certain people. We might try to add an automatch function in the future if it is not too complicated. If it becomes a problem right away, we could implement some sort of challange system where you get penalized for refusing to play someone within a certain rank of yourself. We are open to idea on how this could work.|||I'm currently in talks with hath, a skilled coder-guy, who had something already kind-of in place on how that could work.
Edit: Surely a player-track like program could automatically record games and upload it to the server. Hell, even playertrack might do it if you ask the guy who made it nicely.|||the page doesnt work....|||The site is still being built we hope it will be up Wednesday|||Page wont work till its finished, its very near completion.
We want to launch this coming week.|||@ AdmiralZeech
There will be a replay database with individual comments.
You can search database or just click any player on the ranked list to show their info and replays. In-game chat can also be viewed online.
Each ladder player will also have full statistics of their play together with charts, etc.|||This is truly awesome. Not as good as a true official patch, but the best we can get.
Just to get this straight, the FA-ladder program will install the 3603 patch mod and the no-score mod for you, right? And the ladder is open to anyone with the program installed? There is a special custom game list identifier to let people see if the game is a 3603 ranked?
On the part saying that this is only the start, does this imply that the game balance and map rotations will be constantly changed, perhaps every season? That would be very good.
Great job on (hopefully) revitalizing the FA community! It looks like a good start.|||X-Cubed|||X-Cubed|||Nice, hopefully you will have a way to autoreport games soon.
Shouldnt be hard to use Playertrack or a similar system for that :)
Just a little Tool, which uploads the Replay.|||Yes we will look into this after the launch.|||Yes, the autoreport would be good, it´s time consuming to always upload the replay...
And i think the maps are way too big, but that is only my opinion.|||7 Maps 5x5 or less
7 Maps 10x10
1 Map 20 x 10
1 Map 20 x 20
You can already get the mappack from http://www.tagods.com/downloads/FA-LadderMaps.zip|||Rock 2nd mirror here ~ Map pack and ladder mod can be found here
Just install the mod into your gamedata eg. "\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance\gamedata"|||/signed|||just played "cluster freak" map 1v1...
did you guys try it? its so fuckin weird! no navy, bugged corner islands where t2 transport cant drop normally...
i dont want this map be in the ladder, please... |||@ Raging Squirrel
Yes we've tested the map. T1 transports can land anywhere on the small islands. T2 transports can land on hydros and on centre of islands.
For diversity we added an AIR map which the main focus is the battle for expansion. Its a copy of the Legendary TA map, and I cant wait to see what people come up with as regard to the playing of this.
If we get many complaints I guess we can do something about it, but for now, play some games on it, I am sure we will get awesome replays.