Tournaments and Nemelex choice

[Sandman25]

Nemelex choice characters, even though I should be going for them more, the bonus points are really high (perhaps too high imho)

My opinion is that Nemelex choice characters are very fun but I will never try to win one because I am a slow player and am extremely unlikely to be among first 5 players. 6th winner gets no points so we have a weird picture:
fast players go for Nemelex 75 points, slow players try to streak characters to get streak points, sometimes with the same characters in every tournament.
I think it can be fixed by giving a smaller award (25 points?) to every winner of Nemelex choice combo after the first 5 winners. It will make every tournament special.
What do you think?

[WalkerBoh]

I also don't play many Nem choice combos because I don't like the stress of having to play fast in real-time. I'd prefer if it was changed to be similar to the race/class/god points and used the game start time rather than end time to determine if you get the points. So if you start your game before 5 have been won, you get the points. Maybe it'd be appropriate to lower the number from 5 to 3 or less if this change was made.

On a similar note, I'd like to see some of the Tier III banners be worth more points. I would love to go for more of them, but often choose to go for what's worth actual points instead. Raising some (Heretic, Lord of Darkness, orbrun Tomb) to the same points as a Nem choice would be appropriate I think.

[Bloax]

It would also be nice if turncount/realtime speedruns were more attractive, because there was literally no competition on those two fronts this tournament simply because doing race/background/god scores is much less frustrating, more reliable and even more rewarding. (And unless you get bored of the game very quickly, also much less likely to burn you out.)

[Sandman25]

I'd prefer if it was changed to be similar to the race/class/god points and used the game start time rather than end time to determine if you get the points.

I think that would not be optimal, there is no way to see all current games and it can be frustrating if you started a game in 1 minute after Nemelex combo announcement but already were 6th player.
Probably amount of points should depend on number of tries it took a player to win (100 points for winning in the first attempt, 75 points if first character died but second character won etc.). Somewhat similar to Sudden Death Challenge, better players would get more points without necessity to play fast in real time.

[WalkerBoh]

I'd prefer if it was changed to be similar to the race/class/god points and used the game start time rather than end time to determine if you get the points.

I think that would not be optimal, there is no way to see all current games and it can be frustrating if you started a game in 1 minute after Nemelex combo announcement but already were 6th player.

You misunderstood. I mean if you start your game before the 5th game is WON, you get the points. Not before the 5th game is started, that doesn't even make sense if you think about it.

[Sandman25]

You misunderstood. I mean if you start your game before the 5th game is WON, you get the points. Not before the 5th game is started, that doesn't even make sense if you think about it.

It would still be suboptimal IMHO. Some guys win games in 2 hours and if an easy combo is announced while I am sleeping (time difference etc.) and there are 5 such players it means I have no chance to win the combo.

[mopl]

I'm also a slow player (rarely win before 7-8h), but I don't think it's a problem when going for Nemelex choice.

Some combos stay open for several days. Moreover, you can see current games, and can know if you're going to be in the 5 first or not. If not, just go for 15 runes and the the highscore for this combo...

[Sandman25]

Some combos stay open for several days. Moreover, you can see current games, and can know if you're going to be in the 5 first or not.

I have no way to know in advance if it will stay open for several days. Unfortunately I cannot win a game during a single day (12 hours session is too much for me, plain impossible during working days and not a good idea even during weekend).

[WalkerBoh]

It would still be suboptimal IMHO. Some guys win games in 2 hours and if an easy combo is announced while I am sleeping (time difference etc.) and there are 5 such players it means I have no chance to win the combo.

I don't see why this is an issue. To me, the negative currently is that you are forced to try to quickly win games in order to get the points. With my proposed change, you know when you start the game that the points are guaranteed if you win. So no need to play fast real time.

[wheals]

For whatever it's worth, elliptic is probably planning to increase the number of wins per nemelex choice that you get points for to 7, from 5, in the next tournament.

He also said that the point is not as much to encourage playing really quickly and getting things done fast, but rather to encourage people to try new nemelex choices instead of hanging around the easy ones like VSGl the whole tourney. So probably allowing points if you started before it got filled up might work. For the race/job/god points, i like that you get the points based on the start, since then you know how many points you'll get if you win, and also, it gives good players a chance to just have fun and win some easy combos at the start, since winning harder/less popular ones won't give more points yet.

[Jeremiah]

FWIW, as someone who plays very slowly and is unlikely to get more than 1-2 wins during a tournament, I have often started species/backgrounds that I have guessed will be unpopular, right at the beginning of the tournament, with the hope that if I do go on to win, by that time it will be worth a lot of points because the scoring will have changed to give those species and backgrounds a good number of points.

This kind of worked in the last tournament - my first win was with a TeVM, and I got a good score for Te, not so much for VM.

If the potential scores are set at the beginning of the game, there would be less incentive to play the more obscure/interesting classes and I would probably just have played MiBe or GrFi like everyone else.

[wheals]

they are...

[WalkerBoh]

Yeah, I think if the point is to encourage people to try the nem combos, increasing the number of wins doesn't do nearly as much as changing it to be based on start time.