New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements

So lets us all take a step back. Now Penguin the first genuine time I interacted with was about some mapping and me poking fun at myself.
@Morax and @FtXCommando my first interactions beyond just person talking on discord with someone else. Was when I approached Morax, about the SCTA mod stuff about a year ago. And Ftx, we talked a few months later when I began doing initial planning for SCTA 2v2 #1. Now both of you were very supportive of my work. Or well lets elaborate:
Morax I came to you, as M&M, about SCTA and Vault. From June to September you supported me where you could, offered advice, and let me show you the mod a few times a month. And you told me no to uploading initially. Now I will come back to that later.

Ftx, when I first came to, you were initially hesitant due a variety of reasons, I was a new member of the community, SCTA among other things being a mod. My initial map pool idea, and more. As well as the first avatars I made as prizes, you told me were garbage.

Now fast forward, one of the last acts Morax you did, as M&M was let me upload the mod. After I had done a significant amount of work on improving the mod, replacing various models within the mod. And despite a certain member of the community, initial association with the SCTA Project and I. You were willing to overlook that and more so still lend your support and helping hand when needed. So the mod that ultimately came to the vault was one that was far cleaner, far less buggy, and in a far better state. Also while two other friends of mine helped me set it up , you were the guy who told me about github. Which has made SCTA project, coding, bugfixing, etc actually reasonable and possible.

Had you not been willing to say no, I would likely finished the mod in June, upload the "balance" version and not looked back. I think anyone who was in the SCTA Alpha can say beyond reasonable doubt that if the mod had been left in that state....would had left alot to be desired.

Ftx, you told me no, because you believed their been lack of signs up (and in fairness the first tournament had only 6 teams. The second one didn't even fire). And you also told my initial choice of avatars, left ALOT to be desired as well my map choices were bad or worse. So we went through, and you helped me choose new maps for the tournament. While folks might taken issue with the format (maps being repeated), the result was varied gameplay but also gameplay that wasn't the standard landspam fun times. And you helped me setup the challonge etc, and told me outright the potential issues or problems. You didn't beat around the bush.

But when I made clear, yes I was interested in doing this, you supported me as described, helped me choose the maps. And 'assigned' Swkoll to help me work through my first TD experience. Had you not done that, what would happened been basically of series of 1v1 ladder maps played in 2v2 or maps I had a personal bias for or against. And then in Rainbow, you took several hours, to work with Fearghal on his AI tournament. Which all things considered could been a mess otherwise from what I know both from helping Fearghal and otherwise.

Both you and Morax, (maybe I am insane, I could be, been long time), were hesitant about allowing MapGen in ladder or 1v1. For competitive play due a variety of reasons and repeatedly said no to random Aeolus asking for it (also Nomads but that a different discussion and I think between Morax and Ftx, only Ftx responded to those). And now we got MapGen? We have a generator with a wide variety of biomes, varied reclaim, and more. So, as councilor, the hardest, even if many say its the easiest, job is the act of saying 'no'.

I use myself as an example because I know that story well enough. As a councilor, can you explain why the act of saying "No", even if sometimes blunt or harshly is needed?

And @Emperor_Penguin , my question for you, is would you say 'No'? Do you understand the power of 'No'?

I’m a shitty 1k Global. Any balance or gameplay suggestions should be understood or taken as such.

Project Head and current Owner/Manager of SCTA Project

@ftxcommando said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

@judahx said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

Emperor penguin understands every aspect of the player community. He is a decent person and is what we need. Heck he's even one of the most major contributors of the map generator which is hugely popular.

Wait till you find out how much effort I've put into helping Sheikah make map gen competitively viable, brother.

Thank you

@dragun101
FTX delaying the availability of map gen on ladder/TMM isn't why it has improved so much. It was being improved a lot regardless.

However, I absolutely do take strong stances on certain things and am not afraid to say "No" when the situation warrants it. For example, when FTX expressed that he wanted to and actively planned to remove Global Rating from FAF and make all normal (non-TMM) games be unrated, I took a strong stance against that, which I still stand by, as I strongly believe that that is not in the best interests of FAF, and that is supported by a myriad of conversations I've had with numerous FAF players. So, as PC, I would strongly oppose removing global rating and would say "No" to removing it.
Frankly, FTX's plan to remove Global Rating would be a major negative for a very large portion of active FAF players, and hiding or removing it would undoubtedly cause countless FAF players to quit FAF entirely. My approach, as outlined in my PC application, is to get more people playing ladder/TMM by making them better for everyone, while keeping Global Rating, but making it easier for new players to get started.
I took a similarly strong stance when Morax wanted to remove the 'most recent' section of the FAF client, which would've catered to the desires of some 'elite' mappers at the expense of the majority of map-makers for FAF. In short, I am not afraid to take strong oppositional stances or say "No." I try to act in the best interests of FAF, period.

pfp credit to gieb

Let's be honest the majority of you guys who are applying for this position have been out of touch with the community for years. A lot of people who have obtained their ranks have done so with the assistance from Clans or friends in high ranks. FTX and MORAX are using Clans and their Connections to get votes

The majority of the FAF player base may not vote for these issues like PC. To be honest they probably don't even know a vote is it going on. I fear this makes the community stuck in stagnation.

If you really care about votes from the entire community, 80% of the news page would mention up-and-coming votes. I Understand changing this will take time.

I feel that the only person who is able to represent all levels of the player base fairly at this time is Emperor penguin. He is not an elitist, he is not stagnant and he isn't self-absorbed like many of the applicants.

This is all my personal opinion, but I believe it to be the truth. I am not quoting a bunch of 2000 Rated players who think they represent the entire community. I truly hope we get the entire Community involved for the voting and not just some microcosm of elitist.

Judahx

@judahx as someone who is mot a 2k rated player (1200) i think ftx is has done alot to make faf fun. For instance just today i spent a while watching the faf live show matches, tomorrow i am playing in a scta tourny that is in his domain, and whenever i look at the discord ftx is contributing. I dont know emperor and i am not against him, i just think it is unfair to say that ftx only caters to 2ks.

This post is deleted!

If anyone is out of touch with the community it is all the people arguing here. This is just a video game, and nobody needs to represent anyone. Normal people just play the game because they want to, and do not want to be involved in all of this stupid drama. Stagnation is actually the goal of FAF. The point is to keep this 14 year old game around so people can keep playing it like they always have.

@thomashiatt said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

If anyone is out of touch with the community it is all the people arguing here. This is just a video game, and nobody needs to represent anyone. Normal people just play the game because they want to, and do not want to be involved in all of this stupid drama. Stagnation is actually the goal of FAF. The point is to keep this 14 year old game around so people can keep playing it like they always have.

And order to keep this 14 year old game around we need to support new players.
We need New blood who understands old a new players. The same PC will only promote stagnation and lack of new ideas. A PC who primarily reaches out to the the high rank player base will not keep this game going.

The player base is getting older. People have kids. WE need outreach. Stagnation will just kill us off slowly. People will get tired spend time with family's. At the end of the day, lack of change will see us playing on the the steam client.

Whoever is left....

Holding on isn't enough..

@emperor_penguin said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

@dragun101
FTX delaying the availability of map gen on ladder/TMM isn't why it has improved so much. It was being improved a lot regardless.

However, I absolutely do take strong stances on certain things and am not afraid to say "No" when the situation warrants it. For example, when FTX expressed that he wanted to and actively planned to remove Global Rating from FAF and make all normal (non-TMM) games be unrated, I took a strong stance against that, which I still stand by, as I strongly believe that that is not in the best interests of FAF, and that is supported by a myriad of conversations I've had with numerous FAF players. So, as PC, I would strongly oppose removing global rating and would say "No" to removing it.
Frankly, FTX's plan to remove Global Rating would be a major negative for a very large portion of active FAF players, and hiding or removing it would undoubtedly cause countless FAF players to quit FAF entirely. My approach, as outlined in my PC application, is to get more people playing ladder/TMM by making them better for everyone, while keeping Global Rating, but making it easier for new players to get started.
I took a similarly strong stance when Morax wanted to remove the 'most recent' section of the FAF client, which would've catered to the desires of some 'elite' mappers at the expense of the majority of map-makers for FAF. In short, I am not afraid to take strong oppositional stances or say "No." I try to act in the best interests of FAF, period.

I’ll make this brief cause adhd powers ACTIVATED. But your missing the point. Ftx making MapGen good or bad personally is irrelevant, its not his job.

His job is curation so only quality, enters the ladder pool or gets hosted as tournaments. Now you can debate that granted.

Or the best quality of FAF is presented for the player experience. The power of no, is not just saying this is idea is bad. It is also “Is at moment in time this (x) is not up to standards desired for the enviroment”.

I’m a shitty 1k Global. Any balance or gameplay suggestions should be understood or taken as such.

Project Head and current Owner/Manager of SCTA Project

@judahx That makes no sense, new things are being added such as TMM, balance patches are going out, live streaming and content is gaining alot of traction. Just because u think things are stagnating does not mean it is. You speak of players having kids but i and a bunch of others i play with are around 16 yo, we are not leaving anytime soon to have kids. I dont understand why u are going through so much trouble to discredit ftx and tbh reading ur posts has made me more inclined to support ftx.

@dragun101 said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

Ftx making MapGen good or bad personally is irrelevant, its not his job.

THAT DON'T STOP ME

I worked with Sheikah, did several review sessions of map gen and talked through each and every generation with him in order for him to get a stronger understanding of what kind of factors need to exist in order for decent gameplay.

I gave him access to ladder team map documents and all the work we have done there in order for him to gather a list of curated maps that can be used as a basis for the map gen.

I explained to him "rules" on mex distribution such as the notion of group "bodies" with loose mex "arms and legs" that promote map control without converting games into pure snowball. As well as general rules on things like reclaim and other gameplay elements.

I worked with him on some of the terrain aspects of map gen, like talking about the purpose of terrain in the middle of the map as well as how to utilize things like hills.

I also think I'm the driving force that pushed for him to develop asymmetric FFA rather than entirely symmetric FFA, because the former leads to a healthier FFA environment in what is fundamentally a game built on scale.

@judahx said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

sucks.png
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We don't need another elitist in power!

This is kind of a bit of a truncated conversation. You want to elaborate a bit more on what the context is?

Judahx bro I realise you want to help your friend penguin get in but don’t self sabotage lmao

@judahx said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

And order to keep this 14 year old game around we need to support new players.

@ThomasHiatt can can singlehandedly play enough ladder to keep the community alive 😉

Thomas is nothing but a gnat on the back of a giant called coca

@biass said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

Judahx bro I realise you want to help your friend penguin get in but don’t self sabotage lmao

Biass bro I realise you want to help your friend ftx get in but don't sabotage lmao

Maybe we should set up a veto poll and stop feeding the troll?

@shape-of-bennis said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

@biass said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

Judahx bro I realise you want to help your friend penguin get in but don’t self sabotage lmao

Biass bro I realise you want to help your friend ftx get in but don't sabotage lmao

lmaoo.
What a dumpster fire, was funny reading through it though. Also a lot of Biass going on that I saw, we should get rid of everyone and start fresh.

It was tough to get a prolonged period to discuss platforms, I doubt we could do anything else to the election as of now.

This one has been typically weak though, I guess that’s what happens when you call a vote “just because”

@aulex said in New Player Councilor Discussion + Removal Announcements:

I’m convinced we should separate PC into two positions. Product manager (basically what FTX is doing now) and an actual PC who tries to create an inclusive environment and focuses on what the players want.

I think this is best done by the newly elected PC, even if it is not official, the new PC can just delegate some responsibilities. @FtXCommando was agreeable to such a suggestion by me for new player interaction.

@Valki said in player councilor election 2021:

[...]
Or what would you think about having 1 or more "deputy councilors" who act as spokepersons between you and new players?

@FtXCommando said in player councilor election 2021:

[...]
Don't mind having people that want to act as "PC delegates" or whatever they would be called. Such a duty carries quite vague responsibilities that would need to be worked out with said interested parties. [...]

I would encourage any PC to delegate things or call upon assistance for areas where they are weaker.

If some of those delegations work out really well the new PC can later suggest to the council to permanently change the PC position responsibilities.