Petition to create a Fire Emblem Battles Subforum

[Elieson]

Set under General Fire Emblem, much like debates and drafting.

Several of us (Espinosa, BBM, etc) have discussed this and find our single thread far too cluttered for all that is going on, plus activity is certainly rising recently.

[Randa]

I'll put my name to this. I think it would help a lot.

[Espinosa]

According to the poll in the thread where all of FE Link Arena activities are currently located, 11 users out of 13 voted (84%) think it would be convenient to hold FE Arena matches in its own subsection of the forum, though, granted, the voters in that thread happen to be the users who actively play, host and/or watch the matches going on.

There has been a great expansion of the FE Link Arena activity with metagames for FE8, FE5 and TRS added (we started out with PoR) and the inclusion of arena databases and metagames for many of the other titles is inevitable at this point, and one single thread makes it highly difficult to maintain coherent organisation, as the interest is rising and many games are being hosted simultaneously.

If such a subforum is created, a subsection in the General FE forum seems appropriate, as the metagames aren't just fan fiction - they are quite accurately based upon the real mechanics of the FE titles simulated, units' averages and maximum stats, skill activation peculiarities and the like. It appears that this subsection would go well with the subsections for drafts and debates (latter seemingly dead at this point).

[charlie_]

I agree.

[Hawkeye]

I agree. Within a month it would probably have more threads/replies than the debate subforum

[Integrity]

I say you guys should just storm the draft forum. It's been pretty dead lately, and I'd be happy to repurpose it for a hybrid use like that.

EDIT:

I agree. Within a month it would probably have more threads/replies than the debate subforum

That's sort of a silly distinction to make, given as the debates forum is structured around having fewer, longer posts where this or drafts are structured around having lots of shallow posts, no?

Edited January 12, 2014 by Integrity

[ZemZem]

Sub forum would be nice, but I also like Integ's idea.

[Baldrick]

It's been expanded beyond PoR? Neat.

[King Marth]

Definitely worthy of its own sub forum imo.

Also I don't want the Drafting sub forum to die :'[

[Ema Skye]

I think the best way to start would be to have a main discussion thread, and a battles thread for each link arena game (FE5, FE8 and FE9, currently). Then if things become to hectic, I would support the idea of an Arena subforum.

[Espinosa]

I'm interested to hear what drafters think about the Link Arena being merged with the draft subforum (IMHO, different sections for each = less confusion).

Thinking about drafts and Link Arena, there's one syncretic theme that could be implemented here: 2-4 players take turns picking out characters with average stats and then fight each other with these teams. So you could have Ike and Sothe in the same team for example.

[Quintessence]

What I think of mixing Arena with Drafts is that probably it'll promote confusion and disorder. At the moment of Link Arena growing and including the rest of FEs, people will become interested enough to create a truckload of Matches Threads just as when people create 3 and 4 Drafts consecutively.

Imo, Link Arena should be in its own section, not in drafts, because I fear chaos and disaster hapenning when drafters wake up and begin high activity along with the incoming challenge Threads.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Quintessence

[Integrity]

Also I don't want the Drafting sub forum to die :'[

It's already dead, dog.

[Baldrick]

Drafting as it exists currently is on its deathbed because the playthroughs are time-consuming and standard and dull unless somebody has a funny log.

(tl;dr what integrity said)

I propose a hybrid Link Arena/Draft game. What's the worst that could happen?

[Tangerine]

So why can't you just make the threads in Forum Games if you desperately need a separate thread for each battle or game or whatever it'd be for?

Drafts were basically taking over the FE sections when I decided to create a subforum and organize them with tags.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Tangerine

[Chiki]

A couple threads don't mean a new subforum is necessary. That's not "taking over the FE sections" as Tangerine puts it.

[Elieson]

So why can't you just make the threads in Forum Games if you desperately need a separate thread for each battle or game or whatever it'd be for?

Drafts were basically taking over the FE sections when I decided to create a subforum and organize them with tags.

Because as a spectator, and especially a host, it'd be an immense help to not have potentialy 50 posts (discussion or other battles) between battle turns, depending on host availability. It's complicated enough coming up with an efficient method to churn out battle posts in a timely manner.

Cluttering up forum games with Fire Emblem based games seems like a poor idea, since it's not just any old "HnH" or "Last to post". This is a Fire Emblem forum I mean.

I can see hybrid Draft Arena working, but not throwing this into forum games.

[Espinosa]

So why can't you just make the threads in Forum Games if you desperately need a separate thread for each battle or game or whatever it'd be for?

Drafts were basically taking over the FE sections when I decided to create a subforum and organize them with tags.

We haven't considered that. Up to now we've kept all the arena discussions and battling to the same topic, which has grown huge in just a couple months of its existence. As it is getting impossible to maintain the Link Arena activities with the expansion of the metagames and skyrocketing of interest, the idea of a separate section arose and was almost unanimously accepted by the participants and viewers who follow the arena (in the poll linked to in the third post of this topic, an overwhelming majority of posters, 16 out of 18, feels that the link arena should be represented by its own forum where the users can enjoy battles and plan out changes in an organised manner).

The idea for a specific subforum isn't related to feeling that we take up so much space on the forums with our topics (so far we have just one topic which makes it hard) that we're a burden to everyone else and thus need to be hidden away somewhere, but that there's a growing number of us who cannot realise the immediate and longterm goals and this topic is the aforementioned group of users expressing the need to have their own subsection.

I don't think complete invasion should be a prerequisite to have a new forum subsection, and it seems that this hasn't necessarily been the case up to now. The interest in the game TearRingSaga has always been very low, for example, and yet a subsection exists in the General FE forum, which probably has something to do with promoting the game's translation but also with logical organisation of things (it is neither an NES or a SNES game, so it doesn't fit in the section where it used to be).

Putting the topics into the Forum Games section is, firstly, inconvenient for Link Arena battlers, as the activity within that forum greatly exceeds that of the LA and would make finding and watching games complicated. Second, the Forum Games section is largely an off-topic/spam section a lot of the time, while the LA is based precisely on the working and mechanics of FE games (and TearRing Saga). I should think taking the arena activities to the Forum Games section would not solve our problems.

[Baldrick]

Would it be an idea to make a test run for a Draft Arena game? Make it some kind of tournament to give it a competitive aspect.

[Espinosa]

Would it be an idea to make a test run for a Draft Arena game? Make it some kind of tournament to give it a competitive aspect.

Some sort of elimination cup is inevitable at some point, but only once we've figured out what sort of metagames and rules would be ideal for such an event. The draft arena idea could be piloted with a game or two for the time being. There's a whole lot of room for experimentation and testing still at this point.

[Baldrick]

It should still factor in a lot of players somehow, since every unit (or all except 1 or 2) should be used. The game would be one with a relatively small cast, like SS.

[Espinosa]

It should still factor in a lot of players somehow, since every unit (or all except 1 or 2) should be used. The game would be one with a relatively small cast, like SS.

Hawkeye and I did divide the PoR average stats/no custom skill/no boosters metagame into tiers from Top to Low. So far we've only managed to play one game in the High tier. The existence of tiers does make the usage of less than viable characters possible, as does the draft arena idea and, to a lesser extent, maximum stats metagames with infinite stat boosters (FE6 and FE8 make it possible I think).

[Baldrick]

Well, if there would be enough interest (6 players or so) in a Draft Arena game I could mod it. I wouldn't be playing since I don't know the metagame strategies or anything. Something to rekindle my interest in drafting

[Elieson]

Would it be an idea to make a test run for a Draft Arena game? Make it some kind of tournament to give it a competitive aspect.

We are figuring out efficient ways to run games (right now there are four hosts, each with different levels of expertise and posting ability), as well as balancing mechanics to run such games. For sure, tournaments will exist in the future, but we're prioritizing ways to hold battles (via stat metas), ways to balance battles (and determine bannable units, proper laguz incorporation, and certain skill functionality) and run battles (it's a time consuming process to roll out BTPs (Battle Turn Posts, I'm ©opyrighting that).

[Jedi]

These have been fun to read I agree with them getting a section to themselves of sorts.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Jedi Fon Fabre