For quite a while now I've had this idea rattling around inside my head but I had to iron some details out first, think I've figured it all out now to actually plan something..
The plan was for a guild competition which would bring our group together besides the odd flashpoints/dailies we do together, would have some enticing prizes and would be unlike anything we've done before.
The best idea I came up with which I could potentially see working inside the game was that of a clan tournament. All the NC talk recently made me think of the "Fight Night" player events we used to have back in the day and so I thought I'd try do something a little similar here. If it would have been possible in TOR some team matches of some sort would have been great but that's not really possible...
Anyhow. Here's the plan.
How it'd work
A 1v1 clan tournament. Each member gets to duel against everyone else who wants to join in. Say we have 6 players turn up. Player 1 will start by dueling player 2,3,4,5 and 6. After each fight we'll mark each players wins and losses down. So if Player 1 wins vs player 2, player 1 will get 1 win added to his tally chart and player 2 will get 1 loss added. We'll go down the line having player 2 then duel player 3,4,5,6 (as he'll have dueled player 1 already) and so on until everyone has fought each other. Once we're done we'll count up each members wins and losses and see who won the most fights. - In the case that we have a draw those 2 people would have one further duel until we have an overall winner. - We could also have 2-3 duels each to lengthen the event instead of just 1 however that would depend on how many people turned up.
The location
My ship. Originally I was going to hold it in the hanger bay outside but Evelynn and I tested this earlier and it's considered a non-dueling area unfortunately. That being said the ship itself serves the same purpose and worked when we tested it on our 2 marauders; a private location where we can hold guild events like this without being interrupted. This area isn't as big of course but we should have plenty of room for what we need. [Note: Both of us had "allow access to same class story areas" enabled in the social preferences so tick that box just to make sure you can enter]. FPS should also be higher inside the ship instance with just us rather than on the fleet or wherever with lots of other folk about.
The rules
-A level 50 character. I say this only for fairness in the duels but if you're say, 40 something for example and wanna participate for fun you still can, or if you're low level and just want to come by and watch please do. See "The Date" below too.
-Any class you like, so bring your main, alt, whatever. In an ideal world we'd have same class or more equal pairings and same for gear but something like this would be much harder to organise plus you're not always on equal footing when going 1on1 in a warzone either.
-All cooldown abilities and relic powers are allowed and if needed we can wait for cd's to end before each duel.
-Stims & Adrehnals are allowed if you are a biochemist as you'd be popping these in a warzone too and other crew skills also benefit from stat boosting items such as the rakata relics from Artifice.
-No medpacs. In a warzone the players without the biochem reusables would normally use the warzone medpacs but since these do not work outside of them and so everyone doesn't have to go out buying vendor/crafted medpacs we won't use them for this.
-Since I am the one providing the rewards for this event in the case that I came out as the overall winner the the runner up would become the receiver of the winners reward and so on..
-I ask that the rewards given are not to be sold for personal gain. I bought these especially for a guild event with my own money and used my free time to acquire the rest. Some of which I obtained many, many weeks before I'd even announced this. A lot of time, money and effort has gone in to organizing all of this as I'm sure you can all appreciate.
-If you have no need for the ingame prizes you receive and you'd like to do a swap or whatever with another winning participant you may do so.
-Digital game prizes (The Witcher, Lone Survivor, Company of Heroes) will all be redeemable on Steam and as such a Steam account is required for these.
*Not a rule as such but just a note: This event is all in the name of fun. Whilst a lot of the participants will receive different levels of prizes this is in no way a serious test of skill. Some here have far more expertise in pvp than others, some not at all and the same goes for gear. This is just a fun and different way of getting together as a guild and an ideal setting for me to be able to hand out some cool prizes.
The date
Saturday 19th May at 8:30pm BST
I'm arranging this for next month rather than asap for several reasons. It gives everyone something to look forward to, gives us all (hopefully) enough notice in advance to make it there, gives everyone some time to continue working on their gear if they want plus it gives those who have a character approaching 50 a little more time to catch up. Not only that but it will increase the value of certain prizes.
and finally...
The Rewards
First Place
The winner of our tournament will receive:
1. A [Korrealis Commander] landspeeder for use on the character of your choice.
Originally this vehicle was only available from the VIP lounge for the price of 1.5m and for a very limited time (between 1.1.5 and 1.2) it was sold from the fleets speeder vendor in a clearance sale. In patch 1.2 this vehicle along with the rest of the Korrealis line of landspeeders were discontinued and are no longer sold at vendors. Needless to say unless BioWare decides to reintroduce these in the future at some point the only way to obtain one of these was if you'd bought one before they were removed or from someone else who did. Making this reward quite special indeed imo!
and
2. A digital copy of The Witcher (Enhanced Director's Cut Edition) [Redeemable on Steam]
A truly magnificent RPG from the great CD Projekt. A must for any RPG fan.
Second Place
The runner up will receive:
1. 2x [Advanced Black-Green Hawkeye Crystal]
These colour crystals were only available during the Rakghoul event on Tatooine between April 15th-24th for 83 DNA samples each. The two I have available give +41 power which are identical in stats to what both Battlemaster & Rakata gear come installed with except these have a cool unique green glow with a black core. Unfortunately I can't let you choose between the end, crit or exp variations which were also available as I didn't have unlimited Rakghoul DNA to buy them with neither could I forsee who might turn up or win. However these are very nice indeed and should be useful for all classes!
If you don't require both of these (like a dual-wielding marauder) you can either give the other to an alt of yours, companion or to one of our other participants. Up to you!
and
2. A digital copy of Lone Survivor [Redeemable on Steam]
Released on steam just a few weeks ago this is a beautifully crafted indie title developed by one man, Jasper Byrne. He even did the soundtrack to it as well which is fantastic.
"The masked protagonist must escape from a city ravaged by disease, by any means necessary. Starving and exhausted, he has begun to question how much of what he sees is even real."
Don't underestimate it for this is true oldschool psychological horror at its best. A phenomenal little game. - Read a review here.
Third Place
The member coming in third place will receive:
1. Either 2x [Advanced Red Hawkeye Crystal], 2x [Advanced Blue Hawkeye Crystal] or one of each.
These crystals have exactly the same stats as the Rakghoul Plague crystals above (and Rakata/Battlemaster gear) except they are your standard red/blue and have been crafted by my Artificer. Still pretty sweet!
and
2. A digital copy of Company of Heroes [Redeemable on Steam]
Released in 2006, Company of Heroes remains one of the greatest real-time strategy games ever created and deserves a place in every PC gamers collection.
Much to our delight Relic have just announced CoH2 for a 2013 release. weeee
Fourth & Fifth Place
The members coming in fourth & fifth place will both receive 1x [Unusual Egg] and 1x [Custom-built Lightsaber [Augmented]]
These eggs were introduced in 1.2 and can be taken to an area on Tatooine where they'll hatch into the Orokeet pet pictured above. The eggs themselves aren't super rare or anything but they do only spawn once every 3-4hrs and it's quite common for them to be farmed. Cos of this they can be a real pain to get hold of atm unless you happen to be around when one spawns or you buy one from someone selling.
Also up for grabs is a lvl 20 custom lightsaber straight from my marauder's workshop, complete with a lovely augment slot. For anyone unfamiliar with the changes post 1.2: Crafted custom (orange) gear can now be crit-crafted so if you're lucky you'll not only get a custom piece of gear which can be upgraded throughout the game but it'll come with an extra mod slot for an augment. So, stick your level 50 mods in it from your current saber, grab a [Advanced Might Augment 22] or similar and you've got the same lvl 50 weapon as you had before but with even more stats!. Also just to clarify, the yellow crystal it comes installed with can also be removed for anyone wondering. Put whatever you want in there!
So yeah, that's the idea.
I've never ran a competition before in a game so I've tried to think this out as best I could. If you see any issues somewhere or if you think any rules need changing/adding or whatever too please point em out.
Otherwise I shall look forward to hearing everyones thoughts and hopefully we'll have a good enough turnout on the day to make the effort worth it!
One last thing. If any of you who intend on turning up happens to be skilled with video editing and fancies recording/editing a vid of this that'd be really fantastic assuming all goes well.
