The SEASON 3 Web League program improvements are nearly done. I will need to get the other admins to test the code I've written to fix anything I haven't picked up. So Season 3 is not far away, perhaps a few days or so.
The new season will commence with clean data all round, so point taken KV.
Whilst relevant player data (eg contact details etc) will be copied across to the new season,
All vPilots will need to request to be approved for the SEASON by contacting one of the Admins. I will send an email to all players to make sure everyone gets proper notification.
The new season will be based on 3 Stages.
With the format described below, it is possible to have 2,3, or 4 Seasons in a year, with
fixed start and end points.
In Stage 0
Signup. In future, this will overlap the tailend of the previous season.
New Signups will be accepted through to the end of Stage 1, but obviously late arrivals will be at a slight disadvantage during the first Stage.
During Stage 2, vPilots will not be able to join the current season at hand. They will have to wait until the following season. (The only exceptions will occur in order to fill up the lowest division if the number of players allows.)
In Stage 1
All vPilots will start on the same rating (probably 1000), and will endevour to build their rating to
X points. (Though it might turn out that a timelimit could apply instead of a points target.)
It is likely that vPilots will be able to have multiple challenges going at the same time, with a greater degree of flexibility of how many levels above (and below) you can choose from. The rules we have been using for organising matches to date will also apply during Stage 1.
You could describe this stage as a 'RACE'. Once the 1st person crosses the finish line, no new challenges will be permitted, and it is likely that all incomplete challenges will be abandoned (subject to coordination between players and admins) and the ladder will be locked.
At this point, the TOP 3 ranking players (
who are not on leave) will be entered into the Hall of Fame for the RACE for the season at hand, and Stage 2 will commence.
In Stage 2
Based on each vPilot's position on the ladder (regardless of their leave status) at the end of Stage 1, they will be allocated to a division. The top X (probably 10) vPilots will go into Division 1, the next X will go into Division 2, etc.
(Note that even though your rating gets you into Division 1 in the top 3, you will not go into the Hall of Fame if you are on leave when Stage 1 ends.)
Within each Division, a
ROUND ROBIN will take place. The Round Robin will either be 1 match or 2 matches (Home/Away). All matches will need to be completed before a
specified date. Any matches not concluded when the time expires will be VOIDED.
(There is a new screen in the Web League that will tell you what matches you have remaining to complete and against who.)
During this stage, you will not be able to put yourself on leave, since you have such flexibility on organising your matches. But don't assume you are going to fly all your matches on the last weekend!
The scoring for each match is likely to be points based. And the
Best of 3 might turn out the be a
Best of 5 within each ROE.
Points will be allocated for each victory within each ROE, so a result of 2-1, 2-1, 0-2 would effectively be a draw. But for the purpose of rankings, ROE wins will be considered, thus player 1 would rank above player 2 in this example.
At the end of this Stage, the TOP 3 players in EACH division will be entered into the Hall Of Fame in the corresponding division that you fought in, and then everyone will have a virtual beer in the Pilots Lounge.
END OF SEASON
We hope this new format sounds as exciting to you all as it is to the Admin team.
We believe that this format will
1) enable new vPilots to continue to learn from the more experienced ones,
2) give the experienced vPilots a chance to fight it out amoungst their 'equals',
3) enable less proficient vPilots to get their names in lights by winning in their respective divisions (thus perhaps attracting vPilots that are otherwise shy or lacking in confidence to enter the league at present),
4) make the determination of entry into the Hall of Fame less prone to error and avoiding unintended ill feelings.
We are also considering having differing degrees of difficulty of Falcon settings appropriate to the skill of the vPilots in the various divisions
in Stage 2. Thus easing new vPilots into the more stringent rules practiced by the experience vPilots as they learn new combat skills.
Please give us your feedback on the above outline. This is as new to you as it is to the admin group.
Cheers,
Nap
for the hard work 
)
, looking forward to start the new "fiesta" !!!!