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       #Post#: 9191--------------------------------------------------
       Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: frankencow
       Date: August 17, 2016, 4:41 pm
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       It is pretty slow on the forums right now while everybody waits
       for A15 to drop.  So I thought that maybe it might be a good
       time to float this idea out there to see who is interested in it
       or has any take on it.
       Although it is unlikely to ever be a built-in part of the game,
       I think it would add a fun element to GZ 7DTD if we had some
       kind of ladder based play on specific tournaments or matches.
       Here are some thoughts I've had along those lines (in no
       particular order):
       --These tournaments wouldn't take the place the primary GZ 7DTD
       server.  That would always be up and running as the 'normal' GZ
       world.  But a second server could be used for specified
       match/tournament seeds that only last a set amount of time.
       People could participate in tournament play but always go back
       to the primary world when their participation in the tournament
       ends.  Presumably everyone who was going to join a tournament
       seed would start roughly around the same time, so it wouldn't be
       like joining a scored server 400 days behind everyone else.
       --A tournament seed would have a set start/end length of time
       (counted in game days, or probably better, RL days).
       --The tournaments/ladder system would have to be tracked/scored
       by someone based upon whatever criteria GZ feels is best (the
       in-game score by itself may or may not be meaningful enough for
       ladders).  Personally I would be up for single-life, hardcore
       tournaments that score based on some metric accounting for
       Zombie kills, player kills, player level, and days survived in
       that single life.  But that is just my preference.  Other
       approaches might work better.
       --Obviously there would be some administrative overhead to
       setting up events, scoring them based on predefined criteria,
       and ladder tracking them on the forum.  As a community we would
       possibly need to help our Admins with some of that overhead to
       make this work.
       --It is possible that some different rules might need to apply
       to tournament seeds as compared to the primary GZ world.  And
       very likely those rules would get tweaked over time as we figure
       out what makes for the best way of scoring for the ladder.
       --To my knowledge there are no other 7DTD servers or gaming
       clubs that offer any type of event/tournament style play or any
       ladder systems.  Possibly this is could be yet another way to
       set GZ apart from the others?
       Any other thoughts?  Good idea?  Terrible idea?
       #Post#: 9192--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: Patchup
       Date: August 17, 2016, 7:17 pm
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       I don't normally do pvp but I am posting to show support for
       creative ideas, for the server.
       Each tournament would have to be long enough to show true
       advancement beyond just getting lucky with finding good loot
       early. Yet short enough to allow a frequency that keeps it fresh
       and diverse.
       #Post#: 9193--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: Madman
       Date: August 18, 2016, 10:11 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I love hearing new and fresh ideas to help keep interest in
       gameplay and to set ourselves apart from others. Provided that I
       get a little more consistent financial assistance through
       donations, my intention at this time is to permanently have two
       servers running. The original random gen server and the
       Navezgane server.
       Given all of the work the the fun pimps continue to do to the
       Navezgane server (Expanded POI's, traders, terrain sculpting,
       etc.) and the fact the the map size is constrained to be less
       demanding on the server this will probably be the best fit for
       those type of events. We will have to wait and see what changes
       to the dynamic of gameplay will come about as a result of the
       update before we implement anything though. I really do like the
       direction of these ideas and I think it might encourage me to be
       more involved as well. We shall see. Keep the ideas coming! :D
       #Post#: 9194--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: MidnightStranger
       Date: August 19, 2016, 7:34 am
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       Events also may work better on NAV server because having a
       reward of resources or certain items, is a more desired reward.
       Whereas the random gen server, that same reward could be less
       sought after because everything is more abundant on that map.
       #Post#: 9195--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: frankencow
       Date: August 19, 2016, 8:14 am
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       Question for Madman or h0tr0d,
       Do you have options on the server side for easily kicking out a
       spreadsheet of players and their stats?
       Presumably if we were going to ladder track this stuff one day
       (and if anyone else in the community would be able to help with
       those tasks) then we'd want there to be a way to dump out all
       the stats for a given event to a spreadsheet.  That way the
       various stats could be processed via formula to generate the
       Ground Zero score (as opposed to the regular in-game score).
       But much of that depends on what your server tools abilities
       look like regarding such an export.
       #Post#: 9196--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: Madman
       Date: August 19, 2016, 9:41 am
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       --- Quote from: frankencow link ---
       >
       > Question for Madman or h0tr0d,
       > Do you have options on the server side for easily kicking out
       a spreadsheet of players and their stats?
       > Presumably if we were going to ladder track this stuff one day
       (and if anyone else in the community would be able to help with
       those tasks) then we'd want there to be a way to dump out all
       the stats for a given event to a spreadsheet.  That way the
       various stats could be processed via formula to generate the
       Ground Zero score (as opposed to the regular in-game score).
       >
       > But much of that depends on what your server tools abilities
       look like regarding such an export.
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       I'm not aware of any EASY way to do that. Last I checked, all
       player data is stored individually in a separate file for each
       player as opposed to a singular master file. I'll have to look
       into it further. I would imagine there has to be some way to
       compile that info. I don't want to add anything more to HR's
       plate unless he wants it.
       I know I can see each player's stats through the server manager.
       Maybe there is a way to export it from there. I am only using
       the free version for the Navezgane server currently so I have
       limited tools at my disposal. I am trying to avoid more monetary
       costs until donations become regular again. Sadly, I can't
       afford to take on more on my own at the present time. I am
       having surgery on Wednesday which is costing me a small fortune.
       I am saving for my trip to Germany in December to visit my
       daughter and I'm still paying down debt to rebuild my credit all
       at the same time. It's crunch time and everyone has their hand
       out these days. LOL
       #Post#: 9197--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: frankencow
       Date: August 19, 2016, 1:15 pm
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       I've been trolling a lot of the modding forums this morning and
       there isn't a lot out there right now for decent player stat
       tools.  I did find one, however, that has some nice promise.  It
       will allow you to open a .ttp file and view the stats it
       contains--levels, points, skills, kills, etc.
       Right now it doesn't have a human-readable way to export what it
       unpacks into something like a delimited text file.  So I asked
       the guy who wrote it how hard it would be to add an export
       function and all perhaps a 'parse all' function.  The idea there
       would be that it would allow us to host a match and then when
       the match was over we could parse all of the .ttp files for
       export into a spreadsheet.  After that it is easy to distill
       that down into a weighted Ground Zero score based on our own
       criteria.
       It looks like this guy did his program in C# and also included
       his source code, so if he doesn't respond or is unable to add
       features like this perhaps I'll grab up his code and have a go
       at adding those features myself.  Most of the hard parts are
       already complete.
       If we get that working, then after a given event all you would
       need to do is save out all the .ttp files somewhere and then one
       of us can grab them for processing after the fact.  The server
       could be wiped at that point for whatever the next 'thing' is,
       but we'd still have the .ttp files for scoring of that event.
       We'll see...
       #Post#: 9250--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: frankencow
       Date: September 1, 2016, 6:20 pm
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       If we ever get organized enough for something like this it would
       also be fun to have targeted survival events. That is, an
       all-desert map, or an all-snow biome.
       #Post#: 9258--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: MrReaperz
       Date: September 2, 2016, 8:33 pm
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       It would be a neat idea. I know when I reach a certain point in
       the game of having alot of stuff and a (relatively) safe base
       and everything i could want, i get bored and want to try
       something.
       While the survival thing might be a bit much, considering people
       could live up to 200 days without dying, i'm thinking more short
       term, skill based things like bow accuracy (despite
       bow/crossbows not being accurate) first to a certain lvl, or
       just a full blown deathmatch arena.
       #Post#: 9262--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Ground Zero Ladder/Match Play
   DIR By: frankencow
       Date: September 3, 2016, 11:41 am
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       @MrReaperz
       Agreed.  The primary GZ seed is fun to play on, but being able
       to divert from it for an 'event' would be very cool.
       Re: survival.  You might be surprised.  In my experience
       whenever we start a new seed, folks aren't going 200 game days
       without a death.  It is hard to equate game-days-played to Z
       kills, but whenever I look at player scores not many people get
       higher than a couple hundred kills and still have zero deaths.
       Re: short term stuff.  Those are good ideas.  Something like
       "first to X skill level" would be technically doable.  We'd just
       have to figure out the logistics of the fact that right now you
       have dumb things like leveling up bows by shooting trees with
       them.
       Bow accuracy competition is intriguing, but could only be done
       as a live event since right now the game doesn't track those
       stats for a player.  So we'd have to setup an actual "archery
       tournament" that players came to and participated in at the same
       time.  Tricky, but intriguing for sure.
       CMonster formerly setup something like that.  It was like a
       Gladiator arena.  Neat idea.  I'm not sure how many people used
       it.  Obviously that also requires all participants to be playing
       at the exact same time, which is tricky for this type of game.
       While we're waiting for A15 to drop I want to see what other
       stats are hiding in the ttp files.  Perhaps 'arrows fired' is in
       there but we just don't see it in the player screen.
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