In addition to the Global League (which we discussed recently), there have been a lot of other interesting things going on around the site. Since we've been a bit lax in staying updated, let's take a minute to talk about some of the new developments on AWBW over the last 2 months.
1. Colosseum Season 6 - http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14038
The Colosseum is the second-longest-running competition currently on AWBW (the old leagues are the oldest), and Season 6 is now in full swing after starting on November 1st. There are 49 players making up 7 divisions competing in high funds, fog of war, broken CO, gimmick map, and normal games. The second of three months of competition is currently underway, and Month 3 is slated to begin on January 1st, 2012.
2. AWBW Cup - http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13839
The inaugural AWBW Cup was in September, and new tournaments have since started for October, November, and most recently December. None of the tournaments have finished yet, although the September Cup and November Cup are currently in the championship rounds.
For the September Cup, the championship game features Hellraider vs. Walker on Aphotic Arena and it is currently on day 9. To get to the final Hellraider triumphed over lolabunny and frostylight, while Walker narrowly beat out marxistplot and Kamuscha.
For the November Cup, the championship game features Roswell the Black Rose vs. ymouba on Spur of the Moment and it is currently on day 4. Roswell took care of Kragorix and julberndt, while ymouba had to overcome sarastro and marxistplot.
Meanwhile, the October Cup has the semifinals in progress. The Weakest Xiaoniao has already advanced to the final with a win over Walker, and awaits the winner of the fdkanns vs. Mr--Clean semifinal showdown. The December Cup has just entered Round 2, narrowing the number of remaining competitors down to 8.
Signups for the January Cup will open on December 22nd, so if you missed out on the tournaments up until now and want to join, there's your chance.
3. PurgeCorp Map Contest - http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=14102
SmackCakes started a map competition in early November with a new twist on map design. PurgeCorp was looking to urbanize a large plot of land they had bought, and was looking for a design that would only add urban elements to the land (roads, rivers, pipes, properties). It forced map makers to take the same basic starting point of a map and develop it in unique ways to achieve a creative, playable, and visually appealing final product.
The contest ran for three weeks, with users able to submit one map a week up to a maximum of 3. About a dozen people competed, creating 20 maps. Some designers made minimal changes to the basic terrain layout and created nice, albeit similar-looking maps. Other designers stretched the boundaries of the rules a little more, especially when it came to broken pipe seams (to Smacky's dismay). One particular designer even incorporated an AWBW meme into his map, with pretty funny results. For me, the coolest part of the competition was seeing just how many completely different maps were produced from the same starting point.
The judging stage is now in progress, as PurgeCorp will select its top designs and put them up for a public vote to decide the winner. The grand prize for the winner is the chance to redesign a map of their choosing with a customized tile set similar to what was used in Sky City, which is a pretty attractive reward. As of right now, there is no timeline for the judging. Play-testing and commenting on all maps is encouraged!
4. Hetchel's Replay Saver - http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14235
This one is particularly bittersweet for me. A replay viewer has been requested on a few separate occasions in the last couple years, and finally hetchel stepped up to the plate and delivered it: a shiny new tool to download and save the replays from completed AWBW matches. The main site's replay function unfortunately deletes the log and replay information after 3 weeks in order to save space, making it difficult and time-consuming to save games (it involved taking a lot of screenshots). Hetchel's new tool allows you to download, save, and export image files from games, making it easier to review, replay, and share old games. It's currently in version 3 (or maybe 4?), and includes fog, CO powers, tag COs, and game logs. All in all, it's a pretty impressive and handy tool for players looking to learn from their games. Major props and thanks to hetchel!
Unfortunately for Mac users (i.e., me), the replay saver isn't compatible with Macs, so I haven't been able to play around with it at all. I'm assuming it's quite nice from what I've heard from other people though! Hetchel, you're already partially my hero for making this, but you'll [i]really[/i] be my hero if you manage to make it Mac-compatible.
5. New AWBW Wiki - http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13891
When the site's server was changed a few months back, it was generally regarded as a great improvement to the site. The site's speed drastically increased, there were many fewer bugs and problems, and in general the appeal of the site went way up. There were a few casualties though, and the old AWBW guide and AWBW wiki were unfortunately lost.
Because the wiki was a valuable resource for new players to learn how to use the site and for all players to learn about COs and strategy, an effort was recently made to make a new wiki. Started by headphone with lots of help from forbs, marxistplot, and especially Kit, the new wiki was recently put up to the main site. It still needs a lot of information regarding COs, the metagame, maps and design, etc., but it's a start at least. Please feel free to make your own contribution, any work done for the wiki will be greatly appreciated.
6. Global League Map and Settings Changes - http://www.amarriner.com/awbw_forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=13803
The league rankings and players are always fluctuating, but some changes were recently made to the maps and settings being used in the league, as well. Some of the significant changes included moving Sasha up to the top tier, and on some maps moving Max up to high tier, Kindle down to mid tier, and Sami down to high tier. Sami and Kindle had seen almost no use in top and high tier respectively, while everyone was getting just a little sick of Sasha mirrors in every high tier game and Max steamrolling everyone else in a lot of mid tier games. Still no luck for those who want to see the Lucky Trio or the Broken Five in league matches though.
As for maps, a lot of the smaller league maps were removed due to a general dislike of the crowded, stalematish situations that arose on them. Maps like Renewal, Break Out!!, Hypnotize, and Aerial Aced were removed in favor of new, larger maps, namely Aphotic Arena, Iconic, and Elstar. There are still more map changes that could be made in the near future, but for now the league is holding steady at 19 maps.
7. Map Committee Additions
Finally, a less public change was made recently to the Map Committee, as 3 new members have been added. Ultra Storm was brought onto the committee a couple months ago, and headphone and Roswell the Black Rose were added just last week. The full Map Committee now consists of:
airob
headphone
Heartless
Hellraider
Roswell the Black Rose
SmackCakes
Ultra Storm
Walker
wareagle
xushu
Congrats to those three new recruits, and thanks for your contributions to the site!
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Those are the 7 most major developments on the site over the last couple months. I'd also like to call a little attention to a few other things going on around the site:
Official CO Tier List - Hellraider has made some edits to the tier list in accordance with recent information from Global League games. There are still several CO placements that are unclear, so if you have any thoughts on CO placement, please feel free to discuss (hopefully with a completed game as evidence!).
Z-Games - The new Z-Games have been running since July, but headphone has just added FFA games to the list this month. Please let Headphone or Walker know if you have any maps you'd like to add or any ideas for improving Z-Games maps/settings.
A/S-Rank Maps - Although nominations were a complete failure, the Map Committee would still like to know if you have suggestions for A-Rank maps. Map Committee will be working on new selections sometime in the (distant?) future.
Red11's casual tournament - Despite delays and dropouts, Red11's tournament is continuing on. The final round for the championship is slated to begin in late December, so we'll be keeping an eye on the finale of that tournament then.
Hall of Fame - Currently the HoF is empty, but with the September and November Cups drawing to a close, there will be entrants in the Hall soon. In addition, the top 3 of the Global League will be honored in the Hall of Fame at some point in the near future. More information on that will be coming soon.
Fog of War glitches - Ichbinsehselber is collecting all known issues with fog of war in the hope of fixing them more easily. If you know of any fow glitches, please make sure to post them in that thread!
Until next time,
Walker
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