AOTV General Discussion

[Pumpkin_King]

Hey guys, I'm gonna make the decision to step down. Cpt knows, but I'm letting everyone here know too. Posting once every three weeks helps no one, and I'm cutting a lot of stuff out of my life in an attempt to simplify for my mental health. You guys are gonna do great.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Shiftrex

I am dropping from this project, please remove me from all pods at your convienece. Thankyou

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

Hey guys, I'm gonna make the decision to step down. Cpt knows, but I'm letting everyone here know too. Posting once every three weeks helps no one, and I'm cutting a lot of stuff out of my life in an attempt to simplify for my mental health. You guys are gonna do great.

I'm sorry to see each of you go; you've made fantastic contributions to this project and will be missed. That said, focusing on other matters understandably takes priority. If either of you ever wish to return, then just let us know and you'll gladly be welcomed back.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I'm sorry to see each of you go; you've made fantastic contributions to this project and will be missed. That said, focusing on other matters understandably takes priority. If either of you ever wish to return, then just let us know and you'll gladly be welcomed back.

^What Astro said.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

IMO, Weird terrain should have scenario-specific rules. Sandstone hexes should have one optional global rule. (That doesn't mean we couldn't utilize them beyond declaring that rule on/off, though given Weird rules I think a second terrain rule in scenarios would be unnecessary.)

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I'd be fine with that split, though it's worth testing the AotV-exclusive maps with whatever optional rule we wanted for Sandstone in mind.

Unless there are any straggling thoughts on this, I think that it's time to begin looking into setting up an official AotV Maps & Scenarios subforum. A more structured place for scenario brainstorming would be a good addition to the project's catalogue, and it could help provide more testing opportunities for everyone.

[Astroking112]

Copying over the announcement from the main status thread:

Originally Posted by Astroking112

Time for an exciting update here!

Our new Maps & Scenarios subforum is live! Please feel free to jump over there and weigh in on the discussion for how we should define our process for map creation.

The aim here is twofold: we want players to be able to play games sooner rather than later with AotV units on maps without being forced to build custom ones, and we want to provide a slightly faster creation process so that the community can stay engaged. We're definitely open to hearing everyone's input over there!

[Astroking112]

With @Captain Stupendous joining the Project Leads, we are up to a team of 5 PLs (the others being @flameslayer93 , @NecroBlade , @Scytale , and myself). There are a couple of remaining orders of business that we need to take care of:

1. Pumpkin_King's threads need to be taken over by an active member.
   • Vlad III, Katryn Vade, and the Pod 2 Main Thread will be taken over by Captain Stupendous.
   • He has also offered to take over the Welcome to AotV & FAQ Thread, since he is the most active there.
   • I don't mind taking over the Playtesting Thread since I already track the status of units in the Index thread.
   • Should we replace the owner of this General Discussion? I don't see a big reason to since the OP isn't actively maintained and was more of just an initial conversation starter.
   
   
2. We need to formalize a process for Map & Scenario creation. See discussion in our subforum if you want to suggest ideas.
   
   
3. Several of the units are stalling out a bit. There are a couple of ways that we could go about fixing this: one private suggestion was to add all Project Leads to all Pods (as normal members), another could be to hold an Online HeroScape AotV Playtesting tournament, et cetera. Any other ideas or thoughts?

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone who has been active in these forums and supporting the project. I know that it's a lot of work (all too well sometimes), but what we're making is really special, and I think that all of our hard effort will pay off. If anyone is interested in getting more involved with the project, please feel free to reach out either publicly or privately. We'll make it through this.

[NecroBlade]

Yes, any and all input is greatly appreciated. This project is for all Heroscapers, so we love to hear from all Heroscapers. I like the idea of adding all PLs to all Pods at least until we've moved some things all the way through the process and are onto the next. I don't play any online, but would be glad to see that happen if someone can make it happen. After ScapeCon we'll hopefully be opening back up regular local events, so with any luck I can convince them to do some AotV playtesting there.

[lefton4ya]

Great ideA. I think lack of playtesting is really hurting so anything to increase that, but even feedback at all stages is helpful.

[Captain Stupendous]

I like the idea of adding the PLs to the other pods, although at this point I'm not sure how much it would really help? Most of the units that are stalled out are either in Editing or Playtesting, and I don't see how having more pod members will really help units stuck in those phases progress any faster, since anyone can already submit playtests without being a pod member.

[Astroking112]

There is still some remaining polish and work to be done on some of the units, such as discussion of tweaking the Soul-Guides or renaming the Ukushisa Pride. Having more members engaged in those areas would help a bit, I think, and I know that I'd appreciate having some more help on the Guides and Tetsuo in particular.

Playtesting is definitely a key roadblock right now. Some units like the Velnesh and Pyria seem to be very close to completion and just need a few more games to finish them out. I may be able to return to running monthly HS events once school resumes in the Fall, but with my graduate studies that might prove difficult. The OHS tournament would definitely be a good avenue to get more testing data, especially for those units who are further from finalization.

Something else that I think is worth discussing is the idea of swapping the order of Playtesting and Compatibility Testing. As it is right now, Playtesting is the harder stage to pass, so I'd rather that we focus on how a unit feels with our set first, before subjecting them to rigorous testing and many games.

[Shiftrex]

A playtesting tournament sounds great.

Might also be worthwhile to consider trading playtests with individual creators. That thread for trading playtests hasnt had any action in a while but I know that a few individual creators might be willing to do stuff like that.

[Captain Stupendous]

One other potential issue with adding all the PLs as members of all pods is I really wouldn't want the existing pod members to feel like their vote/influence on the pod is getting diluted. Before adding the Pod Lead team to a pod, I'd prefer for the existing pod members to vote on whether they'd like to add the rest of us or not. I'm guessing that most of the pod members would welcome the extra help, but I'd like that decision to come from them, rather than us Pod Leads just adding ourselves to all the pods without giving the existing members a say in the matter.