Aerodrome 3 Announcement

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Teaser Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScDVT-r-RDA

Hello welcome to the official Aerodrome: The Mercantile War announcement thread. There are quite a few things to talk about so lets get started.

Some of you know this storyline was teased during Skies of Retribution. In fact I drew up the initial gameplay concepts about midway through Skies. Some of you saw the concept doc then but coming from that the ideas were refined and now we've got them more finalized. I would list the actual rules doc but a couple sections are still being refined. Nothing gameplay related, just management related. I don't want to confuse people with posting them. But I will briefly give a summary.

Full Ruleset Here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Za8l75Qd-ZzJsYnHOC8elU6ocbWZ0zh3dYrYC0Aaw8/edit?usp=sharing

Gameplay:

-3v3 TDM, 20 minutes, Cargo Carrier gametype
-Cargo Carrier is a variation of VIP but its basically kill the man with the ball and the ball can flip between sides. Ball turnovers will be announced so teams know at all times who is carrying the ball.
-Radar Ping system will be in effect. Every 5 minutes the ball carrier's location is announced via the grid on the map. Both teams also have 1 ping they can request at anytime during a match. This is to limit the amount of running and hiding.
-Like other Aero, a point system will be in place. If you can hold onto the cargo by the end of the match, you win the contract and reap the points. There are also points awarded for kills. Then to top that, there is an ante system where teams that do well can possibly earn all ante points that are entered via the contract signups.

Weekly Contract System:

-Single ship signups, you decide the name of your trading company. Each ship will represent a Guild company.
-5 matches each week
-There will be no formal signups before the event. There will be a pre-listing to get teams registered that want to add in early but the event will be open and allow for weekly entrance.
-Trader Contracts (Ball carriers) will open at the start of the week. Each contract represents a match to be played. During this time, teams can opt into a match and start with the ball. The contracts close mid week.
-Rival Contracts (Ball Hunters) will open after the Trader Contracts close. They'll get a listing of the matches being played and the competitors playing on them. They then have till the end of the week to pick their match.
-Traders = Blue spawn, Rivals = Red spawn
-Anyone can merc boat during the event but to avoid clan stacking, you can't merc boat for clanmates.
-All contracts are a first come, first serve listing. If you don't get the one you want, you'll have to choose another or wait till Rival contracts are offered. There will be no reservations of contracts.
-No limitations on which maps you play or who you play. If you love certain maps the most, then you better signup for them. The only thing limiting people will be others beating you to the signup.

Time frame:

Saturdays 1pm PST/8PM UTC. July 18th-August 22nd. There will be a bye week on week 5 so the top teams can decide who they want to fly with and practice for the final which will be a best of 5 match the following week.

Prizes:

Badges for sure, we're also working with Muse to bring in store prizes on top of that. Finalists will get better prizes than non finalists.

Closing words:

A full story trailer will be coming before the event. It is in production right now.  Weekly VOD narratives will not be happening during this event as the story side will not be as strong as other events. There will just be so many trade companies that it is unfeasible to make vids for everyone.

CP/CK gametypes are going to be absent from this Aerodrome. It is not because I didn't want them. Storyline wise, this contract combat works better, however CP battles would have been an option. The trouble is, the last patches have ruined CP. Matches are over far too quick and it just isn't fun or interesting to watch a team throw in the towel before the match even really gets going. Till Muse fixes this issue, Aerodrome will likely never feature CP again. We do have people poking Muse with sticks begging them to fix it so feel free to add in a stick of your own.

A special thanks to Cake Clan for their high interest in helping get this event launched. Cake's logo on the vid is intentional as they are assisting with the event. Helping with casting, streaming, voice services/etc.

[Syconawt]

For anyone who needs a refresher on how the previous Aerodrome seasons played out, as well as a few extra bits and bobs, be sure to check out the Aerodrome media thread here.

If anyone has any questions about the format of Aerodrome: The Mercantile War feel free to post them here and we'll do our best to answer them.

Also if anyone's interested in the music you can get the Season 1 and 2 soundtrack here. #CheapPlug

[Yarr Vinny Scarr]

Looks pretty good! I'm not familiar with this event, but I would love to participate.

I'm going to follow this thread.

[Elendu]

A bit of clarification is needed:  is the time 1pm PST or do you mean PDT?  If you are in the United States, we are currently in Daylight Time, not Standard Time.

NOTE:  8pm UTC is NOT 1pm PST!

Pacific Standard Time is 8 hours behind of Universal Time Coordinated and 1 hours behind of PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)

Please revise to show the correct time, I hope this prevents a lot of confusion.

Reference (showing my hometown, Portland OR as PDT vs PST vs UTC):
https://savvytime.com/converter/pst-to-utc-or-portland

[Squidslinger Gilder]

This is why I always refer to things as "Cogs Time" cause I get so freaken tired of time zones and time changes...sigh...someday someone is gonna run for office and will promise to forever do away with DST and I will then lead a peasant militia, squashing pro DST people everywhere under the might of our pillows to the tune: "Give us our extra hour of sleep back, or give us death!!"

[Steve CZ]

Seriously, I don't understand how almost every tournament, the organisers confuse time zones -_- If you could very simply use UTC time ONLY, that would be best (anyone can convert it into his own time individually). Anyway, good to see CsM has one more TimeKeeper

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Its easy when you live in a country that doesn't use archaic time changes from WWI and was smart enough to stop using them after WWI. Like Arizona .

I guess I'm PDT right now. So Cogs time, which was 1pm PDT for me, would be 8pm UTC according to Worldtimebuddy. Any more complaints, please find a time traveler and go back in time and assassinate all the leaders of WWI.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Ok, ruleset is added. Need a Mod to edit original post and add it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Za8l75Qd-ZzJsYnHOC8elU6ocbWZ0zh3dYrYC0Aaw8/edit?usp=sharing

[Queso]

Added

[RunningTree]

-Anyone can merc boat during the event but to avoid clan stacking, you can't merc boat for clanmates.

*hands up* I haz a question. Can the same clan submit two different teams with separate scoring, and are they allowed to sign up simultaneously to the same contract?

[Syconawt]

Can the same clan submit two different teams with separate scoring,

Yes, that's fine.

and are they allowed to sign up simultaneously to the same contract?

No, at least not for the regular season. Per the rules:

Clans can signup multiple ships if they desire, however to avoid clan stacking, they need to participate in different matches, at least for the regular season. In the finals, clans may group up pending their other teams did well enough to make it.

[Syconawt]

Just to clarify my previous post: two ships from the same clan CAN take a same contract, but they CANNOT be on the same side. For example, if the Black Flight Squadron were entering, if Algernon accepted a Trade contract, then Uchikudake could not accept the same Trade contract that Algernon accepted, but they may accept the Rival contract for that match.

[Steve CZ]

*Hand up* Follow-up question(s): How will you decide which ship is part of which clan, if all teammembers are from different clans? And if a team switches clan for the duration of the tournament, can they fight along their ex-clanmates? And is having two ships of the same clan in one team really an advantage over having ships from all the best clans in one team? If a clan submits, say, 24 teams, can you assure there will be enough matches for all of them being on opposite sides? And who is really the father of Jon Snow? o.O

[Squidslinger Gilder]

There is not really 2 sides in this event. Everyone is a mercenary. So you can take both Trading and Rival contracts as many times as you want.

As stated in the rules doc, to avoid clan stacking, we have to limit clans playing together. However, I did put in a clause where if the 2nd ship has a captain from another clan, they could use allied clan members to fill the crew. So lets say Cake had 1 full ship but then another ship had a captain missing and their crew members revolted and wouldn't fly. They could get someone from say TB to captain for them. So more than 4+ players of the same clan could participate in a match, just not the pilot. This is to allow for mercenary boats to help fill matches.

Of course this could be exploited because some people practice interclan often but there is really nothing to stop that either way. It could happen no matter what. So at the very least, this is set up so there is no implied clan stack. Even though you could still do it.

Each company is more or less tied to the captain/CEO of the company. So if they choose to employ people from other companies to fill roles, they can. If you have friends in clan X and friends in clan Y, you can all form a company under 1 captain and take a contract.

The biggest danger to this setup that was thought up early on was Rivals having heavy advantages in selecting the foes they want to face because Traders will be locked in before Rival contracts are written up. Even with a first come, first serve setup, people could attempt to snipe matches. Which is hard to prevent. But, by limiting to single ships and preventing direct clan stacking, it is about the only thing that can be done to limit them from being able to do it. It just comes down to securing matches. Traders do start with a big advantage of having the cargo first. So there is a bit of a trade off in advantages. Which we've attempted to balance.

[Syconawt]

Just to answer two of the questions pointed out above:

If a clan submits, say, 24 teams, can you assure there will be enough matches for all of them being on opposite sides?

We will deal with this if/when it happens, but I don't see it happening. (Is there even a clan that has enough players to staff 24 ships in their armada?!)

And who is really the father of Jon Snow? o.O

George.