Here's the Blog post on the scoring system and the announcement that posting the story begins tomorrow: As promised, the first two chapters of World of WarMachines Arc 4: Team Reforged "Vegas, Baby!" is going up friday evening.
The current plan is two chapters, three days a week. Probably Friday, Monday, Wednesday.
So, the story has ballooned even further than I thought.
I thought I would come in around 90-100,000 words in my last post. I'm about to write the final two chapters and epilogue, and I'm already crashing through the 110,000 mark.
To put that in perspective, parts 2 and 3 COMBINED are less than arc 4.
By the time I get done with Arc 4, it'll probably be more than Arcs 1-3 combined.
I'll probably take at least a month off World of WarMachines at that point, just to get back to some of my other stories. (yes, to those who asked about FTMD, they're resting. They're still around ;))
Let me know what you want to have priority.
Also, I wanted to talk about the Team scoring system for World of WarMachines matches, which Arc 4 has several of.
A World of WarMachines League or Tournament is broken up into five rounds, featuring four categories of fights. You win a round, you get points. The team with the most points win the match.
The Duel Round: This is a winner stays on format. Five fighters on each team. One member of each team starts the duel round. The losing team immediately sends in its next duelist, while the winning duelist stays on. Crucially, they keep all the damage they've accumulated. So, it may not just be enough to win, but margin of victory is important too. There are repair pylons, but they're slow. You won't be on the verge of destruction, win a fight, and get healed up automagically. And the other team's pilot is going to be hunting you immediately.
The winning team receives one point for every pilot they had remaining at the end of the round. So if you destroy all five of the opponents and lose three of your pilots, you score two points.
The 4v4 Round consists of two 4v4 fights, meaning there are four members of each team fighting at the same time. Unlike the duel round, there's no substitutes waiting. Each 4v4 is worth two points each (so four points in total are available in the 4v4 round)
There is a brief halftime after the 4v4 fights.
Then there's two more group battles.
The first is 6v6, or "The Platoon Round". Worth three points.
The final round is called the Mass Battle. It is the largest fight, with twelve pilots on a team. It's worth five points.
And if you do the math, it's possible to get a tie. The league has a tie-breaking round, which I won't go into right now. But pay attention. It might be necessary.
Players can participate in only three of the four rounds, and can't fight in both 4v4 fights. This is to prevent players from being overused and one great pilot carrying a mediocre team to victory.
Pay attention to that part, too. It might also be necessary.