PAX East Assassins! [Cancelled, Read OP for more details]
MarsChelios
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi guys! I want to apologize for not posting updates about the state of Assassins for PAX East. Due to a variety of reasons I'm not going to be running a game for East this year. Some of those reasons are personal and financial which I won't go into, but I do want to go into one reason concerning game quality.
Assassins has been in a kind of stasis for a year or two. Theres been a few updates to the core game and as the player base grew I began to realize things needed to change to keep up and grow. It was my goal to have these changes done by PAX East but unfortunately I'm only about halfway done with them. These changes include:
While I could run a game on the current system I'm concerned that even if we had a huge turnout for the game with the new space and large attendance the experience would be subpar. Even though I wont be running a game I will be at PAX East and I do want to show my thanks and appreciation to everyone who showed interest. I'll be creating some custom PAX East 2011 Assassins badges for everyone who has posted in the thread thus far and will send you a PM for how to get up with me at PAX East to get them.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you at PAX!
Assassins has been in a kind of stasis for a year or two. Theres been a few updates to the core game and as the player base grew I began to realize things needed to change to keep up and grow. It was my goal to have these changes done by PAX East but unfortunately I'm only about halfway done with them. These changes include:
- Revamped Informat System (Formerly known as Secondary Tier)
The purpose of the Secondary Tier was so players who were eliminated could still compete. It has worked well over the years but it's easily gamed now by sharing codes. The revamp will still allow players both active or eliminated to play but will be a little more in line with the idea of informants gathering information.
The idea is still similar; If a player finds another player who is not their target they note their 5-letter badge code. Using the site or mobile app (more on that below) they would enter in the code but then would also select the general location wher they were when spotting the target on a map of the convention center. I say general because this won't be an accurate way of finding someone, but it will give you at least the floor or quadrant for where a target is.
The site or app will list the symbols for informed players as well as there location and the reliability of the info which would decrease as time passed, with informed targets falling off the list after a certain amount of time. If you inform on a target and they are eliminated, regardless of whether the player reviewed the targets location, you would receive a portion of the points the assassin received.
This solves a number of issues that I've heard about. For one it allows players to locate targets in the event they are having difficulty, something I feel will occur more and more as PAX grows larger. Two it's an active role in the game as opposed to a system of trading codes for points. I think this system will put players more into the intended feel of the game than in past games.
This is still in the planning phase and I think theres a lot of room for improvements on this idea so I'd love to hear any comments or concerns about this. I'm going to to get an area on the site set up for that and other discussions as this thread isn't really the place for that discussion. - Achievements
This is basically like any other achievement based system, but built around Assassins. It would include achievements like First Kill (First player to register a kill), Killing Spree (First player to 5 kills) and more. In addition each player would be able to create a custom achievement that their assassin would receive.
- Mobile site and Apps
There will be a new site designed to work better with mobile browsers as well as applications to connect to the registration and scoring systems. I can pretty much guarantee that the first app will be iPhone based, as that's my handset and where some of my hobby time is heading, but other platforms will be released as we can.
While I could run a game on the current system I'm concerned that even if we had a huge turnout for the game with the new space and large attendance the experience would be subpar. Even though I wont be running a game I will be at PAX East and I do want to show my thanks and appreciation to everyone who showed interest. I'll be creating some custom PAX East 2011 Assassins badges for everyone who has posted in the thread thus far and will send you a PM for how to get up with me at PAX East to get them.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you at PAX!
MarsChelios on
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I still have the loot for the last one.
I saw 5-10 people but I didn't get a kit shipped(shipping mistake) and I couldn't find MarsChelios for a replacement. But hopefully more people are interested this year. I think its just a fun little thing to do while PAX is going on. Kinda something just in the back of your head that you forget about until you see the armband.
I saw about 12 maybe. I knew there were people hiding them and not wearing them.
I had no luck.. my kill card was probably Rdr
I think there was a hundred or so and I believe Mars closed it out when we hit the cap.
I'm up to giving it another try specially if I get time off to ride the train
Question: How far afield can you ship the kits? I ask because I am far afield.
Also, it's kinda confusing me, if someone has the same symbol, say you're a blue x, you kill anyone with a blue red or yellow x?
$4.50 for regular armbands and $5.50 for larger. + $1.50 s/h.
Ordering is closed right now though.
1. Extending the registration of kills and info to something a little past the immediate end of the convention proper.
2. An android app that will let me register my targets immediately.
I know the second one is way out there, but if we have an android developer in the community, it would be a nice bonus. As for the first one, my sob story is that from last game I have a list of 11 numbers, but I have 0 points. I would encourage everyone playing to register your kills and info as often as you are able.
Maybe MarsChelios will let us use photographic evidence of kills as points if the people won't register themselves killed.
In my case, it wasn't a matter of kills not registering themselves, it was a matter of me choosing to wait and register all my info until after I woke up on Monday, due to the lack of wireless at the WSCC and the poor service at my hotel, the Sheraton.
I believe the registration of kills is handled outside of the influence of the killed target. The assassin gets a card form the target, and uses a combination of the kill tag and their own badge to verify their kill. I don't see any problem with this system, and in fact think it very clever.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
I'm gonna PM him and see if assassin's is gonna be at East.
Assassins has been in a kind of stasis for a year or two. Theres been a few updates to the core game and as the player base grew I began to realize things needed to change to keep up and grow. It was my goal to have these changes done by PAX East but unfortunately I'm only about halfway done with them. These changes include:
- Revamped Informat System (Formerly known as Secondary Tier)
The purpose of the Secondary Tier was so players who were eliminated could still compete. It has worked well over the years but it's easily gamed now by sharing codes. The revamp will still allow players both active or eliminated to play but will be a little more in line with the idea of informants gathering information.
- Achievements
This is basically like any other achievement based system, but built around Assassins. It would include achievements like First Kill (First player to register a kill), Killing Spree (First player to 5 kills) and more. In addition each player would be able to create a custom achievement that their assassin would receive.
- Mobile site and Apps
There will be a new site designed to work better with mobile browsers as well as applications to connect to the registration and scoring systems. I can pretty much guarantee that the first app will be iPhone based, as that's my handset and where some of my hobby time is heading, but other platforms will be released as we can.
To get all those things working together I'm rewriting the foundation code for games on the site which I'm about halfway through with. Not only will this allow the features above but is future proofing the site for additional games and features I'd like to provide.The idea is still similar; If a player finds another player who is not their target they note their 5-letter badge code. Using the site or mobile app (more on that below) they would enter in the code but then would also select the general location wher they were when spotting the target on a map of the convention center. I say general because this won't be an accurate way of finding someone, but it will give you at least the floor or quadrant for where a target is.
The site or app will list the symbols for informed players as well as there location and the reliability of the info which would decrease as time passed, with informed targets falling off the list after a certain amount of time. If you inform on a target and they are eliminated, regardless of whether the player reviewed the targets location, you would receive a portion of the points the assassin received.
This solves a number of issues that I've heard about. For one it allows players to locate targets in the event they are having difficulty, something I feel will occur more and more as PAX grows larger. Two it's an active role in the game as opposed to a system of trading codes for points. I think this system will put players more into the intended feel of the game than in past games.
This is still in the planning phase and I think theres a lot of room for improvements on this idea so I'd love to hear any comments or concerns about this. I'm going to to get an area on the site set up for that and other discussions as this thread isn't really the place for that discussion.
While I could run a game on the current system I'm concerned that even if we had a huge turnout for the game with the new space and large attendance the experience would be subpar. Even though I wont be running a game I will be at PAX East and I do want to show my thanks and appreciation to everyone who showed interest. I'll be creating some custom PAX East 2011 Assassins badges for everyone who has posted in the thread thus far and will send you a PM for how to get up with me at PAX East to get them.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you at PAX!