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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:00 am
by .1
FYI any maps that are liked will be automatically disqualified from next season RAGL. KOTG 2-12 will only be played.

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 9:24 am
by Lorrydriver
FiveAces and Gatekeeper have just confirmed their spots. We got 8 top top top tier players! I'm thinking about upping the player count to 10, so we could maybe have a little qualifier to give the good players I haven't invited yet a chance.

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 12:35 pm
by Lorrydriver
After almost 25 hours of map testing and streaming in 5 days, we have found quite a lot of maps that look most promising.

It has been a lot of fun and I want to thank all the map makers who collaborated with me and uploaded those new revisions sometimes minutes after our first reviews. I'd also like to thank kazu. and JuiceBox for putting in long hours as my co-streamers. Last but not least thanks to everyone who participated in the games or shared their opinion about the maps.

I'll write an update of our progress on maps after the qualifiier, where some of them will be tested in a competitive environment!

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 1:24 pm
by netnazgul
Sounded like you won't stream maptests any more for the remainder of the pre-tournament time :P

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:22 pm
by Lorrydriver
That assumption is incorrect. We'll keep going !

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 5:04 pm
by Murto the Ray
Stickied!

Better late than never...

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:24 am
by Lorrydriver
Abbarat with the generous $150 (in BTC, much wow) donation bringing the prizepool to $225. This is also good news for RAGL, since won money in tournaments usually stays in OpenRA circulation :lol:

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:43 pm
by crlf
Not been so active in RA recently, but eskimo helpfully pointed me in this direction and suggested I put a map up for this. So, if I have not missed it, I would be very glad to see some good players on this map:

Canyon Breeze: http://resource.openra.net/maps/25590/

You may recognise this as a reworking of Coastal Breeze without the navy or the island that nobody wants to visit, and with some more routes. Feedback welcome, as always.

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 11:57 pm
by Lorrydriver
thanks a lot for the suggestion, I added your map to the list and we'll definitely test it tomorrow :)

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 10:34 am
by noobmapmaker
[b][e-sport, $230] Foretaste Tournament - Red Alert Tournament amongst OpenRA's best players[/b]

[b]If you enjoyed Red Alert (Command & Conquer) back in the days, then surely tune in for this tournament! [/b]
The tournament is held on the OpenRA client, a free open source project ([url=http://www.openra.net/download/]download[/url]) that recreates and modernizes the classic Command & Conquer real time strategy games.

This Saturday, the 10th of February at 4pm UTC, the Foretaste tournament will take place. It's a tournament hosted by Lorrydriver and all the best competition players will battle for a chunk of the $230 prizemoney.

The 4th season of the [url=RAGL]Red Alert Global League[/url] has ended and in between this tournament is held to test new competitive maps to possibly include them in the mappool for season 5.

[b]The games will be livestreamed, starting the 10th of February at 4pm UTC, by:[/b]
- LorryDriver (2 time RAGL champion) @[url=https://www.twitch.tv/lorrydriverora]twitch.tv/LorryDriverORA[/url]
- FiveAces (2 time RAGL champion) @[url=https://www.youtube.com/user/CovertFlobert]youtube.com/FiveAces[/url]

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 10:37 am
by noobmapmaker
Some text people can use to spread the word ^

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:26 pm
by Lorrydriver
Hey,


I updated the map pool and I'll try to explain why certain maps have been picked. We had 44 entries (probably more but I forgot to put them on the list) and It was extremely difficult to choose the final maps. We played about 220 matches on my streams so far and we'll have some more, but mostly we're gonna be focusing on the tournament maps now.
I'm also glad that I discovered incredible map makers, who were not necessarily known as mapmakers to me. Blackened and netnazgul sent in some of the most impressive maps I've ever seen.

So here's my list:

Face-off https://resource.openra.net/maps/25577/
Face-off by Wippie not only looks cool but also showed some really good games already, the key for its success is the number of options it offers, ore vs. positioning advantage is balanced perfectly.

Race Tracks https://resource.openra.net/maps/25450/
Race Tracks by Blackened has surprised me as it is smallest map that entered my contest, yet Blackened managed to beat all the challenges small maps face. Race Tracks doesn't feel small at all, due to how open it is. The eco is good, all the ore fields are worth expanding to. The ore positions also give you the choice where you want to go with your MCV(s).

Baphomet https://resource.openra.net/maps/25582/
Baphomet by SoScared hasn't been one of my favorite maps before this contest started, but a couple of small changes made this map incredible fun and different to any other map. The gem mine on the other side of the bridge and a couple of interesting ore fields throw players into a different eco situation. We could also see a great game in the qualifier already. I love the design and it's also proof of SoScared being a cultist.

Shadowfiend II
https://resource.openra.net/maps/23189/
Shadowfiend II by kazu. didn't need much testing on stream. It was one of the most played 1v1 maps during the RAGL season 4, eventhough it was not in the RAGL. It does all the things right, offers a lot of options, good eco, lots of action and more.

Badger Hills 1.9 https://resource.openra.net/maps/25579/
Badger Hills by eskimo might not strike you as very special at first but it has shown some awesome games on my stream already and the more I've seen it the more I liked it. Quick radars, quick mcvs, WF first, Double Ref etc., all of these, seem like good options on that map. Good rush distance, enough space to maneuver and nice choke points a hot areas make this a perfectly balanced map.

Blobomaly https://resource.openra.net/maps/25611/
Blobomaly by kazu. first of all seems like a very solid, balanced map in good old kazu fashion. However, there are a couple of things that make it special in my opinion. The double mine naturals are pretty far away from your main base, but as the map is structures it just makes a lot of sense to go there. This usually makes games on that map wide and therefore creates opportunities for aggression. A hard to harvest gem mine definitely helps to keep the game very active. It's also one of the maps that gets away with 6 oil derricks as their positions are well thought through.

Ragnarok https://resource.openra.net/maps/25528/
Ragnarok by JuiceBox offers something new, it's a big boy map with relatively low eco. The eco situation is always just enough to get the necessary units out. That usually makes player play more passively because you can't affort to lose units. Ragnarok's size, however, just favors aggression in general and that's why we've already seen very interesting matches on that map.

Teared Strait https://resource.openra.net/maps/25548/
Teared Strait by mo tries something new, and it works. The map plays very different from any other map. There's 4 starting ore mines, 2 back ore mines and massive middle patches with lots of ore mines to contest for as well. You don't really contest for income though, which can sometimes make games end rather quickly. You mostly contest for positioning and access to your opponents main base. The 6 ore mines close to the player spawns are extremely vulnerable what makes this map very dynamic. I guess there's also the possibility for some boat play, I mean it's a mo map after all.

River of Gold https://resource.openra.net/maps/25556/
River of Gold by netnazgul impressed everyone who watched it on my stream. The ore positions are unique but incredibly well done by netnazgul. The map can play out in various different ways and we've seen this map get split up top vs bottom, left vs right, bottom left vs top right etc. The eco is pretty rich in general and ALL of the ore mines are vulnerable. This translates into lots of aggression, dynamic game play and requires you to use your brain.

Hesperian Grove https://resource.openra.net/maps/25630/
Hesperian Grove by CRLF has been around for a while and it has quite some fans. The only problem I had with that map was the tree density in the center, which has been taken care of by CRLF.
The starting ore is very strange and unique, the naturals are worth expanding to and most of the ore mines are extremely vulnerable, which again leads to lots of aggresion which is usually very good for the game. HG's starting eco situation also allows for some different, cheesy or greedy strategies.

Stanitsa https://resource.openra.net/maps/25512/
Stanitsa by Doomsday is another very small map but unlike Race Tracks it's not as open. The starting eco is good, the expansions are worth it. V2 and other aggresive tech rushes can be extremely powerful on this map, due to its size. However, for a small map the eco is very rich and therefore arty stalemates are less likely to happen, which is one of the major concerns for small maps in general.

The Great Divide
https://resource.openra.net/maps/25675/
The Great Divide by SoScared is a true big boy map. The sheer size might scare a lot of players but this map got potential for excellent matches. Both players start with a double mine and a gem mine which allows you to pump out more units than usual or to get quicker tech than usual. In case of a split map both players will control 6 different ore fields, which obviously leaves lots of room for attacks. This is a map where multitasking, speed and your understanding of the game will be truely tested.

Trapped https://resource.openra.net/maps/25565/
Trapped by Blackened is another masterpiece. The games I've played or watched on this map were extremely dynamic, this is no map if you want to sit around and do nothing. Blackened pushed the limits of how thin ore fields can be without being useless. He was very successful here and made this very balanced map with lots of options.

I also want to mention the following maps as they could have all made it into the map pool:
Snowflake, El Azahar, Containment_1.3, Sacrificial Circle, The Trench, Equilibrium, Pochinki Fields, Another Tomorrow.

Thanks to all the map makers who uploaded so many revisions the last 2 weeks.

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:02 am
by camundahl
Awesome, definitely will be watching live!

Is there a list of all the different people that will be streaming?

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:02 pm
by Lorrydriver
confirmed streams so far:

FiveAces: https://www.youtube.com/CovertFlobert

Lorrydriver: https://www.twitch.tv/lorrydriverora


Both of us will be participating as well, but that still means only in the case of us having to play eachother we won't have a neutral broadcaster.


On another note, I'll be randomizing the bracket and maps today on my stream at around 8 pm UTC.
I also added another $20 as a prize for the RO16 winners. 10 Players in a 16 player tournament bracket will result in 4 players having to play an additional round so I want to at least give them a little extra! Each match will have a different starting map followed by loser's choice.

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 6:36 pm
by Lorrydriver
For today's stream I'd like to play some games on the new PT. In case everything runs smoothly there we'll be playing the tournament on the PT. I hope we can bring the competitive scene and the devs closer together, as they need eachother!