C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker!!!
Ok, had a great meeting with most (excluding Ra and sorry you missed it because I didn't see you on steam and it was impromptu however feel free to join Vent and discuss anything I miss here) of the Rebel lordship leaders last night. Very productive, very informative, very civil and yes that even means Marnid.
Basically a long list of misunderstandings and some really tough battles for the Rebels lead to walls of text and strong feelings. After everything was discussed and many questions had been answered everyone basically found common ground is and looking forward to continuing in the ROCK campaign.
Here is just a quick list of some of the main concerns:
1. It is 100% guaranteed that ROCK_Admin_Mad_Dawg and Balion_Lordship_Mad_Dawg are completely seperate with their intentions. The point was stressed many times and also a valid point was produced that noone would be willing to do this amount of work without participating themselves. I feel it is now completely understood that all ruleset decisions have been and are made by an impartial party working within the ruleset and original intent with no specific benefit that is looked to be gained by that party. I'm sorry if you can't believe that, but it a simple truth.
2. There are a number of "additional and interpretating" clarifications that have been spread through many formats. Either via multiple threads, or PM's, or discussion.
A better job by me personally should have been done to reformat and update the rules as additional clarifications came out. For this I apologize and am working to better this.
3. The match from Sunday night was rescheduled due to the 11:00pm EST start time and no other reason. KoA had expected and agreed to a 9:30pm EST start time approximately.
No blame is placed on why the engagement started so late. The match was delayed specifically per the wishes on KoA's request to reschedule due to time. (Recieved from John via Steam after I queried in Vent.)
4. No penalty was given to KoA because the engagement was fought within the allotted turn. (Bravo to all the lordships that stepped up and made that happen.)
5. The pallisade at Curin Castle, while seemingly illogical due to a besieging army, was within the ruleset and is an option to
all lordships to perform. It was also agreed that I did not months ago write some type of loophole in the rules because I knew we would need it. (That's just absurd) It was agreed that any future campaigns should specifically make a clarification on this matter. Lastly, if you feel the besieging army would have stopped such construction, I offered we did it after one of their late night parties and everyone was passed out drunk. (That's a joke)
6. Attacking a castle or other defensive settlement is not and should not be balanced. (Seems pretty simple) The freedom with the format for battles in ROCK allows attackers honestly more options instead of making poor choices to try and reach some flag within a castle with the standard Siege mode. That said, sieging is very tough battles and honestly feel they should be.
7. It is every lordship's responsibility to arrange or perform the scening work they want done to a specific settlement they recieved or conquer. The
Tutorial Thread was formatted and published before the official start of ROCK and has always been present. The ROCK administration is only responsible for
Minimum Scening Guidelines. All scening for "Balion's" settlements has been done by the Balion participants, not ROCK administration. That being said, a very nice castle was produced for Ra at Hrus Castle by the administration. That cannot be denied. A very nice city of Tihr was lost by me personally after overwriting my work with a module update when I thought I had multiple backup's. The Tihr they recieved was the best that could be done with the allowed time, fully met the obligation set forth in the Minimum Scening rules, and frankly was far more advantageous than say a field battle. In addition, no instructions were given with Ra's preferences to the construction of Tihr even when it was specifically offered. http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,209850.msg5130985.html#msg5130985 (Please understand this is explanation, not accusation.)
8. The equipment delay vs equipment instantly issue. A miscommunication between ROCK administration lead to Wappaw not being corrected about the "income" being delayed 1 turn. (making the upgrades be delayed 1 turn for the money to catch up, or in other words that's why it would be delayed 1 turn) Basically all lordships started with 0 gold as laid out in the rules. The announced income for a lordship was not to be processed until the end of each turn meaning for all of Turn 1 everyone was at 0 gold. At turn 2 Wappaw "purchased" Tier 2 equipment. The matter was seen by the administration, however due to said miscommunication, was never made known to Wappaw. At the end of Turn 3 and beginning of Turn 4 a decision was made by myself with Kiss and Harald present that due to no immediate reprecussions during the Turn 2 I would allow Wappaw's rule interpretation to take precedent over my original intent to prevent the confusion of trying to fix something a week and a half after the fact. This decision actually helped the Rebels during Turn 4 where Ra fought with
Tier 2 equipment during the Siege of Tihr when they had
just purchased it during Turn 4. So honestly the ruling no only did not hurt or disadvantage the Rebels, but helped Ra make a great stand against 2 large clans. In addition, the decision was made when it would not benefit or hinder anyone and was made simple for the purpose of trying to eliminate confusion. (which has obviously failed, thanks for pointing that out) (Also to Kiss and Harald you were right, 'nough said.)
9. ROCK is supposed to be fun. I realize everyone wants to win but the massive time, effort, and energy that has been placed into ROCK by many, many people is for the benefit of the whole NA community at a cost of trying to understand some rules and showing up. We're not recieving any awards for this so this is gift to you. This does not disqualify any short comings of ROCK, it just hopefully helps to encourage everyone to work together the best we can understanding the open sacrifice made be the people who put together and admin ROCK.
10. ROCK is continuing as intended and as scheduled for the duration of the campaign. In my eyes it is still anyone's game. The Loyalists have a long road ahead of them sieging and capturing some pretty tough settlements.
Good luck to everyone and thanks for helping to make this a working reality as intended.
-Mad