I'm opening Optimum (https://www.warlight.net/Clans/?ID=202) to developers and anyone else interested in expanding the Warlight metagame.

What it's about:

I made Optimum because while the core Warlight game works well and has a ton of wortwhile features, the same can't be said about the metagame or virtually all community/metagame-related features. CLOT hasn't taken off, tournaments offer a very limited range of options, clans are heavily constrained by limited software infrastructure, and all of the big community leagues (Clan League, Promotion/Relegation, Clan Challenge League, etc.) are run manually.

I'm trying to tackle three of those four things- CLOT, tournaments, leagues, etc.- by (slowly) developing an alternative to the CLOT framework that requires less effort/understanding to set up and offers more options. (If you're interested in helping out there, PM me with your GitHub username and I'll add you to the group).

But on the clans end, I see a lot of potential that has yet to be leveraged:

• Clans have the potential to serve as a strong player development and retention pipeline. I don't think they do this yet.
  
  
• Few clans offer tangible benefits. A good portion of these aren't open to the vast majority of the playerbase.
  
  
• A lot of people come in with no idea of how to improve or never stumble across some exciting aspects of the metagame- like the independent leagues, sometimes not even the ladders. There's a lot of luck and effort involved, and very often people just end up getting sucked into the 1v1 auto-game vortex or into bad real-time diplomacy games.

So Optimum exists. The point of Optimum is to develop features like:

• Automated real-time matchmaking for members
  
  
• Interesting leagues run with minimal human effort
  
  
• Regular user-tracking to monitor growth and maintain awareness (for clan leaders)
  
  
• A more straightforward learning environment
  
  
• A stronger community platform
  
  
• Opportunities for players to easily (hyper)specialize and focus on one aspect of the game

The endgame of this project is to extend what Fizzer built with better community tools and to tie them into the site using browser extensions (and hopefully other, less clunky methods) to develop Warlight's metagame into what it could be.

In that process, I see Optimum as a sort of "Warlight+ Beta" where we can use a single clan (hopefully a decent-sized set of players) to test these features and work out the kinks. Once we get past this stage (which I'll somewhat appropriately label Optimum Alpha), I'd like to open up the clan to anyone motivated to learn/improve at/play the game (regardless of skill level) because that's the group I'm interested in targeting.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to actually do all this alone. So I'm opening up Optimum right now to anyone interested in helping out. You don't have to be a developer- just anyone interested in improving the community. Build/test some manual leagues, share ideas, etc.- we just need to tackle this problem together if we want to solve it.

So, if interested, PM me. If you're a dev, include your GitHub username so I can add you to a related GitHub group (that's mostly empty right now except for the old 1v1 ladder CLOT repository and the beginnings of CSL).

Edited 11/5/2015 17:06:03

Good luck knyte
consists of great features and well organised hope things go good and you even thou you have less time may able to start rowing the boat of your dreams again

All I can say is good luck.

I have no time (nor abilities) to spare, so unfortunately I can't help you in another way than supporting you inside my brain.

Knyte, you have my best wishes for you and your clan. :)

Good Luck:)
If I had an alt I'd help you, but unfortunately I don't.

seems over-ambitious.

and why do you need a clan for that?

@ps:

- as a beta-testing environment to find/use willing players to test new features on

- to build/maintain a venue where any player can come in to improve themselves or at least play the game a lot

- as a proof-of-concept (if it works, it's not only an argument that the community should adopt some of its practices but also hopefully some reasons for Fizzer to expand the API and focus on clans again)

It's also a somewhat unrelated project to build the optimal clan for game-focused player growth and to fully leverage the potential of the clan metagame.

Edited 11/5/2015 17:54:43

I joined with my alt. I don't know if a clan is the best way to organize this effort, but I will participate in any way I can help.

The clan isn't the primary tool. There's a GitHub group for the development side of things but it seems like people here have a particular reluctance to do much off-site.

Ideally this would happen with a Slack + GitHub group but I don't think that's going to be as easy since it's all offsite.

Edited 11/5/2015 18:30:23

can I join with my alt?

Yes, as long as you provide some sort of input. Right now it's not a real clan as much as laying the foundation for one so I'm not going to impose any rules as long as we don't get trolls or junk threads.

What sort of input are you looking for?

Personally I like the idea of using a clan, but then I wasn't in a clan before hand. The issue may be that some players may want to get involved but are already in other clans, but in a way that may help make sure those who join are focused on the task at hand :)

Plus don't be haters, this is a project that will take a lot of work and is being built to help the whole Warlight community. As it's clan-based it needs to be properly tested before implementation. Knyte originally was going to keep the whole clan closed but has graciously opened it up to others that may wish to particitate. If you don't want to leave your clan but you still want to contribute then you would be more than welcome, there are many members of clans already working together on this.

I realise no-one has been overly negative and constructive critisism is welcome, I just want to nip this in the bud before the flaming starts is all ;)

@ps: Goals should always be over-ambitious, else they would just be tasks ;)

Well, depends on what kind of help you want. If you wish to, I'll also join with an alt.

@Nogals et al: generally, ideas or any comments based on your own experiences. I've found it worthwhile to interact with the user whenever developing a product. Of course, if you're a developer or have some sort of experience contributing to the WL metagame, that background helps too.

Basically any sort of feedback is welcome.

Edited 11/5/2015 18:49:10

personally I've been with only 3 clans. Well I was technically in 4 clans, but the one was before clans become offical with warlight. So pretty much what I can offer is experience.

It doesn't have to be about clans. You almost certainly have a lot of competitive experience; that probably helps just as much, if not a lot more.

The point of Optimum is not to build just another clan to compete with existing clans.

Edited 11/5/2015 18:55:33

From my perspective I really want to help develop the front end of Warlight, hopefully tying all the features into a browser extension (much like the "Clean up your Desktop" script) so that everything is easily available to players.

Essentially, features we ask Fizzer to add, we want to put in ourselves.

I think it'd be a little simpler than the userscript (well beyond the boilerplate) since all we'd have to do initially is insert links to off-site resources (like adding CLOT links on the Ladders page).

Edited 11/5/2015 19:09:02

I'll help you out with test and can probably make up some ideas on my own. (will be joining with an alt though) ((i also have to make one :/))

Very excited to see what we can accomplish with this.

Edited 11/5/2015 19:14:46