Final Showdown Rank Website Beta Thread

As a few of you may know, I have been working on a website that will allow people to participate in an online ladder ranking system for Virtua Fighter. The site was originally going to be launched for Virtua Fighter 5 vanilla, but I think I got a little ahead of myself. When I actually gave it some thought, I realized I probably wasn't going to draw many new people into the game. If I launched when I was originally planning to, the site would have hardly gotten used. However, with the launch of Final Showdown immanent, I have decided the time is right to put things in motion again.

Since the beginning of this month I've been devoting a fairly large chunk of my time to rewriting the site (the original code was rushed and left a lot to be desired), and adding some new features beyond the scope of my original design. Things have been progressing pretty well so far, and even though the site isn't quite ready yet, I feel like the time is right to start collecting feedback from the community.

Here is how the site will work. The site is composed of several ladders that you can choose to compete in. The ladders will be divided by region and console. There will be one ladder for every character per region/console combination, and one ladder where you are allowed to use any character. The goal for you is to challenge people in the ladders you participate in, and beat them to steal their position. You can of course, participate in as many or as few ladders as you feel like you have time for, as long as they belong to the region in which you live, and a console for which you own the game.

When you first register for the site, beyond the usual user name/password/e-mail stuff, you will be asked the consoles you own Final Showdown for, the region you live in, and the day of the week/time when you will accept challenges.

The reason for having regions is fairly obvious. This is an online ranking system, and lag will be a factor. However, since I can't prevent people from joining a region they don't actually live in, there will be a rule that says if you don't have at least a two bar connection with the person you challenge, they can declare automatic victory against you. If this happens, you'll just have to challenge someone else who lives closer to you the next time.

Having a set match time is another matter. On the surface it may seem inconvenient to have a specific (hour long) time window every week that you have to play all your pending challenges in. But when you think about it, having to work out a time for every individual match would just be a complete nightmare. You'd spend more time negotiating when you would play, then you would actually playing. A match time window means that when someone challenges you, they will know exactly when they have to show up in advance. Not only that, but they will know if they don't show up at the right time, they will automatically lose, and if you don't show up at the right time, they will automatically win. No arguing about who was supposed to be where and when. You can of course, change you match time if you wish, but any existing challenges will still have to be played at their original time. If you really can't make the time, you'll just have to eat the loss. But I think that will work out fine, because even if you lose a few matches as a result of this system, you should be able to get back your old position in no time if you actually deserve it. Oh, and you can of course attempt to negotiate a different match time if something comes up, but your challenger is under no obligation agree to it.

In a nutshell, what Final Showdown Rank means for you, is that you will be able to participate in serious, competitive matches on a weekly basis. More often if you send a lot of challenges. If this sounds good to you, you can leave a comment or send me a PM indicating you would like to participate in beta testing the site. Beyond helping me find bugs and do load testing, this will allow you to give me feedback on the site and help shape the final form it will take. I'm planning to start beta testing around May 1st, depending on how long it takes me to finish up the remaining work on getting the site's core features functioning. Please let me know before then if you are interested.

 

Good to see you're putting more time into this

Not sure if you're aware but the mods here are planning online tournaments for FS, i'd imagine that your ranking system would compliment these tournaments well if you and the mods could work something out together.

http://virtuafighter.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/319043/1

^ That's the thread, the tournaments are still in the planning stage.

 

The site isn't really designed for holding tournaments, so I'm not sure how that would work. I was planning on maybe adding a tournament feature some time in the future, but I might be better off making a separate site for that. Anyway, if any VFDC mods want on the beta list to check the site out and see how it could fit into what they're doing, I'd definitely let them in.

 

The beta launch date is May 1st actually. I had it as March 1st before by mistake, but I changed it. I dunno why you were still seeing March.

 

I'll beta test

 

This sounds like a great idea to me. I won't be able to beta test, but I would definitely use this if you complete it. It will be a great motivator for people to practice and get better. Regarding myself, I'm a new player and would love the opportunity to compete against experienced players. I'm sure that would be a great step in improving my game.

Thanks for trying to make something for the community.

 

So far I have the following people on the beta tester list:

Feck
Tricky
Tripsem

I'd like to get at least 20 people in this test, and at most 50, so keep it coming guys. Being a beta tester really isn't going to be that hard. All I'm going to ask you to do is attempt to use the site and report any errors you get to me. No special skills are required. However, if anyone happens to have a decent amount of hacking talent and wants to try to break my site's security, that would be fine too.

 

I'll do it.

 

Sign me up as a beta tester.

 

Sounds like a nice idea.
I´ll help with the betatesting, but do you have a rough idea how long this will go?

 

Good question. I plan to run the beta test from May 1st to whenever the official release date of Final Showdown happens to be. Sega hasn't told us when that is quite yet, so I can't give an exact date. My suspicion is though, given the timing of the pre-release party, the game will be released some time around June 1st. My goal is that Final Showdown Rank will be ready to open up and serve the general public by then.

 

What's the duty of a beta tester? I would like to help too but i'm in italy and my connection is mostly laggy with other people in europe

 

I'll help you out with beta testing Xzy.

 

sign me up

 

Here is an updated list of beta testers:

Feck
Tricky
Tiripsem
Richkwondo
JackyB
westtrade
Kamais_Ookin
AnimalStaccato

Still need at least 12 more people, so don't be shy guys.

Mister: The beta testing process is mainly so people can mess with the site and discover any bugs it may have. You can attempt to use the site normally, or you can attempt to screw with it and do things to try and break it. It's up to you.

 

Ok count me in

 

I'll beta

 

In case I didnt make it clear, the question about the Timeschedule was just out of curiosity, its nothing mendatory for my participation.
Straight: Count me in.

 

I'm going to try my damnest to break that site as fast as I can. I like breaking things (evil laugh) if only I could hack too.