- Snowfire suggested to me that we keep the automatic bids for champions from each season, with the possible exception of Godlike, and just bump them up one division. Would people prefer that, or since DL seasons will be about 3 months apart, having maximum nom slots?
Well guess I'm already on record here. Definitely strongly in favor of *not* having the Godlike champs return (except perhaps in a bonus match with the next season's champ or something) since the whole fun is seeing how a champion does in a higher division, and there isn't a higher division to go to, and Yuna / Ghaleon / etc. ended up being the most overused duelers in the old DL.
- Some of the games currently ranked are somewhat questionable from interp and player standpoints. Do people want to put them through the ranking process properly, and if so is it a one-time deal or should there be a general unranking procedure?
Not worth the time and effort on a game level. (On a character level, see below.)
- The new ranking process is very cutthroat (see also: we didn't rank anything). I think this is partly because it wasn't wholly clear what votes meant. Does anyone want to give those games another shot, or should they wait for more players/interest?
-Speaking of, for games that have been turned down for ranking but not rejected outright, should I use strictly getting more players before they get another shot, or should there be a way to vote them into the list?
Democracy can give a good starting point, but I am totally fine with just judgment calling it. It is not worth the extra effort to try and stir up debate on something like this or do re-votes or something, it's not the end of the world either way. Just go back and re-interpret the votes however you like; make it so the "best" third of the bubble is allowed, since the point of a bubble is they're all supposed to be borderline. If you want suggestions, I advocate using an "enthusiasm matters" standpoint. Lufia I has anti-enthusiasism, so no. But some people obviously still care about Mana Khemia 2 and Mega Man X Command Mission (I played neither, for the record). I'd strongly advocate for allowing Cthulhu Saves the World in, as the 8 players of it listed all vote and it's actually recent and people obviously care somewhat.
- It hadn't occurred to me before, but with the open rankings I'm using, it's technically possible to nom characters who have no business being in a season (for example, Blue). Obviously that's not really acceptable, and I'll have to keep a list of unnommable characters. Do you want to try and assemble a list from the outset, or should such things be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and hopefully it's a rare occurrence?
- It's possible that open noms might get a little abusive with obscure random duellers no one remembers existing, let alone what they do. How aggressive should I be in culling such noms?
A list of unnommable characters would be far too huge, at least if it is of "characters who should not really be nom'd" rather than "characters too powerful to be nominated." Just do it on a case-by-case basis. (Or of course "use the old DL ranks, judgment call for games not ranked by the old DL," but you're a fan of everything-is-ranked, so). Harmless to have some examples, I suppose.
Basically, the following attributes are like junk food: fine as a once-in-awhile-treat, but very dangerous in combination. Too powerful, unmemorable / plotless, hard to interpret in the DL, default DL interpretation very different from how they work in-game (even if interp is clear), and potential giant respect split. Retinite hits like 4/5 of these, so yeah, I know it's from Chrono Trigger, but that's just too many dang strikes. The occasional dueler somebody likes getting in despite some questionable issues is fine; if they start taking up too much of the bracket, then it's an issue, and it's especially an issue for duelers who are maybe High Godlike / Bluelike. Note also that merely "losing to character X" doesn't make something rankable; Repede is merely Godlike if he is given average initiative, but that doesn't mean he's a good idea. For an example since he'd be ineligible anyway, FF12 Vayne gets rolled by most duelers with [infinite / super-deep] healing not based around draining, some of which are Middles, but *easily* slugfests the tankiest and most damaging bluelikes out there with the possible exception of Sulphur thanks to 3 layers of invincibility that are very hard to chip around and last way too many turns in the DL. That's not a good rank.
