I know it's a long shot, but this might make the game a little more interesting and could help give people a way to use up their money they have stockpiled.

We all know that judges are not perfect.. why not have it so part of setting up a contest is also paying for judges to judge your competition. Better judges cost more and give more accurate scores. Cheaper judges (free/intern judges) are not going to be as accurate.

So for each contest day, have say x number of judges available who can judge. Maybe like this...
Music Judges:
Judge in Training - scores +/-5 points of actual score. gives no preference to groups. Free of charge
Bob Judge - scores +/-2 points of actual score. +1.0 gives preference to Div 2 groups. Charges $300
Jennifer Judge - scores +/- 1 points of actual score. gives +.05 preference to groups who have never won finals. charges $500
Dave Judge - scores +/-1 points of actual score. gives +.1 preference to past champions. charges $700
Nick Judge - scores +/-0.1 points of actual score. gives no preference. charges $1000

Visual Judges:
Judge in Training - scores +/-5 points of actual score. gives no preference to groups. Free of charge
Raymond Judge - scores +/-3 points of actual score. gives +.05 preference to Div 3 groups. Charges $200
Alex Judge - scores +/- 1 points of actual score. gives +.05 preference to groups who have never won finals. charges $600
Michelle Judge - scores +/-1 points of actual score. gives +.1 preference to past champions. charges $900
Sara Judge - scores +/-0.1 points of actual score. gives no preference. charges $1500

etc.

Regionals and Finals will have actual scoring. Judges must be selected after you purchase the event. Judges names for each show can be seen by everyone but the judge stats can only be seen AFTER being accepted to a show or once a show has been filled or ended. All judges will have their positive/negative effects except the most expensive.

The kicker... there would only be a set amount of judges to choose from (say 25 in each subcaption for each type of group). A judge can only judge once per day so whoever creates their shows first can have first pick at selecting a judge. If you don't have the funds or the other judges are all selected, you can select a Judge in Training which is free and can be used as often as needed.

Thoughts?

I really like the idea. Adds in a bit of a "random" element that I think this game could really use, and helps siphon off some of the incredible excess money that some people/leagues can't truly use. And those are just a few of the benefits it would bring!

Definitely! I'd actually donate some money for this (and not through the store) but I know how busy he is.. I'm like 3 months late launching HelpMeMarch for the new DCI season. lol


An even more interesting way to do the judge costs, would be a % based on the the of corps that show up.. (why should a judge be paid the same for a 5 group show compared to a 30 group show?)

For example:
Raymond Judge charges $200 to judge, he will also add on $10 per group
Michelle Judge charges $900 to judge, and wants $20 per group
Sara Judge charges $1500 to judge and wants $5 per group

I like this a lot!

I hope we can find a way to implement at least some form of this idea, it's really cool!

While I know that Alex is busy with life in general, I do hope he is working on some things to reinvigorate the game because it has been nearly 2 years without a major update other than the energy level being bumped up. A new bit of randomness I think would really help.

Adding onto that, something I enjoyed about the last version is having to choose the number of members in each section and how many sets you had. While I don't expect anything like that to occur again, perhaps we could implement a status type bar of how complete the show is on the field. That gives us something else to burn our energy into which can help (in the early game at least) diffuse the amount of energy and also lowers how many points are going into the score as it is right now. Something I think Cire can get behind. Example:

For DC, MB, and DL you have one bar for how much of the charts are done, another for how much music is also on the field, and another for choreography. Then for WG you have one for charts and another for equipment/movement.

That helps feel like the pre-season is more of a "real" band camp. Depending on our difficulty level, the harder it is for us to fill those bars too. Which brings me to my next idea.

Right now, we can only spend our money on staff and hosting contests. How about we try to combine two ideas into one. Each district in real life has their own challenges of funding the arts and how good their "feeder" programs/schools are. The better the feeder schools, the better the performers on the field tend to be (normally mind you). So how about we have to spend money as an "upkeep" for our music programs. The more money you put in, the better equipment and kids you have in your program. The better they are, the better/faster they are at learning the show too. Not so great of a school (or beginners) can't really do a difficult show because it would take them a long time to learn it but could perform a lower level show better but would face the peak value of the show as they already do now. This also builds the need again for us to actually do fundraisers so that we can continue to pour money into the arts (and for us to actually put energy into fundraising after we have practically maxed out our staff). This is just a rough idea of course.

Obviously a change like this would also require pretty much everything to also end up being reset such as staff levels, money, etc (perhaps we could still keep our trophies though at least?), but I think it would really ignite the long time members too. Like I said, just throwing out my two cents.

I like all these ideas, but I feel as if these judging changes would greatly hurt the beginning groups. And as for having a limited number of each type of judge available, I don't know. It seems like there is a little TOO much randomness... Especially with the 10 point scoring zone for judges in training. I don't think even a judge in training would be THAT far off...

All in all I like the ideas. But I don't want the game to be more random than the real world (for judgement that is). Just add a weathor plan and it would be complete.

Maybe we could somehow implement a leadership aspect to staff/section leaders/drum majors. The better leaders they are, the more likely you are to get a higher score. This couldbe linked with challenge level maybe. Just a thought.

Those numbers were all examples to show variations.. it could be a .3 variance or whatever.

I'd like to see challenges that can either boost or hurt your groups depending on how you react to them. It could just be an event like staff member leaves and you have to pay so much to replace them or find someone cheaper or something that every group goes through. (Fairly certain this has been said before...) Also, I remember in FMA 1 there was the ability to do rewrites and buy different equipment. Although I'm not sure how much the equipment played a role.

The problem I see with the feeder programs idea is that wouldn't make sense for the drum corps circuit-- not to mention if someone has their indoor groups as a sort of independent group deal.

The judges idea is interesting though. And making it so you can see the judges until after acceptance is a great way to keep people from avoiding certain judges.

I mentioned a long time ago about having staff that would leave or retire after x amount of seasons.. you would lose their stats and would have to start over again with replacing them. It would be another good way to keep people from ending up with money they will never be able to use, and also keep the game more interesting

That would very much indeed help with the scores in guard I'll tell yah that...

That would work really well. Although what if staff had a certain percent chance of leaving and after each rank up, that chance grows? It would probably need to be a slow curve going up, but I dunno. Just a thought. X amount of seasons works pretty well though.

Right now, the constant staff thing kinda reminds me of BD :P lol

You mean how the BD staff are amazing and the main guys don't switch out every year?

Exactly my point xD it's like having level 30 staff EVERY SEASON

It would be silly not to now wouldn't it :)

Very true. lol I have all level twenty guard staff (plis some 21s) and the rest of my grpups still have some level 13s

In other words, I'm nowhere near level 30s yet!

You will get there eventually!

Not if they all quit! xD

How about this: when a staff member leaves, you can hire another staff member of that position at half the level of the previous one? That way you aren't starting from square one every time a staff member leaves. Especially if it is a rather expensive one like an assistant director...