I wanted to see other people's thoughts about an idea to remove division III from the game. Currently, there just aren't enough groups to make finals exciting. In season 79, especially for division 1, only drum corps had enough groups to have groups eliminated before finals. This means for the others, nobody gets eliminated.

If we reduced the game down to two divisions, that means there would be plenty of groups to eliminate after prelims and still be able to eliminate groups for finals. If that were to happen in season 79, drum corps had a total of 82 groups meaning 41 in each division (in reality div. 2 would have more groups from new players joining mid season). That would mean 21 at semis and 12 at finals.

What do you guys think about this? Do you think this is an issue like I do?

I dont think its really an issue.... especially if we ever have an increase in activity which usually in the next few weeks we see that.

I agree that it isn't an issue. Removing a division removes the incentive for new players to get a taste of the game whilst being able to at least achieve something in their early seasons like medalling and getting into finals. I do feel there needs to be more attractive achievements to retain players in order to sustain the community here e.g. a combined World Championships similar to dci where all the divisions compete together. I've seen a couple of Div II groups and even Div III groups that are strong enough to make finals in Div I. This will more likely be in line with what you are suggesting and would be a much more viable option, although it might prolong the season which the duration is debatable

I like your thought process SIA! You can accomplish this by removing the "prep" day between the end of season and Division Prelims and start right into the division competitions. Then the day that is now Finals day could be "a regardless of division Grand Championship" similar to BOA with representation from all divisions.

Sounds good! Unfortunately, for any real change to happen to this game it has to go through Alex, who hasn't been active here in an awfully long while to focus on other things. Do keep your hopes up though, discussion at some point may lead to action (;

There's been a couple of times that there were some issues that I needed Alex's help with and when I emailed him, he was very quick to respond. However, I think we'll need a much bigger buy in from more than us few in order to get him to modify the game. If we can get some more feed back on the topic, I am willing to reach out to Alex.

I'm in for a new update

Sounds like a good idea

I'm a new player, what's a division?

There are three divisions in each circuit. All divisions are based on skill within the game. At the end of each season’s preseason week all ensembles in all circuits are put into divisions based on the criteria that Alex set on the back end of the site.

Typically it’s like this...

Division I is for the veteran players that have been with FMA for a number of seasons or have played the game really well.

Division II ensembles are veterans for the most part but there are some new-ish players to the game in this division.

Division III is your typical division where you see new players to the game or those that play sporadically.

Hope this helps.

-Wayne

I emailed Alex recently and he has other priorities. FMA is low on his list. Don't expect any game rewrites.