Iron Chef Optimization Challenge In The Playground XLIV

[Kazyan]

From what I've seen, if you have to have it, judges generally don't dock Originality. You have to have it, after all.

[Thurbane]

That's always a balancing act in IC - using know tactics (or known cheese) will often get you a boost in Power but possibly a hit in Originality.

[Callin]

okay then.

[Phippster]

During the last competition, nearly every (if not every) entry used Arcane Strike for Bladesinger, and all the judges commented that it was a standard tactic that all gishes use, so it was an obvious exception to the rule.

So for must-have feats, Arcane Strike appears to be one for a Gish Dish.

[Kazyan]

During the last competition, nearly every (if not every) entry used Arcane Strike for Bladesinger, and all the judges commented that it was a standard tactic that all gishes use, so it was an obvious exception to the rule.

So for must-have feats, Arcane Strike appears to be one for a Gish Dish.

I wasn't looking for Arcane Strike specifically during that, but I got out my red stamp when a build couldn't do a significant chunk of damage, and Arcane Strike was the most reliable way to appease my wrath. Blood sacrifices came a close second.

[Piggy Knowles]

I'll never dock originality for a required feat. Darkstalker on a stealth character, Craven or penetrating strike on a sneak attack build, Power Attack on a two-handed fighter, Natural Spell on a druid - those kinds of things will never see an originality penalty from me.

Darkstalker in particular is a big one because you sort of need it to make the whole hiding schtick work in the first place. You can make a decent melee build without Power Attack or an SA-focused build without Craven, especially if you've got other sources of bonus damage. But stealth without Darkstalker just doesn't work under any DM who is actually paying attention to his monster's abilities.

(That being said, while I'll never dock originality for something required like that, you might see a bonus if you've found a way around needing it. Show me a clever way to negate concealment or SA-immune enemies without penetrating strike and weapon crystals, or a way of avoiding common "auto-detection" on a stealth build without Darkstalker, and I'll almost certainly give you a bonus.)

[Callin]

nother question. After all the judgin is done is it then ok to say who's build was who's or should that be done in the next IC thread?

[The Viscount]

During the last competition, nearly every (if not every) entry used Arcane Strike for Bladesinger, and all the judges commented that it was a standard tactic that all gishes use, so it was an obvious exception to the rule.

So for must-have feats, Arcane Strike appears to be one for a Gish Dish.

Not necessarily, but it makes sense for Bladesinger since so many builds were duskblades, which have more spells per day than you can shake a stick at.

[Piggy Knowles]

nother question. After all the judgin is done is it then ok to say who's build was who's or should that be done in the next IC thread?

All the chefs will be revealed when judging closes tomorrow. There's usually at least some discussion still on the thread after the contest closes, but after a couple of days most of us tend to move to the new thread.

[Callin]

thank ya thank ya

[Overlord Rion]

I have good news, bad news, and worse news

Good news: I finished judging!

Bad news: My computer crashed

Worse News: I lost the word document I was keeping my judgings on.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I have good news, bad news, and worse news

Good news: I finished judging!

Bad news: My computer crashed

Worse News: I lost the word document I was keeping my judgings on.

Did You have some sort of Autosave feature turned on? If so, it's almost always possible to dig it out of the dregs of your Temp folders.

[Piggy Knowles]

I have good news, bad news, and worse news

Good news: I finished judging!

Bad news: My computer crashed

Worse News: I lost the word document I was keeping my judgings on.

Terrible news! I would be insanely frustrated if that happened.

I try to do as much as possible in Google Docs for this very reason - everything is pretty much 100% recoverable for ages. I will sometimes switch to offline mode if I want to take my laptop to work with me, but if I'm somewhere with an internet connection I try to work that way.

Hope you can find a way to recover the file. Good luck!

[nobodez]

Yeah, I'm glad Text Edit does autosave. So much easier. I still make it a habit to save periodically anyway. I've lost too many files to accidental quits and rogue deletes.

[Overlord Rion]

I'm trying to find it, but signs are currently pointing to it being gone, alone with a few other things as well.

[Kazyan]

If you saved an earlier version of the judging and the files seem to have been deleted, see if Recuva can find anything. It's an undeleter.

[Overlord Rion]

Well, that worked is the good news.

The bad news is that I had only done about 5 the last time I saved.

[Callin]

OMG Dude that sucks! If you can find it then ya can. If not then I still appreciate the time ya spent on it.

[Kazyan]

Maybe you can find the temporary file leftover from when you were working? Those are hidden files that require you to allow hidden files to be displayed. Sometimes they don't get deleted, such as in the event of a crash. The temporary files have $~ as their first two characters, replacing the first two of the file name.

Thanks for trying, anyway. We appreciate it!

[Piggy Knowles]

Re-reading my scores and some of the responses to the scoring, I don't know that I got something clear with my judging when I posted my rubric.

I consider "12" to be the ideal baseline scores. 12 means that you've got a pretty solid build - it may not win any awards for originality but it has its own feel and avoids known cheese, it can hold its own in a party, it would be playable at most tables, and it makes decent use of at least half of the SI's abilities.

This contest was actually pretty stunning because almost every single build was well above average. 16 out of 22 builds were above 12, which again, I consider to be a pretty good build. And the fact that there are fully four builds that are 15 or above is fantastic. The highest score I've given a build in the previous judgings I've done was 14.5. It's not a result of disliking the builds, it's more a result of scoring philosophy.

(Nor does that mean that if you got below 12, you should feel bad! It just means there were maybe some issues that need to be tightened up.)

The builds in this contest were across the board excellent, especially considering how difficult many of the SI's class features were to use, and the big drawbacks inherent in the class.

[FyreByrd]

Re-reading my scores and some of the responses to the scoring, I don't know that I got something clear with my judging when I posted my rubric.

I consider "12" to be the ideal baseline scores. 12 means that you've got a pretty solid build - it may not win any awards for originality but it has its own feel and avoids known cheese, it can hold its own in a party, it would be playable at most tables, and it makes decent use of at least half of the SI's abilities.

This contest was actually pretty stunning because almost every single build was well above average. 16 out of 22 builds were above 12, which again, I consider to be a pretty good build. And the fact that there are fully four builds that are 15 or above is fantastic. The highest score I've given a build in the previous judgings I've done was 14.5. It's not a result of disliking the builds, it's more a result of scoring philosophy.

(Nor does that mean that if you got below 12, you should feel bad! It just means there were maybe some issues that need to be tightened up.)

The builds in this contest were across the board excellent, especially considering how difficult many of the SI's class features were to use, and the big drawbacks inherent in the class.

Thanks for the "clarification" Piggy.

I think there's been a pretty high standard of entries, with what is in some ways quite a lackluster ingredient, and to have so many entries that are deemed as playable (or at least can serious contribute to a game/party) shows some pretty mad chefing skills around here!

[Callin]

Piggy starts to raise my spirits and then dashes them against the rocks...


(nah im kidding)

[Haluesen]

Ah man, I'm so sorry Overlord. I hate the feeling of losing progress. I hope you didn't lose anything else important to you on the computer. And thank you for putting in all the time for judging and whatnot. It takes so much dedication.

Hmm very interesting thought Piggy. Makes me feel somewhat confident about how my character went. And makes me really kinda wish I had tried my second idea, just to see what people here would think.

So when does the next one start now? Today or tomorrow?

[Vaz]

All 3 of my choices for HM have placed. Heh. I'll go for Atlas, i liked the Atlantis theme. I think choosing your own is bad form?

[Piggy Knowles]

All 3 of my choices for HM have placed. Heh. I'll go for Atlas, i liked the Atlantis theme. I think choosing your own is bad form?

I was always under the impression that voting yourself for HM was frowned on. And yeah, I had a lot of trouble picking HM. I had it down to a choice between Atlas and St. Poive, and finally more or less flipped a coin and went with giving it to Atlas.

Less than an hour now. Unless any stealth judges sneak in some scores last minute, this looks like a one-judger...

[Kuulvheysoon]

Less than an hour now. Unless any stealth judges sneak in some scores last minute, this looks like a one-judger...

Damn - looks like I was off by an hour. No matter - I believe that you guys are waiting for something...


Final Tallies After One Judge
{table=head]Entry|Place|Score
The Custodian, by Deadline|Gold|16
Dorn Cratermaker, by Gotterdammerung|Silver|15.5
Rashid Abd al-Haqq, by The Viscount|Bronze|15.25
St Poive, by Kayzan|Fourth|15
Nekaph, by Vaz|Fifth|14.75
Robin, by Venger|Fifth|14.5
Atlas, by lazers etcetera|Fifth|14.5
Mehka DoHickie, by Macabaret|Eighth|14
Miron Teos, by Fyrebyrd|Ninth|13.75
Dorian the Gray, by Venger|Ninth|13.75
The Sea Tiger, by Kayzan|Eleventh|13.5
Walter Penstapho, by dysprosium|Eleventh|13.5
Cornan, by yugi24862|Eleventh|13.5
Kylar Antilles, by Phippster|Eleventh|13.5
Lady Eboshi, by The Viscount|Fourteenth|13
Randal Ras, Amphetryon|Fifteenth|12.75
Oscar Twinkle, by Haluesen|Seventeenth|11.75
Master of None, by Deadline|Eighteenth|11
Lord Dorian, by Callin|Nineteenth|10.5
Judge Dee, by 8wGremlin|Twentieth|10.25
Kaladin, by nedz|Twenty-First|9.25
Deitoreth, by Warkan|Twenty-Second|7.75[/table]

One more time, a hearty round of applause for all competitors and our fabulous judge!

Iron Chef XLV will be up momentarily.

[Callin]

Vaz told you I would do worse than you!

edit: Congrats to the winners!

[Amphetryon]

Nice job, all.

Thurbane, thanks for the nod you gave Randal Ras for HM. Hopefully you'll be able to compete next round.

[The Viscount]

Great competition this time everyone! Many thanks to Piggy for judging all of our entries; I know it can't have been easy.
I couldn't resist doing Lady Eboshi this time around. It called to me too strongly to resist. The result isn't exactly good, but it was pretty fun.

[Amechra]

Applause for everyone!

I'll be throwing my hat in the ring next time, so don't rest on your laurels!