I've just completed the Tournament system in Dragon's Tale and wanted to discuss it here. It's probably the most significant addition to Dragon's Tale since the Mentorship system.
How a Tournament works is an Organizer (usually an eGenesis employee, but not always) puts up a prize pool of at least 1 BTC, and divides that into prize hoppers of at least 100 Bitmill each (a Bitmill is 1/1000 BTC.) Here are some examples of prize hoppers:
* 500 Bitmill to the player with the highest winnings in Dynasty Fire
* 2 BTC to be split evenly among the 5 players with the highest jackpots in any fishing game
* 1 BTC by lottery to the player that finds the most Bitmill in plants. Each Bitmil that you find is one lottery ticket.
If a tournament consisted of these three prize hoppers, then the Organizer would need to put up 3.5 BTC to fund it and put it on the calendar. Tournaments are posted automatically to the Dragon's Tale website.
Organizers can set rules for the tournament, and this is where things get interesting. Organizers will usually set several of the following limits:
* Number of spins (wagers) that each player can make during the Tournament
* Total amount each player can wager during the tournament
* Amount of time the Tournament lasts. This can be a range like "Random length of time, 10-20 minutes."
* Must hold a ticket of type X to participate
* Must be at least Level X
* Must be a part of one of these Mentorship families: ..., ..., ...
* Spin and Wager limits per game, or game set.
So with a complex prize structure and bet limits, tournaments essentially change luck games into skill games. To play smart, you need to monitor how others are doing, which prize hoppers have a high reward vs. the amount of competition, and balance long-shot vs. slow & steady play.
Often I'll set up tournaments with no entry fee and very low bet limits (1 Bitmill, 100 spins) but with larger prizes (1 BTC). So the expected cost is, say, 5 BTM to do 100 x 1 BTM spins, but if 10 players are participating, 100 BTM average prize per player. I call these Tournaments "freerolls" because it's easy to get enough free Bitmill from soldier statues to participate; having a large bankroll gives no advantage.
As always, Dragon's Tale has no "playthrough requirements" or other nonsense - any Bitcoins that you receive or win are real, and you can withdraw them immediately, gift them to friends, or continue to play.
Dragon's Tale is a free download, with native clients for Windows, Linux, and OSX:
http://www.dragons.tlI'll use this thread to announce freerolls and other tournaments.
