DestrAuction Pod is not actually a pod, hell, it's not even a mod, but it's an entirely different way to play the game, competitively. Two teams race to beat the game first, while an Auctioneer is present to take bids on destroying each others modules! DotE may have tested your ability to analyze doors before you open them, but the DestrAuction Pod will test your competitive spirit and fast thinking!



Setup:

Two teams comprising of 1 to 4 players per team. (I have no recommended optimal player amount, except that 1v1 is probably best until they fix MP.)

One Auctioneer/referee (enthusiasm is nice to have). The referee's job is to do a little bit of record keeping, as well as hold module destruction auctions (aka "DestrAuctions").

Each team needs a direct video feed of their opponent's game, so it is recommended to use twitch. Twitch broadcast delays are not favorable, but acceptable (seeing as it hinders both teams). For best results, play head to head!

Awesome bidding destrAuctions will require your party's favorite flavor of VOIP/Teamspeak.



Pre-Game Options:

Confer with your party and decide on the following:

# of players per team

Pod to select

Random hero select on/off

Whether or not pausing is allowed (1v1 only)

Whether or not to assign a spectator partner to each team. The spectator has no direct control of the actual game client, but they can still assist in helping their teammates in the thinking parts of the game and even participate in destrAuctions!

My recommended setup:

1v1

Easy Escape Pod

Characters may be selected

Pausing is allowed. The game is actually quite hard if you're speed running without pause on Easy. The bidding and racing mechanics that I've yet to describe will make the game hard enough that I don't expect many 1v1s to completely finish a race without dying

Probably having a spectator teammate until players get the hang of keeping an eye on their opponent.



Objective: The team with the highest amount of floors reached wins. In the event of a tie, the highest score determines the winning team. If a team runs out of heroes, the team is not yet technically eliminated. The remaining team still has to reach and exceed the dead team's floor amount or score for the game to be over.



The 2nd Position Penalty:

For every floor you are farther than the opposing team, the opposing team is required to pay a variable amount of industry. This rule is in place to stimulate fast play

To get the penalty amount, take the number of floors you're leading your opponent by and multiply that by 10, and then multiply that by the number of floors you've reached.

Every time a player enters the elevator screen, a check is made to see if your opponent is farther than you. If so, you must pay the penalty. Note: Players are not penalized with this when they reach floor 2. It's just not fair to penalize a team for the first floor if the first floor usually doesn't take very long. That doesn't mean that everyone will take their time on first floor though, because you'll still get a head start for the next floors!



Paying up: If you are ever penalized or need to pay for bidding, you must pay the required industry amount by creating and destroying modules equal to the cost. You cannot simply destroy modules you've already built to satisfy the payment So that way, you can't just abuse this mechanic right before you leave the floor and have no use for modules. You may choose any type of module to pay for this effect. Remember, you can hold off on paying for as long as you like, as long as you do it before you open the next door. If your team can't pay before opening, you can pay later, but you owe the bank four times the remaining amount, and this time, the amount must be paid before exiting the floor. Floor 12 is a special case, as payments cannot be delayed until the end of the floor. In the event that there are no more remaining doors (basically if you're on floor 12 with all rooms opened), then no payment penalties will apply, nor can you take any actions that require paying. If you do not have an immediately accessible module slot, the penalty will be temporarily suspended until you have a module slot (of any kind) to do so. Note: You aren't required to destroy an artifact to find an empty module slot. You don't have to pay immediately during a DestrAuction either (you can wait until the furious bidding action has died down), but it is good practice to keep track of how much you'll owe. In the event that both teams are unable to pay before exiting a floor, the team that owes less wins.

DestrAuction! ©:

The Initial Call:

At any time that both teams are not in the fighting active phase or in another bidding phase, you have the option of calling for a bid. Yes, you can even bid during the loading screen. The cost to "call" is 6 for floors 1-3, 18 for floors 4-6, 36 for floors 7-9, and 48 for floors 10-12, multiplied by the number of calls you've made before this one (so your first call every floor is free!). The amount of calls you've made resets to zero upon entering a new floor. . The auctioneer will then check to see that both teams are not actually in the active phase and that the calling team actually has the required amount to pay for the call. If any of the requirements are not met, the auctioneer should say "Your call is denied!", but otherwise, the auctioneer should say "Call accepted. Bidding will commence in 5 hippopotamuses! 5 hippopotamus, 4 hippo... (you get the idea)" During the entirety of the call action, the team that was called is at option of cancelling the call altogether by simply opening a door, but the auctioneer must *see* the effect over twitch, so you can't just call out that you're going to open a door. More hippopotamuses may be added to compensate for broadcast delay. In any event where the caller was denied or cancelled, the caller does not need to pay any amount, nor does the amount of calls he's made increase.



Bid overview: The caller directs the called to point his camera at any desired location of the map, and chooses a room to bid DestrAuction on. If the bidder wins, he can pay to destroy modules as desired.



Getting kicked out of the bid:

All players are required to stop controlling their heroes/games in any way, immediately after bidding has commenced. If the referee decides that any player takes any sort of in-game action, that player's team forfeits their participation in the auction, as if the team was simply silent during the auction altogether. If the calling team is responsible, they must still pay the cost, and then play resumes as normal. If the team that was called is responsible, the calling team can describe the room they would like to bid on. The description of the room can be vague, just as long as the caller's description enables the auctioneer to definitively select a single room that the called team has at least a single module in.



Bidding Commences:

Once everyone behaves, the calling team will instruct the called team to direct their camera as desired and select a room to bid on. Note that this part of the bidding is not timed, and it's one of the few times that a little bit of sportsmanship is suggested. If a player has reached this far in the rules, it is my belief that they would not be so asinine as to stall the game to abuse the rules, but fortunately the presence of a referee protects all of the other rules from abuse (in theory). Back to it then. Every bid increment is always the exact amount that the module costs to build. An exception must be made for variable cost of main modules, so the bidding increment for those is either equal to half of what it would cost to create a new one, or the initial starting cost, whichever is higher. The auctioneer selects a module in the room, prioritizing the top most and then left most module by the base (so module height doesn't matter). For every module, the called team is at first option to bid just once on their own module(s). After that, the calling team selects which, if any, modules to bid on. It's legal for the calling team to simply stop bidding altogether, in which case the called team may still owe a significant amount to the "bank". If they do choose any modules to bid on, then the bidding war is in full effect. Any auction that the caller wins results in the destruction of the corresponding module, with the timing of the destruction being pretty much the same as the payment penalty timing; before a door is opened.



Bid protection (no, not eBay):

As long as there are no auctions taking place, a team is at option of secretly investing money into a target module. Every point of industry you put into a module will count as double during the destrAuction! The investing team can send a sort of private message to the referee. If the other team interrupts the referee with any legal action (including attempting to initiate a private transaction of their own!), the referee will inform the original investing team that he is being interrupted. The investing team can either continue the conversation publicly or temporarily suspend the conversation until desired. The investor selects a module, and declares any amount of industry. After the referee confirms the choices, the investment amount immediately doubles. If the module in question is ever targeted during a destrAuction, the investor may spend the investment amount in any way desired as long as the investor spends or bids it on that target. Due to the private nature of paying for protection, your payment is suspended until you reach the next floor... but if you're on floor 12, you'd have to pay immediately (as normal), making it not so private of an action. Still, as long as you're not on floor 12, the opposing team is never informed of how much you protected your modules by, other than the big lump sum you'll owe at the beginning of the next floor. The player and referee are encouraged to play off destrAuctions as if the player was actually spending money.



Misc Rules:

You're considered to advance a floor after the loading screen entirely finishes. So a team of four players are all still on floor 1 until all of them have completely loaded into the 2nd.

Anywho, if you've managed to put up with my weirdness and want to put up with more, I'd be happy to try this out. If someone volunteers to be the Auctioneer, they can say "DestrAuction!"...