A player Reputation/Power score that affect battle rewards

[Quaeckernaeck]

Someone pointed out in another thread that there is nothing in place that makes the game more difficult for players or clans who dominate. I don't believe success should be punished by using penalties, but I do believe it would be healthy for the game if there was a mechanism in place to make the life of the successful a little more interesting and to make being an underdog a little more rewarding.

 

The short version is this: Give every player a Reputation/Notoriety/Power score and scale battle rewards based on the reputation of the enemies that a player was fighting.

 

This reputation/power score should be transparent and simple for players to understand and affect. There would be passive and active components to a person's power score.

 

Passive:

* Number, rate, and quality of ships owned

* Economy buildings

* (pending coming update) national influence via port battles etc

* Size or power of nation and/or clan

 

Active:

* Battles won against a foe with a higher power score in the past month (or other arbitrary time period)

* Battles won against foes with a significantly higher BR rating in the past month

 

Each player's reputation score would be displayed alongside their name and clan tag on the open world and presumably in the battle screen as well. Players looking for glory and big spoils can look for and target enemies with high reputation.

 

Battle rewards in Naval Action are based on damage, with bonuses for kills and assists. Right now, if you want a bigger chance at gold marines you want to win a contested port battle and do lots of damage in that battle. Who the enemy is does not matter. With a reputation score system, the battle rewards including gold, upgrades, notes, and resources would be scaled according to the reputation of the enemy.

 

Let's create a hypothetical example: In an alternate universe, Lord Vicious and the SORRY clan fight a battle against a crew of twenty-five French players. Given the current landscape of the game, the Pirates here have very high reputation while the French have very low reputation.

 

If the Pirates win the battle, they get the regular gold and other rewards based on damage. Nothing exciting, but they got the job done.

If the French win, they get that and a nice pile of extra gold (+50%?), better mods if those drop, and a boost to their own reputations for a month. Gold marines for everyone!

 

A second hypothetical: Lord Vicious sailing a constitution is jumped by three players in frigates. Even though his reputation is very high, the three enemies together have even more and Lord Vicious knows that any damage he does in the battle will result in extra rewards at the end even if he loses his ship. If by his tremendous skill and courage he manages to win, he gets a rare boost to his already remarkable pile of reputation.

 

How would a system like this improve the game?

* Give players a new goal beyond leveling up and capturing ports, and a new reason to stay active in PVP.

* Provides added value and rewards for open world PVP.

* Incentivizes players to fight those who are powerful over attacking random newbies.

* Incentivizes players to fight battles when outnumbered.

* Gives a small bonus to smaller nations stuck fighting as underdogs, unless they happen to be really successful at PVP.

* It does all this without actively penalizing players who join a big clan in the biggest nation.

 

Feedback is appreciated. New ideas and tweaks are welcome.

 

Apologies are extended to the French nation for questioning their naval prowess. Fighting you guys is fun even if we would rather be fighting alongside you against the pirate scourge.

[Fellvred]

I like the idea but a personal score for each player would probably take a lot of work to keep balanced and stop people abusing the system. An easier way might be just giving bonuses based on the number of players on each nation.

[Hethwill]

My take on Reputation is all about Ranks and get away with the XP grind.

 

But it would be a little bit too demanding and savage.

 

So...Giving out bonuses ? In all honesty there's enough bonuses already.

[Ledinis]

I like the idea but a personal score for each player would probably take a lot of work to keep balanced and stop people abusing the system. An easier way might be just giving bonuses based on the number of players on each nation.

Same opportunity to be abused, creating alts on an enemy nation, people that stoped playing still counting towards the nations population... the possibilities are endless  

[Fellvred]

My take on Reputation is all about Ranks and get away with the XP grind.

 

But it would be a little bit too demanding and savage.

 

So...Giving out bonuses ? In all honesty there's enough bonuses already.

 

True but I think the idea is to push people towards a playstyle which helps the game as a whole. If a new captain saw playing as Sweden/France gave +20% gold and XP, (since they have few people) while being British/Pirate gave -20%, the nation populations would be much more equal.

 

 

 

 

Same opportunity to be abused, creating alts on an enemy nation, people that stoped playing still counting towards the nations population... the possibilities are endless 

 

 

or maybe have an active system depending on the number of people logged on to that nation at that time - would also help people playing outside of the main timezones of their nation.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Fellvred

[Quaeckernaeck]

So...Giving out bonuses ? In all honesty there's enough bonuses already.

 

The idea here isn't to create new bonuses per se but to hand out the end of battle bonuses in a way that incentivizes challenging PVP so that one-sided port battles aren't the only way to play the game.

 

 

Same opportunity to be abused, creating alts on an enemy nation, people that stoped playing still counting towards the nations population... the possibilities are endless

 

I tried to stay away from anything that would invite abuse here. Players, including myself, would want to gain reputation even though more reputation = less gold/economy. If the British wanted bigger bonuses they could buy hundreds of alts at $40 a pop to "boost" the smaller nations, but otherwise they only way to get a big bonus would be to play for a small nation.

 

The only abuse I can imagine would be from potential pirate vs pirate action, but fixing pirates is a different discussion.

[Hethwill]

Ah, I misunderstood one thing.

 

You are suggesting this with the present situation in mind and not with a fresh start with everyone back to zero.

 

Still I stand for a hardcore Achievements "ladder" rather than a XP grind rank.

 

Nation bonuses...hmmm.. why not, for everyone but please no bonuses directly related to combat instances.