Proposal TW Medals Overhaul and upgrade.

[Ardour]

[Brief sumary of idea]:
I would like to overhaul and upgrade the current medals system.

[Reasoning behind proposal]:
I remember discussing medals when Arobas+ was developing it a few years ago and I was a little annoyed because I had always had the idea but just never did anything about it. But at the same time I was excited and interested to see something being made. In the end it was nice but not as much depth as I would have liked. In public we reward players so regularly as an incentive to keep playing. TWD and TWL are our most important leagues that keep TW alive and we recognise so little.

It has so much potential but is a little dormant in its current state. Medals have been given out just for players being on the winning TWL squad roster in the past. Plus, are only shown on a player’s TWD profile? Whilst programming a TWL player profile I thought about what I wanted to see as a player and one of the most important things was TWL past achievements. Now medals don’t have to be only awarded for just winning but for so many other things aswell but one of the key things is they should be based on stats. Never opinion. Therefore they can never be contested or seen as ‘staff abuse’ or whatever.

[Best way to implement]:
This system would need at most either one table (the way the current medal system works), or 1 array field per medal type in the user table related to a league. If I am allowed, I could just improve the current system.

I could program a page that when a league was finished or TWD was being reset, it would give out the medals automatically. The current system is 1 by 1! Why have such a work load when we can automate it?!

[Detailed summary of idea]:
TWD is and always has been the only reason I continue to play trenchwars. Pub is a distraction and Javduel is for when I am so desperate to TWJD but don’t have enough online. Like a nicotine patch for a smoker! Every season I constantly check my stats and try to better or maintain the previous. Sadly, the stats go nowhere… and it’s criminal!

So I have thought up a medal system that I would like to implement. Here is a picture to keep you reading:



The medals are colour coded as per the league standard colour (Dueling = Blue, Yellow = Jav and Basing = Red.) and there are 4 different types: Bronze, Silver, Gold and MVP Star. Currently in these examples there is no difference between TWL and TWD medals, but that wouldn’t be so when they were made for real. They would be similar in theme to reflect they are a connected league but still different.

So first I thought what players should be rewarded for in TWD. I consider the most important thing to be activity. That makes these medals “easy” to achieve, but you still have to put the time in. And even if a player has lost every game they played, their medal will never reflect this… as it is an activity medal so they will still be chuffed. It means the newer players we are trying to encourage to play TW will have something to achieve in TWD. Even if they aren’t yet good enough to break in to TWL and beat the current highly skilled vets we have. And the current TWD vets can just ignore medals and not care for them if they so wish.

TWD Medals:
Dueling –
Bronze 50 Games
Silver 100 Games
Gold 150 Games
MVP Star – top 5 players with most kills

Javelin -
Bronze 50 Games
Silver 100 Games
Gold 150 Games
MVP Star – top 5 players with most kills

Basing -
Bronze 50 Games
Silver 100 Games
Gold 150 Games
MVP Star – top 5 players with most mins played

I believe TWL medals needed to have more emphasis on a players’ rec and their performance, as well as how much they played. As for Basing being on mins played for TWD and TWL, I didn’t want to base it on kills as this secludes sharks and will make it harder for terrs to gain the medal.

TWL Medals:
Dueling –
Bronze 8 games 80+ kills
Silver Runners up + 3 games 30+ kills
Gold Winners + 3 games 30+ kills
MVP Star Most kills

Javelin -
Bronze 8 games 80+ kills
Silver Runners up + 3 games 30+ kills
Gold Winners of a season + 3 games 30+ kills
MVP Star Most kills

Basing -
Bronze 8 games 100 mins played
Silver Runners up + 3 games 30 mins played
Gold Winners of a season + 3 games 30 mins played
MVP Star Most mins played

The above medals mean that as long as you contribute to a squad in TWL, you are recognised as a participant and can still get a reward(Bronze medal), even if your squad doesn’t win. The silver medal is given to the team that lose to the winning squad in the finals but players need to have still taken part during the league. And the Gold medal is only given to the winners of the season. The MVP star will be given out only once every season to one player per division making it one of the rarest medals.

A player will need to have played in that division to be eligible for a medal for that division. So if a squad triple crowns, a player that played every single LD match, but not one LJ match, wouldn’t automatically get an LJ medal. This would encourage stacking and is the precise thing that ruins competition.

I believe this system will give new players an incentive to play TWD and at the same time, will respect the achievements of past and current older players by giving them the medals they have already earned through their years of activity. We all love bragging rights! But I just love shiny things and collecting haha. Here is a picture of a TWL player profile that I have been working on. Before you say it, the medals aren’t accurate :P Just wanted to show a nice display as an example.



A nice little feature is that you can click on a medal and it loads it up with your name engraved and the season it was given. It is so cool and makes them feel so personal. I have this working already. The only mock-up picture was the TWD profile. I could also have a description of the medal and why it was given load up. This would save having a medal page devoted to why medals were given.



I could make medals for all the different levels of the money rewards that would show up on a main player profile. As well as this medal on a main player profile, it would display all medals a player has earned from all leagues within trenchwars. Including my new medal ideas of: Moderator, TWL Op, TWD Op, Sysop, etc. These medals would show players personal contributions as regards staffing and developing for trenchwars. Staff based reward medals have huge potential alone. We already store stats for hosting, taking calls. Let’s use them! Plus we could have medals for TWDT, TWT, TWEL, TWLM, TWRC, TWHT etc.

Random note: I have always thought the medals we give out should be like old war medals. This is war in the trenches after all!

you’ve played that game for how many years?! What have you got to show for it?

*gives link of medals page. Walks away - like a boss.

[RednaZ]

I really don't give a crap about any of this, but any person this dedicated to do anything for this zone at all shouldn't be stopped. Go for it.

[Rab]

I actually hate medals - because people who want medals know they have the best chance by being on the same squad together - so it encourages squad-hopping in the run-up to TWL.

Kinda seperate - but I've noticed that some players have enough medals it'll shortly start breaking the layout of the TWD website. Whatever we end up doing with medals - we should shorten the display to something like:

Rab [10 x {gold}] [5 x {silver] [1 x {bronze}]

instead of:

Rab {gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{g old}{gold}{silver}{silver}{silver}{silver}{silver} {bronze}

[Rab]

Extra thoughts on TWD stats - I think they're fairly useless in their current form.

Player-specific W/L
Wins and losses are earned by a team, so these statistics are not a reliable way of measuring how good a player is.

K/D
Kills and deaths are influenced by playing time. If you want to improve this statistic you need to make the game longer, which goes against the objective. Substitutions also ruin this as that's not even a full game played.

[Rab]

TWD medals based on the number of games is flawed because it isn't player-specific. All it says is you were in an active squad and online often and good enough to get picked on a regular basis. There's also the question of whether it should reset when you squad-hop.

[Rab]

I don't actually understand how current medals are awarded. Perhaps that could be explained.

I think it should be:

Gold = your squad won and you played
Silver = your squad came second and you played
Bronze = your squad came third and you played

[Rab]

To make a determination of player skill, a statistic must be:

Player-specific: Not influenced by squad (e.g. W/L)
Ship-independent: Applicable to all types of ship (no statistic is)
Comparable: Must be able to compare it with other players' statistics. (E.g. K/D without playing a full game)

I think this task is impossible, and that's why you can only give medals based on squad TWL finishing rank.

[Aura]

I like this.

[Ardour]

I actually hate medals - because people who want medals know they have the best chance by being on the same squad together - so it encourages squad-hopping in the run-up to TWL.

I don’t consider squad hopping as an actual criticism. In the situation of squad stacking to increase the chance of gaining a medal I cover that:

A player will need to have played in that division to be eligible for a medal for that division. So if a squad triple crowns, a player that played every single LD match, but not one LJ match, wouldn’t automatically get an LJ medal. This would encourage stacking and is the precise thing that ruins competition.”

So to actually get a medal you have to still have played in the respective league. This is the way for TWL medals currently and has been since the TWL History page has been updated since TWL season 6. People stack because they want to be on the best squad they can be and be a winner. It is so sad that this is true for the majority. In the same sense, the better team you join, the easier it is for you as a player. This will be the case with or without medals and so should not be brought up as an argument not to have a medal system.

Kinda seperate - but I've noticed that some players have enough medals it'll shortly start breaking the layout of the TWD website. Whatever we end up doing with medals - we should shorten the display to something like:

Rab [10 x {gold}] [5 x {silver] [1 x {bronze}]

instead of:

Rab {gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{gold}{g old}{gold}{silver}{silver}{silver}{silver}{silver} {bronze}

If I was allowed to update this system, of course I would look into displaying the medals nicely. It would have been a waste of my time otherwise. TWD is currently in its 20th odd reset… so that’s a maximum medal amount of 70 odd medals that any one player could have if they were active every season and played 150 games. If I had earnt loads of medals for the same thing, god damnit I would want to show it off and spam your whole massive 1920x1200 res display. :P

Extra thoughts on TWD stats - I think they're fairly useless in their current form.

Player-specific W/L
Wins and losses are earned by a team, so these statistics are not a reliable way of measuring how good a player is.

Nothing to do with my proposal.

K/D
Kills and deaths are influenced by playing time. If you want to improve this statistic you need to make the game longer, which goes against the objective. Substitutions also ruin this as that's not even a full game played.
TWD medals based on the number of games is flawed because it isn't player-specific. All it says is you were in an active squad and online often and good enough to get picked on a regular basis. There's also the question of whether it should reset when you squad-hop.

TWD medals based on the number of games played IS player specific because if I played 50 games, then I played 50 games. Simple as that. In my suggestion, TWD medals are awarded for activity because the goal is to encourage players to be active. It doesn’t matter what squad you are on or whether you win or lose. TWD should be fun aswell as have an element of competitiveness so it’s nice that rewards are achievable by anyone. TWL should be all about competition. Which is why TWL medals aren’t so easy to gain.

I don't actually understand how current medals are awarded. Perhaps that could be explained.

From season 6, the staff that ran TWL decided that only the people that deserve a mention in the TWL history page and the maps in trenchwars are the ones that played at least 1 game within a TWL season and won for that division. That was the original rule. So if your squad won, you had to have played at least one game in that league to get your name on the map and the website. Somewhere between that season and the present, with changes in staff etc, it has been forgotten and anyone that was squad rostered got a medal. This makes medals meaningless and needs sorting out and now is the perfect time.

I think it should be:

Gold = your squad won and you played
Silver = your squad came second and you played
Bronze = your squad came third and you played

The first 2 is what I am already suggesting. Everyones definition of Played is different however. You could be so tight and say only the 5 players that played in the final are the players that actually won a TWL season. Others could say if it wasn’t for all the players that played during the TWL season, that squad wouldn’t have won so they all deserve a medal. I think its somewhere in the middle. And having a 3 game rule with a Kill limit, means that a player can’t achieve a medal by just subbing in at the last 10 seconds of 3 matches. 30 kills is very achievable and is a good enough contribution.

To make a determination of player skill, a statistic must be:

Player-specific: Not influenced by squad (e.g. W/L)
Ship-independent: Applicable to all types of ship (no statistic is)
Comparable: Must be able to compare it with other players' statistics. (E.g. K/D without playing a full game)

I think this task is impossible, and that's why you can only give medals based on squad TWL finishing rank.

My medal system doesn’t attempt to determine player skill. You should head over to TWLM for that and I will meet you there.

[Rab]

Thanks dude - very well presented idea.

The stuff about statistics is because you said you didn't like that the TWD leaves no record - I'm saying not to worry about it because the statistics are meaningless.

TWL - In principle I agree, but I think the following question needs answering:
If I show up to every single game and I'm the first choice sub - but I don't get used - that doesn't mean I don't deserve the medal.

TWD - I think "most MVPs" would be better for the MVP star - we already have a "reasonable" algorithm for calculating the MVP of a game - looks like it's saved against a "match result" but only shows on the match result page for bd. This at least gives sharks and terr a fighting chance.

Layout-wise, I'd like the medals to be on seperate lines per league. In your screenshot it looks like "DD bronze" is the most important medal because it's first. Once you had these in seperate rows with gold first, it would be a reasonable record of what leagues a player played. It's sort of like a measure of experience - which I think is the #1 benefit of this suggestion.

"Hi ardir, what leagues do you play"

[Rab]

Something like this:

[Rab]

For TWD medals - instead of a fixed number of games, how about something you don't have to babysit so much:

Take the highest number of games played by a single player in a each league
e.g. TWJD 63

Gold (90%-100%) = 56-63
Silver (80%-90%) = 50-56
Bronze (70%-80%) = 44-50

[roxxkatt]

could have just one table with playerid foreign key and a comma delimited text field attribute, with each medal having a certain alphanumeric sequence like TWLM4, then have the site parse the string on load

[Rab]

Yes that would be a crap way to do it :P

[roxxkatt]

lets hear your better way then