XP system

SO after discussing with Smithy, I think the best way to keep and retain new players is GIVE THEM A PURPOSE.

What does every modern day shooter, that actually has a player base, have that Empires doesn't? Well, a lot of things but specifically there is no system to prove your worth or to keep you playing. We all play it because we enjoy the different matches and unique gameplay, but that only lasts so long before all of us have to take a break. What if we could minimize this?

I would like to propose, a system that is currently halfway implemented and joined together with the "tactical time", an XP system.

How it would work:
Every action you do would be worth a certain "point" in the XP system, rewarding you for being a teamplayer rather than just trying to get a high k/d. This system could track your k/d, track how many enemy vehicles you killed, how many vehicles you lost etc etc. After getting X amount of points, exponentially increasing to make it harder and harder to rank up encouraging people to stay and play.

Skin Unlocks:
This would be the hardest part I bet, as it would require some new art assets though I think it is entirely possible. Change the skins of some of the infantry to be different, and reward players who rank up so they can change out skins on the main screen. This rewards people who continue playing and makes the game a tad more interesting as there will be multiple different skins for people to distinguish who is a higher threat on the battlefield.

Why?:
This is the best bet at keeping newbies and entertaining everyone. Yea it may seem like a lot of work, but the game is running RELATIVELY fine at this point. There has to be a cycle put in place to reward users for playing and to keep them playing, which Empires completely lacks. We NEED a system like this or many new players will play a couple matches and leave. With this, it keeps them interested, it gives them a way to feel like they are achieving something.

Also, you could provide a "cool skin" right off the bat for someone finishing the tutorial... that actually does promote people to do it because they are rewarded.

 

I like this a fuckton. I really do. But doesnt this require a lot of work? Like a lot?

Also you should add the military ensignia next to your name and give nf and be different xp accounts. So you can be a 3 star general on be. But only a corporal on nf.

 

Also there should be a stats board. And have a monthly award -> most kills that month, most revives, earned most SQUAD points, won most games etc etc etc

 

I talked with Smithy, apparently a lot of it is already in. It was under production when Beerdude was working on the game and is apparently tied in with the "tactical time", that screen before a game starts where the com decides where the squads go by drawing on a minimap for his whole team to see. Apparently it is almost there, but it needs to be finished up.

This is the best bet to keep new players and keep people playing. It really is. Perhaps, instead of working on small bugs that hardly have a BIG impact on the game, this could be added to grow the playerbase? Because, there isnt much point fixing bugs for a dead game but this has the possibility to revive the game completely.

 

I dont know should i laugh that you dont know much empires because youre suggesting something validating pointwhoring and killstealing or that you think you can get art assets on demand.

 

Perhaps, under the "customization menu" under the main screen where you get to pick the different skins you unlocked, there could be your stats such as K/D, Vehicles destroyed, Buildings built, Buildings destroyed, matches won, matches lost, etc etc that all saves to steam cloud.

 

It's not really validating point whoring, the whole point of the game is teamwork. You get points for good teamwork... and therefore you win. This is just a reward to determine Vets compared to noobs and a good way to keep new players instead of them seeing no point to continually playing match after match. The only reason people stay is because they get involved in the community and like to play with the same people, the problem is, it's hard to get people to join the community because everyone is a toxic mother fucker.

Also, the art assets wouldn't be THAT hard. I'm not saying new models, just have different skin variations for each model with different coloring etc. Perhaps the ability to unlock better camo, perhaps the ability to unlock trimmed uniforms or insignias on them. Stuff like that that promotes playing the game.

 

No, you win because you complete the objective, do it with 100 kills, do it with 1 it doesnt matter. This isnt a game of "first to score x points wins". Those guys on top of the scoreboard could be among the least impactful players on the team during a round.

 

I understand that, and therefore WINNING the game would provide a different amount of XP than getting kills. You could change the values so it would promote teamwork rather than promote someone to kill whore. Therefore, the people with better teamwork would get rewarded more. IE winning a game gives 50 XP, getting a kill gives .25 xp, building a building gives 1xp, etc etc. Promote teamwork, not kill whoring.

Edit: Also, this could provide a system that requires level X before you can opt in for Com unless no higher ranks are present. Once game starts, then noobs could hop in com but not for the vote. This would prevent newbies from being voted in. Or after they have done a task X, it gives them the ability to command.

 

See but thats also bullshit since you should reward playing the obejective, but there is no fucking way you can mathematically judge one persons impact on the outcome. Make the game reward you mostly for wins and then the people who did jack shit on one team will get more "points" than people on the other that gave it their best.

also

Horse fucking shit. Empires always had one of the worst communities around. Some people stayed because they liked playing with certain other individuals but claiming empires allure lies in its community is plainly wrong.

 

Remind me to reply to this tomorrow and tear zoom down bit by bit

 

Right now, you are a prime example of toxicity. You are making this entire post toxic by your language, which doesn't, in the end, promote a good community. I agree, toxicity should be something we all can do, but you are being OVERLY toxic on a SUGGESTION on how to improve the game. This is why devs dont talk to the community really, and this is why the game is dying.

We don't have to judge someone's impact on the game, we judge them based on the actions they do. If a task rewards X amount of XP, it rewards them for doing it by POSSIBLY unlocking a skin. If there is a task that provides more XP, people would go do that task, such as killing targets that you received, building buildings. This isn't point whoring, this is literally promoting people to do tasks to help out. Most noobs now just go scout and do jack shit, you have to get them to do something else and an XP system with rewards does promote this.

Empires is a toxic community, and ALWAYS has been. It's why I stayed off the forum for YEARS. However, people like playing with the "nicer' friendlier players. I don't think I have ever heard a newbie stay to play the game with MrX, yet I have had plenty of noobs want to play with me and even add me because I try to teach them. The allure lies within a community that you can play decent games with, but our community doesn't promote noobs in the slightest, instead we tear them down and force them to leave by being toxic assholes. They have no reason to stay. They rarely play decent games, they RARELY are treated fairly, and thus they leave, leaving us with a dwindling population of consistent players.

 

Listen DT i dont care what you think about individuals or the buzzwords you like to throw around so ill just leave the discussion at that i choose my language based on whom i speak to.

Onto things that are on topic though, No, this isnt a good way to go. You can throw points as you choose, but this is blindly promoting doing stuff that doesnt help the team to actually win the game is not good, not good at all. Take building for example, clealry overlooked by its impact on the game, but theres dozens of cases in which building something over doing something else can be detrimental to the outcome. Empires is too complex of a game to math it out.

If you think that hats will attract people then do it in a way that wont impact the gameplay. Theres many of ways of doing that and the simplest are either by hours spent playing (spec excluded) or by a number of classic maps won where you spent most of time on a team. There, promotoes doing good shit, though hopefully without making people start doing Fn strats.

 

And what have I done to you to deserve such "harsh" language then? Cause, if I recall, I haven't even spoken to you.

That won't solve anything. You aren't promoting people doing tasks in the slightest and instead promoting gametime. This system promotes people doing tasks. And, as I said, if you promote winning/also doing smaller objectives, people will do the smaller objectives towards winning the game since it will provide a greater benefit to them than simply doing the tasks during game.

 

Your stated goal was to have people stay and play the game. Setting goalposts at which a person is rewarded accomplishes just that.

I dont see how making the progress be based on wins doesnt accomade people having to do stuff in order to win. In a normal game you wont win by sitting on your ass, so it includes people working towards a goal by the way of accomplishing "objective" by default.

Then i suppose that DT on NUBS who loves to play be com is a doppleganger.

As a side note, your insistence on overcomplicated system can easily lead to it being horribly balanced and therefore in need on constant tweaks, as well as it taking too much of time to be implemented by the devs. Easy solutions are usually the best ones.

 

Yea... and most noobs do what? Sit on their ass. That's the problem this is suppose to fix... Noobs have no idea what is going on, and no motivation to stay and play the game. This fixes the retention, or at least helps it immensely.

Also, yea I do play on NUBS, guess I don't really pay attention since I don't really recall playing with you much. Also, I'm not usually a dick on there, so again, I don't know why I'm being treated as one. I'm definitely more of a cunt on here.

 

If anyone here played more than 1 video game in his whole fucking life, he should know that e-penis is the #1 thing that keeps people around.

Empires does not give you any type of e-penis whatsoever.

But I do agree that your length of e-penis should match your "contribution", not how much shit you managed to spam.

Let me bring up one idea that I had in this very old thread https://forums.empiresmod.com/index.php?threads/elo-ranking-system.17014/

Basically, if you win, you get points, the points you get depend on "how long you actually stayed on the team.", so you can't just join/switch to the winning team at last minute and get all the points.

If you'd get 10 points for this win and you spent 1/5 time on the team, you'll get 2 points.
If you want people to lose points when they lose, then the other way around.

"win/lose" is a very simple and effective standard, you don't fuck around to win, you fuck around to lose.


Also if we ever implement this, we should make it so that switching teams would cost you points.
Being able to switch teams freely is what makes Empires fucking retarded.


B-but what about balancing? Who gives a shit.
You shouldn't ask your enemy to join you, that is so fucking unprofessional and stupid, you don't/can't do that in other games, what you should do is ask the game to punish those goddamn ragequitters.

 

We already have a system thats supposed to give you the simple feedback and an approximation of if youre doing something right and its right there to be seen when you press TAB. In fact the whole system youre proposing just seems like a copy of just that.

You cant band aid noobs with skins. If the game is too complicated to get a hang of for most of the people that play it, then what does adding another system to it, one that works like points but not quite accomplish exactly? Youre just adding even more bloat for the new guy to keep in mind.

 

Well, like I said, it doesn't have to be BIG variations in the costmetics. Just uniform Trim and the such to make it distinguishable so it is a benefit to keep people to stay.