Rank removal ?

[Warmage]

I have been pondering the ranking system for awhile now and I am leaning towards wanting to get rid of it all together. I dont think it adds anything to the game and when people start cheating just to get it and sorta destroy the whole thing anyway.

I like having the stats for individual units and such but I think everyone knows the good players ya know ? sorta dont need a rank to tell you that. I have seen rank systems in games actually be bad for the game as a whole so it may be something to think about.

I see heromages as a gentleman's game where rank isnt as important as how you played. This game gets lots of responses about having a great community and I think that is a rare video game commodity and something that should be kept and grown as much as possible for the health of the game. If something like not having a rank system helps then im all for it. I want to see heromages avoid some of the traps that have plagued other games.

I do know some others have brought this up before but I didnt find the thread. Anyone else feel similar ? or does it feel like removing rank is something to radical ?

As far as cheating I say make sure they are punished harshly, tolerating that stuff only lets it fester.

[Tampit]

I have to admit that the win/loses are pretty useful in determining if players just started and know nothing but after the first 50 games it becomes redundant and player skill will mostly be assessed by actually playing them

[Alderon]

SPOILER - Every single player who's been around for a long time here and especially those considered by the community to be 'top' are in agreement; the ranking system is utterly pointless.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, I've recently taken to not giving 2 hoots whether a game is ranked or not. Ranked circle? Sure! Ranked random heroes against unknown newbs? Why not!

It really makes absolutely no difference since as stated multiple times, if you hang around for more than a few days you'll know who the good players are regardless of the number next to their name and it only seems to promote negativity in the community and cheating, stupid behaviour. (Not mentioning any names mostly because there's too bloody many to name.)

I'm completely in favour of chucking it out entirely or at least radically altering the current system to actually give it a feeling of worth that isn't abusable.

And to all you guys out there with 300 wins and 1 hour playing time; go die in a fire. Well done, you know how to cheat. Guess what?! Nobody gives a crap. You want to be respected here? Here's how; stay active and participate in *gasp* the community and it'll come whether you win, lose, or pray to the gods of the dice and sign infernal contracts just for that natural 20 to pop up now and then.

[diesbudt]

Im fine with a rank and rating removal, but i like the wins/loses in each category stuff and the stats.

[Warmage]

Maybe something like a once a month tourney and the winner gets a trophy (avatar) for that months winner ?

Something along those lines would keep the competition honest, allow people who want in to get in and give competative gamers a new challenge every month.

Have screen shots and whatever for the battles and keep a history of winners.

[Ross Przybylski]

I admire everyone's passion regarding the rating system, but I don't think that removing it entirely is the answer. 

As we get more players, and, hopefully, enough to eventually implement a match-making system, the rating will be a critical element in auto-matching players to opponents of similar skill levels.  It also adds value to the game in that it gives players a means to assess their playing performance vs others and offers those that enjoy the leaderboard feature a means to climb the board as they progress in skill.  Even with the random factors of Hero Mages, the Elo system does a good job approximating skill level.

So, before we drop rating altogether, what can we do to improve the system so its fair and available to those that enjoy having it?

Here are some considerations I have:

1) Eliminate the "overall" rating and stick with the single leaderboards of Teams/FFA/Duels.  This way, there's no longer any reason to fear playing a ranked Circle FFA because you would only be affecting your FFA rating and not your other scores.  I'm not sure what we'd report on the inidivudal user profiles.  Either players could pick which score they want to show public (along with a symbol), the system could simply pick their favorite or most recently played game, or players could choose which score they want to view by.

2) Separate Teams leaderboard into Chosen Teams and Random Teams. This way, a randomly assigned teammate is not influencing the more skill-based chosen team game leaderboard.

3) Have a built in mechanism for detecting cheaters.  If a player has a blatantly high number of wins in too short of a time span, the system will automatically flag them as "stat-padding", note this on their profile, and remove them from the leaderboard entirely.

[Ross Przybylski]

Have screen shots and whatever for the battles and keep a history of winners.

This will be unnecessary after the completion of the Battle Reports system.  In a future version of Hero Mages, the game will actually store all game logs and allow players to watch replays of any previously played match.

Hero stats will also be getting a huge overhall for when we implement the achievements system (after we release the AI).

[Alderon]

Here are some considerations I have:

1) Eliminate the "overall" rating and stick with the single leaderboards of Teams/FFA/Duels.  This way, there's no longer any reason to fear playing a ranked Circle FFA because you would only be affecting your FFA rating and not your other scores.  I'm not sure what we'd report on the inidivudal user profiles.  Either players could pick which score they want to show public (along with a symbol), the system could simply pick their favorite or most recently played game, or players could choose which score they want to view by.

2) Separate Teams leaderboard into Chosen Teams and Random Teams. This way, a randomly assigned teammate is not influencing the more skill-based chosen team game leaderboard.

3) Have a built in mechanism for detecting cheaters.  If a player has a blatantly high number of wins in too short of a time span, the system will automatically flag them as "stat-padding", note this on their profile, and remove them from the leaderboard entirely.

To be honest Ross, all of those suggestions are very good ones I'd be happy to see implemented. And may I say thank you for listening to us objectively and providing rational solutions, you never fail to impress me buddy. 

[diesbudt]

OOO i didnt think about a match making system being implemented.  Yea, than the rating would be needed for that.

[the stoat]

Ranking adds nothing for me, but if it must stay what about this:

If cheating means logging in as two different people and then "surrendering", make each game have a minimum amount of damage that needs done before rank can count.

[Tampit]

Ranking adds nothing for me, but if it must stay what about this:

If cheating means logging in as two different people and then "surrendering", make each game have a minimum amount of damage that needs done before rank can count.

If by minimum you mean a player sees he has crap cards it's not his turn and he is going to  get allot of hurt maybe even killing the mage so he quickly rushes to the surrender button then yes
However its not going to stop cheaters because they will just do the 2 extra turns and then surrender,will take more time yes but this losers all they have is time

[Vinlain]

also, to the idea of making a game require a certain # of turns, there are already players that bail on games as soon as they start looking bad (the guilty shall remain nameless for now).  Let's say you pull off that first turn tele assault and kill a mage, the person surrenders, no rank change, it was too fast.  Let's say you start a game with me and I have a summoner and all augment cards, don't like my hand, so I surrender to avoid losing points on a possible loss and go look for another game or tell you it was a 'mistake'. 

Sure, the people that do this will end up being pariahs among the regulars, but, it will happen, and sometimes, you are just desparate for a game.  Right now, for example, I am the only person on...at all!