Ranks / Rewards

[Nachoraver]

So some of the other fun-ish td's out there right now give you special rewards for completing some sort of achievement like a specific wave cleared on a specific mode etc. Sometimes something as simple as just getting a special SCV to choose from works well or a special in game color... maybe down the line we could bring that to ele td.

*moved*

[Karawasa]

Curious to hear what other people think about the reward idea. As for the rank idea, that is planned sometime down the road. Something like a global ladder using points.

[Twilice]

Well today pretty much everything got achievements, just because they can be pretty fun as long as they are challenging in certain ways. I mean getting an achievement for building your first tower is a big no for me, but some games have that kind of achievements as well.

I remember we had challenges on the old forum that were pretty fun to try and get.

[ele]

Yes in-game rewards is a very good idea. Just the simple idea of allowing players to choose different units as their builder is great. Ie, beating the game on normal/hard/very hard would unlock certain units for you.

Perhaps further down the road, small bonuses could be awarded to players who beat the game on hard/very hard. Maybe some sort of upgrade or income bonus or start out with a gas etc.

[Vyce663]

I have to honestly say that any bonus ingame that would give you a advantage over other players (Such as bonus minerals or what have you) is a big no in my book. Although asthetic things seem like a good idea.

[Chiquihuite]

I'm virtually certain that any type of rewards would be purely cosmetic.

Giving a power bonus to more experienced players in a competitive game is just horrible design.

[Vyce663]

Giving a power bonus to more experienced players in a competitive game is just horrible design.

God i couldent agree any more. Some games that do that its like the good people get better and the worse people stay bad because of that system.

[Aranneas]

Things that you might grant achievements for:

- Defeating a level three boss within a given length of time or by a given wave number

- Completing the game on a given difficulty level

- Completing the game on a given difficulty level within a given length of time

- Completing the game with a given amount of minerals unspent (on a given difficulty level)

- Completing the game with a given amount of lives remaining (on a given difficulty level)

- Achieving a given number of fruit kills on a given difficulty

- Building a given number of towers of one type during a game

- Building a given number of towers of one type over your career

- Being the last survivor in a given number of games

- Being the last survivor in a given number of games on a given difficulty level

Things you might give as achievement bonuses:

- In-game titles appearing in front of your name

- New builder avatars

- Special builder colours

- Minor, convenience-focused special abilities. For instance, something like increased builder movement speed, or an instant 'copy target tower <here> and deduct its cost' ability, or the ability to use the builder itself as a 'targeting zone' for your towers.

[Twilice]

I think we need some kind of ladder, more importantly then achievements.

[Megadramon]

I think we need some kind of ladder, more importantly then achievements.

Like an in-game point system?

The way I see it, achievements, and cosmetics for doing things seem nice for casual players, and some sort of point/ranking system would be nice for competitive players.

The only reason I played Mafia was to get points and cosmetic accessories, and I stopped playing after I reached 1k points.

Offering incentives and recognition can really help a game progress.

[Twilice]

What about different builder models depending on which modes you have played, for achievements.

These would be chooseable of course, so you can switch between them. Maybe also a small area where achievemnts are displayed.

example (using maybe new game modes):

Scv - starter

Probe - beaten level 60 (any difficulty)

Drone - Won in a race game with 8 players.

Mule - Beaten level 60 on very hard.

Marine - Played more then 10 games in competive modes.

And then have ranks independant of the achievements.

I know it's possible since I have seen many maps using some kind "bank". I don't know how it works, specially not with 2 players with the same name though. Since there could be 1000 players named the same thing per region. Might have more problems with it then it could seem.

[Chiquihuite]

I don't know how it works, specially not with 2 players with the same name though. Since there could be 1000 players named the same thing per region. Might have more problems with it then it could seem.

Bank files are stored client-side. If I play Star Battle from work, then play from home, I end up with 2 independent W/L records. Same goes for Mafia and any other game with a bank system.

That's what makes them so unreliable- a player can edit their own bank file and, if they can figure out the right values to change, will be able to set their points/rank/whatever to anything they want.

[Twilice]

Aha, that seems pretty bad. . .

[Karawasa]

Looking to implement some XP related things in the near future. Please brainstorm some more "rewards" that we can offer. Nothing that gives a strict advantage though.

[Megadramon]

Different builders are a great idea.

Cosmetic auras around builders and towers seem like a pretty cool idea too. Sort of like the cosmetic effect when you just defeat a boss element.

Unlocking different projectile animation/colours/effects would be cool aswell.

If we have enough unlockable cosmetic effects, players can literally customize how their towers would look like and shoot, and create a type of settings for themselves allowing them to stylishly play the game.

Though if rewards ever get implemented, there should be a new UI for customizing what rewards we want on display.

[Chiquihuite]

Mass auras on all towers would eat up framerate. We probably want to avoid stuff like that.

Problems to be considered with career stats-

#1: If you switch computers, you lose them

#2: If your bank file wipes for any reason, you lose them

#3: The more simple the system, the easier it is to understand - and the easier it is to hack

#4: Rewards need to be compelling, but can't provide tangible power or have negative side-effects (like lag)

I'm in favor of offering various rewards like new builders, but I'd suggest doing so along two tracks - one for number of games played/XP, and one for special achievements or competitive goals (like winning VH Random, winning X number of games, getting a certain # of fruit points, etc)

I'd like for them to be fairly non-linear so that if, for example, a player's HD gets wiped, he can focus on re-acquiring his favorite builder model pretty quickly.

[xhead12]

I agree there should be global stats that are saved with each game you played so you can track your progress and the achievements sound like a great idea. The rewards would be cool like having different builders or maybe being able to choose a special terrain or something.

[Megadramon]

If towers can't have cosmetic auras around them, perhaps the creeps waves can? You can toggle them on or off, or switch between them through a new unit building interface that allows you to control your rewards, just like how the Element Summoner building (#2 hotkey) interface allows you choose your elements when the time comes.

Also since people are starting to understand the value of income reselling, maybe you can unlock new resell animations?

[Ubernuber]

Things that you might grant achievements for:

- Defeating a level three boss within a given length of time or by a given wave number

- Completing the game on a given difficulty level

- Completing the game on a given difficulty level within a given length of time

- Completing the game with a given amount of minerals unspent (on a given difficulty level)

- Completing the game with a given amount of lives remaining (on a given difficulty level)

- Achieving a given number of fruit kills on a given difficulty

- Building a given number of towers of one type during a game

- Building a given number of towers of one type over your career

- Being the last survivor in a given number of games

- Being the last survivor in a given number of games on a given difficulty level

I completely agree. The long-term motivation for many maps comes from difficult challenges for even experienced players. Ele TD benefits from being a survivor style map, ie. players of different skill levels can still play a meaningful game together (compare to eg. "Protoss Special Forces" or "Mineralz").

Additional challenges (they have got to have cool names, too - as a non-native speaker I'm totally open to better names):

- "Twosome": Beat the game without triple element towers

- "You can run...": Beat the game without slowing towers

- "Sniper": Beat the game with only single target towers

- "Look Ma, no buffs!": Beat the game without buffing towers (forge, well, trickery)

- Stack all buffs on one tower

- "Miser": Beat the game without selling a single tower

- "Interest whore": Sell 1000 towers in a single game

- "Conservative": Beat the game using only 4/3/2 different elements

- "Tycoon": Build 10 upgraded triples in a single game (nicer than "earn X money")

- "World traveler": Over your career, build every tower (and every upgrade!) there is in the game

- "And the kitchen sink": Stack all existing debuffs on one creep

- "First!": Finish 5/10/15 consecutive waves first in a game of at least 5 players

- "Slow and steady wins the race": Finish 5/10/15 consecutive waves last in a game of at least 5 players, but do not leak while doing so

- "A penny spent is a penny earned": Beat the game without ever reaching more than 10000 minerals

- "Mikado": Beat the game while moving your builder a maximum of X screen units

- "All the sizzle and no steak": Lose by leaking exactly one creep

[Megadramon]

How would you be able to show off those achievements titles? I know Karawasa was thinking with rank titles that he could put it on the leaderboard somewhere, but for all these different achievement titles, where are we gonna put them?

What I'd like to see are customizeable cosmetic/visual content such as unlocking different builders, unlocking new building effects such as different sell/build animation, and unit effects such as aura effects around your builder or creep waves. All these cosmetic/visual effects should also be customizeable to the player's tastes, such as being able to switch between the effects, or the ability to toggle them on or off.

Beside the Element Summoning Center should be a shop building listing all the available unlockables, and how to get them. At first they should all appear grayed out, and once you've accomplished the task of an unlockable, it will become available to you, allowing you to either enable it or disable it.

I feel these cosmetic/visual effects would be noticeable and stylish, making people crave for them.

If this idea would be considered, some task ideas for the unlockables on Standard mode could be beating the game on each of the difficulties, beating the game on each of the difficulties without leaking, and even beating the game on each difficulty on random with leaks, and without leaks. But for convenience sake, I personally would like that if you are able to beat a Very Hard game on random or all pick, with or without leaks that you'd simply just unlock anything under it.