Actually, I like where this is going. Screw achievements, we're supposed to be
Mechwarriors, not some achievement-hunting squeakers on Xbox Live. While Mechwarrior has always been fun with reducing other giant robots to slag, it's also been about the
feel of being a 'Mech pilot in a wartorn universe.
As Noth said, Start incorporating some of the awards from the Battletech universe. You should obviously not include some the highest awards, and save them for the top players in large events to come (like the Medal Excalibur, since that's only been given out 32 times over how many decades?).
Generally speaking, Awards should be handled as such:
1.) Event Awards: These awards are story-based awards that are awarded to players who were part of the event. As is my understanding so far from your hintings, you're going to be running various conflicts between great NPC personalities (and perhaps later PC leaders) that lead to battlefield intrigues that change how normal battles may be conducted between the included parties. This should lead to a set of awards, with the lowest level being for those that simply participated (these would be rather simple ribbons), to those that heavily participated and had a beneficial contribution to the campaign statistically, and finally, the higher level awards that are awarded by the staff personally. These types of rewards would be a visual indicator of who has been around for longer and how long they've been playing (at least anyone looking at their profile), while not negatively affecting those who are new. Furthermore, these are the perfect mementos to remember a great campaign by.
2.) Performance Awards: These awards are purely statistical. You put in the number of hours/kills/etc, you get the award. Now, many would be quick to point out that such doesn't really "feel" military, but to be purely honest, if you take a look at the list of
United States Decorations, there's actually plenty of awards given out for straight up performance and the like, without any review. That said, most of these are given for accomplishments in training and the like, but this is the advantage with Battletech. We're in giant robots. Said robots could easily have computers that keep a log of a Mechwarrior's performance in battle. Wouldn't be surprised if these were Comstar computers actually, as people would want a "neutral" party to track military achievement... but that's a whole 'nother matter. For the player, well, it's a good way to measure
e-peen, to say the least.
3.) Service Ribbons: These are simply for participating in conquests/defenses of planets/solar systems on different battlefields, no other requirements. These are the least illustrious of ribbons. While this initially sounds pretty easy to implement, I think this requires a bit more thought. The thing is, a MMO is a lot more abstract than real warfare or the books related to the Battletech Universe. Many players will easily participate in over 10,000 incursions over the lifetime of this product. I don't think anyone would want nearly this many stacks of the same ribbon. So uh, not sure how to implement this initially.
Then it comes down to display. Having a profile wracked up with awards shows a rich history of the player's involvement in the game over the years. It's a trophy room. The easiest and most low-key way to represent this would be to have it as part of a profile page, as in Battlefield 3, like
this. While this does get the point across, and it is a quick way to display ones achievements efficiently, it does lack a bit of luster. Personally, something I was always fond of, was the Civilization 2
Throne Room, because it was cool to watch it grow as we progressed. What if we had like, I dunno, an Office with a desk in it, that had our various mementos in it. As time went on, it would continue to be filled more and more... quite frankly, junk that we've acquired on our various conquests. Granted, the disadvantage of the Civ 2 idea is that it would be resources intensive to do, as the medals in Battlefield 3 didn't require all that much work in comparison.
Thoughts?
Edited by Cmdr Rad, 23 June 2012 - 07:42 PM.
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Cmdr Rad, on 23 June 2012 - 07:01 PM, said:
