Cool Awards Idea

[super_gsx]

Okay, I know this is straight out of left-field. Stay with me on this one. It leads to a really awesome idea in the end.

So I'm a major player of the Wipeout racing series, especially the one on PS3. Wipeout HD: Fury. I'm really not a big gamer, so I might look stupid to be inspired for RenX by such an obscure and out-of-genre game. Surely other games, like FPS's, do this too. I just don't know of them. But it just got me thinking...

So in Fury, at the end of each race, there is a podium sort of thing (just GUI) where medals and badges are awarded. The medals are obvious: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd being gold, silver, and bronze. But the badges... They're what got me interested.

The badges are sort of like achievements, but they're for each race. For example, there are badges like "most aggressive" and "highest top speed" and "most accurate shooting" and "most barrel rolls" and "fastest lap". That sort of thing. And after each race, you keep the badges you've earned.

Now let's stop talking about Wipeout and go back to my real idea for RenX. Surely you already know where this is going.

What we have for endgame now is a complicated and obscure scoreboard, full of tons of numbers and names and categories, where the only things you're going to be looking at are: 1- the top score for GDI, 2- the top score for Nod, and 3- YOUR score. If you're in a clan or with some buddies, you might take a quick look at their scores, but you KNOW it's just going to pass right over your head. You don't really care. While this statistical sort of thing is nice for someone who badly terribly cares about numbers, it really isn't interesting to look at. At all.

I think it would add to the gaming experience TREMENDOUSLY to put this "badge" type of awarding system at the end of each game. It doesn't exactly have to be graphical (though that would certainly be the best), but it would be soooo much more interesting than the scoreboard. (It's sort of like the special secret stars you can get at the end of any Mario Party game). I think little details like this are the kind of things that push any old game into excellence.

Here's a few ideas of mine for some of the things we can give awards for:

MVP - Nod

MVP - GDI

Highest KDR

Most accurate shooting

Most damage dealt

Most assist kills

Most building repairs

Most vehicle support (repairs)

Most buildings destroyed

Most tech building captures

Most headshots

Most credits spent

Most time spent as a vehicle passenger

Most time spent in purchase terminals

Longest distance walked

Most time spent invisible

Most time spent in enemy base

This way, each game and each player won't be just summed up by a simple number (their score), but a bit of an idea of what they did. At least, for the ones who contributed the most.

Of course, we could give each of them them catchy titles like "5 Star Sniper" for most headshots, or "Made of money" for most credits spent, or "Demolition Man" for most buildings destroyed.

At the end of each game, it would choose maybe 5 ones of these to display, based on extremity. That's how it happened in Wipeout. They could pop up one at a time. It wouldn't have to be a long "ceremony". And while it's going on, you can vote for the next map.

And then, when YOU earn one of these medals, it goes into your collection of medals (sort of like all the pins and ribbons a real life commander would wear on his uniform). Of course, this kind of implementation would require some sort of dedicated account for RenX. But I expect that from you guys anyway, for stats and stuff. Wouldn't it be great if, along with all of your stats, you had a bunch of these medals to show what kind of a player you actually are (not just with numbers)? I think so.

This idea came to me as a sort of revelation, and I would literally be honored if it made its way into the game. I see no downsides to this. Just more development, but that's fun!

[Severencir]

i have to say i'm a real stickler for adding content that wasn't in the original into this game, i hate the idea of changing so much it causes the game to be different entirely, including adding achievements, and other things people will work towards outside of winning each individual game game... that being said... i support this idea completely, though it still could cause people to just, say bombard a building all day for points and nothing else, it's not as bad as having an achievement system, and adds permanence to the games

[Smirkules]

You could always go down the same track that Savage did and have non-permanent awards with a comical slant at the end of each game. Things like "Big Spender" and "Grim reaper's best customer".

That way you wont have the issues with permanence and still have stats that make sense.

[H.D. Lovecraft]

I think this is a great idea actually, and probably not too difficult to implement. Could definitely be elaborated on and worked out more but I think it could be a lot of fun just to see these, they don't even have to be persistent. Just a scoreboard modification that would add to the depth.

[super_gsx]

i have to say i'm a real stickler for adding content that wasn't in the original into this game, i hate the idea of changing so much it causes the game to be different entirely, including adding achievements, and other things people will work towards outside of winning each individual game game... that being said... i support this idea completely, though it still could cause people to just, say bombard a building all day for points and nothing else, it's not as bad as having an achievement system, and adds permanence to the games

Okay, there's a solution to that. Create badges which reward the player for USEFUL behavior. Here're a few that wouldn't cause abuse and would actually make players better at the game:

Most Beacon Disarming - There's never anything bad about disarming beacons

Most Building Repairs - Without friendly fire, you can't really abuse this.

Most MCT Damage - That's always good for your team, and it's hard to get in there.

Most Vehicle Support (repairs) - Good support is something noobs seem to inherently lack in this game.

Most Buildings Destroyed - Isn't that the point of the game??

Highest KDR - Isn't that also slightly the point of the game? I can't see how it wouldn't help.

Most Enemy Vehicles Stolen - I don't see how this could be a problem. People already try to steal vehicles.

Now, there ARE some which could be abused and result in really idiotic behavior, such as:

Most Friendly Vehicles Stolen - Very bad for any team.

Quickest Deaths - Would definitely be abused and could become a game of its own.

Most Beacon Placement - Annoying abuse would ensue.

Most Bullets Fired - Refills would screw this up.

Most Vehicles (of your own) Destroyed - Duh.

Of course, it's obvious which ones of these would be terrible and which ones would be good. The idea is to create awards for rewarding behavior, and give people something to look back on from the matches.

Also, these are not achievements. Achievements would be one-time things. Like getting a headshot on a stealthed SBH or taking out an entire enemy base by yourself. I also think achievements are an awesome idea and should be added to the game, but that's a whole different idea. What I'm talking about is rewards earned per match, only added up at the very end.

And the awards should be a black-box sort of feature. No one should know what all the awards are. That way people aren't constantly working towards them. They are simply meant to reward players for a well-played game, be fun by pointing out who did what, and be collected in order to create a sort of player personality to be stored in their profiles.