Achievements rework

[PTX_007_03C]

As a follow up to my not very popular "progress rewards" suggestion I will be now focusing on a revamp of the achievements system. Most of it is motivated by the new Operation achievements and my disappointment after receiving one.

 

The problem

 

Earning achievements is unfulfilling, mainly the ones for progression (complete XX missions, research XX ships). Even heroic achievements are a bit meaningless when you earn two of them in the 24 hours cooldown period. I'm sure everyone likes to have some Krakens on their profile page but truth be told, that information will never be shared, apart from the occasional forum topic asking how many of them you have. As of now piling up achievements is not something that people aim for.

 

My proposed scenario

 

Make it easier to share what you have achieved. Achievements have the potential to display not only your experience as a player but also some traits of your play style. If a DD player on my team has a hell lot of first blood medals it means that he plays agressively with some degree of success so it may be worth to support him early on.
Achievements are also a better alternative to "humble bragging". I don't see a problem in people wanting to show what they earned or how good they are at playing the game, they have put the effort to become good players and it's cool to receive some recognition for that, that's ok. But when you do that using stats or ranks it can be a little demeaning to other players which leads to some toxic interactions. With achievements you can show that you are great at getting Krakens while a player in a lower skill level can slowly work his way to a Bane Of The Oceans achievement, which any player should be proud of receiving.

 

The proposed solutions

 

1. Loading screen/Leaderboard improvements.

 

Loading screens have endless potential. A good start would be to allow players to display badges, flairs, etc.(small icons, call it however you want) related to a specific achievement or game metric. For example, after winning 50 Krakens you would receive a badge that could be featured besides your player name showing others that you reached said goal. Those badges could also have different tiers to be more inclusive (15 Krakens copper badge, 30 Krakens silver badge, 50 Krakens gold badge, 100 Krakens you are banned for using illegal mods).This suggestion can also be extend as rewards for playing a determined ship class. Play 1000 games with IJN DDs and you receive a "IJN DD veteran" badge.

 

In addition, you could also be able to display items earned in collections, since WG already made them and from now on they will only gather dust in a corner of your profile page.

 

1. a. Compact profile page.

 

In the same way you hover over a ship name to see it's details you could hover over a player name to see a summary of his profile. It's similar to how things work in Counter-Strike, where you can check all the pins and award medals the player has received in a compact profile.

 

2. Flags and camos.

 

If adding new features in too troublesome we can do some work with the ones we have. Give specific flags as rewards for progression achievements and for reaching a certain amount of heroic achievements. Also, since flags don't get much attention in game, we could have a "fly your flag" command (basically a new GUI element that would be a large animated image of your flag). Something similar to those things that float above your head in League of Legends or the Overcons in Atlas Reactor.

 

For camos, make them permanent with no bonuses like the ARP ones. Instead of using camos as rewards for failed events like Water vs Fire you could turn them into things that more players would aim for, while still being able to sell your economy oriented camos and drain credits with combat oriented camos.

 

Conclusion

 

Even if none of those are implemented I still ask for something that will allow people to express their identity and individual traits as WoWs players (if they want to). I enjoy playing operations and I want to share it with other people without being intrusive, a system to display it in-game is the perfect solution for me.

 

There's no drawback from giving recognition to experienced and skilled players. It's a reward for their commitment, show new players who they should be paying attention to (and learning from) and rewards the players for approaching the game in their own way.

 

Disclaimer: My english may suck because the post is long. Do your best to ignore it.

[AVR_Project]

What does the person with none of these awards think of a SEAL CLUBBER entering the lower tiers in their Umikaze with 19 point captain.

Does this also include the enemy team, so you know who to avoid / or kill first?

Will I be allowed to hide my dismal collection from the prying eyes of the 'shame squad'?

Questions... questions...

 

..

(mental note:  Stop using illegal mods at 99 Krakens)

[PTX_007_03C]

What does the person with none of these awards think of a SEAL CLUBBER entering the lower tiers in their Umikaze with 19 point captain.

Does this also include the enemy team, so you know who to avoid / or kill first?

Will I be allowed to hide my dismal collection from the prying eyes of the 'shame squad'?

Questions... questions...

 

(mental note:  Stop using illegal mods at 99 Krakens)

 

1. The same thing they think when someone in their Umikaze with 19 points captain go seal club today?

2. Yeah why not. If toxic players become a problem just display their profiles at the end of the game, like what happens nowadays with your ranked placement.

3. Yes. The idea is to choose what will be displayed in your profile from the things you have achieved and not all of them will be skill related. Let's say that you are a helpful player with high karma, there could be a badge for that and you could choose to display it instead.

 

 

[Edgecase]

I disagree that social comparison flair is the way to go about making achievements feel more meaningful. It does give some short-term boost in how good you feel about your performance, but ultimately it shifts people's focus from Playing Well to Showing Stuff. Add on all the side effects like "you sucked this round, you don't deserve your platinum rank" and "look at all the gold ships on the other team, I'm going afk", and I can't see this being good for the game on balance.

[PTX_007_03C]

I disagree that social comparison flair is the way to go about making achievements feel more meaningful. It does give some short-term boost in how good you feel about your performance, but ultimately it shifts people's focus from Playing Well to Showing Stuff. Add on all the side effects like "you sucked this round, you don't deserve your platinum rank" and "look at all the gold ships on the other team, I'm going afk", and I can't see this being good for the game on balance.

 

Following that logic we should remove premium ships because some people will call other players "wallet warriors". Idiots will continue to be idiots regardless of this being implemented or not, so I don't know why they should be taken into consideration.

Also it seems that you are assuming that all content will be skill related, which is not the case. They could add badges/flags for good behavior (instead of the occasional 10 free camos), badges for friendly players (high karma), badges for progression, etc...

 

As of now achievements and collections are content that serve to no purpose in the long term and that's a hell of a waste. Those badges from the Bismarck campaign are really well made and they really deserve a system that make it possible for you to display them, they are also an indicator of the cool content that we could have if things like achievements and player behavior were to be represented with badges as well. 

[Edgecase]

Following that logic we should remove premium ships because some people will call other players "wallet warriors". Idiots will continue to be idiots regardless of this being implemented or not, so I don't know why they should be taken into consideration.

 

That is in no way following the same logic. Keep your strawman at home.

 

Also it seems that you are assuming that all content will be skill related, which is not the case. They could add badges/flags for good behavior (instead of the occasional 10 free camos), badges for friendly players (high karma), badges for progression, etc...

 

That wasn't an assumption, it's based on the examples you gave in the OP: number of Krakens, progression achievements, heroic achievements, and an animation of a character flaunting a gold Ranked icon.

 

Good behavior displays are a better idea than your original set.

 

As of now achievements and collections are content that serve to no purpose in the long term and that's a hell of a waste. Those badges from the Bismarck campaign are really well made and they really deserve a system that make it possible for you to display them, they are also an indicator of the cool content that we could have if things like achievements and player behavior were to be represented with badges as well. 

 

Some people enjoy the collecting, some enjoy the having. Some people enjoy the bragging, but it would be a mistake to say it's everybody. It's an even bigger mistake to think it's automatically a waste if something doesn't present the opportunity for showing off one's epeen.

[PTX_007_03C]

1.  "you sucked this round, you don't deserve your platinum rank" and "look at all the gold ships on the other team, I'm going afk", and I can't see this being good for the game on balance. - This literally translates to "if a system will be used to demean others, it should not be implemented."

 

2. It's right above your head. The image is just an example for the flag feature, it's not really related with the core of the suggestion (actually I will remove it since people will ignore the post, see that and promptly reply).

 

3. Do I really need to type "IMO" in every post I make? It will be really tiresome, but if it's that difficult to understand that what I say isn't supposed to be an indisputable truth I will add it just for you.

 

 

[AVR_Project]

 I like this achievement.

It's for winning 100 games in LAST place.