New ranked format by the numbers. PLAY MORE FOR LESS REWARDS.

[DuckyShot]

The more I look at this new ranked format, the more bewildered and confused I become. No one was asking for this. Yeah, we wanted some variety and change and perhaps an improvement to the way ranked works, but this is not it. For starters, let's look at the rewards, shall we?

In the 18th season of Ranked if a player ranked out they received the following:

Spoiler

 

1. 355 combat and economic signals. According to the wiki these are worth a total of 99,600 coal (or 1,867,500 credits, whichever you prefer to use, but if you want to buy them with credits, multiply that number by 16 in the armory, so it's 29,880,000 credit worth in actuality)

2. 25 Special economic signals worth a total of 11,250,000 credits according to the wiki, but they aren't purchasable in any form, so that's the number we will have to go with.

3. Credits: 500,000

4. Steel: 5,500

5. 85 various camos

6. 2,500 Doubloons.

So I want to compare that over a 6 month period with the new format of ranked. In 6 months with 3 rank outs (ranked was held every 2 months last year) you will receive the following:

Combat and Econ Signals	Special Econ signals	Credits	Steel	Camos	Doubloons
1065	75	1,500,000	16,500	255	7,500
equivalent 324,00 Coal or 89,640,000 credits	equivalent 33,750,000 credits

 

So lets run 4 cycles of straight ranking out in this endless grindy new mode of ranked and lets see what we get. 4 cycles of 6 week ranked will be 4 Bronze rank outs, 4 silver rank outs, 16 gold rank outs.

Spoiler

 

4 Bronze rankouts will be a total of 1,600 steel, 800 doubloons, 4,000 coal, 40 camos

4 Silver rankouts will give a total of 2,000 steel, 1,200 doubloons, 12,000 coal, 64 camos

16 Gold rankouts will give a total of 9,600 steel,  6,400 doubloons, 80,000 coal, 224 camos.

All told, you will get 

Steel	Doubloons	Coal	Camos
13,200	8,400	96,000	328

 

So honestly, you get a couple more things in a few areas: 900 more doubloons, and 73 more camos and those camos are very good camos, much better than the camos we were getting.

However on the flip side, we are getting less of the actually important rewards that people want: COAL and STEEL. There are no signals, so if you use the coal to purchase signals you end up 228,000 equivalency less and on the steel front we will be getting 3,300 less. So you will get shafted 20% of the steel you used to get and 70% of the coal value you used to get. Also, no more special econ flags from ranked. And also remember, we are losing the ranked sprints as well, which I did not even begin to try and factor into the equation. If you figure 1 ranked sprint per ranked, that's 30,000 actual coal more that we are missing out on in addition to the 228,000 coal value in signals, never mind the 441 extra signals and 60 special econ signals that ranked sprint was giving us.

 

 

But what about the ease of this ranked format?? How does it compare? How many games can you expect to play in this format? Well, its really hard to say in the bronze and silver leagues because of the excessive amount of irrevocable ranks, so lets look at the 16 weeks of gold rankouts and what will be required in them compared to the previous format of ranked.

in Season 18, 706 players ranked out with an average win rate of 58.55% in an average total of 178 games. Using an average of 46 stars to rank out (Starting at Rank 13), that is 3.88 games per star. over 3 cycles of ranked, that is 534 ranked games over 6 months time to rank out all 3 seasons.

So what will it take in the 16 weeks of gold season to rank out each and every time? 18 stars per season, 288 total stars at 3.88 games per star gives us a total of 1,117 games. Lets just add in the total number of stars needed in the bronze and silver leagues for a grand total of 1193 games.

And this doesn't even get into the absurdity of the rewards per game played between the different leagues. This is just using the full rank out rewards.

 

So in conclusion, if you were ranking out before and plan to continue to do so, you will have to play over double the ranked games you played before, have to grind through 70 ranked games EVERY week, that's 10 RANKED GAMES EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. to get significantly less rewards at the end of it than you did before. And on top of it, you lose the fun derpy game mode of ranked sprint that used to pop up from time to time.

Is it worth it?

Does WG think we are this stupid?

 

THIS IS ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY, WG!

[Kesh_Lives]

2 minutes ago, DuckyShot said:

Are we seriously going to kowtow to them and just do what they want us to do??

You always have the choice to walk away and not play the game.  if you are serious about getting things changed, that's the way to go.  Continuing to play the game will be interpreted by WG as endorsing their changes.

The risk is that there's not enough like-minded people to make any changes happen.  Your stand on principle may result you having to find another game.

YMMV.

 

[BrushWolf]

It should be obvious that they are trying to get more players into Ranked which I think this will accomplish, it has my interest and I haven't touched Ranked in ages.

[DuckyShot]

Just now, BrushWolf said:

It should be obvious that they are trying to get more players into Ranked which I think this will accomplish, it has my interest and I haven't touched Ranked in ages.

Yeah, again they try to cater to new, more casual players and shaft the more hardcore dedicated players in the process.

[WarStore]

After the Satan Containers, you still THINK WG bet everyone is stupid? They are absolutely sure, without a shadow of doubt, that their playerbase is a bunch of morons who will take any crap they come up with. 

[Ghawain]

I hope they bump the rewards. I get that they want more people playing and that they want it to be a constant mode, but under the current reward structure you basically have to grind out two full seasons (12 weeks) to get roughly the same rewards as one season (4 weeks) of the old ranked. 

Not only that, but it is more economical to just sit in silver and do silver over and over.

[DuckyShot]

Just now, Ghawain said:

I hope they bump the rewards. I get that they want more people playing and that they want it to be a constant mode, but under the current reward structure you basically have to grind out two full seasons (12 weeks) to get roughly the same rewards as one season (4 weeks) of the old ranked. 

Not only that, but it is more economical to just sit in silver and do silver over and over.

At the current rewards and grind, I don't expect the population in Gold league to be sustainable.

[Sovereigndawg]

It still smells like the same old ranked system to me. If they haven't changed save a star, then it's the same, with less payout.

[Ghawain]

2 minutes ago, DuckyShot said:

At the current rewards and grind, I don't expect the population in Gold league to be sustainable.

Right, which means you have to play even more seasons to get what you would have under the previous system. All around it's a loss for the player base. Less reward, more time spent ranking out and less time grinding tech trees and most likely events, since not all events allow progress through ranked.

[BrushWolf]

1 minute ago, DuckyShot said:

Yeah, again they try to cater to new, more casual players and shaft the more hardcore dedicated players in the process.

The new system provides intermediate goals that make it worth while for less than top players. You will blast through Bronze and probably Silver and Gold will be like the last steps in the current system.

2 minutes ago, Ghawain said:

I hope they bump the rewards. I get that they want more people playing and that they want it to be a constant mode, but under the current reward structure you basically have to grind out two full seasons (12 weeks) to get roughly the same rewards as one season (4 weeks) of the old ranked. 

Not only that, but it is more economical to just sit in silver and do silver over and over.

I don't think you can repeat a bracket, when you hit rant one in Bronze you are then in Silver and when you top out there you are in Gold.

3 minutes ago, DuckyShot said:

At the current rewards and grind, I don't expect the population in Gold league to be sustainable.

Give it a chance, you might be surprised.

[DuckyShot]

1 minute ago, Sovereigndawg said:

It still smells like the same old ranked system to me.

THE main batch of rewards is easier to get as it just goes off of your wins, you can fail your way to them. But if you want to rank out to advance or get the rankout rewards, nothing has changed except for some people there isn't as big a hole below them to fall into.

[CV_Jeebies]

8 minutes ago, DuckyShot said:

At the current rewards and grind, I don't expect the population in Gold league to be sustainable.

Ah,  unintended consequences.  Who'd a thunk it given the commander skill rebork inbound that will see a handful of cruiser burning longer than BBs.

With everyone getting reset to zero at the start of each season, getting into "gold" will not only take longer than traditionally ranking out, the rewards are less thus the incentive to do it are as well.  They're hoping that good players will burn through all of their signals while earning less to do so, while also having a smaller pool of players to go against. This will likely end up being the 1-5 ranks early on in the season, but much worse. 

[wooserloop]

  Ranked always seems to change.  I never really bothered after a certain point as those bad luck streaks can really take a toll on ones patience.  I feel over the years that I have been more casual about it and from that am not stressed out over it.

[Ghawain]

4 minutes ago, BrushWolf said:

The new system provides intermediate goals that make it worth while for less than top players. You will blast through Bronze and probably Silver and Gold will be like the last steps in the current system.

I don't think you can repeat a bracket, when you hit rant one in Bronze you are then in Silver and when you top out there you are in Gold.

Give it a chance, you might be surprised.

You can repeat a bracket:

"During the Season, you can participate in no more than six sprints in the Bronze League, or five in the Silver League, or four in the Gold League."

So basically, all 6 weeks bronze or 1 week bronze, 5 silver, or 1 week bronze/silver, 4 weeks gold or a combo of 1 week bronze and 5 weeks of silver/gold based on when you rank. Once you rank up, you can't go back, that's why it's more economical to grind silver, because you may not get the max out of gold, but silver seems to be easily obtainable, especially with an irrevocable rank at 5.

[BrushWolf]

1 minute ago, Ghawain said:

You can repeat a bracket:

"During the Season, you can participate in no more than six sprints in the Bronze League, or five in the Silver League, or four in the Gold League."

Yeah but the rewards are only for the first time.

[Ghawain]

1 minute ago, BrushWolf said:

Yeah but the rewards are only for the first time.

Next line down from the one above:

"The rewards in each league will be refreshed and available again at the start of each new sprint."

So no, they refresh, if the rewards didn't refresh, this would be a 100% bust all around compared to the old system with no reason to put yourself through it.

[BrushWolf]

1 minute ago, Ghawain said:

Next line down from the one above:

"The rewards in each league will be refreshed and available again at the start of each new sprint."

So no, they refresh, if the rewards didn't refresh, this would be a 100% bust all around compared to the old system with no reason to put yourself through it.

Hmmm? How are they defining "each new sprint"? I think that they are talking about the resets where everyone starts from the bottom. Now I could be wrong, I have been there more than a few times over the years.

[Kesh_Lives]

20 minutes ago, DuckyShot said:

Yeah, again they try to cater to new, more casual players and shaft the more hardcore dedicated players in the process.

That's pretty common.  

Anyone who plays World of Warcraft (the prime example) or other Fantasy MMOs knows that this is the way of the online game. 

The competitive raiders and PvPers like to strut like they own the game, and, sure they're best at taking advantage of various game systems, but the games don't live on the money the competitive players spend.  

However, if the casual players stop playing, soon there's no game for the competitive players to play, and indeed, the game owners will dismantle raid and PvP pieces before getting rid of pet battles for the casuals, for example.

Also, if you remove all the casuals, who the hell are the purples going to pad their win rates with?  The other purples?

 

[DuckyShot]

2 minutes ago, Kesh_Lives said:

That's pretty common.  

Anyone who plays World of Warcraft (the prime example) or other Fantasy MMOs knows that this is the way of the online game. 

The competitive raiders and PvPers like to strut like they own the game, and, sure they're best at taking advantage of various game systems, but the games don't live on the money the competitive players spend.  

However, if the casual players stop playing, soon there's no game for the competitive players to play.  

Also, if you remove all the casuals, who the hell are the purples going to pad their win rates with?  The other purples?

 

That's the problem. The pubbies for years were crying about the reward ships and how they should be taken away from comp players and comp players could have cosmetics. Yet here we are, the ships aren't exclusive, yet the cosmetics are fewer and farther between as well, we don't even get the crummy copy paste pirate flag anymore.

[Ghawain]

3 minutes ago, BrushWolf said:

Hmmm? How are they defining "each new sprint"? I think that they are talking about the resets where everyone starts from the bottom. Now I could be wrong, I have been there more than a few times over the years.

Nah, each week is a sprint, the 6 week series is a season.

[Navalpride33]

" be careful what you advocate to change, you may not like the final product."

[BrushWolf]

1 minute ago, Ghawain said:

Nah, each week is a sprint, the 6 week series is a season.

One week to get to rank 1 and then a reset for another week to get to rank 1 so you will start each week out at rank 12.

[DuckyShot]

2 minutes ago, BrushWolf said:

One week to get to rank 1 and then a reset for another week to get to rank 1 so you will start each week out at rank 12.

You have to get through one of these leagues in 1 week to advance to the next league for the next week. Once you get to a league you stay there for the rest of the 6 week season unless you advance to the next league. You cannot go down a league for not ranking out.

[Kesh_Lives]

25 minutes ago, DuckyShot said:

Yeah, again they try to cater to new, more casual players and shaft the more hardcore dedicated players in the process.

Ducky, I've watched this process in other games for years.  It's not going to get better for you.  When the game was being established, players like you gave them something to point to or emulate.  Now, several years later?  Not so much.  You're not worth as much to WG.

I'm not trying to attack you, or say anything about how you play, or what you play.  Nothing I just said was personal at you or any other competitive player.  But, it is what it is.  

Only you can decide what to do about it. WG's not going to change their path.  

The competitives make more noise and headlines, but casuals pay the bills.  There may be games that break that, but this isn't one of them.

[Ghawain]

6 minutes ago, BrushWolf said:

One week to get to rank 1 and then a reset for another week to get to rank 1 so you will start each week out at rank 12.

I'm not quite sure what you mean... sorry!

How it seems to work is week 1 we'll all be in bronze. Week 2 those who advanced to silver will be there and everyone else bronze, while bronze resets rewards. This repeats for 4 more weeks until the end of the season. Each Sprint you don't make it to the next, you reset back to bottom rank and do it again until it's either over, or you move on to the next rank. If you rank out at gold, you repeat gold, up to 4 times. The rewards reset each week, but you can only do a max of four gold, because that's how many you'd have access to if you're good/lucky.

Personally, I like the structure of the system. I think it could be tuned a bit, but it's good. The thing I hate, is the rewards were gutted. Hopefully they fix that.