Tanking and Spotting Achievements: Completing the Package

[Edgecase]

0.5.10 begins the public data-gathering phase for a new class of creditable player actions: "Team Play" actions. Currently, those consist of tanking and spotting. Tanking is currently measured by adding up all the max damage of shells and torpedoes that were fired with you selected as the target, and called "Potential Damage". Spotting is measured in the number of ships you spotted for the team, and the damage/fires/flooding dealt to ships that you spotted. Capture credit is also measured and displayed in the Team Play category, although it is already rewarded in-game.

 

These actions are not yet being rewarded, as WG is still in the data-gathering phase to see whether, for instance, the "Potential Damage" measurement is way off between classes. WG has stated that they will eventually be part of the "economy", which basically means they will become part of the XP calculation, but definitely not in 0.5.10.

 

However, this data opens up a new tool for improving the quality of team play in WoWS: Team Play Achievements. In terms of influencing player behavior, Achievements boost the visibility of certain actions (a personal and social motivator), as well as award signal flags (an incentive/utility motivator).

 

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So here are my ideas for some Team Play Achievements:

 

Tip of the Spear  Heroic Achievement

At the 4-minute mark, have 35% of the Potential Damage on your team.

Awards 10x <signal flag>: Reduces the cooldown of Damage Control Party by 5%

 

Some of the difficulty in designing Achievements for tanking revolve around the fact that they must work across both tiers and ship types. Conditions like "10x your ship's HP" are way easier to earn in destroyers because their HP is so low, while conditions like "2,000,000 Potential Damage" are basically impossible at low tier, but way too easy at T10. Other Achievements (e.g. High Caliber) get around this by making it a % of a team's HP pool, so I went with that approach here.

 

Nevertheless, the idea behind this award is to recognize and reward players who are actively tanking (rather than sitting in the back). Some portion of otherwise-campers will hopefully be motivated to stop sitting in the back by seeing this -- whether by shame or by greed, it doesn't matter.

 

Eyes On  Honorable Achievement

Spot 50 enemies in a game

Awards 10x <signal flag>: Lower your ship's concealment range by 5%. See note below.

 

This assumes that enemies count as "spotted" again if they get unspotted and respotted. The signal flag reward for this Achievement is the same as the two below; that means that while all three can contribute to earning it, you can't stack them (because they're the same flag). You also shouldn't be able to do all three to earn more flags in a day -- the flag awarding should be limited to once in a 24-hour period, although this may need to be coded in (current wording is ambiguous).

 

Directed Fire  Honorable Achievement

Earn 250 spotting assists in a game

Awards 10x <signal flag>: Lower your ship's concealment range by 5%. See note above.

 

"Spotting assists" would be a ribbon earned any time a target you're spotting takes damage or has a fire/flooding set. Not sure how they'd keep it from being too spammy, though. This is probably going to be the most common of the spotting achievements, but also the most relevant to improving team play -- if people know they're getting credit for spotting the enemy, they're more likely to do so.

 

Ninja Warrior  Heroic Achievement

Deal 100,000 damage in a game without being spotted

Awards 10x <signal flag>: Lower your ship's concealment range by 5%. See note above.

 

Probably impossible in games where there's an aircraft carrier. Maybe it should be to deal 100,000 damage while unspotted instead (e.g., after breaking vision counts).

 

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Anyway, that's the general idea. I think Team Play Achievements will be a powerful tool for WG to discourage some of the most problematic behaviors that we see in the game today. Personally, I also think that additional team play behaviors need to be recognized, such as smoking other ships (damage dealt by friendly ships within your smoke screen). What do you think? What ideas do you all have for Achievements that could use the new tanking and spotting measurements to encourage better play?

[CAPTMUDDXX]

rather high goals set there for any of these given the enemy only has 12 ships

[Edgecase]

rather high goals set there for any of these given the enemy only has 12 ships

 

Yes, but they tend to appear and disappear rather frequently, especially at higher tiers (Concealment Module + Concealment Expert). I'm assuming (see Commentary) that re-revealing a ship counts as an additional "spot".