Feature Requests

[SeanNewman]

PC,

The thing about the ranks is that I like how you're doing it now but at some point it's going to have to be expanded because the top level guys will be in the hundreds and possibly thousands (?) after a couple years if the game allows that much.

Your system would work great for now though, and if the leaders did get too far ahead it wouldn't be that much trouble to expand the requirements (every rank incentive is 2 levels instead of 1 level, etc).  Some people would get demoted then so I would suggest making it harder now as opposed to easier.

The game is only a day or two old so almost everyone should still be Ptes or OCdts.

 

[PuckChaser]

Maybe make it so you have levels, but also get "promoted" to a new rank every 3-5 levels. Would spread things out pretty good if it took 5 levels to get to Pte(B).

 

[SeanNewman]

On a different note, have you given any thought to giving people incentives if they "convince" other people to join the game by sending invites?

Most of these Facebook-type games seem to have some sort of partnership-type scheme where the more people you have sent links to who join the more of whatever is desirable you get.

 

[HavokFour]

An option to sell kit would be greatly appreciated. I have 7 C7A2's and 200 Double Doubles I may never use. 

 

[SeanNewman]

An option to sell kit would be greatly appreciated. I have 7 C7A2's and 200 Double Doubles I may never use. 

Hint: You should have ~3,500 double doubles you'll never use! (If you want to work your way up the ranking chain).

 

[vonGarvin]

My only question is this: does the game end next July?  :stirpot:

 

[PuckChaser]

I agree with selling items, lets us make back some of the Milpoints we've used, at 50% of the buying price.

For the Timmies and the tea, would need to sell 2 to get 1 milpoint back.

 

[crooks.a]

Well, I finally unlocked the medal chest, and I unlocked the "Beginners Luck" medal (+10 combat readiness for 12 hours). I figured it would also give me a +10 CR on top of the max, but it didn't. Perhaps there could be some sort of disclaimer mentioning that it doesn't give you 10 more CR?

 

[bdave]

*Holding a sign on the side of the road*: Will fight insurgents for Milpoints.

edit: I also suggest that the purchase history be a separate one from the usual Army.ca MP history. Possibly a separate tab?
It becomes pretty cluttered.

 

[PuckChaser]

Yeah, that's one thing I've found: Even at the lower levels (but especially at the high levels), its very difficult to play without any Milpoints. Its also pretty hard to collect any without either paying for them (ok in small doses), or spamming the forums (which just gets you banned). Just for a baseline, I've burned through 15,000 Milpoints between yesterday and today. That'd be $50 worth if someone was new to the game.

I have a couple of suggestions for it:

A. Make it an equal bonus for leveling: 250 Milpoints. That's a lot at low levels, and low at the higher levels but it evens out.
B. Incentives for medals should only cost Milpoints if its a bonus that works for a set period of time.
C. Make one of the stat values give a random chance to find Milpoints. I would suggest Initiative "Your level of initiative is outstanding, and during the operation you find XXXX Milpoints." Give it slightly higher chance of finding them than what ATD gives for finding Int.

 

[crooks.a]

Yeah, I agree. There needs to be another way to get Milpoints. Newer users like me don't have that many points, and I suppose it may increase the amount of spam on the forums. Perhaps you could introduce some sort of salary. A monthly paycheck of Milpoints, if you will (but since the game is scaled down, maybe weekly instead).

I also agree with the purchase history change bdave suggested. It is quite cluttered, in my opinion.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Thanks all... I'll have to see what I can figure out for a rank system that's more intuitive. I like the ideas that are coming out about that.

Petamocto, a referrers bonus was on the "to do" list... still is actually. Just didn't make it into the first cut, but I agree it would be a good incentive to getting more players.

PuckChaser, it's probably small comfort, but nobody was supposed to be able to reach level 46 in 2 days... You've definitely accelerated way beyond what I had anticipated, and with your daily dose of points it probably would have been OK as is. I can also say that overall folks are still earning more points through the game than they are spending, and of course able to earn more here on the site. The current MP bonus for promotion is somewhat tied to your new rank - so the more promotions you get, the more points you get with each promotion. Hopefully that will help keep the fuel tank full later on in the game as well. I do like the idea of an attribute that helps you find MilPoints randomly.

I've burned through 15,000 Milpoints between yesterday and today. That'd be $50 worth if someone was new to the game.

That was sort of the idea... long time site members and supporters can play for free, whereas new members might have to buy points if they want to run with the big dogs. Otherwise they just need to be patient and enjoy some positive involvement here on the site.

I will take a look at the system though, as I agree it probably needs some tuning. I've also logged the request to clean up the MilPoints history.

I hope you'll all bear with me as I work through some of these items... it's likely going to take some time and I may not get it right the first go around.

Thanks again for all the input, and for playing!


Cheers
Mike

 

[crooks.a]

Hey, it's no problem at all. I understand how much work programming can be. I'd be happy to give you a hand with the programming, too. I've known PHP and MySQL for about 5 years now, and HTML + CSS for longer.

 

[PuckChaser]

PuckChaser, it's probably small comfort, but nobody was supposed to be able to reach level 46 in 2 days... You've definitely accelerated way beyond what I had anticipated, and with your daily dose of points it probably would have been OK as is. I can also say that overall folks are still earning more points through the game than they are spending, and of course able to earn more here on the site. The current MP bonus for promotion is somewhat tied to your new rank - so the more promotions you get, the more points you get with each promotion. Hopefully that will help keep the fuel tank full later on in the game as well. I do like the idea of an attribute that helps you find MilPoints randomly.

It's definitely addictive, and kept me sane in between periods of playing Bad Company 2. I just don't want people having to resort to nonsense posts here just to get a handful of Milpoints to get that next level. I know some of the missions are designed to not have any equipment that gets used up, that should help balance things as well.

 

[SeanNewman]

Yeah, I agree. There needs to be another way to get Milpoints.

There is: Paying $$ for them.

That is no different than any other online mini game like this; you either put in the hours (in this case posting) or put up the money if you want to be equal.

 

[bdave]

When it comes to AOR, can it be so that you can select the number of times you wish to "reduce insurgency"? Having to click the button 30 times is sort of annoying.
Should be able to input an amount.
i.e. -4mp to reduce insurgency. User decides to input 20 times for a total of -80mp. Any left over is given back (only needed 60mp to clear area). Sort of how you buy equipment; that interface.

 

[SeanNewman]

BDave,

I don't know if this will work on all browsers, but I use Google Chrome and I have found that for any "button" on this game, it will allow me to click the mouse many times on rapid rate and it will "count" all of those times before reloading the page.

In the case of the insurgency for example, if I just hit it once and wait, like you said it will take an annoying few seconds for the page to reload before hitting it again (which in total takes a couple minutes).  However, if I just click the mouse 20 times quickly, when the page reloads it will just count the last click and show something like "Insugency lowered by 4 points, now at 50".

Anything that is button-based this seems to work for, whether it's doing the missions over an over or training, etc.

 

[Trinity]

How about the ability to trade Merit Points within your own profile. 

For example lets say I want to take 5 out of initiative and put them into CR or Int. 

 

[SeanNewman]

How about the ability to trade Merit Points within your own profile. 

For example lets say I want to take 5 out of initiative and put them into CR or Int.

Have already asked for that in Reply #2, as soon as I realized how dumb I had been with my placement of the points early on.

 

[opp550]

I think that each user should have a different milpoint number on each accounts. If I am not mistaken, weren't milpoints originally meant to show how "credible" each person on this site is? Seeing someone post with 1000 posts but 38 milpoints makes them look like they are having discipline issues. Maybe have the AO milpoint number be the original total minus all AO purchases, but keep the number under their name the original balance.