[2021] Reward Requirements, Scaling, and Testing

Summary

The proposal in this document is to harden individual requirements, scale rewards based on campaign duration, move most rewards to vendors using alternate currencies and improve our ability to test our systems. 

Individual Requirements Rules

One of the biggest challenges with our reward system is the inability to set individual requirements. We give out ALL rewards based on whether your guild or faction does well enough, but then we never check individual contributions. This leads to a slew of issues where players use the system to gain additional rewards on our different campaign types. 

• For the dregs, we had to pull individual rewards out of our system to prevent guilds from bloating how many rewards they were issued by subscribing proxy accounts before the campaign ended
• For the shadow, we have had players sitting as many campaigns as possible doing nothing to contribute to the faction and just collect as many rewards as possible with no effort given whatsoever. 
• Potential pitfall, we don’t want to make it so stringent and complex that it’s hard to understand or a mystery to players. This is just to ensure players that are actually playing in the campaigns are rewards. 

Solution(s)

• All rewards need to be checked for individual contributions, regardless of campaign type. The reward system needs to validate that an individual has participated through broad checks in activities.
  • Reward changes
    • We need to add data to either a google sheet file or a JSON file that will allow us to check broad strokes of activity. We want to know, simply, if an account is playing our game or not. Again, the goal here is to eliminate the proxy guilds and players, but keep it simple enough for the real players to continue enjoying the game unnoticed.
      
      The checks are broken down into two categories. The first is the “Time” category and the second is the “Gameplay” category.
      • Time Category
        • The following two requirements are needed to have any rewards granted to an individual account. If both are true, they qualify. These requirements are on an account level. 
          • Total subscribed time
            • This field will let us know how long the account has been subscribed to this particular campaign in hours. Design needs to be able to assign a threshold that players must reach to qualify.
          • Total logged in time
          • This field will let us know how long the player has been logged into the campaign and actually active playing. This time is specific to their subscribed campaign. Design needs to be able to assign a threshold that players must reach to qualify.
      • Gameplay Category
        • We want players to get points for doing a broad set of activities throughout the entire campaign.  We track metrics against player activities and will use these to determine if the player has participated within the campaign sufficiently to be an active participant.
    • When a player unsubscribes all of their characters from a campaign, they will forfeit their rewards to that campaign. They will also lose the progress made in the “time” and “gameplay” categories listed above. The following expectations are listed below. 
      • Guild rewards - If an officer unsubscribes all characters from the campaign, the officer shouldn't be able to claim the rewards. A guild leader has the right to claim the reward regardless of whether or not they participated in the campaign to avoid situations where no one can claim the reward.
      • Participant rewards - If any player unsubscribes all characters from the campaign, they won't be able to claim the rewards.
    • Clarification Question: Let's say I have 3 characters I'm playing in a campaign and have a combined total of 50 hours played in that campaign.  The first 2 characters together represent 49.5 hours of played time and the last character I just subscribed at the very end to "hold my place" in the campaign. Then I unsubscribe the first 2 characters. Do I lose the credit for the 49.5 hours I played on those characters (my "mains") and only keep the 0.5h I played on the "placeholder" character or do I keep all 50 hours?
    • Clarification Answer: Your character would keep all 50 hours played. You only lose the time and gameplay categories if you unsubscribe ALL of your characters from that specific campaign. The player still played the game an appropriate amount to qualify for rewards. We are looking to prevent players from quickly gaming the system without being too punitive to our normal players. 

Scaling Rewards

As it stands, our reward systems do not scale at all in similar ways our campaigns do. This limits our flexibility on the live service. Additionally, many of our rewards will be difficult to scale and distribute in a way that would be easily manageable and balanced. 

Before we get into the solutions, let me give a simple example of how this would work. 

Setup: We are going to use Dust as an example of a scaling reward. This reward will be given out in a dregs campaign that could vary in length. 

In data, we establish a min and max length, in days, that a campaign can be. In the image below, we define the min and max range to be 14 days minimum and 42 days maximum. 

This data is then used to determine how much dust we give out. For the dust in this example, we give a min and max value of 100 and 400. See the image below. 

If we use a 14-day campaign, then players would see 100 dust in the reward package. If we use a 42-day campaign then the dust would be 400. If we used a 31-day campaign then the dust would be 332.

Solution(s)

1. To help make rewards scale better with campaigns we will need to rely on giving out currencies (Dust, Gold, etc) as part of the reward packages. These scale better as we give out a lot of them.
2. We will need to create 4 new currencies. Glory, Wealth, Power, and Conquest Tokens. These tokens, similar to dust or gold, will act as a currency for claiming rewards at vendors located at the temples. These new currencies and what rewards we place on giving out are described under the “What Rewards To Give Out” later in this document. 
   • These vendors will be located in Gods Reach temple by the tree of life and on the starter parcels in their personal EKs. In the EK, we can either put the vendors around the brazier or we can put a third building on that parcel to house them.
     
     

   • This also allows us to create rewards that may take multiple campaigns to get.
   • These tokens are no drop and no trade rewards.
   • This work will need to be done in tandem with or after the alternate currency work has been completed. 
3. We will need to restructure the strategy game datasheet to accommodate a min and max value for every single item given out of the reward packages. These values will be associated with the length of the campaign to generate the best reward quantity possible. This value will be determined by both the strategy game datasheet as well as the new curves table described in 4) section. The larger the values, the easier it is to scale the rewards.
   •  If the min value is specified, but the max value isn’t, then the reward is not a scaling reward. This allows designers to still make non-scaling rewards. 
4. Add a new tab to establish a curves table. This will allow us to define minimum and maximum campaign lengths and apply those specifically to the rewards. This is what will control the min and max value on the set on the rewards page. Tech will need to scale the rewards between the two values. 
   • A reward that does not evenly divide or multiply between the scales will round up. 
5. We need to do more messaging on rewards to be able to explain the high-level differences between reward packages. The reward screen should have a design-driven text field description to put info about the reward package.
   • While we are at it, we should also make the text editable directly above the rewards. This way we can cater the text between GvG and FvF campaigns. 
     
     This area would need to be reworked by UI. This section will include three bits of information.

• A general statement
• Reward description (Campaign specific)
• Participation description section
• A string that says, “[Username] [Does or Doesn’t] currently qualify for individual rewards.” This will let the player know when they do or do not qualify for rewards. 

 

What Rewards To Give Out

With all of these changes, we need to define what rewards to give out. This section will define the specific vendors, current items, and optional new items that will be used for the reward system in the future. 

Vendors - Below is a list of vendors that need to be created and placed in the temple/ek as described under scaling rewards. 

• Conquest Vendor - Conquest vendors accept conquest tokens.
  • This new token currency would need to be created by design and art. They’re no trade and no drop.
  • Visually, we’d need to work with the Art Team to create new icons above the vendor’s head as well as get a character set up to sell them. 
• Glory Vendor - Glory vendors accept Glory tokens.
  • This new token currency would need to be created by design and art. They’re no trade and no drop.
  • Visually, we’d need to work with the Art Team to create new icons above the vendor's head as well as get a character set up to sell them.
• Wealth Vendor - Wealth vendors accept Wealth tokens. 
  • This new token currency would need to be created by design and art. They’re no trade and no drop.
  • Visually, we’d need to work with the Art Team to create new icons above the vendor's head as well as get a character set up to sell them.
• Power Vendor - Power vendors accept Power tokens. 
  • This new token currency would need to be created by design and art. They’re no trade and no drop.
  • Visually, we’d need to work with the Art Team to create new icons above the vendor's head as well as get a character set up to sell them.

Current Items - Below is a list of items that already exist, that will be slotted into the different vendors. Each item will be balanced to the amount of conquest, glory, wealth, or power tokens we generate for each campaign. 

Conquest Vendors: Currently everything that’s in the rewards packages now will be included. These items currently granted are….

• Dust
• Gold
• Major Mystery Disciplines
• Minor Mystery Disciplines
• Placeable Castle Walls
• Placeable Fort Walls
• Placeable Vendors
• Placeable Vendor Stalls
• Placeable God Statues
• Mystery Mounts
• Weapon Shard Additives
• Placeable Hunger
• Player Badges

Glory Vendors: Currently everything that’s in the rewards packages now will be included. The items currently granted are….

• Dust
• Major Mystery Disciplines
• Vessel Mystery Additives
• Harvesting Additives
• Placeable Walls
• Placeable Gryphon Nest

Wealth Vendors: Currently everything that’s in the rewards packages now will be included. The items currently granted are….

• Topaz Gems
• Sapphire Gems
• Emerald Gems
• Ruby Gems
• Diamond Gems
• Exploration Mystery Disciplines
• Vessel Mystery Additives
• Weapon Enchantments
• Placeable Ores
• Placeable Lamp Posts

Power Vendors: Currently everything that’s in the rewards packages now will be included. The items currently granted are….

• Placeable Ballista
• Placeable Catapults
• Placeable Trebuchets
• Siege Weapon Additives
• Mystery Ore Resources
• Major Mystery Disciplines
• Vessel Mystery Additives
• XP Sacrifice Item
• Placeable Barbarian Tent
• Placeable Carts

(Optional) New Items - Below is a list of new items that should be added or created to reward vendors. They will be slotted into one of the four vendors.

1. 1st, 2nd, 3rd place as well as top 20%, top 40%, top 60%, top 80%, and top 100% will receive conquest statues that players can place in their EKs. These will NOT go on the vendor. 
   • The statues would be of a Crow, arms spread open.
   • There would be a mantel at the base that reads what place they got.
   • Each statue should have a different material with 1st place being the most impressive
   • 1st place statue is the biggest and most impressive
   • Top 100% is a smaller and broken statue
2. We should invest some tech time into being able to create consumable items that give places emotes. We can then put those item emotes on reward vendors or give them out as exclusive rewards.
   • Winners Emote: Emote that we can give out to the winners of the conquest category
   • Glory Emote: Emote that we can give out to the winners of the glory category
   • Wealth Emote: Emote that we can give out to the winners of the wealth category
   • Power Emote: Emote that we can give out to the winners of the power category
   • Crow Emote: Emote where a player flaps their arms like their wings
3. We had created new parcels for players to win and put into their EKs. They need to be reviewed and added back into the reward packages. 
   • Large fighting arena parcel
   • Marketplace parcel
   • Mountain parcel
4. We should create new parcels to further encourage players to win rewards so they can enjoy them in their EKs
   • Create a medium fighting arena. This is similar to the large one, just medium.
   • Create a small fighting arena. This is similar to the large one, just smaller.
   • Canyon modular parcels. Duplicate the campaign canyon parcels we currently use and put them into deeds that we can give to players.
   • Forest modular parcels. Duplicate the campaign forest parcels we currently use and put them into deeds that we can give to players.
   • Mountain modular parcels. Create a new set of modular mountain parcels for players to add height to their EKs. These would be 2x2 parcels.
     • Endcap parcel
     • Straight parcel
     • T parcel
     • + parcel
     • L parcel
   • Riverlands modular parcels. Create a new (Or reuse an existing set if we have it) set of modular river parcels for players to add water to their EKs. These would be 2x2 or 1x1 parcels.
     • Endcap parcel
     • Straight parcel
     • T parcel
     • + parcel
     • L parcel
5. We should create deeds that spawn NPC inside of the EKs. These NPC would need to be set up by design to provide no loot and no skinning. We can place a dynamic spawner marker inside of a placeable deed to allow players to place and or pick up the spawning node. 
   • Gryphon deed
   • Bear deed
   • Pig deed
   • Hellcat deed
   • Wolf deed
   • Spider deed
   • Auroch deed
6. Create EK placeable obelisks in memory of famous crows through the ages. Other than Hero, we have one other notable hero named Enbarus who led the Enbarri. These statues, when interacted with, will give fun buffs or debuffs to players as they brawl in their EKs. 
   • These buffs should ONLY be usable inside of the EK and shouldn’t persist between logging in and out. 
   • For the purposes of this design, the obelisks will detail the powers used, but we’d need help from Jack forming the lore around each one.
   • An obelisk that gives players a speed boost that greatly increases in and out of combat movement speed for 10 minutes
   • An obelisk that grants unlimited dodges for 10 minutes 
   • An obelisk that sets your intellect to cap for 10 minutes
   • An obelisk that sets your strength to cap for 10 minutes
   • An obelisk that sets your dexterity to cap for 10 minutes
   • An obelisk that sets your spirit to cap for 10 minutes
   • An obelisk that sets your constitution to cap for 10 minutes
7. Create some reward sigils that the players can wear on their chests. These sigils will have the same stats as our other sigils but are used as more of a bragging rights item. 
   • 1st place conquest sigil
   • 2nd place conquest sigil
   • 3rd place conquest sigil
   • Top 20% glory sigil
   • Top 20% wealth sigil
   • Top 20% power sigil

Other Issues To Address

1. As it stands, the reward packages are not very well organized for the players. Currently, they sort by alphabetical order. This puts the coolest package, the legendary one, at the bottom of the list. Design would like the ordering of reward packages to follow the logic below. 
   • Rewards that I qualify for
     • The rarity of the reward
       • Alphabetical ordering of the rewards
   • Rewards that I don’t qualify for
     • The rarity of the reward
       • Alphabetical ordering of the rewards
2. Currently, players do all of the calculations by hand throughout the campaigns to figure out what they might get. A great player improvement would be to show the player their “Potential Rewards” at the end of each season. This will let them see what they could get if they continue doing what they’re doing.
   • The potential rewards are only updated at the end of spring, summer, and fall. 
   • We need to update the UI to support this visual change. The current text says, “Earned” and “Unearned”. A new text that will be displayed at the end of each season will be “Qualifying”  
   • Inside the tooltip, there’s a section at the bottom that will say “Granted” or “Not Granted”. We will need another spot here to say “Qualifying”
     
     
      
3. Currently, EVERY SINGLE REWARD uses a chest icon that looks exactly the same. This makes the rewards look stale and quite frankly a bit lame. After speaking with the UI folks, we should expose that chest in our datasheet and create a variety of icons for the different reward structures. 

• Dregs:
  • Conquest
    • 1st place: Legendary, a cool ass throne surrounded by many chests overflowing with conquest tokens
    • 2nd place: Epic, a chest overflowing with conquest tokens
    • 3rd place: Epic, a chest filled with conquest tokens
    • Top 20%: Rare, a leather bag overflowing with conquest tokens
    • Top 40%: Rare, a leather bag filled with conquest tokens
    • Top 60%: Uncommon, a larger pile of conquest tokens
    • Top 80%: Uncommon, a small pile of conquest tokens
    • Top 100%: Common, a single conquest token
  • Glory
    • Top 20%: Epic, a chest overflowing with glory tokens
    • Top 40%: Rare, a leather bag filled with glory tokens
    • Top 60%: Uncommon, a small pile of glory tokens
  • Wealth
    • Top 20%: Epic, a chest overflowing with Wealth tokens
    • Top 40%: Rare, a leather bag filled with Wealth tokens
    • Top 60%: Uncommon, a small pile of Wealth tokens
  • Power
    • Top 20%: Epic, a chest overflowing with Power tokens
    • Top 40%: Rare, a leather bag filled with Power tokens
    • Top 60%: Uncommon, a small pile of Power tokens
• Shadow:
  • Conquest
    • 1st Place: Epic, a chest overflowing with conquest tokens and a spirit crow flying above the chest
    • 2nd Place: Rare, a chest filled with conquest tokens
    • 3rd Place: Uncommon, chest filled with conquest tokens
  • Glory
    • 1st Place: Epic chest overflowing with Glory tokens
    • 2nd Place: Rare chest filled with Glory tokens
    • 3rd Place: Uncommon chest filled with Glory tokens
  • Wealth
    • 1st Place: Epic chest overflowing with Wealth tokens
    • 2nd Place: Rare chest filled with Wealth tokens
    • 3rd Place: Uncommon chest filled with Wealth tokens
  • Power
  • 1st Place: Epic chest overflowing with Power tokens
  • 2nd Place: Rare chest filled with Power tokens
  • 3rd Place: Uncommon chest filled with Power tokens

Thanks for your feedback to the Reward Requirements, Scaling, and Testing design.  The designers will be going over your feedback.