Surf Timer Ranking System Overhaul

[sneaK]

Hey guys, it's no secret the surf timer needs a little love in regards to the points & ranking system. In its current state, Bonuses are massively overweighted, and there are no current points for stage records.

Points for stage times have been planned & ready for quite some time, it simply wasn't appropriate to add until more stages were completed. This avoided players being able to farm points by going to some obscure t3-6 map that no one else has gone through recently, easily get a top 10 time, and amass points. Obviously in the end it will all get balanced, but would throw off the rankings for quite a while. WRCP's were added ~4 months ago, and we have seen quite numerous stage completions since then, even on rarely-played maps, so now is a good time to add stage record points. Stage record points won't be surpassing ~50 points per each actual stage record (#1 spot), and completion points will be scaled by your rank percentage (ex. Rank #500/500 will get 1 or 2 points, Rank #2/500 would get ~40-45, Rank #30/500 would get ~10 points, etc). These are all working numbers and I'll have to get the ratios fine tuned.

That being said - if we're throwing a whole new element into the points/ranks system, let's turn it up a notch and fix some existing issues.

Issue #1 - Bonuses are incredibly overweighted. When you can gain more points by completing a bonus than completing a map, that's when you know it's fucked up. I've toyed with slashing bonus points in half, and it seems like a fair solution (with some tweaking needed obviously, directly cutting in half is pretty brutal & didn't take much brainpower).

Issue #2 - Ranks (notably higher ones) are fairly unorganized, and there is no obvious point where "Rank X is higher than Rank Y". For example, ask yourself, which rank is higher, without checking: Wicked, or Master. Stunning, or Amazing. Wicked, or Insane. I created the ranks and half the time I'm still not sure which one is a higher rank without checking. That being said, I'd like to streamline the ranks a bit, and make it a bit more obvious which ones are higher. This would mostly be a renaming thing.

Improvement/Addition - I'm currently testing an achievements system with the surf timer. Think of it as Steam Achievements, for example - you typed !r for the first time, here's 20 points. You completed your first Tier 6 map, here's an extra 100 points. You reached 100,000 points, here's an extra 100, etc. Lots of little but cool things that you can do to earn points.

After all of these changes, ranks will obviously be shifting a bit. Someone who consistently tries to get good stage times will see a significant bump. Someone who got bad times farming bonuses for points will see an obvious decrease. Overall, rank positions will mostly stay the same.

I'm sure I've forgotten to add more... Thoughts?

 

[Frumpy]

+1

 

[Josh]

+6

 

[Noldyy]

what if ive already done !r and t6 maps and make the highest rank "noldyy" and every1 will know its the top

 

[sneaK]

what if ive already done !r and t6 maps and make the highest rank "noldyy" and every1 will know its the top

For map/numbered completions it will auto detect and award points, however for small things like !r, those will be added as they are completed

 

[pbjpie]

yus free points!!
only thing that came to mind is where the surf achievements would show
iirc some sick updates were made to reduce clutter in the chat, would it show in chat or somewhere else (like on the timer)?

 

[sneaK]

yus free points!!
only thing that came to mind is where the surf achievements would show
iirc some sick updates were made to reduce clutter in the chat, would it show in chat or somewhere else (like on the timer)?

Unfortunately where it stands it would announce in chat. Achievements aren't as common as new PB's so it wouldn't be a big spammy addition. Thanks for the reminder though, I do want point announces to only go to the person getting them - I'll roll this up into the update probably.

 

[yuki]

Lowering points for bonuses sound just right (surf_forgotten makes me cringe)

Speaking of achievement thing it's pretty cool and i'd definitely grind weird stuff to get it (i imagine finish surf_beginner 100 times) but in my opinion it doesn't really fit the competitive aspect of surfing even if points would be minor, maybe separate rankings with custom achievement points which could unlock some models or something? dunno if possible


awoo

 

[sneaK]

Lowering points for bonuses sound just right (surf_forgotten makes me cringe)

Yeah, forgotten was removed, just a massive crouchboost/exploit fest. The fact that you could easily get 6x+ the main map points on just the bonuses is insane to me.

Speaking of achievement thing it's pretty cool and i'd definitely grind weird stuff to get it (i imagine finish surf_beginner 100 times) but in my opinion it doesn't really fit the competitive aspect of surfing even if points would be minor, maybe separate rankings with custom achievement points which could unlock some models or something? dunno if possible

That's actually a pretty good point, and exactly why challenges don't award points to players. However, most of the achievement rewards are based on merit - for example, beating certain tier maps, certain maps itself, etc, so this will be possible for anyone. I'll definitely still think about it though, and take a second look through the actual achievements themselves.

 

[:bepsi]

Hi, new user here