Community Goal Top 10 Reward Decals

[DemiserofD]

Community Goals have a top 10, but most have very little reason to bother getting there. Only a rare few have specific rewards for top 10; most just give a tiny amount of additional credits, which is almost always insignificant in comparison to the amount of effort players need to put in.

With this in mind, I'd like to suggest a special series of decals given to those who get top 10. These would be similar to the rank decals, only with some enhancements because of how rare they are. Every single CG would reward these, regardless of whether or not there are specific rewards for the top 10.

For getting in the top 10 a single time, you would be rewarded with a single star beneath the decal, and the decal would come in reflective bronze.

For getting in the top 10 3 times, you would get a second star, and the decal would come in reflective silver.

For 10 times, you would get a third star, and the decal would come in reflective gold.

For 25 times, you would get a fourth star, and the decal would come in refractive diamond.

And for 50 times, you would get a fifth star, and the decal would be molten, glowing, scintillating iridescent.

Obviously very few people would get the highest rank, but this is for the long-term. In five years or so, someone would be bragging about getting the very first Iridescent 5-star.

I think this would be a nice encouragement for players to fight over getting into the top 10. Some might only want it once, while some might want to go for higher decals. Either way, it means top 10 is always at least somewhat meaningful.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Save time and just give all the carrier commandos who max out trade community goals the decals right now.

 

[Red Anders]

Top 10 still doesn't add any incentive to most people. I mean although I can find time to play the game most days, I couldn't hope to find the hours a day needed to hit top 10 in most CGs, at which point there is no incentive.

 

[DemiserofD]

Save time and just give all the carrier commandos who max out trade community goals the decals right now.

Haha, honestly, for most CGs, carriers are a hindrance more than a help. If there are still commodities available less than 2 jumps away, you can almost always haul faster without the added step of dumping to the carrier and then loading from it again after jumping the carrier over.

 

[DemiserofD]

Top 10 still doesn't add any incentive to most people. I mean although I can find time to play the game most days, I couldn't hope to find the hours a day needed to hit top 10 in most CGs, at which point there is no incentive.

Oh for sure, this wouldn't apply to many players, which is why I'm suggesting a decal rather than a material reward. You don't want to keep something with actual gameplay value from players, but a decal is just a mark of pride.

But I, for example, have had the time and opportunity to get in the top 10 in the past, but have ultimately not bothered, because there's no point. Give me even a slight reason to compete and I might have done so, however.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Haha, honestly, for most CGs, carriers are a hindrance more than a help. If there are still commodities available less than 2 jumps away, you can almost always haul faster without the added step of dumping to the carrier and then loading from it again after jumping the carrier over.

It's been a while but the last trade CG I was at the system was littered with the awful gaudy looking things.

Has that changed in recent events?

 

[Red Anders]

Oh for sure, this wouldn't apply to many players, which is why I'm suggesting a decal rather than a material reward. You don't want to keep something with actual gameplay value from players, but a decal is just a mark of pride.

But I, for example, have had the time and opportunity to get in the top 10 in the past, but have ultimately not bothered, because there's no point. Give me even a slight reason to compete and I might have done so, however.

Same answer - good for you, irrelevant to me. Just saying.

 

[DemiserofD]

It's been a while but the last trade CG I was at the system was littered with the awful gaudy looking things.

Has that changed in recent events?

Oh for sure, people definitely still use them. It's just not very efficient, but then, people are probably happier feeling like they're using their 5 billion credit leisure barge rather than having it just sit there, so value for them, hey?

You can do the math yourself though. Consider the added time from needing to jump from the buy location to the carrier and then from the carrier to the sell location, and compare that with just buying, high-waking, and selling. Especially if you need to wait for a slot to open up to get nearby the target station.

There have been a rare few CGs with especially distant stations, but then there have also been CGs with permit-locked systems where FCs cant even jump into the system. On average, carriers are pleasant, but offer no significant increase in effectiveness over a player with a cutter.

 

[DemiserofD]

Same answer - good for you, irrelevant to me. Just saying.

Haha, fair enough. Honestly, I'd probably get a silver star at most. No way would I get level 4 or 5. But there are definitely some players who would!

 

[LeoBartlet]

Oh for sure, people definitely still use them. It's just not very efficient, but then, people are probably happier feeling like they're using their 5 billion credit leisure barge rather than having it just sit there, so value for them, hey?

I figured those that take the carriers everywhere are not really clued up on efficiency and for them its more about status symbols.

You know like those footballers with gold covered Ferraris that have to park illegally.

 

[Florenus]

I have nothing against that idea (not that I actually care for it), but since there's little chance of it getting done, I suggest that meanwhile you can change your ship's name to "CG top 10 x5" or something like that if you want to show your accomplishments. More people will notice too

 

[The Golden Knight]

Community Goals have a top 10, but most have very little reason to bother getting there. Only a rare few have specific rewards for top 10; most just give a tiny amount of additional credits, which is almost always insignificant in comparison to the amount of effort players need to put in.

With this in mind, I'd like to suggest a special series of decals given to those who get top 10. These would be similar to the rank decals, only with some enhancements because of how rare they are. Every single CG would reward these, regardless of whether or not there are specific rewards for the top 10.

For getting in the top 10 a single time, you would be rewarded with a single star beneath the decal, and the decal would come in reflective bronze.

For getting in the top 10 3 times, you would get a second star, and the decal would come in reflective silver.

For 10 times, you would get a third star, and the decal would come in reflective gold.

For 25 times, you would get a fourth star, and the decal would come in refractive diamond.

And for 50 times, you would get a fifth star, and the decal would be molten, glowing, scintillating iridescent.

Obviously very few people would get the highest rank, but this is for the long-term. In five years or so, someone would be bragging about getting the very first Iridescent 5-star.

I think this would be a nice encouragement for players to fight over getting into the top 10. Some might only want it once, while some might want to go for higher decals. Either way, it means top 10 is always at least somewhat meaningful.

Who in the world has hit Top 10 Commanders FIFTY times?! Even I find myself in the single digits, and it's no easy feat!

But, I totally agree with your assessment: the reward is incredibly underwhelming given how much incredible effort goes into hitting that bracket of the Community Goal ranks.

 

[DemiserofD]

The 50 reward would be a long-term thing, of course. Right now most players haven't put in much effort, probably because there's no reason to do so. I'd expect that to change if there was suddenly a reason to do so.

Honestly, I'd expect the first person to get that one in under two years, which given there are probably less than 50 CGs per year, would be pretty ridiculous. But there are people that ridiculous out there.

 

[Para Handy]

It is an established fact that all commanders are nuts for decals - so I suppose a top-ten decal would attract people - problem is that (as already stated) trade CGs are going to be FC-dominated and combat ones are down to the usual suspects who already hunt the top rankings for epeen reasons, decals would not trump epeen I think.

Now if you suggest giving decals for the top 75% - then you would see an increase in general participation - all the decal ones in the past were well supported. So if you want to provide reward for greater contribution there is nothing wrong with the successfully used levels of plain, bronze, silver and gold decal awards (was there even an emissive level once?).

 

[CMDR Buy Arx]

Top 10 still doesn't add any incentive to most people. I mean although I can find time to play the game most days, I couldn't hope to find the hours a day needed to hit top 10 in most CGs, at which point there is no incentive.

I got one once a few years back and I barely play the game. You only need to pick a generic "kill the pirates" CG in the middle of a development slump (i.e. most of the last few years) and put about 8 hours into shooting up a resource site.

 

[DemiserofD]

It is an established fact that all commanders are nuts for decals - so I suppose a top-ten decal would attract people - problem is that (as already stated) trade CGs are going to be FC-dominated and combat ones are down to the usual suspects who already hunt the top rankings for epeen reasons, decals would not trump epeen I think.

Now if you suggest giving decals for the top 75% - then you would see an increase in general participation - all the decal ones in the past were well supported. So if you want to provide reward for greater contribution there is nothing wrong with the successfully used levels of plain, bronze, silver and gold decal awards (was there even an emissive level once?).

For the most part, I feel like the current rewards structure has worked well enough for 75% players. Casual players are far more interested in functional Rewards like modules, or broker unlocks. By contrast, the sort of player who is likely to get in the top 10 will almost certainly already have most of these things unlocked, and therefore would be more interested in something that's more rare, even if it lacks practical value.

Which is why restricting it to only a small number of people is pretty important; the whole reason this decal would be valuable is because very few people would have it. Give it to lots of people, and that value is lost.

Or to put it another way, when everyone is a super, no one will be.

 

[Lugh]

it is definitely more efficient to load up a carrier lined up about 100-500ls away then jump it into a similar location in the desto and drop the goods off. its also a lot simpler.


aside from that the only thing adding any sort of reward like this to the top 10 would do is

A. make it even less likely anyone would participate in open

B. encourage those of us more familiar with the eccentricities of the game to exploit it making it a requirement for anyone who want's top 10 to do so.

The fact that almost every community goal never gives out a reward high enough to make it better to do the CG than just about anything else is a good thing. It means the only reason people are doing it is for the community reward or just to be a part of the effort. It makes them far less competitive and toxic. The way we have it now players who have no interest or time to do the goal will still sign up and maybe do a run or two just to increase the number of people that fall into the top 10%.

 

[DemiserofD]

it is definitely more efficient to load up a carrier lined up about 100-500ls away then jump it into a similar location in the desto and drop the goods off. its also a lot simpler.

You made me curious, so I ran the math.


I measured the time it takes to travel various distances, as well as jumping through supercruise/etc, and added them up for various activities.

Travel time from dropping in at a station to docking = 40s
Trade time = 30s
Travel time from undock to mass lock loss = 30s
Low Wake = 10s
High Wake = 30s
Traveling to fleet carrier in same-planet orbit = 50s
Traveling from star to station 100ls away = 80s
Traveling from star to station 200ls away = 95s
Traveling from star to station 2000ls away = 180s
(I'll assume about 100s)

So, a player trading one jump away, starting at the drop-in at a station will have:

(Dock(40) + Trade(30) + Undock(30) + High wake(30) + travel(100)) = 230 * 2(both ways) = 460s

A player trading from a fleet carrier will have:

(Dock + Trade + Undock + Low Wake(10) + Travel(50s)) = 160 * 4(to and from the carrier on either side) = 640s

Clearly there will eventually be a point at which Fleet Carriers become time efficient, but it would be significantly above 1000ls from the star. There is also the matter of parking to consider; being unable to jump your carrier to an ideal position also deteriorates any potential advantages of using a carrier.

Conclusion: Fleet Carriers can be effective for Community Goals, but this will not typically be the case.

A. make it even less likely anyone would participate in open

I really doubt anyone competing for top ten is in open anyway. Too many distractions to be competitive. Open's for fun, not for playing seriously.

The fact that almost every community goal never gives out a reward high enough to make it better to do the CG than just about anything else is a good thing. It means the only reason people are doing it is for the community reward or just to be a part of the effort. It makes them far less competitive and toxic. The way we have it now players who have no interest or time to do the goal will still sign up and maybe do a run or two just to increase the number of people that fall into the top 10%.

That wouldn't change, it would just give the very small pool of players who have the potential to get in the top 10 something to compete over, something that doesn't have a major impact on the game beyond pride. If you win, you get a cool decal. If you don't, oh well, it's just a decal.

Easy to develop, too.

Sounds like a win/win/win!

 

[Lugh]

I really doubt anyone competing for top ten is in open anyway.

Yeah.. you are supporting my argument not countering it. because there is so little reason to get top 10 right now its not giving much up if you don't do it. If you give an exclusive reward like a decal you're going to get more people who would rather just hope into solo and find any way they can game it to get to the top 10.

That wouldn't change, it would just give the very small pool of players who have the potential to get in the top 10 something to compete over, something that doesn't have a major impact on the game beyond pride. If you win, you get a cool decal. If you don't, oh well, it's just a decal.

It would change. because there would be a larger pool of people who now want to be top 10. Have you met the internet? have you seen how many people will load their cockpit up with a load of interceptor bobbles?

 

[DemiserofD]

Yeah.. you are supporting my argument not countering it. because there is so little reason to get top 10 right now its not giving much up if you don't do it. If you give an exclusive reward like a decal you're going to get more people who would rather just hope into solo and find any way they can game it to get to the top 10.



It would change. because there would be a larger pool of people who now want to be top 10. Have you met the internet? have you seen how many people will load their cockpit up with a load of interceptor bobbles?

The fact of the matter is, open just isn't a good competitive environment. The solution to this is fixing that problem, not removing any and all possibility of competition. Kind of hilarious chain of logic, honestly. By that rationale, we shouldn't have any competitive features whatsoever, because they will always be better in Solo. Of course, that's ridiculous.