halo 3 true skill system, with a Reach spin, and something new?

[Planet Etrius]

This is just something I've been thinking about lately and it's still more of a conceptual sketch that I'm working out as I go along. Basically what I'm going for is the Halo 3 true skill system, with the addition of commendations, and horizontal rankings based on grades. So for a rough sketch it would be something like.

 

Your rank is based on your highest skill predominantly, but you can also level up by experience and commendations.

 

Your grade is based on your highest competence or consistency. Your highest competence is how often you perform at the base skill level or higher of your current rank. So say for every 3 games in a row played within a playlist at or above the base skill level for your rank you will earn a grade for that rank. Now leveling down in grades should be something like for every game you play below the skill level within a streak of 3 games then the amount of games you need to play at or above skill level increases by how many sub par games you played. So if you play 2 out of the 3 games below skill level then that means you you now have to play the 3rd game and 2 more games at or above skill level in order to level up 1 grade. If you play 3 games in a row below skill level then you level down by 1 grade. Your grade won't take into account the skill of who you play because your grade is your level of competence. Which means your ability to perform at your skill rank in a range of circumstances whether that mean adapting by using a machine gun turrent to level the pros or going all out with vehicles. By default the game should do its best to place you with players no more than 3 ranks apart and no more than 4 grades of difference. There are a total of 15 grades. For every time you level up in vertical rank your grade decreases by 3, but you can never get negative grades either by leveling up or playing bad games. If you're a level 10 Sergeant then you will be a level 7 warrant officer (whatever the next rank is). So grades between ranks would also relate to each other by levels of 3.

 

Now how you rank up in your actual rank would be the same as you do in Halo 3 true skill but with a Reach twist in the experience system. I believe the trueskill system in Halo 3 was that for every game you win you gain one experience and for every game you lose you lose one? I think the ratios there were different. And there is also your sigma which is as high as possible and your actual skill level which is where you're actually being ranked at right? So your sigma is constantly decreasing by every game you play and once your rank and sigma meet this is your True Skill? Please correct me if I'm wrong. So what I'm thinking is that we keep the win lose experience, but now add in commendations in this way. These commendations would track experience, skill progression, and which rank you stood out most at. Skill / experience commendations work like the commendation counters in Halo Reach. They count how many kills of certain types, and feats you pull off in matchmaking, but with a new addition. The ratings they show: onyx, gold, silver, and iron would work on a different principle. They would rank themselves based on which group of ranks those feats and kills were done in with the highest percentage. Like this:

 

Commendation: Heavy Weapons

 

(Iron)Recruit to Sergeant:5%

 

(Silver)Sergeant to Major:30%

 

(Gold)Major to Colonel:40%

 

(Onyx)Colonel to General:25%

 

So in this case this person would have gold in Heavy Weapons. Maybe this could also demote second accounts or at least old account generals from crushing newer players because they may want to save racking up their commendations for later ranks. Commendation rating constantly changes as you level up and earn more for different ranks.

 

Again remember this is all a rough sketch and feel free to sight any nessesary improvements, additions, and things that are best to cut out as you see nessesary.

 

Now for the next part of how you can vertically rank up. We've talked about experience now I want to introduce skill points and "choosing when you rank up" vertically. Skill points or rating points you can also call them would be the accumulation of ratings earned in games. Each vertical rank would require a certain amount of experience (not commendations) and skill points in order to level up. The amount of experience required should be experientially and proportionately more than the amount of skill points. You will automatically level up once the amount of experience needed is aquired. However once you gain the amount of skill points needed to rank up you will be able to choose when that happens by having the option to do a challenge or vidmaster when you have enough skill points. Once completed you will rank up.

 

Of course the chances of this really getting in word for word or at all are slim, but it's always fun to imagine right? I haven't seen anyone else post anything similar to this either and it's even more unlikely for specific ideas to get in. I'm really just trying to experiment with getting as many people from both "conservative" and "liberal" sides of Halo to maybe accept something equally.

 

And maybe there could be something like depending a specific grade reached for a rank you can earn a specialist rank. Like if you're a grade 10 Sergeant then you would become a Petty Officer.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Planet Me