@Doombreed,
Best to make a star board because it shows the entirety of a users activity. Quests are limited, and the stars show the value of quests better. (not to sound ignorant, or obnoxious) But this is so that other users have a chance to catch up to users like Gantic (who have quests that can't be earned anymore) through the means of, well for now, merits. It may seem impossible, but it makes beating Gantic possible, in some small way. Besides, on the hero board, 2 is better than one. What if, those 2 quests were easy quests, and that 1 quest was an insane quest? Stars show that better.
@Ferret, I'd like to also point out that stars shouldn't be dominated by quests, otherwise their only purpose is to represent the real value of the amount of quests a user has. There should be some other form of earning stars besides merits. I don't mean to say that they should be directly earned by posting in any way, shape, or form. Instead there should be another or more angles to get stars without questing.
Sorry, this post may seem like it belongs to the star thread, but now that I think about, I spent years focusing my activity on the forums, and it would be unfair if those years didn't count in my ranking up. This applies to a lot of users, not a big community, but still quite a few. Perhaps the forums should have their own quests, and I mean more. So it would attract other users too. (I'm sorry I always make it about the forums)
@Doombreed, I suggested that in one of my earlier posts here and Ferret maybe has taken note of it! @SirLegendary, spam in the only barrier for having quests for forum posts. If someone comes up with a good idea to battle it, I think it maybe implemented...
@SirLegendary - yeah, no. That is exactly backwards. Points make it HARDER to catch somebody like Gantic because he has so many Merits and it is impossible to actually farm/acquire merits reliably.
Right now I'm only 18 quests back from him. If the old site quests were removed I think I might actually be ahead of him.
Points wise he's over 5000 ahead of me because he has nearly 100 Merits. As long as Merits contribute to points nobody is EVER going to catch him.
Well here is suggestion on stars and accumulation of points.
Why not give them an expire date.... So easy Quest points would expire in 6 months
Hard Quest points would expire in one year
Insane Quest points would expire in two years.
And Earned Merit points would expire NEVER...
What this does is forces people to be active always. If they start to slack off then they will start to fall behind in points. Giving other people a chance to catch up.
Also to make this even more meaningful, some sort of reward system should be in place.
Like if you have 1000 points you can beta test games
If you have 3000 points you no longer get the loading screen advertisements
And if you have 5000 points you get to be a member of the 5000 live chat room and talk to all the other people who have 5000 points. .etc.
Expiration date is illogical as there are only so many quests and it would make the ranks almost useless. Beta testing is something that few people can do and many have over 1000 stars and, anyway, who beta tests is up to the developers. A lack of ads is achievable through AFG+ and a chat room seems a bit pointless... Sorry.
Well, looks like the mods just gotta step up and look out for good comments.
They can't find everything though. There will always be great comments/posts that will be missed out. That's why there's a need for another way of earning stars.
Well swarmlord2 you could try adding an idea or two instead of doing nothing but shooting every thing down. How about making a suggestions instead of leaving a void. Like thinking of an idea that would motivate people to care about getting points and merits and trying to complete quests.
Nichodemus, a percentages is an idea, how would it work???
@nichodemus, that can't be because that will mean the demotion of many users. 1000 quests is already high enough. That kind of formula only serves those who have already have attained a high number of quests. Also, what about those who are just starting out. They'll be running as fast as what they're trying to catch, never reaching the end.
@SirLegendary well, it's not as if the number of stars will increase every day. The rate will be slow enough to allow new users to rise through the ranks while fast enough to allow demotions to occur if one is not earning any stars for a long time With the current rate quests are added, which seems to be in the middle between those two, I can easily picture this xD
Yes, you may fall back in ranks if you don't do new quests for a long period of time. But more quests added also means more opportunities to earn stars. New players will quickly catch up just by doing all easy quests first, and older players still have an incentive to achieve the newer quests to keep their ranks. The percentage-based system has the advantage of keeping up with increasing quest numbers, contrary to a fixed system, which would either need to be updated regularly or become easier and easier over time, thus losing its purpose.
Instead of having just named ranks or a percentage based system, perhaps we should inherit a gaming rank. Or GR for short. After reaching the maximum named rank, (King & Queen), users now have a GR. Which basically goes on forever based on the number of stars someone has. Think about it like exp (stars) and levels (gaming rank). That way we can keep the named ranking system, while having another system to take it's place once the named ranks are finished. No one get's demoted, and everyone can keep ranking up.
