Buying maps

Ok, I talked to wca about this. I wanted to see what the community thought about this. I have a new idea to make it so new maps and gametypes must be purchased. I want to make the whole site like a game, rather than just a method to play a game. So every game you play you may have noticed you get 20 "Cash Points" at the end. Those are now Tokens. So after each game you play without missing any turns you get 20 Tokens. If you miss turns the amount of tokens you get at the end of that game goes down. If you deadbeat you will get 0. Right now the site is setup so that you need those Tokens to purchase ranks. This is really the only thing to use the tokens for. It requires that you play a good deal of games to afford the rank. A new person who comes to the site and doesn't win a lot doesn't get much enjoyment from participating in trying to get a high rank. They end up just playing the game alone, and without the competition of ranks. I think this will get old quick. To give a new aspect to the site, my idea is to make additions to the game cost tokens. So those tokens you collect at the end of each game will be used to buy more maps and gametypes that you can play on/with. When you join the site you start with 500 Tokens, Death match game type, and the World map. You will most likely start to play the game then, trying it out on deathmatch with the world map. You play 3-4 games and realize the site is awesome. Then you decide you want to try another map. So you spend 100 Tokens or whatnot and purchase Isthmus of Panama. Now you can play the Isthmus of Panama map. Then you want to try a new gametype like capitals. So you save up to maybe 500 tokens and purchase capitals. Also starting a clan will cost Tokens, as well joining a tournament might cost like 5 tokens, or starting a game might cost 2-5 tokens. Besides gaining 20 tokens for playing a complete game a user can also gain tokens by winning tournaments, perhaps 1000 tokens all at once. They also can trade tokens. They can get maybe 50 Tokens if they invite someone to the site and that person plays 10+ games. So as more maps come out people will constantly have new things to buy and play on. So here is some pro's and con's. [b]Pros:[/b] 1. Users will be forced to pace themselves, which will make users stay longer. 2. Users will end up participating in the site more trying to gain Tokens by inviting friends, or playing more games and entering more tournaments. 3. Less missed turns. People won't want to miss turns as much so as not to lose the points they gain at the end of the game. Now that the tokens are used to buy maps and gametypes, which are more desired than ranks I believe. 4. Users who don't have the skill to really get into fighting for ranks still have something to strive for. 5. New users immediately have a goal they can go for that doesn't involve skill. This will get users sucked in right away, with a challenge to try out the other gametypes and maps, which they must earn. 6. More thought will go into which gametype and map the user is playing. If the user is forced to purchase new gametypes he will most likely read about them to find out if they are worth purchasing. Then when he does purchase it, he knows exactly what he is getting into when he goes and joins a game with that gametype, or starts one. 7. It allows another joy after each game. The pot of gold after each rainbow (game), even for losers. 8. If you have everything in the game, then as soon as you get bored of it you leave. If you don't have everything and you get bored, there is still a little piece of you that says, well that gametype sounds fun, or that map sounds fun, and it keeps people playing to get those. [b]Cons:[/b] 1. Just the idea of not having everything will be negative for people who are used to it. Everyone who is currently here. It's like making someone who usually uses cheat codes in a game to stop using them and make them play the game how it was made. 2. Until there are a lot of users certain gametypes and maps may not be played as much because not enough people can afford to buy them. In the "shop" it will show how many users have purchased certain things, perhaps some maps and gametypes will just take a bit of time before enough people own it. Eventually it will get to the point though that we have rich users who buy and play maps and gametypes as soon as they come out. I think in the end it will balance itself out. 3. Maps that are not popular won't get many purchases, however people wouldn't play the map if they didn't like it anyways. To sum it all up. I have noticed in games that when you are allowed to have everything the game offers all at once then you use the best you can find and give up the rest. The things all lose their value. If I play a certain Fuedal map on another site, I play it once, don't like the way it works and stop playing, because I have tons of other maps I can choose from. If I buy a map though and spent Tokens on it, I will most likely give it more of a try than just one game, because I don't have a ton of maps to choose from, and the more games I play the more maps I can get. Anyways, what's everyone's opinions?

I'm a fan of this system, keeps the maps fresh and worth something and it keeps noobs out of gametypes they would screw up by not understanding. It'll also be an excellent gauge of what people enjoy on the site because they've got to work to get something. I'm not sure making you use tokens to start a game would work, if someone happened to spend all of theirs immediately they couldn't start games. Also a referral should be worth significantly more than 50

Well if the referral is worth too much then people will make the other account and then play 10 games themselves. However when it's only worth 50 points (2.5 games) then it makes it not worth it to make the account themselves, because they have to play 10 games on the default map/gametype without all the new ones their other account has, which is quite boring, and that might not be worth and extra 50 points. However they tell a friend about the site, they play some games with their friend and then after 10 games they randomly receive 50 points. How many points do you think is enough to be satisfying for a referral yet still not too much so they make the account themselves? Yeah, you might be right about the starting a game. If though when no games are available then starting a game is free, that might fix it.

I like it, mainly. I agree with sfhbballnut, though, that starting games should be free and that a referral should be worth more than 50. There are a couple other things, though. I think that new users should start with more than just the one map. Maybe Classic and USA? Something like that. Also, mapmakers should get to keep their maps(I don't know if you were planning on doing this, I just figured I'd mention it). Another thing, did I hear that there was going to be a map tester group or something similar? Maybe they can keep the maps they test.

Yeah, map makers would get their own map free right off the bat. Perhaps all of the map testers as well would get the map free, this would give the map a good starting group of people who can play it.

how about the cost of a map for referring a friend? that's a nice reward, get a friend to play, get yourself a new map or something similar. On that topic, I'd been meaning to bring up, what kind of rules are going to be in place as far as cheating and multiple accounts? The scoreboard system definitely discourages multiples accounts as you can only get so far by beating one person, but people will still do it. And as far as cheating, things like getting several people together to take down a high rank person and gain a tally on them are possible. Chris, I don't think its going to be to big a deal as far as who gets the map for free, veteran site members will have more than enough points to buy pretty much whatever they like.

maps will cost something like 4 tokens per territory. So a map of 40 territories will be 160 tokens. We could give 100 tokens for referring a friend, it's not quite enough to by the average map, but close. I think the basics for rules: 1. No multiple accounts 2. No secret diplomacy 3. Must play to win (no suiciding etc.) Anything I am missing? For multiple accounts I think a 1 year ban would be in order, we could easily just continue to do 1 year bans for each time he tried that. I don't ever want to ban someone permanently. I don't see the point, if we ban the ip and it was an internet cafe then we lose everyone who would have played there, if we ban only the account itself then the user just starts a new one.

sounds about right, enforcement is always going to be an issue, ie. someone suicides as a last ditch effort to try and win, and this makes his opponent mad, but I think with the appropriate channels of reporting problems and people in place to look into issues it should go pretty smoothly. I would like to see a method of not only discouraging secret diplomacy, but also of promoting public diplomacy. I know truces and things of that nature announced through game chat hold little weight, but it would be nice to see the community and the game develop such that the chat is frequently used strategically. I know this is not the easiest thing to promote, but it could start with the chat being renamed something like "War Room", or "Leader's Council" etc, and the first message in the chat says something like "Discuss the game, Strategize and Collaborate, or just chat here"

You know how the box at the top follows you when its your turn as you scroll up and down the page? I am going to make a long box at the bottom which can be clicked to maximize or minimize. When minimized it will just be a long thin box that follows you, when you want to view what's inside the box you click it and it opens up still following you as you scroll. That box will contain the log and players list. So the log and players list can easily be viewed without scrolling just by clicking the box to open and close. Then the chat will be just below the map and easily viewed. This should open up chat use more. Rarely do I find myself scrolling below the log and players list.