Premium Ranks

Isn't having a confetti of rank colours going to cause confusion for people? :S [spoiler=for reference (by aero)][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/ranks/New-rank-sprite-1-2-16.png[/img][/spoiler]

I wouldn't have thought so, the ranks themselves are the same. It's kind of like having joint forces. I guess the intention is to get people to ask how they can get that nice looking (to them) rank? Then the answer will be "they are Premium choices"!

@Cireon, no I don't think they are too confusing and they all are pretty sober realistic military colours (not confetti). As a graphic choice me too I would have kept 1 colour only, but I believe Aero is right saing they will be appealing for people, probably it's a good strategical choice: one more incentivation for premium. If I had to reduce the variety probably I would discard black and white for premiums and keep just the real colours: olive, blue and garnet. People get particularly crazy when they see the colour of their favourite team... Anyway @Hood, it has been called Garnet, like the great [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torino_F.C.]Torino F.C.[/url] not Maroon like some unknow rugby club! :P Rank names should be discussed too, I guess. I think there was a proposal to change Basic to Private. My wondering is just, why to have 2 different icons for Basic and Unranked? In practice they are the same thing: who never bought rank and who bought it and regret.

I would want them to be split because one of them are real newbies, and the others are rank hiders trying to look like newbies, or people who don't really care what displays there. Before, if I'm not mistaken, unranked was earned by having more than 1600? points while being basic to avoid this class of basic farming.

[quote=The_Bishop] Rank names should be discussed too, I guess. I think there was a proposal to change Basic to Private. My wondering is just, why to have 2 different icons for Basic and Unranked? In practice they are the same thing: who never bought rank and who bought it and regret. [/quote] I don't think Basic & Unranked are the same thing. I believe that if you do not purchase a rank within a certain time then you are changed to unranked. Obviously, you can also opt for unranked at any time. Also, Unranked is now a profile option for "in game settings", so Basic (Private) is a Standard Rank, whereas Unranked is a choice. (Edit) Psymon clarified the system a little better above.

I want to make a remark on those ranks. I feel like the blue and garnet colours chosen are not very close to the actual rank colours (or what you would expect from them). Maybe it's just a personal thing, so I want to ask you guys. I edited both to what I think is a closer representation of the colours used in textile. I realise that the navy blue is very close to black, but actually it's like that. Opinions? (the center ones are edited, the border ones are aero's) [img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5735142.png[/img]

As a personal taste I like Aero's blue (1st column) and Psymon's red (3rd column), but they all can stay for me.

My suggestions are mostly for altering the lower ranks, because 1 Stripe should be Lance Corporal and 2 Stripes should be Corporal, so the other ranks need to be altered around that. Here are my suggestions along with some side notes to consider: Blank = [b]Unranked[/b] 3 Stars = [b]Dominator[/b] 2 Stars + Bar = [b]General[/b] 2 Stars = [b]Lieutenant General[/b] 1 Star + Bar = [b]Major General[/b] 1 Star = [b]Brigadier General[/b] (known as just Brigadier in UK & Commonwealth and usually a mix of the Colonel & Major ranks) Eagle, Pips + Bar = [b]Colonel[/b] Eagle + Pips = [b]Lieutenant Colonel[/b] Circle, Pips + Bar = [b]Major[/b] Circle + Pips = [b]Captain[/b] Diamond, Pips + Bar = [b]1st Lieutenant[/b] (known as just Lieutenant in USA, UK & Commonwealth) Diamond + Pips = [b]2nd Lieutenant[/b] 3 Stripes, Star + Bar = [b]Chief Warrant Officer[/b] 3 Stripes + Star = [b]Warrant Officer[/b] 3 Stripes + 2 Bars = [b]Command Sergeant[/b] 3 Stripes + Bar = [b]Sergeant Major[/b] (Sergeant Major is the same as Warrant Officer is some branches of Armed Forces and 1 rank below in others) 3 Stripes = [b]Sergeant[/b] 2 Stripes + 2 Bars = [b]Command Corporal[/b] (swapped from previous suggestion to stay with current Sergeant Ranks) 2 Stripes + 1 Bar = [b]Master Corporal[/b] (swapped with above, from previous suggestion) 2 Stripes = [b]Corporal[/b] 1 Stripe + 1 Bar = [b]Bombardier[/b] 1 Stripe = [b]Lance Corporal[/b] Dot = [b]Private[/b] (Edit) @Psymon, I mentioned above, I used Royal Garnet, not Garnet, as it suited the rank images better. It also depends on what country you reference for their rank tab tones and colours. Your example looks less like Garnet and more like a dark red or light maroon... Garnet has a hint of blue in it. It might have been better to suggest dark red instead of Garnet in particular.

In Italy we have: Corp Army General, Division General, Brigade General. Less confusing than your English names (Lieutenant Gen. higher than Major Gen. but I can understand why) And also: Lieutenant and Sublieutenant instead of 1st - and 2nd - . But I'm not proposing to change them, just saying. Warrant Officer I think it's more like an Air Force or Navy rank, for foot soldiers I think it's just Sergeant Major as mentioned. This would give some problems though. My opinion is to have 3stripes+1bar called Master Sergeant, it makes sense respecting the same nomenclatures as it is for Corporals: 2 bars is Command - , 1 bar is Master - . As for the ranks under Corporal, I don't really know, I think Private, Private 1st Class and Basic worked just fine. Bombardier... sounds to me like an airplane more than a rank (but I don't dubt that it actually exists having been proposed).

Edit: maybe Leader instead of Bombardier? This mostly comes from Navy.

The confusion with Lieutenant is in the meaning only: Lieutenant simply means "Subordinate" or "2nd in command". Sergeant Major: Yes, only in most western Army sectors is this used, whereas Warrant Officer is used instead in the Air Force, but some army sectors use both, where Sergeant Major is below Warrant Officer (Normally means, owning the Queen's/King's Warrant). The only NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) to be referred to as "Sir". Bombardier is one of the oldest Artillery Ranks, it is simply a Corporal. I used it due to the length of the wording for "Something" Lance Corporal. 1 Stripe (not inverted) normally means Lance Corporal. (Edit) with more time prior to making the ranks, I would have suggested having Chief Warrant Officer as (3 stripes, star + 2 bars), Warrant Officer as (3 stripes, star + bar) & Sergeant Major as (3 stripes + star), then we'd have 3 sergeant ranks after that. Right now, Sergeant Major (most senior sergeant) is below Command Sergeant. BTW, I've never seen a Warrant Officer with stripes, it's usually an emblem, but I understand the need for the usable rotated ranks here.

I don't have an opinion on the rank names and I think aero's last colour edit is the most aesthetically pleasing. However I do also question whether it's going to add confusion - more than work well as a premium-player marketing tool. I apologise if I've missed the entire point of this particular exercise by not reading the entire thread but have you considered [u]not[/u] giving people the choice and instead giving the colours some meaning? For example, we have 3 main game types: DM, Dom and Caps. Olive could represent accomplishing 100(?) wins in one discipline, blue in two and red in three. Keep it premium only. We might encourage people to play a greater variety of games.

It will require a slight change in the rank structure and images, but this is what I would have preferred: Blank = [b]Unranked[/b] _______________________________________________________ 3 Stars = [b]Dominator[/b] _______________________________________________________ 2 Stars + Bar = [b]General[/b] 2 Stars = [b]Lieutenant General[/b] 1 Star + Bar = [b]Major General[/b] 1 Star = [b]Brigadier[/b] _______________________________________________________ Eagle, Pips + Bar = [b]Colonel[/b] Eagle + Pips = [b]Lieutenant Colonel[/b] _______________________________________________________ Circle, Pips + Bar = [b]Major[/b] Circle + Pips = [b]Captain[/b] _______________________________________________________ Diamond, Pips + Bar = [b]Lieutenant[/b] Diamond + Pips = [b]2nd Lieutenant[/b] _______________________________________________________ 3 Stripes, Star + 2 Bars = [b]Chief Warrant Officer[/b] 3 Stripes, Star + Bar = [b]Warrant Officer[/b] 3 Stripes + Star = [b]Sergeant Major[/b] _______________________________________________________ 3 Stripes + 2 Bars = [b]Command Sergeant[/b] 3 stripes + Bar = [b]Master Sergeant[/b] 3 Stripes = [b]Sergeant[/b] _______________________________________________________ 2 Stripes + 2 Bars = [b]Command Corporal[/b] 2 Stripes + 1 Bar = [b]Master Corporal[/b] 2 Stripes = [b]Corporal[/b] _______________________________________________________ 1 Stripe + 1 Bar = [b]Bombardier[/b] 1 Stripe = [b]Lance Corporal[/b] Dot = [b]Private[/b] (Edit) @ maafi, that's a really good suggestion. I don't know how much programming work that would be though?

It makes lot of sense, Aero. But it means 1 rank more in the list, so the required ratings should be redefined a bit. And probably the silver star of Warrants should be slightly moved on the left to give room for a second bar.

No, the amount of ranks are the same, I reduced the 4 corporals to 3 and made the sergeants 3 and the top NCO ranks 3. Oops, no you are right. Well, this means we can do away with Bombardier. Blank = [b]Unranked[/b] _______________________________________________________ 3 Stars = [b]Dominator[/b] _______________________________________________________ 2 Stars + Bar = [b]General[/b] 2 Stars = [b]Lieutenant General[/b] 1 Star + Bar = [b]Major General[/b] 1 Star = [b]Brigadier[/b] _______________________________________________________ Eagle, Pips + Bar = [b]Colonel[/b] Eagle + Pips = [b]Lieutenant Colonel[/b] _______________________________________________________ Circle, Pips + Bar = [b]Major[/b] Circle + Pips = [b]Captain[/b] _______________________________________________________ Diamond, Pips + Bar = [b]Lieutenant[/b] Diamond + Pips = [b]2nd Lieutenant[/b] _______________________________________________________ 3 Stripes, Star + 2 Bars = [b]Chief Warrant Officer[/b] 3 Stripes, Star + Bar = [b]Warrant Officer[/b] 3 Stripes + Star = [b]Sergeant Major[/b] _______________________________________________________ 3 Stripes + 2 Bars = [b]Command Sergeant[/b] 3 stripes + Bar = [b]Master Sergeant[/b] 3 Stripes = [b]Sergeant[/b] _______________________________________________________ 2 Stripes + 2 Bars = [b]Command Corporal[/b] 2 Stripes + 1 Bar = [b]Master Corporal[/b] 2 Stripes = [b]Corporal[/b] _______________________________________________________ 1 Stripe = [b]Lance Corporal[/b] Dot = [b]Private[/b] Yes, the star can afford to go left anyway, because it was spaced out to take up the large gap. (Edit): What's nice is the Dominator rank makes a [b]12[/b]th Officer Rank.