The Ultimate Solution to Infamy Manipulation [to the devs, for the community]

Before any admin locks this thread or flame me for creating another of the many threads that addresses the same topic, I urge you to read this thoroughly.

I honestly want to help Battle Bay before the devs may have created a new system that complicates this problem even further. I have looked through every(or almost) comment about infamy manipulation and no one has suggested something feasible without obvious shortcomings yet. Except for @Rock'N'Rolla.

The point of creating this new thread is that I believe that this problem can be solved and I have a straightforward system tweak to propose. And posting as a comment in the other thread would have my suggestions drowned in clutter.

I believe this would work.

Here it goes:

The proposed options by most people do not solve the root problem and instead give suggestions that complicates the system further.

Think about the root problem. Carefully. What causes people to manipulate infamy?
More rewards(gold/pearls/stars) for each win at lower infamy.

Therefore the solution to directly address the root of the problem?
Make it unprofitable/not worthwhile to drop infamy!

This would work because people will not drop infamy anymore and lose on purpose because it is not worthwhile to win at lower infamy games.

How to fix the current system?
Develop an algorithm that scales your rewards based on your max infamy reached.
For e.g. If you have reached a max infamy of 2300, winning a game at 1600 infamy would give you significantly less rewards than if you were to win games at near your max infamy (2300 infamy). With this, nobody would ever want to lose on purpose to lower infamy as it will no longer be worthwhile or efficient to play at low infamy(in accordance to each individual's max infamy).

Therefore someone who has reached max infamy of 2300 would get maximum rewards if he/she wins in games of that infamy range. If he drops his infamy to 1600 and wins games at that range, he would get much less rewards than another individual who has a max infamy of 1600 and won the same game.

For e.g.
Assuming Person A has max infamy of 2300.
Current system:
A battle won in 2300 Infamy range~ Person A: Deals 12k Damage. Rewards: 2 Stars, 25k Gold
A battle won in 1600 infamy range~ Person A: Deals 12k Damage. Rewards 3 Stars, 30k Gold
*Obviously he would want to manipulate his infamy to get more gold and stars*

Proposed system:
A battle won in 2300 Infamy range~ Person A: Deals 12k Damage. Rewards: 3 Stars, 30k Gold
A battle won in 1600 infamy range~ Person A: Deals 12k Damage. Rewards 1 Star, 15k Gold
*He would want to win games at higher infamy. The closer to his max infamy, the greater the rewards*

Possible problems that could arise?
People might still manipulate infamy by purposely losing each game they win when they are at their max infamy to reap rewards. However this would be difficult to sustain and achieve by infamy manipulators as all of us would have difficulty to win on command especially at near max infamy(of our abilities).

Solutions to fix possible this possible problem?
Better scaling of rewards according to infamy brackets or leagues you're in. This would incentivize everyone to strive to go higher and higher and that wouldn't give anyone reason to manipulate their infamy.

People in the 4000 infamy range would have no reason to lower and play in 2000 range. People in 2000 infamy range would not want to to lower their infamy to 900 range. Everyone would want to strive for higher or remain high to get the most rewards per game played/won.

Summary:
Root of original problem: economics.
Solution to problem: economics.

The challenges/drawback to this solution?
Developing and optimizing the algorithmic system of scaling rewards accordance to individual's infamy.

@Miika @Zeus I hope you guys are on the same page or are already thinking of a solution which is equally feasible or better

 

I think this is a bad solution, it would punish you for getting to a higher infamy level. If you are on a win streak and manage to get a little further than normal, then in your system, that would reduce your rewards after you drop back to your regular level.

 

Why would this system punish you if you go higher? Instead, it punishes you if you win at lower infamies and rewards you better the higher you climb. This is because at a higher league(infamy) you get higher rewards bonus(existing bonus system can be improved/rescaled).

 

I somewhat agree but infamy needs to be more stat/skill integrated than a win or lose determination.. i had just lost a battle (took ss of it and will post in diff thread) with 4 kills and over 5k dmg points .. all my teammates went off on own and got killed so was just me at the end.. killed everyone but one (obviously, but was only a cannon shot away that he beat me to it) and I lose 24 infamy like clockwork ... !? Does that seem right ?! Infamy needs to be rewarded and lost based on stats .. if anything I should've gained infamy (whatever number idc, but with stats like that and losing the battle I still lose infamy .. !? Based off damage dealt , and ships killed , infamy needs to change from a battle win/loss reward system to a "how well you did during the battle" determination. add and deduct infamy as a battle point system .. imo .. obv things won't change soon tho because infamy has been a topic since day 1 and nothing has even been resolved , reassured or even mentioned with the flawed point/ranking system which is infamy ..

 

Yes I agree too, that infamy reward system should be tweaked too but to be discussed as a separate topic (though not totally unrelated). However, the main problem discussed here of infamy manipulation is the rewards of gold, pearls and stars (excluding +/- infamy). We have to fix one problem at a time, maybe in isolation. Even if the infamy reward system is fixed(according to your proposal), but if the rewards system is still not fixed, then people will still manipulate infamy so that they get higher rewards for winning games at lower infamy. Hence, the current rewards system(winning at lower infamy reaps better rewards) is the sole cause/reason/incentive/motivation of infamy manipulation.

 

In theory I agree with you - In practice this locks most people onto only playing with 1 ship.
That migth be an acceptable downside, but alts not being playable would be quite a bummer.

 

I would rather a have disincentive to change ships easily. Therefore, people would have to train their secondary ships up to reasonable power before bringing it to battle.

This is because right now, many people are pretending to use their mk 1/2 speeders to rush into the game to get killed easily while dealing one or two shots of damage to escape being banned by the system. In fact, the line drawn to "blatant infamy manipulation" is very blur.

I admit that I have manipulated my infamy last time using this method of putting my mk1 speeder out to pretend I am trying my best.

Thus I agree with you that this is a downside to this solution. However, it would be better than deterring everyone to play the game at all with infamy manipulators ruining the entire game. Therefore, the cost of removing infamy manipulation would be the difficulty for players to switch and experiment with ships without experiencing disincentives.

 

Because you propose scaling rewards off your highest infamy reached. Therefore, if your usual infamy is 1500, and then you have an unusual win streak up to 1800, your new max is 1800. Then, if you drop back to your regular level of 1500, your rewards are forever diminished, because they now scale based on the 1800 max.

 

Ohh yes, if there is an "unusual" winstreak means there is your "natural best" state of infamy. Even if everyone has their unusual winstreak (including me, now I am 300 infamy below my peak I reached two weeks ago), then everyone would be "disincentivized" in the same magnitude, there you have the new equilibrium of rewards for everyone. Still, there is only incentive to continue to aim higher to reach your "unusual winstreak" and fall back down to your "natural best" state which you will not have the maximum rewards.

Also, if you would to say that people may manipulate their infamy to stay in their artificial "natural best" state, which is to purposely not go higher such that they may reach their "unusual" winstreak infamy state... I would think that it would be difficult to win every game that you purposely lose another game in exchange (one for one) at your "natural state" of infamy -I have already addressed this possible problem in the original post

 

But what about if a 2000 inf player makes fleet with 500 inf friend to let him get more rewards?

 

If 500 infamy is the current max infamy of that particular player, and if he wins the game, he would get maximum rewards no matter who he fleets with. It will not be easier or more difficult for him to win the game if he did or did not fleet up with his 2000 infamy friend.

 

There is a hardcap on how far between in infamy fleet up players can be.

 

@JustinBeaver I still don't find it an acceptable solution. Even if everyone has occasional win streaks and you base the rewards on that, that doesn't take away that this system will make people feel bad for winning and rising in infamy. That should never be the case.

 

Why does nobody understand that allowing high level players into entry level matches stimulates in game purchasing more than anything else? Most developers "say" they have a fix for it after denying its even a problem but never do they lock abusers out as would be very simple to fix. If something is a problem for legitimate play yet rakes in cash you cannot expect it to stop...

 

Maybe that's why the +% rewards from league brackets would outweigh the small loss in rewards due to infamy dropping below your peak.

 

Ahh, this is a good conspiracy theory. Maybe this is why the devs do not fix this problem!

 

is this the only game you have played?

 

I have played Warfriends and they also use a live matchmaking system. What I have learnt is that the devs there do not fix problems that anger "old and loyal" players but instead implement new systems to favor recruitment of new waves of players and kick out the "old" players who are the ones usually not paying-to-play.

 

do you know why this game uses an easily manipulated "infamy" to match players over a more sensible equipment level based one? Think about that. Shouldnt take too long to figure out...

 

so what do new players do when they get "farmed"?