It's not about gear too much, It's about experience, the premium accounts will achieve exp and credits twice as fast, so they are able to get better gear faster but they may not get the actual experience, which is made of catched and memorized equip and fighting tactics by the player to play better... On the other hand, if all the players are treated the same by the number of battles done, new premium players may find themselves playing against only themselves and they won't be that many actually, at least not with that number of players...

So here is my idea:

->Battle limit 200 or any other number that will be decided, ladders count as one battle, while private and singleplayer matches will count as half(or maybe even less)

->Normal account players' battle number will increase normally.

->Players who has bought premium accounts will have two battle counters:

*First, the number of all battles,

*Second, the number of battles when it was premium.

->When the sum of these two numbers reaches 200, a prompt will appear if the want to move on to the "pro league". If the player accepts, they will instantly be moved to there. If the player refuses the offer though, a button will appear which, when clicked, will show the same prompt. When that player reaches 200 total ladder battles, the prompt button will dissappear, and he will be moved to the "pro league", just as a normal account user moves on to the "pro league" when he does 200 ladder battles...

The idea of player segregation as stated here still does not remedy the issues with vertical player advancement & the corresponding lack of play in higher levels of the game.

For that reason alone I do not like the segregation idea. There are other reasons, however.

Mechzilla

Could you please explain why do you think like that? We need some good ideas to make the game better and it's hard to get some just by critisizing... So please tell us the reason and we'll discuss about it to make that idea better, in a way that suits everyone... Thank you.

I prefer capping the level a player may compete below his/her actual rank because:

IE- If A player is level 50, he/she may not play more than 20 levels below (so the minimum level would be 30 in that instance). Once a player reaches level 51, the minimum level where they would be allowed to compete is 31, and so on...

In an ideal situation to force vertical integration, once a player reaches level 60, he/she may not proceed below the normal 5 level match parameters. This would force seasoned players to fight at higher levels & avoid gaudy records achieved by poaching new, inexperienced players.

1. There are not enough players at higher levels & the "segregation" solution is not pragmatic.
2. To give a newbie a magic carpet ride against inferior opposition for 20 levels, then throw them into the cauldron of hell would be frustrating to many, I think.

Mechzilla

I see, your argument makes sense. Even though this may force the high level players to fight against each other, since there aren't too many of them, they may not find opponents because of this. But since the number of players has increased pretty much in this game since the introduction of matchmaking level, this idea has a chance to work. There is one small risk though, your idea just increases the length of that "magic carpet ride", there still is a straight jump to the "cauldron of hell" after a longer while, that may make the players stop playing at lv 50-60...
In summary, it's a good idea, not the best though, but one of the best ideas that can be applied in this stage of the game...
One last note, thanks for explaining your idea in a positive manner. You have my respect, just because of that...

So, will premium counter count as 2 battles while the first one is just normal? They will have the option, however, to battle at the same level a bit, but will be asked to fight at a higher level sooner? That is what I got from that anyways and could stick by that.



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I know there is an issue of players fighting at the higher levels though, and I think forcing them to play at a higher levels is the wrong way to do it. Players will at some point work there way up to play with the new mechs they have not used yet. Whether they stay there or not should be up to them. Of course, some players will keep fighting at the same level range for a long time, but if they like fighting at the range so much I say let them stay there.

I know that we have a disagreement on ideas, and I do see what your idea is trying to do though. I just think there is a better way to get players playing at higher levels.

Here are some of my ideas to maybe get players to play at a higher levels.

1. Better rewards for higher level play.

2. New achievements that only can be got at higher levels. ( some players love to collected these.)

3. New types of paint and designs that can only be used on higher level Mechs. ( strips, dots, new colors, ect....)

4. Different type of music at higher level battles maybe? ( or more types of music playing during a battle.)

5. Different type of backgrounds that only can be seen at higher levels.

Just some idea that would help besides forcing players to play at higher levels I think.

I think Mechzilla's idea is great, however, instead of a steady cap, a dev could design an algorithm that takes into account the amount of people in each advancing level, the costs of affording the new items in that level, and of course, the amount of farmers in each iteration (perhaps done through player tracking).

This would likely (I did not create an algorithm, so this is just a hypothesis) eventuate in caps becoming disproportionately larger as players rise in ranks. For example, a level 60 might have a cap at level 30, a level 75 might have a cap at level 33, a level 100 might have a cap at level 36, and a level 130 might have a cap at level 37. However, if the caps are MUCH larger than this, and the payouts for leveling up do not increase, nor price of items decrease, this could posit a significant deterrent on veteran players.

You're kind of right, the premium battles will count as two. But only for the invitation for the matcmaking "pool" of the high lv players, or as I mentioned in my previous post, the "pro league". The premium player will have the chance to start playing in this "pro league" or stay in the "newbies league" when that number reaches 200, until his actual battle number reaches 200 too, in that case he'll move to the pro league immediately.
Also two little additions:
1. If the premium account use decides to move to the pro league early, his he won't be able to undo it.(maybe, to prevent accidental advancement to the pro league, a second prompt may be asked to make them sure if they want to, warning them about that it can't be undone)
2. 1-Day gift premium account will not count into the premium account situation, but if the player purchases a premium account before (or after) that day ends, it will start counting as a premium.

That is what I was thinking. though having the players who start with premium for a day count as one battle is also not to bad I guess ( seeing as they really don't have much experience to begin with ).

Also, having a second prompt pop up making sure the player really wants to move up the ranks is also not a bad idea. But, a warning saying that in the next 100 battles they will be moved up to the "pro league" would be a good idea too.

You're right