Visual cues/promotion stripes for the hogs after each kill
My suggestion is to add visual "promotions" or ranks for the hogs that have killed opponents. These would only last the current round. They would be seen e.g above the hog or next to it name.
These should be visual cues only and nothing to do with the actual game mechanics or stats. Nothing like +1 shotgun or higher jump or anything like that. They would not mean that the hog is a any way stronger than any other spikeball in the field.
It would make characters a bit more personal and you would want to protect your own promoted troops and other hand it would encourage other players to seek out their opponents promoted hogs. Those earned stripes prove that they have been the pain in the spikey bit earlier. It's purely psychological and gives you a warm feeling when you down your opponents 3 star general.
In gamewise this would mostly affect to the highlander game mode when the higher rank meant bigger weapon-load and hogs with bigger ranks are of course the juiciest targets. But now even those with a short memory span could see who has more weapons and is probably the most dangerous.
One kill would give a hog a one colored dot/stripe or something like that and maybe after 5 kills the stripes would change to a star and more kills gives more stripes and in ten kills another star and so on. Just like a military rank system.
Maybe this option could be enabled on/off in the game room or from match settings if one does not like to use them.
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I actually like this idea, and as long the ranks reset every game I can't see anyone abusing it, unlike other proposed ideas for cosmetic rewards/stat tracking.
Proud member of Death's Angels for 3 billion years.
yes i don't mind that in one game only, else for permanent stuff it only should be seen locally if ppl need some ego grown.
I really really like that idea, thank you!
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Yes. The idea is that it would last current round only. It of course could be developed to more long term stat building but that really was not my point. I also think that the more random nature of the game does not necessarily support the long term stats (at least for the hogs) cos' your previously kick-ass hog might in next round start right at the egde and and be only a baseball bat away from the game before you could even move. Then the next solution to that would be to give the promotions to the player and not to the hogs.
That supports more the players that live and breathe the games they play but this solution would give something to the more casual gamers also. Those extra talented players would of course get their hogs striped up in no time anyway.
And I think those hogs earn them more. These are not the usual cannon fodder.
For myself the most rewarding things in a game are the little round to round successions and horribly embarrassing failures and it would be nice to see that rewarded if one hog throws a grenade that misses the original target but succeeds to drown a 3 other in a collateral damage which I of course planned right from the start... That should be noted somehow.
Of course system could be even more sophisticated e.g. certain tricks gives you specific medals or something like that but I think the more traditional military style ranking style would be more solid at least at the beginning. Game already tracks kills that any hog makes so ranking system only visualizes those stats for the players. And it could show those earned stripes at the end of the round like it already does in the text box after the match.
One point for the think tank is should the system punish for killing from your own team? Should there be stripping the rank? Or should even friendly kills add to the rank? The highlander game mode would be most affected either way. Could killing your own troops help you to "hide" the hog that have hoarded most of the weapons? Either way you have to keep a mental note what powerful weapons have changed the owner. Pure rank does not tell you that.
I made a couple of pictures how the promotions might look like. I even tried if the rank should show in a bottoms energy bar but that would not probably work when there is a 8 hog and everybody's health is low.
(edited: typos, figured out image links
)
--- Don't mind the pointy bit. ---
With the more sophisticated system I mentioned I meant something like when one hog kills e.g 5 enemies with only granades it gets a lil golden granade badge. Or some other small mark for the hog that have the most kills in one round at that stage. And the mark shifts to a next hog who tops that.
But these could also be a some kind of earned nicknames after the certain ruleset have been met. If hogs name is e.g. Johnny Bee Goode if it gets some kind of a achievement very long range kill with a sniper rifle it gets a nickname: Johnny Bee Goode "The Eagle Eye". Or kills with a drill could give you a "Driller". Only level of bad humor sets the limit. "Pyromaniac", "Beekeeper", "Chell" and suchs.
The nickname system could maybe take notice of the friendly kills. With "Kinslayer" and other such terms.
But I think these kind of things should be quite specific and hard to earn so not any other hog could boast with something special. Inflation eats anything that is overused even if the idea is good. Harder the victory - So much better it feels.
Earned nicknames could be typed with specific color so that normal player could not abuse the system and make their own.
But I'm just throwing these ideas to the fire if something catches fire and seems plausible.
(edited: couple of updates to text and typos)
--- Don't mind the pointy bit. ---
Maybe I should be throwing to the fire some **** instead because it seems those things does not seem to be good for anything else.
Only problem in that seems to be that those things does not seem to burn very well either because those things only melt very very fast. Probably 'cause of a shoddy workmanship and bad quality I suppose.
Those kids in the development countries does not even upheld those high standards that we are used to until now.
(this post became obsolete after the spam was removed, this can be remeved)
--- Don't mind the pointy bit. ---
How about basing it on etiquette instead?
(Account blocked from further forum access due to: spam, verbal abuse, and other cases of misbehavior)
What do you mean by "basing it on etiquette"? Is the etiquette some kind of a feature in a game or do you mean etiquette in real life?
And what part of the proposition should base on the etiquette? Stripes should be awarded based on the players/hogs etiquette?
--- Don't mind the pointy bit. ---
I mean an etiquette system similar to [censored by admin, you all know which game he mentioned for the 100th time]! Stripes should be awarded for having good etiquette for a week!* You can, however, lose stripes for having bad etiquette!
(*Not including days off! That counts as bad etiquette!) YES, THEY SHOULD BE BASED ON ETIQUETTE! AND THEY WILL LAST PERMANENTLY! THEY WILL BE FOR THE WHOLE PLAYER!
(Account blocked from further forum access due to: spam, verbal abuse, and other cases of misbehavior)
No.
People would abuse that in some way if it was permanent ,but yeah for just a one round that would be a great idea.Maybe to see these details you press delete, like to change the view of your health, to the ranks of the hogs, to see the kills they have.
Good idea! Instead of like, a promotion for a turn, maybe have it for the whole game and is scrapped once the match is won.
Also welcome to the forums, Minkto!
That is exactly what I mean !!
Oh I have been a hedge wars player for a while so I am starting to feel like I should start contributing more to ideas on the forum but I guess I'am just starting to post so thank you for the welcome Star and Moon. 
I like the concept of temporary hog ranks, but man, this will make lazy Highlander players even lazier. Keeping track of which hogs have which weapons is one of the few things that introduces a tiny bit of skill to the mode. I'm reluctant to make a boring mode even more boring.
I do like the idea of a custom label like Minkto suggests, though. That would be a useful thing for lua. It would mean we could apply arb text strings to hogs delineating their special purpose without having to replace their name, as done in Mutant, The Specialists etc.
mikade
Hedgewars Developer
+1
Also, somehow, this would be a good starting point for new game modes that use that information.
I have been pondering the same thing. I think it boils down to ones personal references. Some players seek any help and edge they could find and some deliberately make their game harder even with their own psychological ruleset in some cases.
I have always liked a more customization options but I know that could also be a problem. When playing with personal friends I think we would probably test feature out in a highlander and if it's turns out to be too easy turn it of for that gamemode. In another gamemodes it should not have so much of a impact on a gameplay.
Few options come to mind
- You could turn ranks on/off in a match settings so a players (host) could decide should the match be easier.
- If you could demote your hogs by killing own troops so you could "hide" your true rank.
- Rank would be given only from some outstanding feats hogs perform but what would those feats be and how they could be tracked is a another question altogether.
edited: wording
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- Assassinate a enemy general that cannot move cos's the stars weight so much. Other hogs move as they like.
Or polar opposite - bigger the rank more time to move.
Of highlanderesque mode where you open certain weapons "tiers" or sets according the rank that you manage to kill but you don't get all the weapons the previous owner has collected. Only that set the targets rank allows you to get.
Killing rookie - a pistol, mine, whip etc. "low tier" weapons
First rank - bazooka, granade, shotgun ect.
Second rank - Cluster, baseball bat ect.
Third rank - dynamite etc.
...
--- Don't mind the pointy bit. ---
That sounds pretty nifty actually.
Maybe you could adjust whether or not the label is visible by everyone, by the owner of the team only, or by everyone except the owner of the team.
I remember hearing something like, since hedgewars is open source, "hidden" information could be easily made visible. ( I think it was in response to the fog of war option.) But IMO, I would just say that if you suspect someone could be "cheating" then just don't play with that person, or play a different mode, since I think it'd be pretty fun, and give the game more variety.
Some ideas which come to mind:
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A "king mode" variant, let's call the special hog the commander, where the commander looks just like one of the normal hogs, and only the owner of the team can see which hog is actually the commander. When the commander dies, the team loses.
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A stratego-esque mode, where each hog's identity (and therefore his weapons or even special abilities) is only known to the owner.
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Maybe even something along the lines of:
Every team has a predetermined "double agent", and everyone except the owner can see which hog it is. After a set number of turns/ amount of time the hogs are revealed, and come under the control of another team.
When there's more than two teams, then you don't know in which of the other teams your double agent will be in. Or you could have it that everyone can only see their own double agent which is hidden in another team.
But each team has one double agent in another team, and there's only one double agent per team.
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