I hate battle hero rewards.
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by Chalco Hills
I hate battle hero rewards.
I don't hate getting them. I hate the way they work, and what they do to the game.
I assume that somewhere there is some research showing that the BH system drives more revenue for the game. However, it also kind of destroys a big part of any internal logical consistency regarding what is supposed to be going on. Most of the time, a battle hero is anything but a hero. I think almost everyone understands why.
Recently I was throwing a bunch of damage, trying to help an ally win a battle. Long story short, the only other person on our side in my division was actually a citizen of that allied country. At first I was hoping that between the two of us we could tip the scales, but it seemed he was only trying to stay ahead of me for the BH and had no real regard for trying to win the battle. I let him have the BH, as I generally do ... and thought, as we lost a *really* close battle, maybe he was doing everything he could, like me he was out of energy ... until the start of following round when the same person immediately threw a ton more damage, a fraction of which could have won the previous round for his nation. But he didn't care about that, all he cared about was the BH.
Today I encountered a similar situation, where someone was obviously doing just enough to get a BH and doing nothing to help win the battle. In a very rare move, toward the end I actually tried to contest the BH with him a bit, just because he was being such a jackarse. I'm not proud of that. I didn't care about getting the BH, I was just sick of seeing the behavior.
In a way, they can't be entirely blamed. The game is set up to reward people for that. For the most part individuals benefit a lot more by focusing on the BH than they would trying to actually help win a battle. I'd love to see those mechanics changed. I was happy to see some of the criteria in a recent special event that required getting a BH or the most kills "on the winning side" of a battle. That's a start. It would be even better if the criteria were refined to reward those who had done the most to actually earn more points for the winning side, to avoid rewarding people who come in and snipe at the end.
In short, it would sure be nice if getting a BH required doing something slightly more ... heroic.
I know ... some people enjoy the current system ... in any case, it's very unlikely to change ... but sometimes you just want to say some things out loud even if you know it isn't going to matter. To just grin and bear it and keep ones mouth shut is something I have to do all the time in real life ... may as well enjoy the liberty of being able to get away with being more of a crank in-game.
/end_whine
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Interesting thoughts, the BH system makes no sense and helps to "destroy" the fun in this game (at least from the "free player" point of view, maybe the VISAs think otherwise)
Voted
Well said.
Great article! Once upon a time there was some sort of "gentleman's code" not to steal BH from others. Now things have changed and luckily I'm a free player so don't have to (have no chance) hunt for these medals. So much other things to do here 😃 .
Thanks. I have times when I want to try to win a battle, and I actually get concerned that someone is going to think I'm trying to steal their BH, which in itself kind of points out something wrong with that game mechanic.
yes and no.. yes sometimes battles is earmarked to be won sometimes not. if you were throwing the damage against a co the opposition would just keep rollin the wall over. so not in all cases is victory important.
for some players its all about the medals and how many they can earn their usually the ones insisting on bh's not being stolen. sometimes players do not even realize they surpassed you or others surpassed u in the chase so your entitled to take it back. but most of the time the best strategy is a massive push near the end stealing the bh. just dont steal from your friends.or to put a decent target. but dont be surprised if that target s then surpassed. a player may only play for bh's but usually his efforts may then be thwarted by MOD departements or CO's.
Best strategy is to assume its going to be stolen or to if you steal hand the gold or split the gold with the person u stole from.
Figuring out where to deal some damage to the most beneficial effect (for your nation) is part of the strategy ... but, even if you are in a losing battle because the other side is outspending you with CO cash, if your effort at least forces them to expend more of that cash, it isn't necessarily a waste even if you lose. They used up resources that they then don't have available to use against you elsewhere, right?
nice thoughts
You should write more often 😉
Thanks, but you should be careful what you ask for, I have to constantly restrain myself to avoid becoming a blowhard.
nice article.
i loved BH before but now i admit it is a little ridiculous.
v+s+e
Still not as bad as creating low level military divisions and then introducing XP inhibitors for rl money.
Well, the pay-to-win aspects are mostly a separate thing. One could argue that an experience inhibitor allows participating in battles to help your nation without hurting yourself by going up divisions too fast. The real answer to something like that is to revamp the system so that gaining experience isn't a bad thing ... maybe by making divisions based on age instead of experience, something like that.
I'm always in favor of coming up with ways to skew towards pay-to-play rather than pay-to-win. Trying to set things up for free players to prosper long term though is kind of futile since there needs to be revenue for the folks providing the game. (And that's coming from someone who has spent the vast majority of my time in this game without paying for anything.)
I agree with you completely Chalco. One crazy thing you did not mention but I think deserves a mention is the person who fights on both sides of the fight to win BH medals for both sides. No loyalty at all, just going for the medals, at the risk of inadvertently helping the enemy win the battle.
True, although I guess in rare cases you could potentially steal the BH from someone on the other side for a small amount of damage, then if you were a real patriot you could donate the reward to your MU or nation.
Lol i wander if all you saw was your own damage and the battles influence until the battle ends, where every stat is then published and BHs are awarded. It'd at least prevent snipers but still i see where it gets confusing and messy too though.
That's not a bad idea. My thought was that each time the domination points tick up in a battle, attribute those points to the person who has done the most damage up to that time in the battle. That way it would be tied more closely to the way you actually win the battle. It'd be a little more complex logic for the developers though.