Medals - What are they and how do they work? [UPDATE]

[LiamFTWinter]

UPDATE:

How many medals will be coming when they launch?

Currently there are 10 medals ready to launch, this does seem like a low amount at first, but more will be added over time as we receive more and more community feedback, we plan to launch 10 more medals in the form of prestige medals later on and 5 more unannounced medals.

How many medals can I display on my profile?

With the new layout that is on its way, you can display a total of 6 medals.

Can I choose the medals I show on my profile?

Currently, the answer is no, this is sad news to us all because it is what we wanted to provide, but because of restrictions with the forum type and mod it's not possible at this time. As we move on updates may take place that allow users to select the medals they display.

And that's all I can share with you right now, we are getting extremely close to launch and I understand the community is still very split on the idea of medals, but we hope to impress and engage users when the medal system launches.

The community needs a huge thanks for the work they've put into the medal system, when the system launches you will notice the ideas of many community members have been implemented and those that we have noticed and used will receive a special medal at launch.

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I've seen a lot of confusion and negativity on the upcoming medals system recently and I wanted to make a thread on what they are and how they will work.

I've been working with Covy and the rest of the staff to come up with ideas and designs of how the medal system will work and I think it's finally time to announce our full plans, this post could be pretty long, so if you want to read it all feel free, if not, wait for the upcoming video version, anyway, here goes.

So, one of the biggest complaints about the medals system is the removal of a lot of the usergroups, we've taken in the concerns you have on losing your colours but at the time we feel it's right to try out medals and see how they work, a lot of the staff, like tacticalinsertion, who I'm sure you are familiar with were very hesitant on the medals system at first, but after explaining and development of the system a lot of the staff are excited for its addition.

So, what are medals?

Medals are awards for challenges you have completed on the forums.

What do medals look like?

Medals have several different designs, each different medals design symbolises the challenge that was completed to earn it. Medals are displayed on your profile page and also under your profile picture in forum posts, like this:

How many medals can I display in a forum post?

Currently during testing 8 is the maximum amount of medals that can be shown on a forum post, but all of your medals can be seen if a user clicks on your profile, like this:

How do I know what a medal is for?

If you are interested in knowing what a medal is for, hovering your cursor over a medal will give you a description of how it was earned, for example, the Richtofen medal:

How do I earn medals?

Medals are earned via completing many different achievements, medals can be earned from completing forum challenges, in game challenges or even for random things that other users have nominated you for, for example, the Grammar Enthusiast medal has the ability to allow you to nominate a user you think is a Grammar Enthusiast (I'm looking at you MrRoflWaffles

Which usergroups are being removed?

Right now the usergroups being removed are:

Community Manager

Takeo

Dempsey

Nikolai

Richtofen

Survivors

Veterans

Zombshes

PS3 Ambassadors

WWK

Please note this is subject to change.

Will these be turned into medals?

A lot will stay the same but in medal form, like the four guardians and some will merge or take up completely new roles, at the moment we're discussing the merging of survivor and veteran.

Can we suggest medals?

Sure you can, we asked the community for medal ideas and designs, go here to post your suggestions: viewtopic.php?f=93&t=20028

I like my colours, medals are a stupid idea.

Again, the colours situation has been heavily debated on by staff, some want them, some don't, but I think we've all agreed to try something new with the site before we jump to the conclusion that it's a bad idea.

What if I am in a usergroup that is becoming a medal already?

If a user has achieved any of the medals before they launch, they will be given the medals they have achieved the day medals launch.

What is the Prestige System?

So, the prestige system will be tied to brains, what we were thinking was expanding the brains ranking to become the prestige system.

The brains ranking system is the system that awards users titles under their profile picture, like "Almost Zombie, Zombie and Undead Master" as seen here:

We found that these titles were not noticeable and didn't mean much, yet brains are the recognition of extremely good posts, so we felt that creating a more rewarding and eye catching way of displaying these would work.

In comes the prestige system, we haven't figured out the full requirements yet, but we are going something like this, Prestige 1 = 100 brains, Prestige 2 = 200 brains Prestige 3 =400 brains, those aren't final, just an example.

Brains are usually given out to good quality posts, so this prestige system gives people things to aim for via improving the quality of their posts, which is an issue staff have wanted to address for a long time and it also makes the higher prestiges extremely hard to get, for example Carbonfibah is the only "Epic Zombie" on the forum which I believe is the highest brains rank, meaning currently he would be the only 10th prestige on the site, this makes the higher up badges extremely valuable.

So that's that, I hope this has answered any questions you had, if you do have any more feel free to ask.

And before I see a "This is stupid why are you removing usergroups" post, please take this into consideration, you have not seen how well the medal system will work on the site, neither have we, we all feel trying something new is the correct way to approach this, medals are fun ways to achieve on CoDz with some easy to get medals and some extremely hard to get.

There is no exact date on the medal system yet, but the rough timeframe I've been given by Covert Gunman is within the next few weeks.

We hope you enjoy the time and effort we've put into making these medals as fun as possible, thanks for reading.

[Ehjookayted]

Definitely a great new idea that is going to be a lot of fun! Be open to this guys!

Also, Liam, the highest rank on the site is Zombie Lord, achievable at 15,000 brains!

[Shapeshifter]

Finally, our dream comes true!

Thanks for this guys, I'm sure Undead will be happy to see this as well!

Plus, I'm SUPER excited about you guys adding in the Prestige system!

CoDz admins ROCK!

Yours truly,

Shapeshifter

[ZombieOfTheDead]

This still doesn't really change my thoughts on medals... I'm not being stubborn, but it seems no different from what you guys have already told me. TBH, I'd rather have a few user groups besides staff kept, but keep medals at the same time. Completely replacing still doesn't make much sense to me...

On a side note, I do think there was quite a bit of effort going on here, which is one reason why I think medals should be kept (that, and they DO show more achievements), but still, colors>medals.

[Matuzz]

Prestige 22 FTW

Well anyway the Medal system is looking awesome and is great way to replace the groups.

[LiamFTWinter]

This still doesn't really change my thoughts on medals... I'm not being stubborn, but it seems no different from what you guys have already told me. TBH, I'd rather have a few user groups besides staff kept, but keep medals at the same time. Completely replacing still doesn't make much sense to me...

On a side note, I do think there was quite a bit of effort going on here, which is one reason why I think medals should be kept (that, and they DO show more achievements), but still, colors>medals.

Again, colours are still heavily in discussion, we're kind of in limbo on what should happen, but we should come to a conclusion soon.

[Matuzz]

This still doesn't really change my thoughts on medals... I'm not being stubborn, but it seems no different from what you guys have already told me. TBH, I'd rather have a few user groups besides staff kept, but keep medals at the same time. Completely replacing still doesn't make much sense to me...

On a side note, I do think there was quite a bit of effort going on here, which is one reason why I think medals should be kept (that, and they DO show more achievements), but still, colors>medals.

Again, colours are still heavily in discussion, we're kind of in limbo on what should happen, but we should come to a conclusion soon.

Hopefully no colors because they make this site fruit salad :lol:

[ZombieOfTheDead]

This still doesn't really change my thoughts on medals... I'm not being stubborn, but it seems no different from what you guys have already told me. TBH, I'd rather have a few user groups besides staff kept, but keep medals at the same time. Completely replacing still doesn't make much sense to me...

On a side note, I do think there was quite a bit of effort going on here, which is one reason why I think medals should be kept (that, and they DO show more achievements), but still, colors>medals.

Again, colours are still heavily in discussion, we're kind of in limbo on what should happen, but we should come to a conclusion soon.

Hopefully no colors because they make this site fruit salad

NEIN! Don't say that :shock:

I mean, getting rid of a few is alright because then there ARE too many colors, but too few is bad too. Limiting it to staff is too few.

and @ Liam, thanks for clarifying that.

[Covert Gunman]

Hopefully no colors because they make this site fruit salad

NEIN! Don't say that :shock:

I mean, getting rid of a few is alright because then there ARE too many colors, but too few is bad too. Limiting it to staff is too few.

and @ Liam, thanks for clarifying that.

I seriously think you are too hung up on the colors. That's all they are. Colors. Most other sites only have staff colors separate from general users. We just happened to get a little bit color happy here, and we're trying to tone it down.

[ZombieOfTheDead]

I seriously think you are too hung up on the colors. That's all they are. Colors. Most other sites only have staff colors separate from general users. We just happened to get a little bit color happy here, and we're trying to tone it down.

I probably am a bit hung up on it, but I'd rather have like, 2 non staff colors in addition so it doesn't make it so... well, boring.

Not to mention, we aren't most other forum sites. We're awesome. ;)

[JakeDuck]

I noticed that the Mods, Global Mods, Dwellers, and Admins have very dark green, purple, blue, and red as their colors. Maybe special medals like the Veterans, WWK, Survivors, etc. could change your color to a light color?

Mod is pretty dark compared to Veteran, so it is easily distinguishable.

I personally am all for the new medal system and I think it will be a great addition. However, I understand ZombieOfTheDead's perspective that it can be boring with nearly every user being the same color. The four guardians are perfect now that they are awards, not colors. But the groups that are harder to acheive like WWK should have more than that. I understand completely that you don't want the site like it is in the image below, but if too many users disagree we can compromise this way.

[Undead]

As far as usergroup colors, it would be a lot more distinguished if there were some many similarities. That is why some of the user groups will just be replaced with medals. I mean, we have like every shade of gray for user groups.

However, here's a suggestion I just thought of for those who are worried about losing their color.

What if we incorporated the "Prestige Ranking System" into a user group? Have a color the prestige so there's groups of people in a single color range, instead of having all these different user groups with 4 or 5 people in it.

Not to mention, lots of us here qualify for several user groups, so the medals system will help recognize them all instead of showing the color for one. Which, I think is a fantastic idea.

[football5699]

I know i was very stubborn to start out, I will give this a shot as it seems like it could work. I kinda would want to keep my lovely green but it does give me an even bigger objective of just attaining Dweller if I really want to keep my color.

[xFaTaLx RaMpAgE]

So do we know when the medals system is set for launch?

[LiamFTWinter]

So do we know when the medals system is set for launch?

I believe it's coming very soon, we're just doing the last touch ups on medal challenges and the medal designs

[Phillips455]

Oh btw, if your wondering whats happening with the UOTM, i'll have a thread near the end of march explaining the changes.

the gorups will stay with a medal being added.

Previous winners would keep the medal, but the current winner would be in the UOTM group like it is now.

[JakeDuck]

I believe it's coming very soon, we're just doing the last touch ups on medal challenges and the medal designs

What about the prestiege medals? If we use the ones Undead xP made, wouldn't we have to wait on them to be refined?

[Undead]

The prestige medals can honestly be implemented anytime. However, they are being worked on ATM.

[ZombieChaos23]

I will miss you green but I am always up for a nice codz refresh.

[LiamFTWinter]

I believe it's coming very soon, we're just doing the last touch ups on medal challenges and the medal designs

What about the prestiege medals? If we use the ones Undead xP made, wouldn't we have to wait on them to be refined?

Prestige medals will launch at a later date when all medals have been refined.

[Undead]

Hey, here's a fun idea. Just like the emblems in MW2, think we could animate the 10th prestige icon to rotate? ;)

[JakeDuck]

Until we can get the actual Prestiege medals up, we could use these as placeholders:

They are pretty basic, but if you have the system ready for it we could use them temporarily.

[Matuzz]

Until we can get the actual Prestiege medals up, we could use these as placeholders:

They are pretty basic, but if you have the system ready for it we could use them temporarily.

Only ten prestige? :(

[JakeDuck]

Until we can get the actual Prestiege medals up, we could use these as placeholders:

They are pretty basic, but if you have the system ready for it we could use them temporarily.

Only ten prestige?

That is all Undead xP has made at the moment. If he decides to make more, the site might have more. Besides, I'm guessing only the Admins even have the top prestieges! (Also a simple number isn't very cool looking as a placeholder)

[LiamFTWinter]

Until we can get the actual Prestiege medals up, we could use these as placeholders:

They are pretty basic, but if you have the system ready for it we could use them temporarily.

Only ten prestige?

That is all Undead xP has made at the moment. If he decides to make more, the site might have more. Besides, I'm guessing only the Admins even have the top prestieges! (Also a simple number isn't very cool looking as a placeholder)

I can confirm that at launch 10 will be the highest they go and NO ONE on the site has achieved prestige 10 yet.

And to answer undead xP, yes we could.