Next ranking system- Tree of tears

[Stop Mocking Me0]

(For the best effect please read the following script like a BO2 reveal trailer, feel free to use vonder's voice even if he will not be returning)

 

One of the biggest things we've added to the game is the completely renovated and pimped out zombie ranking system. 

 

 

Players will forge their own look and image, as well as other players. 

 

 

 

The base idea is that the player is essentially, a tree, hence the name, tree of tears. Each player starts with their own image, and slowly grows on that. 

 

I personally find the best way to explain the new system is just through example. A player comes in, plays their first game and becomes simply mesmerized by the trail ahead of them. 

 

(Cut away from the reveal trailer voice now) 

 

THE BASICS

 

The tree of tears is simply the road a player takes to becoming the ultimate player, in each map a player is tasked with a new branch of the tree, so while players may have huge bulking branches in one map, their massive limbs become stubs in other map's lobbies. 

 

So to clarify, if you have the ultimate victory in tranzit, it does not effect your skill in your die-rise rank. However, the player's roots, or bace stats are effected by whichever map you play on. 

 

Base stats effect your overall rank, seen only in the main lobby, and therefor only by those who either look at your profile, or bring you into a private match. This can help a lot with keeping people from quoting lobbies due to one's overall rank, as it focuses primarily on their rank of the map, and their lobby leader boards.

 

There are two ways to improve one's overall rank: 

-simply getting kills, that's the general way around here.. 

-Party mode, go into THAT later… 

 

Right now, before I get off topic of player's general dislike of other players based on rank, let's introduce a new feature: 

 

PLAYER REVIEWS

 

Reviews are a new system to zombies encouraging cooperative gameplay among teammates. How it works is, any player that makes it to round 10 with another player WHO IS ON THE SAME TEAM, has the ability to "rate" the other players at the end of a match. Players can only vote once for players on each map, afterwards they can change their vote, but it eliminates their first vote. 

Each player can brand or accommodate the player with a variety of classifications:

Brands: BAD characteristics of a player:

-Loner   -Tends to self, does not assist other players.

-Noob    -New to the map/zombies, does not lower rank in anyway, also if one's knowledgeable accommodations out lie their Noob brands, the noob brand is removed. 

-Troll       -You can guess what this means. 

-Glitcher  -Exploits the game in ways other players think they shouldn't. 

-Jerk        -Rude to other players in ways that make them unwanted to play with. 

-Uncooperative   -If a player is being uncooperative to the rest of the team, one can brand them. Needs the majority of the lobby to brand one person though. 

 

 

Accommodations: GOOD characteristics of a player:

 

Knowlegeable- Knows the map, and good tactics

Team player- Helps other players in anyway they can, even if it costs them. 

Medic- Assists downed players generously. 

Assistant- Deals with tedious parts of gameplay to improve quality for others. 

Fun- generally entertaining to play with. 

 

 

Each set of review are shown in a percentage beneath ones' profile, like the current way the different amount of kills are shown next to one's skull now. 

 

 

Moving back to the general base of the tree. 

 

The TOT's bace: 

 

The tree's roots are depicted with one's total kills, total downs, total head shots, total quit matches (does not include disconnections in which one still is connected to the XBL network 30 seconds after disconnection), and total points in one's bank. 

 

The rank depicted by one's roots is generally enhanced by their distinguished percentages bellow: 

(100) Kills 20% 

Head shots 15% 

Downs 20%

Quits 20%

Points in bank 5% 

Other player's ratings 20% 

 

The negative aspects: quits, downs, and Other player's bad ratings bring your score down by that multiplier. And vice versa. 

 

 

But no one cares about your general rank because they're too concerned about one's Map ranking: 

 

Map's Branches:

 

 

This is the part that fully expands on the tree aspect. In each map one develops a whole new abundance of tasks that must be performed, and things that must be accomplished. 

 

Take tranzit: To start one would receive a choice to advance down one of it's branches, the first tasks would be centered around simple discoveries such as:

Discover the diner, make it to the farm, turn on the power. 

 

This is considered the STEM phase and is represented as a small sapling. 

 

After a bit, your rank would increase to the next level and things get a bit trickier: 

Recover one's tombstone

Discover the bace of the tower

Open and use the Pack a Punch

 

This is the twig stage, represented by a pistol-shaped stick

 

Then after a bit more and one's 3rd rank, new tactics type tasks appear to be completed: 

Survive four rounds under the bridge

Destroy 10 zombies with the jet-gun before it overheats

Survive to round 15 

 

This is the "branch" phase, which depicts a full grown branch with a tear. 

 

At this point, on maps that have one, a person must complete the easter egg to advance to rank 4

 

After rank four one must complete a series of tasks that no longer permanently increase one's stats. Meaning one can return to rank 3 if their ranks aren't kept in check in each map. 

 

Rank 4 removes the leaves of the branch depicting a dead branch with a tear. 

 

Rank 5 forms a flower, as it's pedals will slowly drop the less skill-ful one plays

 

Rank 6 sticks a zombies head on the branch with the flower's pedals sticking out it's cracked skull. The same concept applies here. 

 

And, as discussed earlier, players that only play die rise can and will lose their max tranzit rate. 

 

 

 

There are sub-branches for grief, turned, survival, and other game-mode maps, and speaking of which let me introduce the pinnacle of things to add out of all of this: The customizable character. 

 

 

 

One's Game-mode Character:

 

One of the (many) things CODZ lacks is the ability to personalize your character. What I purpose is a ghost-style character customization set up that allows one to create their own zombie slayer. 

 

The character would only be used in simplistic matters of game-mode maps, so on main maps like tranzit, you're set with the set characters, but in grief/survival/turned one can become a 1930s mobster, a dub step hipster, or a psycho if one wishes. Complete with changeable tops, pants, coats, hats, and accessories (shoes go with pants), one is at any point fully ready to take on any outbreak in style. Another cool feature trayarch can charge us with is voice, as one now can change the quotes made by their own characters. Rick (Rick and Morty) fighting zombies anyone? 

 

One obtains cloths and customs in four ways:

DLC purchase (of course),

earning it by accomplishing certain tasks on different maps,

Purchasing things from the in-game store using their bank money, 

Player reactivity- Occasionally players will receive customizables simply from playing with other people! How fun! 

 

Being able to customize who you are brings a whole new meaning to the catchphrase: "There is a zombie killer in all of us"

 

 

Customizable weaponry: 

 

Yup, this again… 

 

In addition to earning cloths, one can also unlock weapons by progressing through a branch. Mainly weapons pertaining to the map. 

 

The unlocked weapons can be traded out in one's "toy box":  

For example, should one prefer the Lsat to the RPD, they can swap it out. 

 

 

 

Now, I'm just adding this in because SO many people get in SUCH a underwear-over-head wedge over this idea. People keep saying: "Oh but this weapons is far superior to this weapon, and this one has better reload time, and bla bla bla…"

 

Honestly, in WHAT situation is the RPD going to be any more or less effective then an LSat? So one has a slightly faster reload, so does the Remington NMA compared to the python, but does anyone care about how that works in buried vs die rise? No! So why is this any different. Another key point that people over look is the fact that these weapons are being selected from the box, they are not guaranteed to even be used by a player. Zombies gameplay does not carry the butterfly effect is my main point. Tiny changes make little to no difference. It's not like one can empty their load outs too so the box only gives them ray guns, your load out MUST be filled with select weapons (discussed later) or it won't save. Further-more only like weapons can be traded, so one can't trade the Kap 40 for a galil. But they can trade their kap-40 for a B23r. 

 

 

But, Despite my reasoning, I'll level with the doubters with the new "jinx system"

 

 

Jinxes:

 

What this does is make it so those who continue to use the same weapons from the box become punished in simple ways (this does not apply to weapons designated to each map, wonder weapons/tacticals, or weapons purchased from walls) 

 

Jinxes in a weapon becomes very noticeable as the weapon will flash red in the box on stage one, and spit smoke on stage two. 

 

What it does is make the weapon less desirable to be used in opposition to other weapons: 

Stage 1 possibilities: 

-A few rounds missing when taken from box.

- Increase in recoil 

- more self-splash damage

 

Stage 2 possibilities: 

-Half the amo is missing when taken from box. 

-Reduced accuracy

-reduced damage

-weapons can actually be dropped after taking fall damage or being hit by an explosion, they can be picked up from the ground though, and only by your player. 

 

 

Needless to say, you don't want to be carrying jinxed weapons. But how does one avoid jinxing? 

Simple just trade out your jinxed weapon for a different one from your arsenal for your box weapons. (IE: Trade your jinxed kap 40 for a b23r) Over time your weapon will cool down and eventually come of use again. This "time" is set by matches, so yes, you could but the kap 40 back in and quickly play 10 30 sec. games of a map, but then your rank has been reduced because your quit/down ratio has increased! It'd be much easier just to play 10 regular games over the course of a few hours to get that gun back to health. 

 

So, feel free to tell me what you think of that. 

 

 

Customs and Regulars:

Moving on, each box consists of two types of weapons: Customs and regulars. 

Regulars are bound to the MAP and can not be changed. The map's wonder weapon is a part of this, as well as a few other weapons. 

 

 

The box's customs are also frequent in amount, meaning you can't make all your weapon choices empty to improve your chances at getting a ray gun. There must be a gun in every slot to accommodate for the weapon you removed. 

 

Further more, certain weapons aren't transferable: Like the Mtar can be considered an assault riffle type B, and can be placed ONLY in the ASR- B slot only, where as the galil can be a simple ASR and can be placed in any slot. There is some skill to weapons classification as well . (The galil-mtar thing is just an example, I understand these weapons aren't equal and in the final product would not work like this.)  

 

Also other things you can customize: 

One can chose which 3 perma perks they have, but depending on the effects, will reduce the amount of help kills do for your rank. 

 

You can also change your starter weapon, from a mauser, to a m1911, to some other 3rd thing.

 

 

 

Party mode: 

 

Each map now in addition to the regular games includes the new"party mode" which sets any 4 players into a match with a random  selection of custom game effects. 

 

These games, even if played on maps, are played with their own custom characters. 

 

These effects include: 

-No door purchases: Meaning one can't purchase ANY doors. 

-Reduced door purchases: One can only open certain doors on the map (the doors are set by the developers, not the player) 

-Red drops: Negative effects to the player

-reduced perk limit: One can now only purchase one, two , or three perks. 

-certain perks turned off: Certain perk machines can no longer be activated. (Can't be obtained from the wonder fizz either) 

-no box

-no wonderfizz 

-no wall weapons

-headshots only

-dogs

-crawlers off

-crawlers only (more devastating then you think) 

- Start on round 1 5 10 or 20. 

-no starter pistol

-no grenades 

 

The game does select these things randomly, but the host has the ability to chose what they want before the match, because you don't always want to play a first room challenge on round 20 with no wall weapons. 

 

These special game modes actually supply MORE help to one's bace rank, but effects one's map less or the same depending on the settings, as when you're in one room, you don't exactly expend your skill of the map. 

 

 

 

 

 

That's about it folks, I know it's a long read, but believe me, it's worth it! 

 

And tell me what you think! I hate it when I get no feedback! 

Edited July 14, 2014 by Stop mocking me0

[thegoldenspork115]

"Crawlers only(more devastating than you think)" xD that's hilarious.

Anyways. Great post here, man. This system sure beats the hell out of BO2's ranking system. I'm particularly fond of the Toy Box idea and even the red power up idea. That'd make things really interesting having power ups with negative effects. Power downs maybe? Lol. Like maybe they could include...

Less Ammo- lose some ammo in held weapon

Zombie Spawn- spawns ten zombies. They just fall from the sky.

Power Outage- Shuts off the power at a certain part ofthe map.

Virus- until the effect wears off, whenever you touch another player, it'll make that player take some damage.

You could actually come up with a lot of ideas for this.

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Better yet just really throw on the pain: 

No amo: Lose all the amo in your current weapon. -Red Amo

Negative points: Self explanatory. -Red $Z

Double price: Everything cost double! -Red X2

Radiation: Player takes a bit of damage every 15 seconds for a total of 1 minute.  -Red Nuke

 

I like the virus idea, that could come from tainted meat's red drop. 

[CBR_600_RR]

Well, what can I say? I think you definitely have a lot of cool ideas here man! It looks like you've put a lot of thought and effort into it...

The tree ranking system, i'm not sure I fully understand it....   You said each player starts with their own image and builds from that...   What did you mean by that? Did you mean like an actual picture of myself or are you referring to something like a playercard emblem???

I liked the idea of the "player review" but the only problem I see with that is random people lying and checking untrue labels or boxes...   Like you could be in a lobby full of scrubs and you your self are doing extremely well for exp. round 28 0 downs....   you could be carrying your team reviving everyone as much as you can... well lets say one of those players gets jealous and wants to try and fukk with your stats or your standing as a player, well they might just mark or check something bad in the "player review" just because they sukk and they're mad at you because you are good....

I absolutely loved your idea about the character customization....   only thing I would add is where you stated about in the main maps with main characters, well I would suggest that we be able to customize the main characters too so we could each have our own versions of the main characters....

I liked your weapon customization ideas too....

I always thought to myself that it would be cool if we had some kind of option menu pre-game that would allow us to customize every single weapon on the map...   on the wall or the box....     for example, I love the COMMANDO in BO1 so I would go to the options menu and customize my COMMANDO pre-game:        CAMMO, DUAL MAGS, RED DOT or whatever, then when i'd go hit the box in game and the commando popped up it would be the way I customized it pre game..

Edited July 23, 2014 by CBR_600_RR

[Stop Mocking Me0]

-Character you design 

-See that's just it, the player review is set by the lobby, and those who leave don't get to vote or get voted for. It truly encourages good sportsmanship. Maybe there should be an option that turns this off so you never get reviewed by people you don't want to be.. Perhaps the best player (K/D ratio) decides on if voting happens or not. 

-i don't think we'll be able to customize our main characters. Otherwise we wouldn't have anymore funny quotes, and gameplay would become more bland like ghost's extinction. Besides we need as many links to the story as we can, even if it's just marelton quotes. 

-You wouldn't be able to do THAT in the game, just trade out weapons, like if you got a Mtar from the box and hated it, you can go and swap it out for the commando you loved, course, eventually that would over-heat and you'd need to trade it for whatever it's WAW equivalent was or the Mtar again.