I'm curious what the "Ranking" system is really tracking?
"Wins" is pretty obvious.
But what are included in "Games Played"? For example, if I start a mission, save my position, exit the game to do something else (by having to "Surrender"; see Q#2 below), then go back later, is that considered another "Game Played" since the game thinks I "surrendered"? That seems a bit silly. Regardless, in the Ranking the "Games Played" listed for me is much higher than the number of games I have really played, for some reason.
And what is counted in "Battles"? This is a huge number, so there are obviously multiple battles per mission. Is this every victory/defeat of a unit you have experienced?
Question #2:
On a related topic, how exactly do you exit the game without "surrendering"? If I want to leave to do something else, I save my position, then I hit the little "X" in the upper left corner. It then thinks I am "surrendering" and tells me I have lost, brings up the "Victory Conditions", and finally exits. Am I missing a more graceful way out? If not, that is a suggestion for the next update: There really needs to be an exit button that does not involve "surrender".
Suggestion:
I saw a post about improving the ranking system, and I would vote for a more robust "skill based" ranking system. As it is, you can brute-force your way up the existing one by either playing (and quitting) lots of games and/or repeatedly playing and winning the easiest missions. Instead, I would introduce a "Skill-based" or "Points-based" scoring system to really track progress and expertise with the game. Some specific ideas:
a) Assign a point value to each mission; some are harder than others, so adjust accordingly.
b) For example, early missions might be worth 5 points, up to the very hardest worth 10 points.
c) Importantly, assign points to the Achievements! The easy ones worth 1 point, up to the hardest worth 3-5 points.
d) Therefore, any given mission + achievements give the player a total potential score of, say, 10-20 points.
e) Track completion of missions and achievements, add up all the points, and report that in the overall Ranking system!
f) Importantly, only award points for the first time a player completes a mission and the achievements
(i.e. encourage replay of missions to get more achievements, but only add points for newly completed items, like a new achievement completed, etc.)
With a system like this, the Rankings will really feel like a true ranking of ability...not just games played.
