I. Baseline study :worm

So as it is now, every donor is an expert and every non-donor is a greenie. Donors are trusted easily whereas non-donors are ignored with disdain, although saying that a Donor is experienced is like saying that every Ferrari-driver is a good driver or bicycle drivers can’t drive cars or cannot afford them. These are deduction-shortcuts that lead to misjudgment, either in the positive or in the negative way. Although it can be assumed that donors will not risk being banned for scamming as they invested actual money in the game (although not always true), the opposite deduction is impossible: non-donors will not always don’t care. Some are quite advanced in their game, and this is even an understatement for one or two of which islands I’ve visited, which are almost filled up from void to ceiling. They are much less subject to misbehavior than Donor10 who just started a new island, I gather.


Let’s assume [Donor] is not a qualitative assessment (it ain’t according to many forums rules, guidelines and notes). The forum ratings aren’t either but at least they are better lead indicators to find experienced and/or trustworthy members.



II. Approach


What are reliable experience markers that are logged ingame? The ingame statistics of course. Well I have no idea of whether they are recorded on a multiplayer server, so everything which follows is based on this assumption.


There are quite a few:



Much more than that in fact.



III. Practical Suggestion


Criteria


Let’s imagine a numbered layer level system based on the number of blocks placed, which is IMHO the most tangible marker for XP ingame. Let’s just review the other credible markers :


Minutes played: what about player staying in an AFK well, or just loitering around without doing much?

Any distance stat: As for the previous one, can easily be manipulated.

Blocks broken: Stone producers who are selling it would get much XP, whereas builders would stay downgraded.

Any stats about kills or damage: maybe on skywars, but useless on this server

Interactions with craftin table / furnace: too specific. Not used by everyone, not 100% necessary to build big beautiful islands.

Items used: Also too specific and advantaging producers upon “outsourcers”.


The others are not worth considering.


My criteria of choice:


Blocks placed: can hardly be manipulated, is not advantaging any specific behavior (traders, manufacturers) and is representative of the actual work performed, which leads inescapably to experience and also tightens the bond with the server itself, which make one more trustworthy.


Leveling


The all-time best leveling system in any game (or forum) seen so far is an exponential leveling, I think we can agree on that. The simplest ones are based on powers of two. So the first level would be reached by placing two blocks, the second by placing 4, the third by placing a total of 8 and so on. Lvl 99 by placing 633,825,300,114,114,700,748,351,602,688 blocks (good luck on that). I remain open to other systems, however.


Showing off


Adding a visible additional rating is not an easy task, and I remain open for any suggestion or alterative ways. AFAIK, the only method of making it visible to everyone is to add it to the player name in chat, like [donor] and such. But without overcrowding the IGN with information. As we have a two digit level, this is not an issue.


I totally agree that [donor] remains the most important. Donors are keeping this server financed and enable non-donors to even play. So this should stay first. I’d add the level number at the very end of the name. So a chat nick could be for instance:


[Skygod] coolingamenickname [11]


That’s 2^11 = 2048 blocks placed. Not much for a skygod, huh? A whole floor takes up 99x99, so 9801 blocks without any buildings on it, so lvl 13. I don’t know if I’d trust this wealthy noob. Probably not on an expensive trade.


IV. Well...

So this is basically my suggestion. Please judge the whole as a whole, and not solely on a single aspect you like or not (or the spelling, I'm not a native Speaker). I don’t claim this to be the be-all and end-all, and there sure may be some tunings to be done to it. I do also agree I am quite new to this server and might not have considered everything. I'm adaptive and might as well edit if needed.

So please refrain from a succinct “support” or “no support”. Justified opinions are overly appreciated.

 

Yeah that's somehow like that. However I feel that expressing it in words, like Ultra, would overload the IGN, that's why I prefered numbers.

As for the feasibility, if YOU don't know as an experienced member, I guess I'll have to wait for an admin to stumble upon my suggestion. But before tagging them, let's see if it becomes popular.

 

Oh ok, then it's pretty much that, indeed.

 

Seems like a nice idea!

 

I feel like you took that from.. a certain server.. *wink*
Anyhoo
This could be nice, but I see it much more viable for skywars. After all, we get nothing for kills on there, only wins.

 

*doesn't build and doesn't even island, only chats*

 

I don't know, I personally don't support this idea. However, it is nice. :]

 

Neutral

 

Support

 

This is a very interesting idea, but I will stay neutral for now.

 

This is a really sweet because I know how greenies are normally treated, but I feel like people will find a way to use this to scam people who trust them? Idk I will stay neutral for now.

 

Thank you for your feedback.

This XP rate basically says how much a player has built. So besides from saying how experienced he is, it also includes "how much does the player have to loose if he gets banned for scamming me? ". So I for now don't see how in contrary this could be used to scam.

 

I get what you're saying, but my concern is that greenies won't video because they trust them more. That's just my opinion though.

 

Neutral
Reasons well stated in instances above

 

People can just place random blocks to get the level up. Personally I think this will be good on skywars, not net or org though.

 

Just like they do with donors. Where is the difference? They are more trustworthy than people with no XP, that's a fact. Not a generality maybe, but mostly true. Like it is for donors.

Well blocks that have been placed must be broken again if it's done just on this purpose. Way too time consuming seeing that the lvl up is more an more spaced. That's why I prefered the blocks placed over the blocks broken if you read again the OP. Few will try what you are saying. All will give up after some time.

 

Couldn't you just use a sand glitch? If sand falls ontop of a torch ur breaks right? I haven't tried it on the server but I know on the regular version it does. It would be incredibly easy to place sand let it fall on the torch and break then you pick it back up to place it again. They still place the block so it would give them the XP like you're saying. I think its a sweet idea and would be nice for the greenies but I just see that a lot of problems could occur.

 

Due to further consideration I change my stance from neutral to no support. Sorry.