Implement a personal rating/performance system

[RushRiviera]

THE NEED:
An important aspect of gameplay within FFXIV is the ability for new players to find parties for dungeons, trials, and raids. This allows newer players to be able to fully enjoy all the content of the game smoothly. Some of the ways FFXIV achieves this is through the duty roulette system, Relic quest requirements, Tomestone attainment, and other systems. The problem is that re-running old content can become monotonous and bland after multiple runs, and after some time it is done more out of necessity than for enjoyment.

This system would give more incentive to players for re-playing old content and would make it both more enjoyable and more engaging, whilst also encouraging those players who choose to use the system to learn more about their job and improve in their role.

THE SYSTEM:
My proposal would be for a letter rating system (A, B, C, etc.). An important aspect of the system would be to reward and challenge both hardcore and casual players. This means the top tiers would need to be difficult to obtain to make them feel prestigious, whilst also making the lower tiers of ratings feel fun and enjoyable for casual players and not feel like a penalty. For this reason I propose the following rating tiers: C, B, A, S, S+.

The thresholds for each tier can be determined by looking at the average data for each dungeon, with the B rating being assigned to a threshold that encompasses the majority of players. The reason for this is because a rating of B encourages improvement (and replayability) whilst also not sounding harsh or punishing. The rating of A should be achievable by casual players with a moderate amount of effort and concentration, which ensures that this system feels rewarding for casual players. The ranks S and S+ would be catered to the more hardcore players and would be much more difficult to achieve. This ensures that hardcore players also feel challenged and rewarded from this system. Lastly the rating of C should be reserved for particularly poor performance much below the average, this would serve as an indicator for those who are not playing their job correctly and want to improve (the assumption that they want to improve is based on the fact that they would have manually enabled this rating system to begin with.)

THRESHOLDS:
This is just an example of how the threshold could be set to achieve the goals set out above. Threshold criteria would be different for each role and would be based on the average performance metrics of the top x number of players.

S+: Top 5%
S: Top 15%
A: Top 40%
B: Top 100%
C: Outliers falling far below the average (The rating of C is basically a polite warning that you are doing something wrong)

*The reason for B encompassing the performance level of 60% of players is to prevent the possibility of players asking other players what their ratings are, or demanding to see screenshots of ratings to prove their skill. This prevents the possibility of players getting kicked from parties based on their rank (as a rank of B could be given to anyone from the lowest-performing players to the top 41% of players). This could of course be adjusted to be more or less broad as required.

This is just an example and it could be adjusted for different duties or depending on feedback.

RATING CRITERIA:
The criteria for ratings can be different for each role and can be based on a players individual totals at the end of a dungeon/trial/raid.

DPS roles can have their criteria based on their total damage output at the end of the duty + the effectiveness of their buffs. Damage output thresholds would be set accordingly for each duty.

Tank roles can have their criteria based mainly on damage taken + damage mitigated, whilst also taking into account their damage output and losing points for total damage taken by other party members.

Healer roles can have their criteria based on both their total healing and their damage output. The key is to find the right balance so as to reward healers for playing their roles both when they are spending most of their time healing a party that is taking lots of damage, and when they are spending more time dealing damage due to the tank effectively holding aggro and using defensive abilities.

[RushRiviera]

FORMULAS:
These are just example formulas to show how this system could be effectively calculated. These formulas are not intended to be accurate as I do not have access to the data and so it would be up to the dev team to find the exact values.

Values and thresholds could be differentiated between Jobs if necessary to ensure the ratings fall into the thresholds set out in the "THRESHOLDS" section above.

• DPS: Personal Damage Output + Party Damage Output due to buffs.
• Tanks: Damage Taken + (Damage Mitigated x 1.2 *Gives bonus for effective use of defensive abilities) + Damage Output - Party Damage Taken *Rewards tanks who effectively hold aggro.
• Healers: Total Healing + Damage Mitigated from defensive buffs + Damage Output.

All values would be taken from the totals at the end of the duty. FFXIV already records individual values in the chat log. I am unsure if FFXIV already records values for damage mitigated, and values from buffs.

IMPLEMENTATION:
The system could be implemented so that your rating is shown either after defeating the last boss of the duty or after leaving the instance. Showing the rating after leaving the instance avoids the possibility of any players asking their party members what their rating was further reducing any possibility of harassment.

The system could also show your personal high scores and the date attained for each duty, this could be your top score, top 3, top 5 etc. Depending on the memory requirements for storing high scores on the server. Alternatively the high scores could be saved locally if there is any concern about the data requirements of saving high scores on the server.

The rating screen should clearly show the criteria for your role, and clearly explain that the rating is personal only. (Again this removes any possibility of players being harassed for poor performance. Showing rating criteria will help people to understand what they can do to improve. (Exact formulas don't need to be shown, just something like "Criteria: Total Damage, Total Buffs".))

The system should be disabled by default so that it has no effect on anyone who is not interested in this type of system. It could be enabled via the menu, or better yet, through a side quest unlock. Unlocking through a side quest also gives the added benefit of an opportunity to clearly and thoroughly explain the system to players. Further details and the method for disabling the system can be explained via the active help system.



Thanks for reading. If you have any thoughts, concerns or ideas feel free to leave a reply and share your thoughts. I will update this post based on the discussion.