Coming Changes to the Leaderboard

Wednesday, January 27, 2016
These are the changes which are being implemented to the leader board. The first steps are taking place today and the changes will unfold over the coming days.  

Changes to the award promotion requirements:
  • We are removing the requirements for Fast and Deadly and Cluster Director and all the Turn 40 requirements. The End Game requirements will continue to exist as outlined. The early Turn 20 badges will continue to have ranking effects to prevent players from getting promoted out of Beginner games before they are ready. 
  • The planet requirements for Econ Master and Efficiency King are being slightly reduced.  
Ranks: Experience Points will no longer be relevant and we are adding a new Vice Admiral rank between Rear-Admiral and Admiral (as some of you predicted). The new achievement point requirements (in addition to the award requirements) will be as follows:

Midshipman0
Ensign5
Sub-Lieutenant20
Lieutenant50
Lieutenant Commander100
Commander300
Captain600
Commodore1200
Rear-Admiral2000
Vice Admiral3000
Admiral4000
Fleet Admiral5000


We are retiring Supreme Commander (Defeated) rank. This will be replaced by a Max Rank Achieved field which will store the highest rank you have ever achieved with your officer (including ones you have now if you get demoted). This will allow us to track Supreme Commanders (champ game participants) without them holding a meaningless rank. After they lose a champ game they will be demoted to the level of their remaining Achievement Points (but will keep their awards).  Max Rank Achieved will be used for joining games and calculating difficulty modifier and will be displayed on an officer's page. 

Destruction and Ships captured will no longer give achievement points. This was originally added as an attempt to indicate difficulty of opponents faced but did not represent it well and furthermore was subject to multiple abuses. All achievement for Destruction and Ships captured will be retroactively removed. 

Achievement points for Awards already earned will be added to your current achievement points and campaign resources will also be given.  

Inactive players will lose achievement points over time at a rate of 3% per month. A player is considered "inactive" if they have not logged into the site for 90 days or 90 days after their premium membership expires (any player with a valid premium membership will never be considered inactive). Players losing achievements to inactivity may also lose ranks. We have some ghosts on our leader board and this mechanism will prevent that over long periods while still allowing players to take breaks.  

Players playing in replacement games will earn awards as per normal as long as the player has played at least 50% of the game turns at the time of the award (or at least 50 turns). Fixed turn and Military score games will also earn awards as per normal. However, Elite and Expert badges will only be awarded in games where the player started on turn one and the player wins via Diplomatic Planets or Total Planets.  

As stated above. These changes will be performed over the next few days. Once all changes have been applied all players will be re-ranked according to the new set of rules. 

Overall we believe this will lead to an improved leader board, less opportunities for abuse and a more fun experience for all.