Yes, everyone's favorite two topics, combined into one post!
Nearly everyone has issues with how Matchmaking is currently run, and everyone (for sure) has complaints about the Military Honor system. I created a pair of Reddit posts that have a sort of an idea to rework Military Honor, and if the new system works, apply a sort of matchmaking to it. So, onto the main part of it: Military Honor.
Step 1 - Incentive
Players don't want to waste 5 seconds of time to upvote or downvote someone. Why, is the question? Why are they willing to come after you in post-game and rant at you for 20 minutes, but they aren't willing to click "team" and give you a thumbs-down?
Honestly? I don't have the answer to that. However, I do have an idea that could work:
A) Match MVP.
Every match, the game starts in a screen that shows JUST your team, graphics of their tank and their player name below the vehicle. For 10 seconds, it will sit there. Info given:
Tank, Player Name, and the top 3 medals for each player according to:
Damage dealt, damage blocked, assisted damage, spots, module damage, etc.
Tap a tank. That's it. Tap a tank that you think deserves the vote. You can not vote for yourself. The player with the most vote gets 1.25x experience and credit bonus, and each player that votes on an MVP gets a (1000*tier) credit bonus. Once you have voted, you get to normal post-match. All players that get an vote gets a standard upvote.
Players that received match MVP in their previous game get a crown beside their name in the next match, visible only to your team
If anyone from Wargaming sees this post, the inspiration from this idea is gotten from Dota 2's Match MVP voting segment of the game
Step 2 - Platoons
Platooning is the #1 way to abuse Military Honour. You can upvote your platoonmate over and over, and you can team up against a player, and try to convince another teammate to downvote them.
I have 3 suggestions/ideas for this:
A) You cannot upvote the same player more than once every 30 minutes
B) Each member of a platoon counts as only 1/2 a downvote
C) Platoon members are REQUIRED to complete step 3
Step 3 - "Why have you upvoted or downvoted this player?"
An optional part, here, but required for a downvote
All consumables costs are refunded on completion
Give a short (10-20 word) description of why you are upvoting or downvoting this player.
A verified downvote now requires two matching reasons, and there must be some keywords in the written report
Step 4 - Change to options for upvotes/downvotes
Upvotes:
Effective player, communicative player, team player, Skilled Player (*See step 5 for details)
Downvotes:
Inactivity in Battle (Button should be greyed out if the player has shown much activity in battle)
Provocative Communication
Intentional Griefing/trolling
Unskilled Gameplay (Again, see Step 5 for details)
Step 5 - Skilled / Unskilled Player
As mentioned above, these upvotes would be part of Military Honor. This is calculated with a formula combining general stats (WN8 in specific) Upvotes and Downvotes of the mentioned type, and Match MVP votes.
These votes (If properly utilized) will give a Player Priority Queue (See the Matchmaking segment, as written below) according to their votes, and according to Military Honor. Votes of this type will have the heaviest effect on Military Honor, as they will add a sort of cap to their Military Honor - Skilled Player cannot drop below 4 star Military Honor, and players with Unskilled Player cannot get above 3 star Military Honor
Matchmaking Segment:
Military Honor Based Matchmaking
With some testing of the Military Honor ideas above, if it is proved to be effective, it could possibly be applied to matchmaking. Here's my idea:
Military Honor will drop to 3* after no upvotes or downvotes after 6 months of activity, which puts you in a 3* queue, allowing you time to recover, and get back into practice.
Military Honor Matchmaking:
0*, 1* (Absolutely Untrustworthy Player, Untrustworthy Player)
These players will be locked against each other in the "Low Priority Queue"
Queue times will be lengthened greatly, so would suggest +2/-2 Matchmaking. This also serves as a sort of punishment pool, as your matches will be lower quality, and your matchmaking will take longer.
2*, 3* (Undisciplined Player, Disciplined Player)
This queue will be the New Player's Queue. Matchmaking will be +0/-0, allowing the players to more comfortable play, and allow to gain Military Honor facing with and against players with them.
All Military Honor will not be applied UNTIL 500 MATCHES HAVE BEEN PLAYED
Once, 500 matches are played, all Military Honor will be applied, and you will be "calibrated" in your queues.
4*, 5* (Trustworthy Player, Impeccable Player)
This is the Priority Queue. These players will face off against each other in +1/-1 Queue.
Military Honor Transitions:
It will take a minimum of 50 upvotes, and a 10:1 ratio of upvotes to downvotes (so 50:5, 60:6) to move up to 4*, and 100 upvotes, 20:1 ratio (so 100:5, 200:10) ratio to move up to 5* Military Honor
Upvote Bonuses:
Each time you upvote a player, you will gain (250*tier) credits, and each upvote with a review gives you a chance to open a Common Container, from the shop page.
The next chunk here will be quite controversial:
This system WOULD change queue times, but very slightly. It will make newer players have to take their time to play well and get good behavior score before moving up in tiers, and it will punish people that troll, AFK, grief, and fix matches. In turn, this will also give the community more of a chance to participate in growth, and learning.
This also will discourage seal clubbing at lower tiers, due to the new Military Honor system, which WILL make queue times longer.
I have one more point I am going to make:
Platoons
This is where it will be controversial. What do we do here?
If it were up to me, I would make it so that players with varying Military Honor will automatically queue as if both players are at the higher military honor of the two. This is where I want your opinions: Will it work? will it not work? If not, what else could work, here?