In my opinion Halo 4’s ranking system needs to be a combination of those in that have been previously seen in the past. The idea of 1-50 system is perfect. As in halo 2 and 3 you would be matched up with players of your similar skill and therefore always be improving. I myself was very good at halo 3, (not bragging), and now when I play in Reach although fun to win with a huge K/D this gets very boring quickly. I never am matched with others that are similar to my skill which means I will never get better. And other times I play people who are much better then me and I can’t compete. The 1-50 system did a much better job of matching people who were of equal skill rather then the Reach situation where you can choose “competitive” lol. There were many complaints of derankers or boosters in this sytem which was flawed. In halo 3 the more games you had played the harder or longer it took to rank up causing new accounts to be made constantly. TO fix this it should just be a constant no matter if you have only played 1 game or 1000 games. Difficulty Wise it the 1-50 Rank should be harder then halo 3’s but easier then halo 2’s.
The idea of ranking up in Arena based on how you alone play is a great idea on paper but a terrible idea to implement into a game. When you rank up based on K/D instead of W/L you do not care about teamwork all you attempt to get is kills. This causes greedy players to throw grenades at their own teammates and disregard any negative effect they may have on their teammates in order to have the greates K/D. W/L should still be implemented because if you are good enough to rank up you should be able to single-handedly bring your team the victory. So a 1-50 Trueskill rank based on W/L should definitely be seen in Halo 4.
Again I cannot stress the importance that ranked playlists be based off of Win/loss. By making the ranking system based on individual performance you encourage stat--Yoink!- and camping etc, and you discourage teamwork. Halo playlists that aren’t FFA require all 4 people or however many there are to work as a team. A main slayer may be evident where as other players may be support players etc. So ranking an individual based on their individual performance, although this sounds good, is absurd and in no way helps the game. People complain that they get bad teammates etc. To answer this, if your their same trueskill rank your obviously about the same skill. If a player has a bad game it happens. Again If you are truly deserving to rank up you should have the ability to carry your team and get the win.
The idea of ranked playlists and social playlists was also an awesome idea. In social you had to opportunity to relax and just hang out or warm up before going into ranked. And by having seperate ranks in each ranked playlist, a 45 in Lone Wolves and possibly a 43 in Doubles etc. allowed for you to see how well you did in each playlist and accurately depicted to others what your area of skill in that playlist was. It also made the game much more exciting because after maxing out rank in doubles you could then move on to slayer or a new playlist and try to master that new type of gameplay. So individual rankings on ranked playlists should be included along with social and ranked. However in Halo 3 you could only see your highest rank. For example if you were a 47 in Slayer but a 29 in Swat. THe 47 would show up on your service record. This should be changed so now it shows what your overall rank its just as in Halo 3, but you can press A to further inspect and see what a player is in all of the other ranked playlists.
The idea of 1 xp per win is boring and ridiculous and in no way fun as people mostly ignored this. This should be scrapped. Credits ARE an awesome idea. But not by themselves alone. Instead of the xp as was in Halo 3, that should be replaced with credits for Halo 4 like it is in Reach. So you see your rank like you do in Reach based on Credits and ALSO it would show your trueskill. For example if you were a brigadier based on xp in Halo 3 you saw your brigadier symbol and if you clicked you may see trueskill rank 47. This should be in Halo 4, where you see a rank like General (based on Credits) and upon furtther inspection you see the players trueskill. Credits can still be used to unlock armor and armor effects and can give you a general idea of how long a players has played. It is often ridiculous how you can meet an inheritor in Reach who is extremely bad at the game. So In halo 4 you would see rank inheritor meaning they have played alot and upong further inspectiong see trueskill 32 or something. This would be a perfect ranking system in my opinion.
I think that both skill and timplayed need to be shown, mostly skill. But I know many many people play the game for fun and not for competition so timeplayed is important too. And the whole idea of iron-silver-gold-onyx skill needs to be taken out. You cant combine soo many different levels of skill into 5 categories and seeing a number between 1-50 is much simpler. And have more ranked playlists like in halo 3 rather then just arena slayer.
Your insignia that shows up should be based upon Credits received alone. However when you click on a person you can still see the highest trueskill number they have ever achieved just as it was in halo 3. By basing your emblem/insignia/rank on credit alone it would discourage boosting because if you have a sweet emblem like a nova or something that is in Reach you would not want to restart a new account. Your trueskill number would just be used as a glory symbol or bragging rights and to display to others what your actual skill at the game is. Credits should also be earned through per-action, such as in COD where a kill is 100 credits or so on.
Deranking and boosting would no longer have a purpose if the rate at which you ranked up and down was a constant instead of as in Halo 3 a new account ranked up 4 ranks at a time and an old account maybe once per 5 wins etc. It should be made fairly hard such as X wins makes you rank up. Lets say X is 4. 4 wins in a row you rank up. 3 wins 1 loss then 2 more wins would be another rank up etc.
Overall I would like to see the 1-50 trueskill system as was in halo 2 and 3 and KEEP the credits system that is in Reach. Replace the halo 3 XP idea with the credits sytem that is in reach. I would like to see Ranked and social playlists. Individual trueskill rankings in each ranked playlist. Your overall highest trueskill recieved be visible when your name is clicked on. Your rank based on credits be visible next to your name. Trueskill rankings are based on Win/Loss ratio and NOT individual performance. And Still be able to buy armor with credits for aesthetic purposes.
Please tell me your opinions on this subject and what you think of this idea. Thankyou.