Idea for 'meta rank' system, looking for feedback.

[Drum]

Started thinking about this after I saw a comment on the main board about somebody (Rob) being frustrated that shooters often just feel too easy on the first stage, which is exacerbated after repeat plays. This can be mitigated by making survival relatively easy on the early stages but maximising score challenging - otoh that has its own drawbacks (I personally find it can be kinda irritating trying to squeeze every last point out of a stage when there's no credible threat - I like Xeno Fighters' system where you can pretty rapidly increase your rank by discovering Micluses).

So anyways, my thought was that the theoretical game could save your rank when you die and keep it when you start a new game.
That's ... basically it. You could turn this 'meta rank' off or on in the options menu and there would be different scoreboards for standard and meta-ranked plays.

So with each meta-ranked play, the idea is to keep pushing it is high as you can to ever more ludicrous levels and associated scores.

I have no idea if this is a good idea, or if it's been done before, just wanted to put it out there. Lemme know what you think!

[S20-TBL]

Battle Garegga, and possibly both Batrider and Bakraid as well, have a feature that automatically adjusts the game's starting rank the more it is played. IOW, the more it is played, the more difficult the game gets at the very beginning.

Here's a detailed excerpt from the Battle Garegga strategy thread:

1a) Variable Base Rank:
An especially odd feature of Battle Garegga’s rank system is that it adjusts itself slightly even when the game is not actually being played: while the very first game played on either the arcade machine or the Saturn port will begin with the rank counter at the default starting value listed above, with each successive game played, the rank counter will begin at a slightly lower number, and thus a slightly higher difficulty. The exact amount of the change in the rank counter, to all appearances, seems to vary depending on region, difficulty setting, and perhaps other factors. In any event, the more successive games played, the (slightly) more difficult each successive game gets.

To counterbalance this, the game has an equally unusual mechanic in place which will actually raise the rank counter when the game is not being played, thus causing it to start out slightly easier (though the counter cannot ever go above the default starting value of 15,728,640). While the game is switched on but not being played, like most arcade games it will cycle through an “attract mode” which shows the title screen, gameplay demonstrations, and the high score list: every time it does this, the rank counter will rise slightly (around 65,000 points) and thus the next game played will start out at a slightly lower difficulty level. The more times the attract mode sequence is allowed to run, the higher the rank counter goes and the easier the game gets (though, again, it never gets easier than the default starting amount).

Another (and possibly quicker) way to get the rank counter back to its highest default setting is to simply reset it. On arcade machines, the rank counter is completely reset to its highest value by resetting the arcade board, while on the Saturn port the counter is reset by simply entering the “Options” menu (you don’t need to adjust any particular setting, just enter the menu).

Personally I think it's a good idea in theory, provided there's an option to set and reset it like the above feature or newer players will get a culture shock.

[Drum]

Battle Garegga, and possibly both Batrider and Bakraid as well, have a feature that automatically adjusts the game's starting rank the more it is played. IOW, the more it is played, the more difficult the game gets at the very beginning.

Here's a detailed excerpt from the Battle Garegga strategy thread:

1a) Variable Base Rank:
An especially odd feature of Battle Garegga’s rank system is that it adjusts itself slightly even when the game is not actually being played: while the very first game played on either the arcade machine or the Saturn port will begin with the rank counter at the default starting value listed above, with each successive game played, the rank counter will begin at a slightly lower number, and thus a slightly higher difficulty. The exact amount of the change in the rank counter, to all appearances, seems to vary depending on region, difficulty setting, and perhaps other factors. In any event, the more successive games played, the (slightly) more difficult each successive game gets.

To counterbalance this, the game has an equally unusual mechanic in place which will actually raise the rank counter when the game is not being played, thus causing it to start out slightly easier (though the counter cannot ever go above the default starting value of 15,728,640). While the game is switched on but not being played, like most arcade games it will cycle through an “attract mode” which shows the title screen, gameplay demonstrations, and the high score list: every time it does this, the rank counter will rise slightly (around 65,000 points) and thus the next game played will start out at a slightly lower difficulty level. The more times the attract mode sequence is allowed to run, the higher the rank counter goes and the easier the game gets (though, again, it never gets easier than the default starting amount).

Another (and possibly quicker) way to get the rank counter back to its highest default setting is to simply reset it. On arcade machines, the rank counter is completely reset to its highest value by resetting the arcade board, while on the Saturn port the counter is reset by simply entering the “Options” menu (you don’t need to adjust any particular setting, just enter the menu).

Personally I think it's a good idea in theory, provided there's an option to set and reset it like the above feature or newer players will get a culture shock.

Thanks for that - this seems like something I should already know, or even something I swiped without realising.

Thoughts: Garegga's implementation is a completely baffling feature for a coin-op. I am gonna go ahead and say it is just a turrrrible idea to introduce such weird arbitrary elements into such a heavily score-based game. Saturn implementation sounds much less insane. I guess all 'my' idea really brings to the table is the option to turn it on or off rather than just reset it, and segregating the scoreboards - which I guess is an improvement. You could probably incorporate it into different player profiles, each with their own meta-rank displayed.

[Udderdude]

There's also other ways to do this in-game such as some special song-and-dance you have to do to activate it, similar to getting the old bosses in DFK to appear. Beginners will never know about it, while pros will activate it for more difficulty and scoring potential right from the start.

[Dave_K.]

How Eugene Jarvis solved this in Stargate (circa 1981):

If the ship is carrying at least four humanoids, entering the Stargate will "warp" the game ahead a number of levels. This allows more advanced players to skip the easier lower levels and also get a great number of points, extra lives, smart bombs and inviso energy. Warping is only allowed in the first 10 levels and can be avoided (if desired) by flying into the Stargate in reverse so a player can instead continue in the current level.

[Drum]

Stargate is so damn hard and impenetrable, I'm surprised it actually comes right out and tells you that on the 'secrets' screen. I have confused memories of playing that game on my dad's at-home-work-pc in glorious CGA. Utterly merciless game. Guess I was more of an Alley Cat/King's Quest/Buck Rogers:Planet of Zoom kid. Bringing up the warp trick just gave me a cool idea for my own project - thanks!