So, currrently battling on this site is a little bit lacking. Why is that? Well, because there's very little reward to it.

Now, before you go and say, "But you can earn gold!" let me just say, yes, earning gold is great! However, only the top 10 battlers earn gold, and it's possible for a few people to dominate the whole top 10 -- one of those people just so happens to be me. So I'm not complaining exactly but I feel like overall battling is only a small part of the game when it could be, well, much more.

So what do I propose to improve battling? More rewards.

Now, I'm not talking about just rewards for the top 10. I'm talking, rewards for the top 100 at least.

Now, I'm not saying give gold to all the top 100 people. That's not what I'm suggesting at all. What I am suggesting is that we give them SOMETHING for participating. Be it silver, bonus exp, resources, items, whatever.

The reward options are only limited by what you can obtain on this site. Hell, we could even give away Energy Flow Cards as rewards so that people that do a lot of battling can explore more! (This is an idea I think would work really well, because then people would be encouraged to battle more while also being able to explore which many people don't want to be limited in doing.)

As for other rewards, silver is obviously good. Vermillion would be even better. If you could earn vermillion by battling, people who didn't like to explore could battle to get it.

Now, the way I'm thinking to make this all possible is, simply enough, by adding a new currency to the site. Many games have a "pvp" currency that is used to buy pvp items so this is a natural extension. Call it honor, glory, badges, whatever. Doesn't matter. The point would be, you could use this currency in exchange for an assortment of goods.

So, say 1 vermillion costs 1 "honor". I'm going with honor but like I said, what this site calls it is up to the devs. Then there could be an honor exchange for plain silver which would be something like 1 honor = 100 silver. Obviously trade-savvy people would probably get the vermillion and sell it for a bigger profit; but being able to get a currency reward directly would help people that really need a quick buck. Other items that would obviously cost much more would be like, invites or schematics. Although instead of being able to straight buy these sorts of items, I think an unknown blueprint that turns into a random blueprint or something. Like for invites it could be "unaddressed invite". Either being random or being able to choose what it is would be nice. If it was Energy Flow Cards it could be like 2:1. So instead of straight getting the vermillion you can explore to get vermillion + other materials + exp.

There could even be an exp exchange although if you could exchange honor into exp it'd have to be carefully balanced so that people couldn't easily power-level pets to 50 -- so maybe exchanging for exp might not be a good reward.

Anyways, that's pretty much the whole idea. Get "battle currency" as a weekly reward for participating in the battle part of the site which can be exchanged for prizes.

For the rewards I'd think a sliding scale would be best. Something along the lines of 100 honor for top 10 people. Top 11-20 would get 90 honor. 21-30 would get 80 honor, and so on and so forth to cover the whole top 100. Hell, it could even be expand to 200, or 500, or 1000, like, 1 honor as a consolation prize for anyone that didn't rank even.

Although, I think if this currency WAS added to the game, it'd be best if someone could only recieve 1 reward per week. So like, you'd get currency based on your HIGHEST ranked pet; you wouldn't get currency for every single pet you have on the high scores board. This would encourage people to battle multiple pets to have better odds of ranking higher while also discouraging people from taking up the top however many spots. Which, as it is with the gold, a few people can take up the whole top 10. So this way it'd be the "top 10 players" for the top tier instead of the "top 10 pets".

As always, feel free to like, dislike, add to this suggestion what you think would make it better, etc.

Support!

support c:

Support 

The only possibility that I don't like is that this could potentially make it even more rewarding than exploration for resources and exp, simply because of the energy cost required to battle vs explore. With this latest update, battling is the only way to get anywhere near the exp we used to - but with that, we only get exp. Adding further material reward may simply make it more a more economical and appealing alternative for a pet's energy than exploring.

All in all, though, I support there being additional awards for not only battling, but for placing on the leaderboards as well?

The only possibility that I don't like is that this could potentially make it even more rewarding than exploration for resources and exp, simply because of the energy cost required to battle vs explore. With this latest update, battling is the only way to get anywhere near the exp we used to - but with that, we only get exp. Adding further material reward may simply make it more a more economical and appealing alternative for a pet's energy than exploring.

All in all, though, I support there being additional awards for not only battling, but for placing on the leaderboards as well?

I can see how this concern would affect you. However, I'm not saying we offer up ALL of the materials and items for sale in the 'battle shop'. I'm saying key items that players desire more of, and therefore, an alternative means to earn these items. It's obvious that the devs want more people to use the battle system since, as you said, it's the only way to earn exp close to even what was previously available. But outside of exp there is nothing.

Even if they only offered a couple of the key items, such as vermillion and Energy Flow Cards then people could still use battling as a way to supplement their now limited exploring -- as well as make battling a way to increase their exploring capabilities without building the new portal service thingie and dumping in trash pets.

Overall I feel like the main problem with it is that people will start breeding trash pets just to throw in there to be able to play longer. Once this starts happening it's a slippery slope that will eventually result in 90% of pets being considered "fodder" instead of, well, PETS. Like throwing them into a woodchipper.

So, in order to find a way to balance this, if they are going to stick with limiting explore, then they obviously need a new facet to the site that will allow people to play more on the site. And battling is obviously it.

I'm kind of surprised with the increase in people that have started battling that this idea hasn't recieved more support. Overall I still feel like battling doesn't have enough reward to it to draw people in besides the exp gain. If battling is supposed to eventually take off and become popular it is going to need something MORE in order for people to be drawn to it. If not this, then what?

I'm open for new ideas or suggestions but so far no one has come up with anything to say, "Well, what about if they did this?"

Support.

Support. I  like the idea of the energy flow cards from there. And yes, a weekly reward would be good.

The only thing is, I would very much like for it to give rewards to all players, not just top whatever. As you said a consolation prize or the like. This would make it more appealintg to everyone, even if you have no hope of getting into the top ranks (I'm thinking like later on, when there will be more players and many genX pets, which would make it tough for a newcomer to compete).

Support. I  like the idea of the energy flow cards from there. And yes, a weekly reward would be good.

The only thing is, I would very much like for it to give rewards to all players, not just top whatever. As you said a consolation prize or the like. This would make it more appealintg to everyone, even if you have no hope of getting into the top ranks (I'm thinking like later on, when there will be more players and many genX pets, which would make it tough for a newcomer to compete).

Well that was part of my suggestion. That they have a scale to work off of for like the top 100 PLAYERS that compete. Since really I mean most of the battling pets are from a small handful of players this would encourage people that had no hope of getting in the top 10 to battle just to get some reward. I mean, because how hard is it to throw up a few pets that you're not planning on exploring so they can get a few wins? It'd contibute to the battle by giving people targets and as long as you pet ACCIDENTALLY won a battle it'd still place SOMEWHERE on the board. As long as everyone gets some reward I feel like it'd encourage a lot of the playerbase that doesn't like PvP to even start competing, and hey maybe they will become more serious and try for the high scores once they find out it's not all that hard.

For me, personally, while the rewards currently aren't too good, it isn't about that. I don't battle because I find the current battle system incredibly boring and tedious and even a little frustrating. Even with better rewards, I'd probably avoid it.

That said, there definitely needs to be more for it. So support.

For me, personally, while the rewards currently aren't too good, it isn't about that. I don't battle because I find the current battle system incredibly boring and tedious and even a little frustrating. Even with better rewards, I'd probably avoid it.

That said, there definitely needs to be more for it. So support.

I feel like a lot of people feel the same way -- that battling is boring and tedious, especially if you can't find any good targets or the only targets you have completely just destroy your battlers. Sadly fixing that would probably require an overhaul or a different system to be set in place. I feel like more/better rewards would help make it a little bit more "fun" or productive for people that don't want to do it for the exp.

support :)