Just an FYI that I've created threads similar to this in the past (years ago), but this is by far the most detailed I've looked into this. I would've posted this in the Discord forums suggestion, but I wanted to expand more then I'd be able to share there. Please take your time to read and respond to this accordingly. Thank you!
@Vaider please leave this open for a little, just so we can discuss and debate the topic. Would love to discuss this with you as well on a personal level if interested.
Content Title - Forums Shop
How does it work? - I wouldn't be able to give exact numbers, that's not for me to figure out, but I can however give a general example of how it would work. There'd be a couple different categories tagged alongside the reward system. Amount of posts, amount of reputation received, and amount of status updates. Just using loose numbers I'd say something like this:
5 posts = 2 points
3 status updates = 1 point
2 reputation = 1 point
For every x task that you hit, you'd be able to collect that many points. This would allow for players to make money while being on the forums. Could also add in specific milestones such as:
For every milestone that you hit, it'd be like a task completed in slayer. Completing consecutive milestones in a month would give additional points, perhaps just an additional point per milestone.
Here's an example of misc. stats for how it'd work.
Player A: 125 posts, 7 status updates, 37 reputation.
Player B: 65 posts, 3 status updates, 15 reputation.
Player A's points received:
Post count - 61
Status updates - 2
Reputation - 30
Total points - 93
Player B's points received:
Post count - 31
Status update - 1
Reputation - 7
Total points - 39
These stats are honestly completely unrealistic due to the current inactivity of the forums. I'd estimate a semi-active player to receive an average of 20 points a month. If I were to use a realistic stats base, here's what they'd look like. I based this off of @Sinzzu's activity over the month of June. Sinzzu is absolutely in the top 5 most active players on the forums, if not, the most active.
Sinzzu - 38 posts, 5 status updates, 7 reputation.
Sinzzu's points received:
Post count - 14
Status updates - 1
Reputation - 3
Total points - 18
So personally, if one of the most active players on the forums would only be able to earn around 20 points a month, I feel as if it would be very balanced.
Rewards -
I would love to see the rewards cycle monthly, but always include a base layer of rewards that are always in the shop. Very similar to how the discount portion of the donation store works. I would like to see the items that are 100% of the time in the shop be something like this
Extreme Donator Ticket - 5 points
Box of Dreams - 20 points
Perfect Enchantment Stone - 15 points
1 Day Elo card - 15 points
Potion of Aggression - 10 points
Donator Tab - 10 points
Double Slayer Points Potion - 5 points
Double Slayer Exp Potion - 5 points
Adding in monthly rewards would be amazing as well. Giving players a chance to get an item that they may not be able to get otherwise would be nice. I'd like to see only one, maybe two "special" items in the forums shop. Not limited to, but just a base suggestion.
I wouldn't be able to even remotely give an estimate to what I think those should cost based off of the forum reward system. These items have and will always hold value within the redemption community, so I believe the staff should appropriately price them.
Benefits -
There is currently so much offered inside of the game that rewards players for doing specific tasks, for free. The discord events, the donation bosses, vote boss, and donation drop parties. It would be nice to see something of that sorts transferred over to the forums. This would increase the activity of the forums greatly. I know that Discord is taking over a huge portion of what the forums used to stand for, but I believe having such a massive piece of content go borderline completely unused is just sad.
This could also be a way for new players to make some money as they're starting out, and a way for them to get known within the community. The community is very large currently, and I'm sure there's a ton of players that people have no idea play. It'd be a nice way for people to start recognizing names.
Expansions -
I'm not entirely sure what other expansions you'd be able to do with this other then adding other items to the shop, adding different multipliers, or other misc. updates to the formula.
Negative effects -
The obvious side of this would be people abusing the system. People that create alternate accounts and reputation spam their posts, or people who reply nonsense to threads. This is where our forums staff would need to step up and consistently monitor the forums to make sure that no one is abusing the system. This could also add an influx of items to the game faster then meant to, so maybe the prices that I listed would need to be increase. Or perhaps I listed them as to high, and they could need a decrease. This would all depend on the activity of the forums.
As I stated in the beginning, please leave your thoughts, or any improvements, different items, and other things I may have missed.
Squishy in Forums Reward System