So I noticed a "/ 28" around my allgear badge just recently and was reminded of there being an updated format badge system sometime around when I was doing the Famicompo Pico listening streams with kfaraday. Upon further investigation (mostly by slapping puke7 with a trout), I've discovered that there are new tiers of format badge upon reaching 28 and 56 entries, corresponding to bronze and...argentor, respectively. (I don't know what argentor is, but I'll go with the flow here)

So far, it seems there aren't any other perks to the updated badges besides "ooooh shiny," and I think there should be some since it gives BotBrs more incentive to upgrade their badges. Of course, whether these suggestions are implemented is up to the discretion of puke7 and other people working on the backend of this site, but it wouldn't hurt to at least have them on display. Feel free to suggest fixes to these suggestions as well since I know that not all of these suggestions will be perfect.

What we know of format badges so far

So far, having a badge for a particular format period (7 entries with a score of 20 or higher) allows for the following:

- Ability to beghast (host) an OHB in that format
- Beghast for 750 boons
- Get reimbursed after 3 participants to an OHB
- Allow for a 3-15 minute buffer between beghast and actual start

There might be more listed, but this is what I personally know of.

Suggestions on modifying basic badge perks

Since we have tiers of badge introduced, maybe it could also be a good idea (or not) to slightly reform some of the current perks we have so far so as to give people more incentive to aim for higher tier badges:

- Change from a full reimbursement at 3 entries to a partial reimbursement (500 boons?) at 3 entries
- Have the full reimbursement be at 5 entries

This could potentially encourage more BotBrs to try and participate in more OHBs since the amount needed for a full reimbursement will be slightly higher. The amount for a partial reimbursement is only really a slight loss, losing only 1/3rd of what was put in.

That was a dumb idea, so I'll scrap it.

Suggestions on Bronze badge perks

Here are a few suggestions that I could give in terms of Bronze badge perks:

- Slightly reduced cost for beghasting an OHB (maybe 600 instead of 750?)
- Full reimbursement at 3 entries (if the previous suggestion of modifying basic badge perks is considered)
- Slightly longer (or shorter) buffers allowed (min. 2min, max. 30min?)
- Slight point boosts for scoring influence boosts in an OHB with a badge in that format (maybe 1.25x?)

Suggestions on Argentor badge perks

Here are a few suggestions that I could give in terms of Argentor badge perks. Since this is twice as much effort to achieve in comparison to Bronze, some of these suggestions will be stronger as a result:

- Somewhat significant reduced cost for beghasting an OHB (maybe 400?)
- Full reimbursement at 2 entries instead of 3 (realized that would be treading on pit battle territory here, which is a mode that's still yet to be implemented)
- Longer (or shorter) buffers allowed (min. 30sec, max. 2hr?)
- Significant point boosts for scoring influence boosts in an OHB with a badge in that format (maybe 2x?)

Again, these are all suggestions aimed at giving more incentive to getting these shiny new tiered badges for more reasons than just the shiny. All of these are open to critique and dispute so as to make for better compromises that can work for as many BotBrs as possible. These suggestions don't have to be followed, especially in the way that I have them right now, but it would be nice to have if they were implemented.

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EDIT (20150113): reflected upon other people's comments and crossed out, removed, and commented some things

As for the scoring multipliers, do you mean the score of the entries? Or did you mean the multiplier for that person's votes on the format they have an upgraded badge in?

If you meant the latter, I completely agree. As it is now, the multipliers are fairly random (with a definite but somewhat slight correlation of higher level = heavier votes), but someone who knows a specific format VERY well (evidenced by having over 50 entries of that type alone for example) should ALWAYS have heavier votes when voting on that format.

"Change from a full reimbursement at 3 entries to a partial reimbursement (500 boons?) at 3 entries; Have the full reimbursement be at 5 entries"

I disagree with this very much. It will discourage people from hosting ohcs with less popular formats. ;(

I also don't like point boosts for people with bronze/silver/gold badges. Why try out a new format when you can earn much more points by sticking in your comfort zone....

Variety is the spice of life and most of these ideas seem like they would lead to less variety!

Having longer/shorter buffers would be a good idea though!

Argentor is a play on argento which can be a prefix meaning made or coated in silver. There is also GOLDEN badges earned at 98 entries.

While I think A-zu-ra meant multiplying points earned from a battle, I like where Flaming Log took with multiplying the voting influence. I sort of agree w/ Slimeball that not multiplying points earned creates more variety, but I'd also like to see something in the system that benefits higher level BotBrs since the space between levels gets so crazy up there.

We could also have a multiplier for when you get 7 badges or something like that. Or you can't unlock format multipliers unless you have so many badges. Don't know... just spittballing here.

Keep the conversation going team! :D/

deep down inside, epeen is the only motivation any of us really needs.

i don't really like the idea of lowering boon costs for hosting or the required entry count for reimbursement. that would probably only encourage a bunch of two entry battles of the same format over and over instead of branching out.

plus, boons aren't going to matter much until things like items are implemented

i do like the idea of increasing vote influence via higher level badges though. it would just be a matter of getting the numbers right. (i have no idea how influence works in the first place)

maybe higher level badges could allow you to host different kinds of battles with that format? like 1v1 duels or longer battles or being able to add that format to a multi-format battle. a cool perk for the "haves" but not something teh noobs would miss.

Besides that, wouldn't a two-entry battle just be a pit fight?

Which, like, hasn't been implemented yet? If we're patient we'll get our two-entry battles.

Took all of your comments into consideration, and you guys bring up some really good points. I originally thought about boosting points earned in an OHB because of what puke7 said about the higher levels, though I suppose it's probably that way to encourage grinding and, thus, more activity (since you still need to do stuff on the site to get points anyway).

Boosting influence could probably be the better compromise, now that I think about it. It would be like gurus having a more weighted opinion on the basis of sheer experience, and that could probably be nice in the long run, especially since INF is kind of pseudo-random anyways.

Chip Champion does bring up a good suggestion, though. Higher tiers could be a good opportunity to explore multi-format battles (though how it would work would still need to be thought out a bit more...maybe Bronze badges can be combined with other basic badges or the other way around).

One issue with badge holders getting higher inf is that, to a certain extent, quality is subjective. So what you could end up with is there developing a certain "right way to compose" that then becomes self-reinforcing, since those who "did it right" in the past have more say in what gets ranked well in the future.

That said, it could probably work ok as long as the boost was small :)

So what is too much? For example bronze could be x1.5, silver x2, and gold x3?

Bigger guns. Bigger badges. Bigger b00n spending

Cost the metal badge holders to deposit more to host that format?

Yes. Lower levels have less boons to spend, generally. But the extra spent would be on account of the extra bells and whistles the Ag and Au badges give.
Aka better performance (>20pts) = unlock. But the things unlocked still follow a level/progression curve.

Biased here, but it would be cool to be able to host an ohb without a badge. For.... say...... 1500 boons.

Badges were introduced to stop just anyone from hosting an OHB. They encourage entering into compos and doing well in them, leading people into perhaps being part of the community rather than hosting a compo once and disappearing.

I'm personally fine with the system as it is, to be honest! I wanted the allgear badge to host my own allgears, and now I have it. Getting a badge isn't hard unless it's for SGEN or something more exotic. But once again, the more people that get the badges, the more often a format will appear - much like allgear has become a regular occurance, as well as the occasional beeper compo.

That's what I think gtap meant, for exotic formats that you'd normally need to bother an admin to have

To host something, period, you'd need to have at least one entry in that format as, like, proof that you have SOME experience with the format

But without a badge it should be pretty expensive

As for getting more expensive with more entries of a particular format, it may make more sense to have it instead get more expensive with the total entry count

this'd discourage people from prioritizing quantity over quality, because the better your entry is, the more boons you get for it