As of right now, the way War Ranking work seems boring to me. It just increases over a set amount of time, we have no control over it right now other then before the game starts. As a student who has taken a few game design classes and I tend to look beyond the basic ideas and try to consider the positives and negatives of what happens if those ideas are implemented.

This is a strategy game at its core and as such I believe map control should be an important element in the way War Ranking increases. I purpose that controlling flags slowly increases your teams War Ranking. Each team starts with a few flags and of course there are the neutral ones in the center of each map. For every few seconds you control a flag you get a point toward your war ranking, as an example, 1 point for every flag your team controls every ten seconds. Your team’s War Ranking will increase once you hit 100 points. This system would put increased focus on controlling flags and give the players a way to control their War Ranking. Two balanced teams will continue to have a similar War Ranking on maps with four neutral flags, but would lead to some interesting games on maps with odd number neutral flags. If this system was implemented I would also like to see either a counter at the top of the screen listing each team’s War Ranking points and levels. This idea is similar to what Relic has done in Company of Heroes, and soon to be Dawn of War II, for those that have played it. I have also seen someone suggest that destroying towers increases your War Ranking, with a point system like this you can also give a set number of points to a team for destroying a tower.

However there is some drawbacks to this idea, some I'm sure I haven't thought of, but I believe it is still worth the thought. One obvious drawback I can think of is map selection. Currently on the map Prison, there are just three flags in your base while on Zikurat there are five flags. Would this then mean the War Ranking would increase faster on Zikurat then Prison just because of the number of flags you start with, or could the points given be balanced so that it would be the same on all maps regardless of how many flags your base starts with. If the War Ranking does not increase at the same speed on each map will this put less emphasis on upgrading your troops over upgrading your Demigod's items on certain maps ruining the balance of the game, or would this be a good alterative since it adds even more strategy for the players to think about.

I also believe this system will help solve a problem I have been having with what to do at the beginning of the game. I am always confused when I should take over the neutral portals. If I take over the neutral portal a Demigod could just simply sit at his closest tower to the portal and just level without really any worries. The AI isn't smart enough to take advantage of this, but an intelligent human player could easily take advantage over this. This seems like a flaw to me, but if War Ranking was dependent on taking those portals I believe it would balance this out.

In the end I really believe this would be a perfect system for War Ranking, it blends the current system while making flags more important and giving the players the ability to change the game in their favor while adding additional strategy to the game. I would like to hear what everyone thinks about this idea and if they approve of it or not. Also please write down any other flaws you can think of with this system or any additional things you would like to see added. Thanks.

*Edit* I feel dumb now... I apparently need to read more posts before posting because I see this basically has already been suggested, oh well.