Suggestion: Bonus for level 25.

[Contre]

Right now, the pet score formula's level component is 4*(avg. pet level) which means the level of all pets added together / number of pets. So petscore does not distinguish the difference between increasing the level of a pet from 1 to 2 and from 24 to 25, despite the work required being significantly more for the latter. If I wish to inflate my pet score, the most efficient thing I can do is level 4-5 low level pets from 1 to 3 in the same amount of time it would take to level one pet from 23 to 25.

I understand that pets core is intended to be a hybrid to bridge the gap between two unique aspects of pet collecting: battling and collecting. I think a small change of say +1 point for every level 25 does very little to change this balance but does properly reward pet leveling.

[Maizing]

I think that is a good idea.

[Invictus]

Totally agree, the current "Pet Score" system here is a bit flawed.

It gives no credit for leveling several of the same pet with different breeds to 25, even though this takes just as much work as leveling a different pet.

I think the system at wowprogress.com is basically the opposite, it gives a score based on pet quality and level alone, it doesn't care how many unique pets you have and gives basically nothing for having a level 1.

For example:
http://www.wowprogress.com/petscore/eu/silvermoon/

The wowprogress.com system is much more telling for "battle" pets, whereas the warcraftpets.com system seems more oriented towards "collectors".

Something in between would be nice, or maybe two different scores.

[Breanni]

I understand that petscore is intended to be a hybrid to bridge the gap between two unique aspects of pet collecting: battling and collecting. I think a small change of say +1 point for every level 25 does very little to change this balance but does properly reward pet leveling.

We've considered this. There are two chief concerns:

1) What happens when the max level is raised to 30? Everyone who had bonus points would immediately lose those points. Their scores would drop, which would feel like a penalty and upset a great number of users.

So say we maintain a formula to keep those bonus points for pets at 25 and add more bonus points for pets leveled to 30. But then it leads to more trouble with concern #2...

2) Our ranking system was traditionally built on number of pets collected. This was the case long before pets could be leveled. We award 1 point for each pet collected (with bonus points for better rarities). Bonus points for pets at the max level pushes the scoring system more toward rewarding battling as opposed to collecting, which contradicts the spirit of what this site (and our brand) was built on.

Case in point:

If I wish to inflate my pet score, the most efficient thing I can do is...

We're not looking for people to "inflate" their scores. If your trying to increase your score on this site, your missing the whole point. As such, we tried to design a system that can't be gamed.

We've said this before, and it bears repeating:

Pet Score is a reflection of your pet collection. We did not want a scoring system that encouraged people to max out their score -- rather, we want a system that reflects the variety and care that goes into naturally building your pet collection. That's what WarcraftPets is (and has always been) all about.

If there's enough support for changing the system to give more credit to leveling as opposed to collecting, we'll consider it. So please, chime in, readers!

[Contre]

If I wish to inflate my pet score, the most efficient thing I can do is...

We're not looking for people to "inflate" their scores. If your trying to increase your score on this site, your missing the whole point. As such, we tried to design a system that can't be gamed.

We've said this before, and it bears repeating:

Pet Score is a reflection of your pet collection. We did not want a scoring system that encouraged people to max out their score -- rather, we want a system that reflects the variety and care that goes into naturally building your pet collection. That's what WarcraftPets is (and has always been) all about.

If there's enough support for changing the system to give more credit to leveling as opposed to collecting, we'll consider it. So please, chime in, readers!

We have a reward for people who have collected every pet they set out to collect, but that reward is only visible to them. I think that shows pretty well that you and your staff take into account people gaming the system for prestige. With that said, I think it's a mistake to include pet level as a factor in your score without taking into account the subtleties of that. Making (average petscore )* 3 and adding the bonus would move focus away from leveling back to the core of this site: collecting.

I imagine most users here collect because they enjoy it, but anytime you add a ranking system, it does create a sense of competition in most people. Sure, I'm very proud of my collection, but I'm also proud that I've crawled past people to being ranked 3rd on my realm and I have a goal of hitting the top 500 list soon.

[Kyozu]

Pet Score is a reflection of your pet collection

If that's the case then level shouldn't be factored in at all.
But I do admit that I enjoy climbing up the realm leaderboards and it's mainly because of this site that I am levelling all my pets to 25.
So a part of me wants the level to matter, but another part prefers the collection score to be separate from the "battle score". Hmm, my post is kinda pointless now, sorry
..

[Bonesai]

I go to the realm league table then straight away sort it by number of pets collected - then the table looks fair as far as i'm concerned (and it puts me in the top 5 for my realm instead of 22nd). Not that I'm competitive at all.

[Fatlenny]

We're not looking for people to "inflate" their scores. If your trying to increase your score on this site, your missing the whole point. As such, we tried to design a system that can't be gamed.

We've said this before, and it bears repeating:

Pet Score is a reflection of your pet collection. We did not want a scoring system that encouraged people to max out their score -- rather, we want a system that reflects the variety and care that goes into naturally building your pet collection. That's what WarcraftPets is (and has always been) all about.

My problem with this is if you didnt want people to inflate their scores. then you shouldnt have added a scoring system on here at all. it is in our nature to want to have the best. you wanted a system that reflects the variety and care that goes into naturally building your pet collection? well now that the game has changed, leveling your pets is part of that care that goes into it. i love the sight but think this ranking could be reworked as the person above me has same amount of unique pets but only care enuff about there pets to have 10 of them level 25. in my eyes that is neglect to his collection and should be given negitive points.

[Gromagrim]

1) What happens when the max level is raised to 30? Everyone who had bonus points would immediately lose those points. Their scores would drop, which would feel like a penalty and upset a great number of users.

I agree with this, and don't think there should be a bonus for hitting 25 BUT A formula that uses pet level as an integer, rather than a multiplacative might be fairer - I.e. instead of 4*[pet level], you switch to 4^[pet level], so a level 1 pet would score 4, a level 2 16, level 3 64 and so on.

Obviously you'd have to tweak the numbers to stop pet scores getting ridiculous, but this would mean that levelling 24->25 was reflected heavier than levelling 1->2.

Alternatively

You could factor in the 'experience to level' into the formula, as this is the purest way of measuring 'value added' to each pet.

Just some ideas.

[Moonay]

The maximum number of points you can get for leveling your pets is 100. That's if your average pet level is 25, meaning all your pets are level 25. You could get this by deleting all of your pets under level 25 if you're looking to "game" this part of the score, but certainly that would hurt your overall score. I like that the points for leveling is such a minor part of my score, and that the emphasis is on points for actually collecting pets with a bonus for rarity.