Proposal On ribbons

[Bouff]

Hi, as circuit playoffs are coming up pretty soon I'd like to make a thread about ribbons and how they should be changed.

We've had them for a couple years at this point, and they've seen a good amount of success. I don't have too much of a gripe with how the circuits themselves are run, but the way ribbons are handled is a different matter, and I think there are a number of changes that could be made to them to make them seen as more valued than they are now.

Firstly, having ribbons have all the same designs is something that could be adjusted - I'm not totally sure why they were changed aside from having something to do with the old gens, but having unique colors and such would definitely make them more appealing. Sgt.Moose made some really nice designs that were originally supposed to be used for 2018 onwards seen here, and I think most people would prefer them, since having a different design for each ribbon would entice more people to compete for them.

I also think the ribbons shouldn't be greyed out after their yearlong span ends. Having them be permanently colored would be a nice change, similar to how actual individual trophies are. I understand that these are specifically meant to be "lesser" compared to actual trophies. It'll always be the case for it, so I feel like there's no reason to not make changes that would make them more prestigious; they have enough significance as opposed to actual trophies worth distinguishing in that qualifying for the circuit playoffs is a process that spans throughout the entire year (though obviously you don't need to play every single tour to get in).

This was probably rambly and not too substantive, but I know me and a number of other lower tier players feel the same way about this sort of thing. Thanks for reading!

 

[Kink]

I dig the colour idea because you get to know who the hot players are, I do not dig the perma-coloured idea because I think the point of colouring should be to showcase who the current super-hot talent is (potentially) in a tier.

 

[Quite Quiet]

OU, UU, RU, NU, PU, Ubers, LC, DOU, Monotype, SM, ORAS, BW, DPP, ADV, GSC, RBY, BSS, OMs

This is the list of formats that currently award a ribbon for winning their respective circuit. We only have so many colours that work for ribbons without creating loads of overlap or potential for mixups. To even entertain the idea of splitting up the ribbons into separate colours there has to be some form of plan to deal with 18 different ribbon colours.

 

[DragonWhale]

Whatever ends up happening keep BSS's ribbon gold thx

 

[Moutemoute]

OU, UU, RU, NU, PU, Ubers, LC, DOU, Monotype, SM, ORAS, BW, DPP, ADV, GSC, RBY, BSS, OMs

This is the list of formats that currently award a ribbon for winning their respective circuit. We only have so many colours that work for ribbons without creating loads of overlap or potential for mixups. To even entertain the idea of splitting up the ribbons into separate colours there has to be some form of plan to deal with 18 different ribbon colours.

I mean those are quite easy to made..! Like it took me less than 10 minutes to do 16 variants by only changing the main color of those ribbons... i'm pretty sure it's possible to make something even better with a bit of more time so that's definitively doable even for 18 ribbons. I'll gladly handle this if needed.

zoomed ribbons

 

[Quite Quiet]

without creating loads of overlap or potential for mixups.

Most of those aren't distinctive enough to qualify as actual options. You have maybe 9 or 10 that would be acceptable together. They need to be able to stand on their own without having to provide zoomed in versions of the ribbons to show how they are different.

 

[Moutemoute]

Most of those aren't distinctive enough to qualify as actual options. You have maybe 9 or 10 that would be acceptable together. They need to be able to stand on their own without having to provide zoomed in versions of the ribbons to show how they are different.

As I said, this took me a few minutes only. The purpose was only to prove it's doable by spending a bit more of time on it.
You can basically do something like : 3 shades of blue / 3 shades of green / 1 red / 1 orange / 1 yellow / 1 or 2 shades of purple / 1 pink / 1 grey / 1 black / 1 white (probably not great tbh) etc..by focusing a bit more on the whole thing I'm pretty sure you can make 18 good ribbons.

 

[atomicllamas]

I agree with Bouff’s suggestions in terms of sprucing up the appearance of Ribbons and making them more unique, I also agree with not greying old ribbons. The reality is it takes a huge amount of effort to even qualify for the playoffs, and then you have to win a 16 man tournament vs the 15 other theoretical “best” tournament performers in that tier that year. It would be more in line with other individual efforts to keep the ribbon permanently colored.

I also agree it would be nice to give the ribbons from different circuits some character, but qq is correct that 18 distinct colors is impossible. Even more so when you consider next gen would need 19, etc. I think a good compromise would be to give 4 distinct ribbon colors based on the type of circuit won (CG OU, lower tier, distinct metagame, old gen). For example:

CG OU - Black
UU RU NU PU - Cyan
BSS LC Ubers DOU Monotype - Magenta
Old gens - Yellow

This would show at a glance what area of the site they excelled in. Obviously the colors can be whatever. You could also break the groups down differently, ie slam tiers, classic gens, smogon tour tiers, other, but I think other break downs run into longer term issues with tournament structures.

 

[Martin]

Just spitballing: have current gen circuits award ribbons and past gen circuits award medals. Or if there are still too many current gen circuits to have them all be distinct, it could instead be split up into core circuits, past gen circuits, and other circuits—straight ribbon, medal, and arched ribbon, respectively.

This may prove unsustanable when we have 12 past gens or whatever, but that's a very long time away and we could always just split old gens into separate medal types for those represented in team tours vs those not represented in team tours or whatever other distinction seems appropriate.

 

[Scottie]

I agree that ribbons should be looked at as we come closer to this year's edition of the circuit playoffs.

I don't have much to really add, I think bouff and llamas summed it up nicely but to echo their words, playing through multiple different tours all year round accumulating enough points to qualify is hard in itself, to then be paired vs the other best players in the field that specific year makes the task even more daunting. I think they deserve some more love and now is a good time to look into it.

First off, I think playing in these circuits would be more encouraging and enjoyable if ribbons had their own identity for each tier (heavily emphasised above from other posts ). It would feel way more rewarding because they don't get lost in translation with the other ribbons, I think it's definitely worth reconsidering Sgt Mooses initial concept for ribbons because I know a lot of people including myself are all for those designs and it would be a shame for them to go to waste!

I believe ribbons should share the same treatment as individual trophies, having them retain their colour instead of being greyed out. I also think it would be cool to have ribbons side by side instead of stacking up if someone were to win multiple ribbons (basically following the same formula as individuals and not team tours).
It just makes the year long process and grind that little bit more rewarding in my opinion and its the small things like that that really make a difference in regards to commiting for the pixels.

That's more or less it, just wanted to reiterate what Bouff said pretty much because I've always felt strongly about this myself but never made a post about it. As for the circuits themselves I believe they're run perfectly fine it's more or less just the end result that I believe could do with some reworking.

 

[Aurella]

Something that would be nice to have wrt Ribbons (trophies too) is a hyperlink to the championship/finals thread from the postbit icon itself (or a hub that links between several threads if several achievements are collated into the single icon as seen in the case of team tour trophies). Would be a convenient/fun way of seeing what led up to that achievement itself instead of just taking it at face value or trudging through older parts of the forums instead.

 

[FNH]

Something that would be nice to have wrt Ribbons (trophies too) is a hyperlink to the championship/finals thread from the postbit icon itself (or a hub that links between several threads if several achievements are collated into the single icon as seen in the case of team tour trophies). Would be a convenient/fun way of seeing what led up to that achievement itself instead of just taking it at face value or trudging through older parts of the forums instead.

to be honest, i have always thought it would nice to see how many times a player won the trophy as well. So instead of "past spl champion" it would say "2x Spl Champion" or smthng along those lines.

 

[Kalalokki]

to be honest, i have always thought it would nice to see how many times a player won the trophy as well. So instead of "past spl champion" it would say "2x Spl Champion" or smthng along those lines.

That's just not practically doable with how the trophies work on XenForo, you need a separate usergroup for every past team trophy combination.

Adding more complexity like how many times someone has won one of those past trophies or which specific ones even just leads to exponentially more groups and makes it basically impossible to manage for all the different variations that a user might have. What I know Quite Quiet is looking in to is to instead utilize XenForo's built-in trophy system (the unused trophy points you can see one people's profiles) and have that showcase the specific team tours a user has won, as it's just one long list of achievements than cramming a bunch of info in to the hover text of the team trophies.