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This is a revised version of a concept that arose from the discussion in this thread.

The suggestion is that a new high score category be added called "Donations Score."

This score would be based on the wood donations to islands. It can also be debated whether gold donations to wonders should also be included in this score. I currently don't think the gold donations should be included, since the blessing (once these work) will be its own reward. Also gold is much easier to come by.

For every 1 wood donated the player would receive 0.01 points. This is the same value used for calculating points towards the Master Builders score.

For example, if a player has donated 15,000 wood to the saw mill and 10,000 wood to the quarry of a marble island, their total donations would be 25,000 wood for that island. For this, they would receive 250 points towards their Donations Score.

25,000 wood * 0.01 = 250 Donations Score points

It can also be debated whether this score should contribute to a player's Total Score. I would suggest that it does, but in a limited ratio so as to keep this balanced with the other scores. My suggestion is that the Donations Score contribute to a player's Total Score in a 2:1 ratio. There is already precedent for this, since the Scientists Score contributes in a 1:2 ratio to the Total Score.

In our example, the 250 Donations Score points would contribute 125 points to the player's Total Score.

250 Donations Score points / 2 = 125 Total Score points


I see several benefits to creating this score category, namely the following:

1) A score specifically showing donations would give another metric to evaluate players.

Alliances may wish to have a minimum donation requirement to allow members to join.

A player with high donations is likely to be on islands that have benefited from their donations. Other players may wish to seek them out as they make good neighbors.

A player with a high score and low donations could easily be determined to be a "leech"; a topic discussed in the thread "Leeching - definition".

2) Simple bragging rights.

The "Gold Stock" score plays a similar role. It allows players to brag about their gold accumulation. It does not factor into the Total Score as-is, but that's because you can generally spend it on things that will (resources or trade ships).

Players' desires to "be the best" at things, including donations, can be seen by the participation in the thread "Show off your donations.".

Conversely, players who donate very little (or not at all) can be ridiculed. Again, a high Total Score wouldn't be as impressive if the player has likely achieved it by leeching off the efforts of others.

3) Resources donated would still contribute to the Total Score.

Wood spent on buildings would contribute 0.01 points each to your Master Builders score, and thus 0.01 points each (1:1) to your Total Score. Currently wood donated does not contribute to your Total Score at all. Donations can be seen as "taking away" from your score.

If points in the Donation Score contribute to the Total Score in a 2:1 ratio, then wood donated is worth 0.005 points each towards your Total Score. This makes wood donations impact your Total Score less than wood spent on buildings, but still count. If necessary, the ratio can be tweaked for better game balance.


Thank you for your consideration.

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Excellent idea! I especially like the "leech detection" it creates.

1 warning for spam.

Quoted

Originally posted by Effin
I've donated over 2.4 million to my islands and this would net me a total of 1,200 total points for months worth of donations.

Well, your math is a little off there (by a factor of 10):

2,400,000 wood * 0.01 = 24,000 Donations Score

2,400,000 wood * 0.005 = 12,000 points contributed to Total Score

12,000 points is very fair, I think.

Quoted

I get 3x that from buying a cargo ship at my level, which I do every other day, usually.

Yes, but there are a couple things to consider for game balance.

Trade ships are a great way to earn points, no doubt. However, the price of each successive trade ship grows by 5.4%. This requires you to save up larger and larger amounts of gold before the next purchase, which is at risk of being looted. With the points from wood donations, you would get the points immediately. There is no need to save up great stores of wood to donate. There is no minimum to donate.

Also keep in mind that the trade ships are limited to 120, so eventually you will no longer be able to earn points from trade ships. Donations are essentially limitless, so you could continually earn points this way.

That 2,400,000 wood, if spent as part of building upgrades, would contribute 24,000 points to your total score (via Master Builders). It seems unfair that donations would be equal to this, since buildings require expensive luxuries (0.03 points each) and long build times.

Considering this, 1 point for every 200 wood donated seems very generous.

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