The Grade System is a cool way to gauge activity and experience over time, but I have three unoriginal suggestions to present that may add an extra interesting and fun dynamic to the simulator. I put them all into one request because they all relate to user accounts. Let me know if I need to break them up into separate requests.
1. Pilot Rating
Pilot Rating would be an indicator of the standard of a pilot’s professionalism while flying. There would be six different ratings. They are, from lowest to highest: E, D, C, B, A, and S.
You earn points for completing flights without incidents; however, you will lose points for doing things such as receiving violations (level 1, 2 or 3) or violation warnings (overspeed, taxi too fast, bank angle, etc.). Each violation or warning would have it’s own weight, the weight of each would be unknown to the users, wouldn’t want people to farm for points. Just fly and earn them as you go.
Example of the weight of each + and - point
The overall idea is all I have, how they’re weighted (the hard portion) I’m not sure. Maybe previous violations/warnings would depreciate making their weight less in your total over time, instead of the current linear cut or dry method that’s used for grades.
Example: You get a level 1 violation today, it’s worth -10 points. In 1 month it then is worth -7 points, 2 months -5 points, 6 months -2 points, 12 months 0 points. The user would never know this is happening though, they’d just see their overall total and they’d be gaining points on other flights so it may offset one mistake.
Level 2 could start off as -20 points and Level 3 -40 points, then maybe warnings could each have their own individual weight from -1 to -5 points. Then maybe a certain amount of + points every hour of flight without a violation.
These are all just examples of the idea I have, this portion is incredibly complex and not something I wanted to include because it may be a bit in the weeds to try to hash out each individual thing. Plus it probably should be not publicly known anyway.
At the end of each flight, the number of points earned and lost will be tallied up and reflected in your Pilot Rating. The more you fly without incidents the more points you earn that will go to your Pilot Rating.
All users start with a Pilot Rating of “B”. “D” or better is required to access the training server. “A” or better is required to access the expert server. Your Grade (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) would not factor into whether you can access a specific server, only your rating. Grade would just be something to shoot for, a “cool” thing to achieve and try to keep.
Pilot Rating wouldn’t be effected by activity like the Grade system, you’ll always have access if you’ve proven you earned it. Why penalize good behavior? It could make it more fun to work towards a certain rating and then try to keep it by continuing to fly professionally.
Example
So I could for example be Grade 2 but have a S Pilot Rating so I’d still have access to expert because I’ve shown I know my stuff through my flying and I don’t disturb others with unprofessional behavior. I of course would prefer to have a higher Grade to show off, something to work towards, but my activity wouldn’t play a factor. More fun and motivating overall, less of a grind, more learning from mistakes with positive rewards.
It’d be fun if there was extra things to work towards daily or long-term as you reach milestones. A interesting way to keep pilots active and engaged.
2. Daily Challenges
Fun daily challenges that change every day, like for example, fly XX amount of hours in a single day. If you complete the day’s challenge you earn extra XP.
3. Achievement Badges
Achievements would be a way to mark certain milestones reached, such as the number of hours flown, days flown in a week, XP earned in a single flight, successful landings, consecutive smooth landings, and more. You could earn bonus XP and a Badge to add to your account for reaching each milestone.