How about chess pieces?

1% King
1-5 Queen
5-10 Rook
10-20 Bishop
20-30 Knight
30-50 Pawn

As a former chess player, I would HATE to see chess pieces !
By the way, a bishop is certainly not stronger than a knight nor vice versa : it depends on the position.
Also, a knight, or even a bishop, can sometimes be much stronger than a rook ! Again, it depends on the position. A knight on the sixth rank supported by a pawn can be so strong that it is called "an octopus" !

How about knives ? They are the symbol of a stab, aren't they ?

knives? by colour? by shape?

I like the idea of Chess pieces, but I wouldn't rank them in this ^ manner. I would rank them as follows (not that the bishop is more powerful than the knight imho it isn't, rather by its proximity to the King):
1% Gold King
1-5 Silver King
5-10 Queen
10-20 Bishop
20-30 Knight
30-50 Rook
50-100 Pawn

It's a shame that famous diplomats aren't immediately recognizable. We could have little pictures of Bismarck and Talleyrand...

Please, no chess pieces ! This is Diplomacy : let's not take symbols from another game !
What's more, kaner406, about your previous message, how should people know that a rook is less than a bishop ? Also, the pawn is closer from the king than the knight and rook are.

About the percentages, what are they ? Is it x % of the maximum rating ? x % of all the players ? Something else ?

About the knives, it could be something based on this :
For the lowest category : no knive.
Then, one knife.
Then, one knife with blood stains
Then, two knives with blood stains.
Then, one big knife (or a sword) with blood stains.
Finally, two big knives (or two swords) with blood stains.

Chess piece icons seems pretty cool to me, and much easier to produce graphically than other icons. Looking at the relatively small size of the present icons it's seems damn near impossible to generate any significant detail on things like guns, tanks, knives, etc, whereas chess pieces would be much easier to create at this scale.

Retillion, I'm never surprised to see nonsense from you, but you take the cake here. A rook is not less than a bishop, and pawns are not more powerfull than bishops or rooks. As someone claiming to be a chess player, these are pretty basic concepts.

Furthermore a commplace description of Diplomacy is to envision a blend of Risk and Chess. While it's not a pure variant evolution of either, it's creation was clearly influenced by both games. Therefore I can easily see where Chess icons would make a great symbol/ranking system icon.

Alternately you could try using a military ranking system with icons representing rank stripes worn on a soldier's uniform. World of Warcraft effectively implemented this method of ranking PvP players, using a graphics of chevrons ands and bars, and other symbols. These symbols couold possibly be generated graphically at the available scale without a huge amount of detail necessary.

RUFFHAUS 8 : YOU SHOULD LEARN TO READ !

When I write :
"kaner406, about your previous message, how should people know that a rook is less than a bishop ?"

It is an answer to kaner406's message :
"I would rank them as follows (not that the bishop is more powerful than the knight imho it isn't, rather by its proximity to the King):
1% Gold King
1-5 Silver King
5-10 Queen
10-20 Bishop
20-30 Knight
30-50 Rook
50-100 Pawn"

-> In kaner406's message a rook is for players ranked between the top 30 and the top 50 % ; a bishop is for players ranked between the top 10 and the top 20 %. So yes, in kaner406's message, a rook is indeed less than a bishop !

Also, when I write :
"kaner406, about your previous message, [...] Also, the pawn is closer from the king than the knight and rook are.

It is an answer to kaner406's message :
" I would rank them as follows (not that the bishop is more powerful than the knight imho it isn't, rather BY ITS PROXIMITY to the King)

And indeed, on the starting position of a chess game there is a pawn right in front to the king, which means that a pawn is CLOSER (PROXIMITY, you know ?) to the King than a knight or a rook is.


RUFFHAUS I CAN'T BELEIVE THAT YOU ARE SO STUPID BUT YOU ARE CERTAINLY A MOST UNPLEASANT PERSON !

This is the last time that I ever answer to you. As a matter of fact, I will mute you right now.

I vote little faces.

Why do we need icons? It already says our total Ds beside our name.

This game is for fun, people should stop being overly concerned with "rankings" and "ratings"

Thank you Jimbozig : I fully agree with you.

I think this interest in "rankings" and "ratings" is just temporary as the discussion about the rating-system goes on. 95% of all users simply don't care. And once the system is running I expect everything will turn back to normal (esp. if the new system is unobtrusive).
But some cool icons to brag could be nice nevertheless.)

I'm not used to use capital letters, but
NO CHESS ICONS PLEASE!!!!!!!!

I agree that we shouldn't be overly concerned with rankings, but as Oli said it would be nice to be able to have something to show for being high up on the ranking system. After all, people with a large amount of D-Points are able to show off that fact as the D-Points appear right next to their names - since the new system will be running in parallel and treated equally to the D-Point system, it makes sense that it should be shown off in a similar manner.

About Chess pieces, I would say that they're not such a bad idea - it's a well known strategy game, and the pieces have a much more recognisable ranking than anything connected to Diplomacy. I'm not a chess player myself, but as far as I'm aware the point values are generally considered as follows:

King - Infinite
Queen - 9
Rook - 5
Bishop, Knight - 3
Pawn - 1

And I think this ranking is instantly recognisable to anyone, whether they have played much diplomacy or not. If we choose between a Knight or a Bishop as the second to lowest rank, and perhaps added a golden king for the top 10 players or something similar, then it would make a very nice and easily understandable visual ranking, IMO.

I think icons are a neat idea and I even like the idea of chess pieces. I really do think it is something of note when you are rated(whatever rating systme we use) at #1 as Ruffhaus is now. This is not an easy game, and having to constantly be diploming, strategy ability and the time vested into these games it does take some true talent. As where I believe someone like Ruffhaus deserves the "golden king", someone like The Desert Fox should have the "golden toiletbowl" by his name ;)

Or simply little medals with colours in them.
(no medal), bronze medal, silver medal, gold medal.

Ever played Call of Duty? They have a good ranking system, symbolically anyway. If we used that though, then DEFIANT may be stuck as a Private his entire career.. xD

And I agree, though rankings/symbols aren't needed, they would be really cool, and I'm sure the whole community would enjoy them

How about weapons from say the stone age advancing to more modern weaponry? Just a thought.

combat arms ftw!

I can read just fine, Retillion, but I'll slap you around again even if you "muted" something that I could care less about.

Kaner made a suggesstion about using icons to equate to a rank of sorts based on the recent discussions of ratings. Devonian made an excellent suggestion of using Chess pieces, which if *you* knew how to read you would understand why it it better than your dopey idea of bloody knives. Once again for short bus riders like Retillion, th ability to produce any kind of detail in a graphic icon the height of one line of text is next to nil. Unless you got some state of the art graphics system that can be downloaded into the VDiplomacy softeware and a designer that can produce intricate detail and colors into something about 1/8" tall, this is just gibberish you're talking about. Any such icons we used would need to be very basic and definied by their perimiter shape. You pounced on the idea and pissed all over it because....wait for it... you're 'a former chess player', whatever the hell that means or has to do with the discussion. And then you presented an entirely unworkable solotion. This of course is right up your ally, so very little surprise there.

Then you launch into a ingnorant and repetitive tangent about Chess pieces' proximity to the King in the starting set up, as if that has something to do with the pieces' value. I realize that you value pawns, because you favor dumping solos, but you understanding of this conversation as it relates to Kaner and Devonian's suggestions makes about as much sense as one of you solo dumps.

I hope everyone with the misfortune to be in a game with you realizes the risk they run of you dumping a solo because you cannot have your way. Under this new scoring system such result willl be particularly painful, so temper tantrum types like you ought to be real popular.

RUFFHAUS and Retillion, please stop insulting each other. its kind of annoying and a huge waste of space on any forum.

We could use these systems:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_officer_rank_insignia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Navy_officer_rank_insignia

My opinion: We should put the points and the new system, whenever it is developed, and people's profiles and in the hall of fame. I think we should display beside people's names their reliability rating and the various donor/developer icons.

@captain, I agree there is huge validity in a separate rating system. I think points have value but it doesn't say everything. Neither will the new rating system, whatever it is, but it will also definitely add value.

Maybe various tournament winners can get badges for those achievements. Put it next to their name along with their RR.

I would support military rankings, after all this is war :) and as Ruffhaus said they are easily reproduced, and scaled into the system. Plus, everyone knows military rankings from movies, or from any military service they have - had.

and online you can find all the military ranks by country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comparative_military_ranks

I Would vote for the Greek army insignia :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_ranks

Military symbols work well, but if you are number 1, you shouldn't be grouped with the top 1%, you should stand alone with a unique symbol or ranking.

Very funny Iceman :=P.