Epic Considers Remaking Gears 2 Ranking StructureS

The complicated and not-always-transparent TrueSkill level in Gears of War 2 isn't a player favorite, Epic's Rod Fergusson acknowledges. They're considering an overhaul that would make levelling more experience-based, once the third update releases.

Under TrueScore "It's not always clear how your rank will be affected by a particular match and your rank is based on the team's outcome and not necessarily your individual performance," Fergusson writes on Epic's forums. "What if, instead of skill rank, we instead showed your experience level."

How that would work:

• Experience would be acquired through individual performance in public mutliplayer. The experience would be balanced according to game times, so you couldn't level faster on the respawning game types.

• Levelling would not be a fixed amount for each level, but a progressively higher amount for successive levels, ("like a typical RPG.") up to a 99th level of experience "to show off your leetness."

• Quitters suffer an experience penalty, so that only completed matches acquire experience. This is to balance the fact that you're always acquiring some experience when you play, no matter how well you play.

Before you ask, achievements for levelling milestones - 10th, 20th, 99th, etc. - can't be done immediately "because of Xbox LIVE rules that require all post release achievements to be tied to new DLC content. But when new DLC is released, it's a whole new ball game then."

This isn't an announcement of a new way of doing business. He's seeking comments on the forum. But it does sound like Epic has given this a lot of thought and is close to implementing it, unless everyone hates this idea too.

OFFICAL: Proposed Rank Change [Epic Forums via NeoGaf]