Chapter 18 - Game Conference (1/2)
Several hours and 19 matches later, Gray and the rest of the team had finished their 10th team deathmatch and finally were given a rank in Team Deathmatch. Team Assault and Team Capture the Flag shared ranks as they were both considered objective based while Team Dodgeball was unranked as it was just for fun.
As for their rank, a Bronze Star Icon with a 'IV' appeared next to their team name over the place that indicated their Team's Deathmatch rank. The bronze star had 4 of the 5 arms lit up of the star which seemed to be a visual indicator aside from the Roman numeral 4 inside of it.
"Bronze rank division four eh?" said Gray a little dejectedly.
"You sound disappointed with that" said Geoff.
"A little, I know we only won 6 out of the 10 matches; but the 4 we lost, we barely lost and most of the ones we won, we only lost one of us" Admitted Gray.
"Firstly, we do not know exactly how it determines rank. It could take in to account our team's performance or merely the end result of the match. Secondly, Bronze is the lowest tier, but we're in the second highest part of it and we don't know what everyone else is yet. For all we know we could be in the higher tier of ranks, of course we could also be in the lower tier, but given we have a winning record, we should statistically be in the top 40 percent at least" analyzed Caleb.
Gray chuckled at Caleb "Not sure if you're trying to comfort me or not, but I guess you do have a point, we just don't know enough yet"
"I did notice one thing though, look at how much merits we earned in our last match" Caleb pointed out to everyone the stats on his HUD.
"232 merits!" said Yurika excitedly
"Indeed, and if you select that amount it will give you a breakdown of what caused it" replied Caleb
200 of the points came from entering the Bronze Rank, the 32 remainder came from their rank bonus of 60% and a base of 20.
Caleb continued "So it looks like at Bronze rank we will get 20 points per win and a multiplier based upon our rank, it is a safe assumption that higher ranks will get even more merits."
"Still, it's going to take a lot of matches to earn better mechs to play with" said Gray slightly annoyed still.
"Indeed, but this is also so that one doesn't dominate a single rank early on and hold others back" replied Caleb. "I also imagine that they don't want the lowest tier players goofing around with the higher tier mechs."
"What do you mean?"
"When you buy a mech or any part, you not only gain access to the component in the simulators for matchmaking, but you get a copy of it for use in the game." Said Caleb. "What I want to know is where it is stored if we don't have a virtual storage like most games usually have"
(What Caleb is referring to as virtual storage is what games usually use for storage where you literally store an item inside a bag, wallet, backpack or something like that and it is kept in perfect condition, weightless, and out of sight. For example, if a player stored 20 different swords in their virtual storage, they could bring out any number of them at any time by just grabbing the virtual icon and put them away by placing them inside the storage container. This is how most games do it for player convenience and easier inventory management. Alterra Online is an extremely realistic game, so no magic bags or containers to hold all of your mechs and parts for you to be brought out in an instant.)
Regardless of the nuances of this game, Gray and the others started to feel hungry so they figured it was time to log out anyways and get a meal. Everyone returned to their quarters and logged out from their beds.
Gray pulled off his neural link from his head and looked at the time and saw it was indeed late and he missed lunch and was just in time for dinner.
"I need to remember to eat instead of just playing games" Gray thought to himself. "Although I really do enjoy Alterra Online so I'm not surprised for losing track of time in it."
Gray heated up another instant meal consisting of generic pasta and grabbed a cold bottle of pop. Even at the age of 29 he still ate like a college kid, granted he wasn't THAT much older than a college kid, he just felt like it sometimes. Gray noticed his message icon flashing on his HUD and saw that Jono and a representative from Alterra Corporation had left him a message while he was in game. It was Saturday night so he was pretty sure that Jono was going to ask him to some sort of social outing that involved trying to get with girls. Frankly, Gray was terrible at picking up girls and he was grateful that Jono liked to include him, just that he felt like dead weight as Gray's normal social replies when he got nervous usually ended with him putting his foot in his mouth. (Metaphorically, not literally thankfully)
Gray opened up the message from Jono first and heard Jono's voice. "Gray! Quit playing without me and come with me to tomorrow's launch event! You already missed today's event so come with me tomorrow!"