Disincentivize quitting, Incentivize completion

If builders make fun maps, I'll keep trying no matter how many deaths. I'd rather uninstall than feel forced to do maps I don't enjoy playing on. Going by player numbers, that's a dangerous step to take.

Rank loss is bad and should be removed from the game, it chases players away. This isn't a competitive game and the Rank system here is in name only until it reaches Master; before then, it's a misnamed battlepass.

There is something about losing points for any reason that makes many players unhappy. Even though I already reached Master, when a new Outpost I designed turned out to not be getting enough kills, seeing -214 rank points just felt really sucky. I immediately deactivated the Outpost, stripped it, and haven't built a new one since. I feel demotivated and completely discouraged. Being at Master I don't even need rank points anymore, I don't want to be ranked, but when I get zero points for having no Outpost and negative points for the one I built, then the game has told me the Outpost I created is worse than nothing.

I think in a video game rewards are better than punishment. People can have really negative reactions to punishment. There's no reason to use negative tactics that risk alienating players. This is a game, not a job, so the moment it doesn't feel fun that potential customer is gone.

In general, I don't like point deductions. On the Steam page, it says "Take another step forward with every attempt. Reveal a new strategy with every death." Then the game goes against that and punishes Raiders for death by deducting points. The reward for stealing the GenMat should be the same no matter how many times a Raider dies. And if a Raider attempts a base that turns out to be beyond their skill level, they already lost time to it, they don't need to also lose rank points for leaving: it should just reward zero rank points. If a Raider ends up on an Outpost they can't beat and has to lose 60 points to leave it, what happens next is they drop down to easier Outposts and Builders of harder Outposts get screwed out of Raiders. (Hell, that already happened the moment seasonal cosmetics were announced as rank rewards.) The game needs to encourage players to challenge themselves even if they can't meet that challenge. If players don't challenge themselves, they don't get better: they stagnate and get bored and stop playing.

Taking something away from a person can also cause feelings of contempt. I've noticed this already in a lot of posts on the different MYM forums. Many Raiders are angry with Builders who create Outposts that are too hard or not fun. They could just leave if they're not having fun, except they lose rank points for that, and in their eyes that becomes the Builder's fault. Many Builders get upset with Raiders who quit after one death, too, because it hurts their ratio and hurts their rank and they see the Raiders as having slighted them. It's unhealthy and it's causing a rift in the playerbase.

From my perspective, any good reasons to keep rank point deductions are outweighed by the negatives. Then again, I feel that BHVR really should just call it a battlepass like it is, and players definitely shouldn't lose progress in a battlepass. The game wasn't designed to be competitive, and I think trying to force it is unhealthy, but if some players really want to compete then there could be an opt-in to being Ranked where the competition is its own reward and then those players can discuss amongst themselves how many points they should gain and lose for their actions. Personally, I just want to play and challenge myself, earn anything offered, and not have the game discourage me every time I attempt something.