@DEFIANT -

That dilemma is easily solved if we go by U.S. Army ranks. The rank of General of the Army (also known as the 5-star general) is a rank reserved for war-time (the last time it was given was to Omar Bradley in 1950, and it seems likely that barring another world-war, it would not be given out any time soon again) and has only been given out to a handful of people during US history. As such, you could make the top player the "5-star general" while the other top 1% are 4 star generals.

As an alternative, the rank "General of the Armies" (meaning General of all the armed forces of the USA, not just the Army as in "General of the Army") has only been bestowed upon two people in US history (Pershing and Washington) and could also be used to symbolize the top player.

would it be possible to use something non-country specific?
i like the buildings idea :)

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

No symbols or insignia, but might give someone some sort of ideas..

Drano, that's the idea, a specific one for the top dawg.

GOD, it doesn't have to be country specific, whatever looks coolest, but I don't think buildings are not a good representation of diplomacy, should be more militaristic, nature of the game.

We can always use Leif's favorite military group, GreenPeace symbols :=P.

Not sure I follow you there DEFIANT...

just picking on you ;)

Mmm.. the taste of freshly sliced minke whale stakes for breakfast!

I actually like the knives idea. Maybe not the specific idea as expressed but the general theme.

Exactly, the suggestion about the proposed insignia is not about country specific, but because they look cool and it is in a colour that wont offend anyone (ie. blue, red, black)

it could be:

iron knife
iron knife with blood
silver knife
silver knife with blood
golden knife
golden knife with blood

Why don't we get to the bottom of this and just make it what everyone's *thinking,* anyway, and have it be a penis that just gets bigger and bigger the better you are?

@ Mertvaya Ruka : +1 !

Well I have to say, me being Polish and WE all know what that means, this wouldn't be fair to the rest of you, whether I am number 1 or not in diplomacy, I would always be #1, sorry guys, just genetics. :P

yes, if only Polish people knew how to talk with women!

ok, on the thread topic.

I think medals would be an appropriate icon. You could also use just 1 small icon, and a player could have anywhere from zero to 4 or 5 medals.

I dunno, if we're just going to have multiple medals, than why not just use a number? I assumed the idea of having a picture was so that it was just a single "thing" that represented your ability.

"was just a single "thing" that represented your ability."

This doesn't seem right to me.... this whole thread is wrong in my opinion.

I ask again why we need this when we are developing a second rating system that intends to be comprehensive.

@ Jimbozig : +1

The number next to your name, your (D) points, will remain as it is. Following this whatever symbols showing your Donator status. Because Oli is developing a new rating system that will work along-side the original (D) system, we would like to include a symbol next to your name that denotes your approximate standing in the vPoints system. This is to work in conjunction with the second rating system (vPoints) - in fact the symbol that will appear next to your name will be reliant on where you are in the vPoint rankings.

The idea to use two sets of numbers next to your name is visually clumsy.

http://www.vdiplomacy.com/wiki/index.php?title=HoF_symbols

I am all for second rating system. However, I am staubchly against adding more useless shit beside our names.

D-Points are already displayed next to our names - why shouldn't this also be? Jimbozig, you have a huge amount of D-Points that everyone can see - a lot of people judge you to be a good player (which you are) based on this. But I am also a good player, and I do not have many D-Points because I don't play for them; therefore most people, at the moment, judge me as a reasonably bad player.

If this new ranking is to be given equal status to D-Points, it must be on show in a place which is easily visible - and next to your name is a perfect place for this. There is a certain amount of prestige which comes with being highly ranked, on both Ranking Systems, but if only one is on show only highly ranked D-Point people will recieve that prestige, which isn't particularly fair on those who are at the top of the new rankings.

I understand this doesn't matter a lot to you, as you already have a lot of D-Points so already have that prestige, but for people like me it's a much bigger issue.

I like the knives idea too. But instead of having all this detail on the knives, you could simply start with a small dagger and work your way up through a couple of swords to a battleaxe!

There's a limit to what I can do in the scale I'm working with, but you're welcome to give it a go!

i think they both should be replaced with rr only on display

Talking about rankings and ratings of all sort, although it's a bit unrealistic, why don't we introduce a backstabbing rating too? lol

@ Lukas Podolski : a backstabbing rating ? What for ? So that players will no trust those with a high backstabbing rating ? Do we really need that kind of metagaming ?

What for? Fun of course.
And of course we don't need such a thing as it quite defeats the essence of Diplomacy doesn't it?
That's why I concede the fact that it is unrealistic, and no worries, I was just throwing out random ideas which are meant to be for fun rather than to be taken seriously.