I’m trying to visualise where the “podium screen” would fit into the current post-game sequence. I’m not a fan of adding more screens because that means there’s a longer time between ending one match and starting another, which isn’t really what anyone wants in an instanced combat game like this.
Perhaps if it’s an optional thing… when you’re looking at the final score screen there could be a button saying “Honour Roll” or somesuch and there you can view not only the podium ships, but potentially a lot more.
For example…
This “Honour Roll” might show you the most-used ship of each player in that match. This appears as their ‘model’ when you highlight their name. The game will then show you their score, their stats for the match (kills, deaths, assists, accuracy, etc) and badges earned. There might even be little honorifics like “most missile kills in a single match” or “Traveled further than any other player”. That in particular I like because, if done right, you can effectively give everyone some credit.
Let’s pretend this system is in place, and we just finished a T2 match. The Rank 6 pilots all have the “most beacons” and “most kills” and “I had an unfair advantage because I’ve got a pure-purple ship” or whatever… and then we have the guy who only owns a single Rank 4 ship and he turned up toward the bottom of the scoreboard. The game can still acknowledge him - he might get “most time spent defending beacons”, or “engaged most enemy Tacklers”.
Hell, if you went really balls-out on this, you could produce some crazy quasi-customised titles! Example: Let’s say me and three other pilots - we’ll call them EngiBob, TacklerJane and SniperMike - just finished our match. Here’s the awards we see on the Honour Roll:
JasanQuinn: Light 'em up! - Debuffed five of SniperMike’s kills using Spy Drones.
EngiBob: Clear! - Restored TacklerJane from critical damage three times.
TacklerJane: I got your back! - Killed two enemies attacking EngiBob.
SniperMike: Knock 'em down! - Killed five enemies debuffed by JasanQuinn’s Spy Drones.
Wouldn’t that be cool? Even if you’re flying solo with a team of randoms, the game could look for instances of teamwork and highlight them. Next time SniperMike gets into a match with me he might spot my name and think “Hey, he’s the guy who keeps tagging ships with Spy Drones! Okay, I need to keep an eye on him and watch for the enemies that pop up…” or EngiBob might spot TacklerJane and know that she’s going to want healing a lot. At the same time, they both know that EngiBob is going to want some form of escort, since he did last time they played, so maybe TacklerJane will fill that role again.