Author Topic: How to get a high rank  (Read 28640 times)

Offline Rude

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How to get a high rank
« Reply #135 on: January 06, 2004, 09:23:48 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Murdr
Razor
OverBKil
crowMAW
AKPanthr
COORS
Nexx
Murdr
AKOwl
Spazzter
SHawk
SlowHand
GooseCH
Swoop
MetaTron
Stang
rthus
FF1
TW9
Letitbe
Busher

Ever hear of any of these guys laz2?  This is the top 20 overall for the last tour.  With the exception of spazzter, I am familer with all these names.  Of these (no surprise) Stang is the highest ranked fighter.  Cant speak for these other guys, but I didnt fly any ju87s or score other dive bombers as attack for facilities, or other gamey stuff like that.  Could you point out the posers in the list for me?

Here were the top 6 fighters for last tour.
kappa
Stang
Fester
Steve
Kosk
Taki
Since the rank system is such a joke, would somebody please point out the names of the slackers in the list that have no business being mentioned among top fighters in the MA...not DA...MA.


The only slacker I see on this list is Fester.

Offline hitech

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« Reply #136 on: January 06, 2004, 09:33:09 AM »
This discusion is like 2 guys golfing. 1 guy wins (hence better at golf) the other argues that he is realy better because he can hit the longest drive.

And since when did playing the game as designed become "gaming the game"?


HiTech

Offline Murdr

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« Reply #137 on: January 06, 2004, 09:49:19 AM »

Offline Dead Man Flying

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« Reply #138 on: January 06, 2004, 10:04:34 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by hitech
This discusion is like 2 guys golfing. 1 guy wins (hence better at golf) the other argues that he is realy better because he can hit the longest drive.
[/B]

That's not what I've been arguing here at all.  A number of players just don't care about score but would probably be capable of ranking highly if they bothered.  Slime comes to mind as someone who sported pretty poor stats across the board in some tours, but these stemmed from his playing style rather than his lack of skill.  In fact, he was quite good but chose to fly in a manner ill-suited for rank as structured in Aces High.  

And as I've said repeatedly, rank certainly may indicate skill.  But it is nonetheless an imperfect measure and is best taken in context.

Edit:  I dug up this old announcement declaring that Drex was "a virtuoso and in a class by himself. He is the best online pilot we've ever seen going back about 15 years through 3 different sims and not just marginally so."  The tour just prior to that announcement he wasn't even ranked among the top 100 in fighter rank, and I believe he's only ranked above 100 once in several years.  He sucks!  :)

So if Drex is the best online pilot (i.e. overall golfer, not just furballer or whatnot), then how could the fighter rank not pick up on that?

Quote
And since when did playing the game as designed become "gaming the game"?
[/B]

So you designed the game to reward people who pick and choose when they score sorties as fighters in order to maximize their stats?  Okay.

-- Todd/Leviathn
« Last Edit: January 06, 2004, 10:26:05 AM by Dead Man Flying »

Offline streetstang

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« Reply #139 on: January 06, 2004, 10:42:03 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by gofaster
Everybody should fly Corsairs all the time.  Its the only way we'd know who was good and who wasn't.


If that was the case... I'd suck! lol I suck anyways but I'd suck to a level never seen in AH past or present... Although I do have a liking for that little f4u-1... Shes a fun one:aok
M

Offline hitech

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« Reply #140 on: January 06, 2004, 11:20:36 AM »
Boy that golf scoring system must be totaly screwed, because the best golfer I know of dosn't care to try for a good score any more, and instead just goes out to see how many hole in ones he can make. But lesser players always get better scores. Man that golf score system sucks. It just dosn't reflect who is the better gollfer.

HiTech

Offline vorticon

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« Reply #141 on: January 06, 2004, 11:26:46 AM »
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Boy that golf scoring system must be totaly screwed, because the best golfer I know of dosn't care to try for a good score any more, and instead just goes out to see how many hole in ones he can make. But lesser players always get better scores. Man that golf score system sucks. It just dosn't reflect who is the better gollfer.


if he doesnt care about his score...why does it matter? maybe people should stop trying to give credit where its not wanted...


shouldent you be coding ah2 instead of writing silly golf analogies on the board...
« Last Edit: January 06, 2004, 11:29:07 AM by vorticon »

Offline hitech

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« Reply #142 on: January 06, 2004, 11:43:03 AM »
Both are in my job descriptions vorticon.

HiTech

Offline Zazen13

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« Reply #143 on: January 06, 2004, 12:32:34 PM »
Ok, I can't resist this thread any longer. I think we have established the fact that flying for statistics is only a meaningful measure of someone's skill if compared with others who are also flying for statistics. That is to say, any pilot regardless of skill, if he really tries, could fly a poor performance plane, low, slow, and stupid and demonstrate poor statitics. Does this mean that player is poor? No. It just means he isn't trying. So, comparing those with skill who don't try to fly smart, with those who do does not work.

The whole ranking system itself is a competitive system. Your rank is relative to everyone else in the arena, it is not an absolute value. Your 15 to 1 k/d ratio and 15% hit % is ranked according to how it compares to everyone elses. Because rank is competitve the validity of it as a measuring tool is directly proportional to the number of players and percentage of the player base that choose to pursue it. To put it simply, the more people playing for rank, the more competitive the system and therefore the more meaningful rank itself becomes.

This same competitive system holds true in things such as duelling ladders. The number of players in a ladder and the higher the overall skill of the participants the greater the achievement of finishing higher.

Because of the relative and competitve nature of rankings and their constituent statistics in general posts such as these actually serve those flying for rank as it makes their relative success much more meaningful. The more educated participants in the ranking system the better.

As for me personally, I have always flown with realism in mind. Score or rank was always just a natural bi-product of flying as close to what I've read real pilots in WW2 flew like. Call this score whoring, call it what you like, but flying in this manner and using what statistical measurements the game offers as a tool for bettering myself has proved successful over a decade of personal experience. Whether you fly for rank or not, the statistics themselves provide a very concrete way of measuring certain facets of your gameplay. Naturally there are ways to distort some or all of the statistics somewhat, I think they are not as easily manipulated as has been stated. This is especially true of Fighter rank.

A common misperception with regard to Fighter rank and what players like Steve achieve is that it is easy. Just fly a fast plane and engage only with the advantage right? Well, everyone knows this but what most don't understand is doing this in and of itself may sound easy enough, but very few people have the focus and discipline to perpetuate this style of play over a 30-day camp. The very human propensity to give in to greed, overzealousness, and impatience is overwhelming to most. One day of giving in to greed, impatience, or stupidty will ruin your fighter rank for the entire camp.  So, even attaining fighter rank in this way is an achievement requiring superior SA, Gunnery, and substantial flying skill with incredible amounts of patience and discipline. Finding the ideal situation to employ these tactics are relatively few and far between, especially on certain maps, most of the time you are employing these tactics in circumstances far less than the ideal (ie: vastly outnumbered). Easy to critisize this style of play, not so easy to execute it yourself long-term. Try to fly in this manner and achieve success comparable to Steve's over a 30 day camp, you will be enlightened.

Zazen
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Author of, "The Zen Art of Cherrypicking" and other related works.
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Offline streetstang

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« Reply #144 on: January 06, 2004, 12:44:51 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by hitech
Both are in my job descriptions vorticon.

HiTech


You put out a fine product/drug HiTech... I cant imagine what I would want to do more on an off day from work then play this most addictive thing called Aces High...

Fact of the matter is that there are many ways in which one can enjoy this game... Some like to go for rank, some like to go for just good 1v1 fights, others enjoy the strat side of the game... You can GV it when you get tired of fighters, or bombers or Jabo; none of which are in any particular order... Or you can just log on to BS for a while then hit the sack for the night... This is whey people pay 15 a month... To do with it as they wish and enjoy the game/drug...;)

We cant knock people for furballing, flying for score or sticking to just GVs... or bombers or Jabo ect ect.. you get my point... Its what makes the game fun for you is all that matters:aok

Jeff/Morpheus

Offline Dead Man Flying

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« Reply #145 on: January 06, 2004, 01:28:09 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by hitech
Boy that golf scoring system must be totaly screwed, because the best golfer I know of dosn't care to try for a good score any more, and instead just goes out to see how many hole in ones he can make. But lesser players always get better scores. Man that golf score system sucks. It just dosn't reflect who is the better gollfer.


You've pretty much made my point that context matters.

If a sizeable number of players in golf suddenly played only to see how many holes in one they could make while everyone else played for score, then the golf scoring system would not provide an accurate measure of skill.  It would rank winners and losers based on existing golf rules, sure, but as a metric for skill it would suffer.

The AH scoring system is a bit more complex to compare to something like a golf score anyway.  I hate to say it, but it seems closer to figure skating than golf.  :)

-- Todd/Leviathn

Offline hitech

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« Reply #146 on: January 06, 2004, 02:03:16 PM »
Quote
If a sizeable number of players in golf suddenly played only to see how many holes in one they could make while everyone else played for score, then the golf scoring system would not provide an accurate measure of skill. It would rank winners and losers based on existing golf rules, sure, but as a metric for skill it would suffer.


Bull puppy.

The system would still accuratly provide a measure of golf skill. But your players are no longer playing golf they are now playing a different game. And since your players are not interested in their golf score, they wouldn't even keep track.

So are you interested in playing golf, or do you just want to head to the driving range. Both are perfectly acceptible, but don't try tell the golfers they should forget about it and just go to the driving range instead, because in your view distance is the only TRUE method for messuring a golfers talents.

HiTech

Offline DipStick

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« Reply #147 on: January 06, 2004, 02:55:14 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by gofaster
That's pretty funny.

Still, I'll sometimes check rank on someone that popped me to just to see if they were any good or if they were just lucky and I was sucking at the moment.

That's a complete waste of time. I'm average at best and scored 17th in overall rank the one tour I 'gamed' for points and I really didn't try all that hard.

Rank don't mean jack...

Offline Ack-Ack

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« Reply #148 on: January 06, 2004, 06:17:20 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by DipStick


Rank don't mean jack...




rank (adj.) - very offensive in smell or taste




ack-ack
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Offline Drex

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« Reply #149 on: January 06, 2004, 08:33:59 PM »
The good thing is that I'm better at golf.  But even playing college golf and carrying a scratch handicap(Lie...4 handicap now)  I still haven't hit a hole-in-one in all my years.  I can though down a beer between holes.  Is that relevant?

Drex