Originally posted by kj714
That brings up a good question, how the heck does the ranking system work? Trying to reconcile my overall rank into my individual ranks just leaves me wondering wtf?
The only part of my score I really consider right now is K/D. I have to use something as a benchmark to see if I'm getting better, so I guess thats as good as anything. I vulch a little bit now and then, but most of my kills are from true dogfighting. I also quit dumping my planes whenever I landed and started hot padding, that would help my K/S, correct?
Right now, I just want to get K/D to over 1.5 and keep it there.
In AW, K/D was pretty much the only statistic we had. It was practically the only measure of a fighter pilot other than the fictitious 'points' awarded. While there's no one statistic that paints the entire picture, K/D is certainly, from a historical perspective, the most important statistic. In the actual conflict of WW2, kills/sortie and kills/time were of zero consequence, these stats were not kept. Half the missions flown had no combat engagements whatsoever, so keeping track of those statistics would have been meaningless. The single statistic used to guage the success of an air combat unit during WW2 was Kills/Deaths.
Similiarly, Kills/Deaths in Aces High probably paints a very accurate portrait of someone's overall ability IF they fly with K/D in mind. K/D is an especially great indicator of someone's SA skill. Obviously, many players do not give a rats arse about K/D. So, K/D is only really a valid measuring tool if you are comparing it to others who care about it. Alot of people deliberately die to pad their Kills/Time, or just to save time getting into a fresh plane, so obviously using K/D as a measuring tool for them would be pointless.
If I had to pick one statistic that was the most meaningfull for measuring self-improvement in the kind of AH I enjoy it would be K/D, followed closely by Gunnery Hit %. I wish AW had had hit %, because it tells alot too. After an entire camp, even allowing for buff hunters and vulchers (enhances hit %), hit % tells alot about the relative skill of the pilot. Most 'good' pilots have a 10%-14%'ish hit %. The very best pilots have 15% to 20%+ hit %. I have yet to see a poor pilot with a good hit %. Likewise, I have yet to see a poor pilot with a good K/D (10 to 1 or better). I have seen many poor pilots with a decent K/S (alot of vulching and/or re-arming) and K/T (dying alot helps kills/time), alot of pilots even go out of their way to die just to pad their K/T.
Anyways, just food for thought.
Zazen
