My posts about ENY from the other thread I mentioned:
I've always been an advocate of using the same multipliers that effect perk point calculations for points as well. I posted this idea during the ENY debate, I don't think HT was receptive to it, I'd have to look up the old thread for his exact response. Get kills in harder planes, more points. Get kills while outnumbered, more points. This would give incentive for the presumably better players who play for Fighter Rank to fly for the underdog and fly early war planes more often, improving both variety and gameplay balance. The current ENY system doesn't really do that as the better players can fly a wide variety of planes across the entire ENY value spectrum with comparable efficiency.
I would also love to see a more descriminating system as you described where vulches and HO's were not rewarded. But, honestly I doubt that will be possible. There is no programming infrastructure in place to differentiate the 'How" of a kill just the 'Who' and the 'How Many'. I am not a programmer, but I am fairly certain the coding that would be required would outweigh any gameplay benefit derived, but what do I know, maybe it would be rather easy. We can dream.
And this:
Yup, exactly. If I were HT I would try modifying score the same as perks (by relative plane ENY value and Country ENY number multiplier). The worst possible effect it could have is no effect at all. Yet, it has the potential of bringing much greater diversity, variety and parity to the MA on many levels. All this while not disrupting gameplay for the average player at all. Those not concerned with their fighter rank can go about their business in ignorant bliss. Those concerned with their fighter rank have a few more tools in their set to potentially give themselves an edge in the heated Fighter Rank competition, those being, flying for the under-manned side and flying early war planes.
As Mandoble mentioned, fighter score is weighted heavily in favor of that tiny fraction of players who have the luxury of being able to fly 8+ hours a day, this would act as an equalizer to help mitigate that fact. For example, you can either fly 8+ hours a day in an La7 on the largest team for X score or you can fly 2-3 hours a day in a P40b on the under-manned side for the same X score. At the time I originally broached this concept with HiTech he was madly infatuated with the whole ENY limiting concept to the total exclusion of all other ideas, I suspect he's a bit more open-minded at this point. This concept could work along-side the ENY limiter in perfect harmony. This whole idea has always seemed Win-Win to me, but what do I know, I'm just a mind-less dweeb.
Formula would be something like:
Landing modifier(Damage X Relative Plane ENY) X Country Number ENY = Score
And Finally This:
It's largely because vulching is and always will remain the single best way to rack up both a purdy fighter score and alot of perks in the shortest possible time the ENY limiter is largely ineffective in and of itself. Regardless of the ENY penalty your team is afflicted with it is still more lucrative to play for the largest team and vulch in a 60 ENY P40B. Your only other option is to play for the gang-banged team and get vulched repeatedly in a 10 perk cost 262, not an appealing scenario. Guess what most prefer to do if not simply log-off ? (the ones getting gang-banged still log-off more than the ones being punished by the ENY by a large margin exacerbating the issue even further).
There is also the feeling on the ENY penalized team of why switch? I am giving the other team an advantage over me, it is in effect handicapping my team already. They would rather play with their friends and squadrons handicapped than the gang-banged team un-fettered by ENY. Noone likes to feel coerced into doing something, it's human nature. It's like the old anology of the man wearing the coat. The ENY limiter is like the wind trying to blow the coat off the man, but it's no use the man just grips his coat tightly around himself indignant to the wind. The sun, on the other hand, beams warmy thru the clouds, warming the man gently, he removes his coat willingly and happily. How about using the ENY calculation system and applying it as an incentive, rather than a punishment, by applying it to fighter point calculations this would be like the sun warming the coat off the man.
I'm not saying doing away with the ENY limiter completely, it is worthwhile in certain extreme circumstances (ie: I can't remember the last time Rooks staged an RJO). But, for the purpose of gently persuading players to balance themselves over time augmenting it with the same fighter point modifiers that apply to perks would work wonders.
The reason I believe it will work wonders is the fact that 20% of the Fighter pilots get 80% of the air to air kills a month. Of that top 20% a good many of them will be concerned with their fighter rank and would want to exploit any benefit to their scores they could via early war plane selection and playing for the underdogs. The ENY system alone isn't good for moving the top 20% that get 80% of the kills. It is, however, wonderfull at irritating and annoying the hell out of the less talented bottom 80% of players (paying customers) that only get 20% of the kills and therefore have a relatively small impact per capita on gameplay compared to their top 20% counter-parts. The bottom 80% are far more dramatically impacted by ENY limitations as they are likely not adept with multiple planes especially relatively poor performing planes. So, in terms of bang for your buck, moving that top 20% around with positive incentives would be far more effective than attempting to move a small portion of the bottom 80% around with punishment as the ENY system attempts but fails to do now.
Zazen
