Kill or assist?

[Black Jack]

How does it work to get an assist or to get the kill when you shoot down somebody. Sometimes it happened that i damage a con to the point it's smoking black and white. So gaz and oil, but then somebody comes along and shoots a few bullets and the kill goes to him and i got an assist. Another time i was close to this con and shot a few burst but don't think i hit him at all. The guy had to ditch and i got a kill. I did not even see any sparks on his plane when i shot. I'm confused, is there some kind of "bubble" around a plane and that is how it's decided. What about the size of caliber that you shoot with? Thanks

[Ghosth]

Its based on who does the most actual damage. Also you have to remember someone else may have pinged that bogey considerably before you ever saw him.

While once and a while the damage system may seem unfair, most of the time its pretty good.

[porkfrog]

There is no "bubble" so to speak. I believe back in the Air Warrior days it was a "bubble", but now it's modeled for actual skin of the aircraft.

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[MotorOil1]

If you bounce a couple rounds off a guy, no one else touches him and ten minutes later the guy runs out of fuel and ends up ditching - you get the kill provided you're still on the same sotrie.

[Benny Moore]

Yesterday I peppered a Focke-Wulf with my machine guns for about a minute, resulting in no visible damage.  But then another P-38 zoomed down and hit the FW-190 with cannon, turning the Kraut into a wingless ball of fire.  It gave me the kill.  I was suprised; although I felt I deserved the kill, as I had initially outmaneuvered the foe and had gotten a lot more hits than the other 38, he was the one who actually made the airplane go down.

[Murdr]

Originally posted by Black Jack
What about the size of caliber that you shoot with? Thanks

Yes, different ammo types have a different potential for doing damage, but velocity of impact also effects how much damage a round does.  

As noted already, the player who does the most amount of damage gets awarded the kill.  There is also a proximity kill or "proxy" that is awarded to the closest enemy within 1800 yards of someone who crashes, bails, disconnects, or is captured if no one alive had damaged them.

[Black Jack]

Thanks Murdr, that explains the "impossible" kills sometimes. It happened that i saw a con take off, went after it, did not shoot anything and he augered. I got a kill for just being there. Now with the amount of times that i die in engagement, i would need a dozen of those "proxy" kills per night.

Black70

[Lusche]

Where our current system really fails is crediting the kill of GVs. Countless times  I have strafed enemy GV´s with no apparent effect, they were still moving & shooting. Yet when a friendly tank finally killed this GV, I got the kill. It seems that the pure amount of lead put on a target is all what counts when determining who gets the kill.

[DustyR]

I experienced the same thing, where I strafed a GV and he got a couple of rounds up at me as I pulled up.  A short time later bingo feul and into the ground I went.  He got credit for the kill.  Gotta love it.

[Lusche]

Originally posted by DustyR
I experienced the same thing, where I strafed a GV and he got a couple of rounds up at me as I pulled up.  A short time later bingo feul and into the ground I went.  He got credit for the kill.  Gotta love it.

He was the only one to hit you. You died. He got the kill. I see no problem with that.

[BaldEagl]

Two nights ago I along with 2 or 3 others were chasing some bombers.  I never got closer than 2K and never fired a shot but somehow got credited for an assist.

Sometimes there's just no explanation but for the most part the current system works.