Scoring question

[Anaxogoras]

Thank you for those considerations, Ghostdancer. 

I think you're a little optimistic about how many people switch to their undamaged drones; a lot of people don't even know the keyboard command for that.  If the pilot does choose to ride his plane down, his drones warp all over and are a major collision hazard to anyone trying to attack them or even just flying in their vicinity.  I have witnessed this effect in nearly every FSO frame where bombers have been present, friendly or enemy.

For my part, I always attack the drones first to avoid the above scenario.  Right drone, then left, then lead.

Oh, and remember there are two different types of logs. There are the logs that are posted on the AHevents.org and their are the raw logs provided to us by HTC. The raw logs have a bit more detail / options CMs can use.

My guess is that if lost drones can be counted for main arena score, it wouldn't be difficult to include them for special events.  Isn't this a matter of selecting which pieces of information from the raw logs get ported over to the event logs?

Thank you.

[Stoney]

When I score an event, the only credited "kills" are those actual and maneuver kills.  If you crash, ditch, or anything else that does not give a kill to another player, it is not scored as a kill.  I use the raw logs to score the events now exclusively.  I can tell you whether or not a person landed all of his drones, but unless someone else got credited with a kill, I cannot tell you whether or not those drones he didn't land crashed, ditched, etc.; therefore, I do not credit them as kills for the oposing side.

We have tried scoring methods, in the past, that awarded folks that land safely.  This was done in an attempt to reward life-like behavior and reduce the "gamey" techniques sometimes used with, for example, Kates when second lives are available.  The results of these scoring techniques were inconclusive and created a huge burden on the CM scoring the event.  I can tell you that tracking and awarding those points added at least an hour to an already 2-3 hour task for me.  Ultimately, I decided it wasn't a cost effective method.

As far as the drone mechanics in-game--there's nothing we can do to change them.  Formations in general are a valuable tool for the Admin CM, but certain setups allow us to turn them off if desired.  Given that most bombers are pretty much nothing but flying targets with very little defensive capability, I enable formations in most of my setups, to ensure that those assigned bombers aren't getting clobbered early, and spending most of the Frame sitting in the tower listening to their buddies over voice.  Early frame 1 I collided with some drones after popping the lead aircraft and it ended my night, so I can empathize with what you're saying.

[Nefarious]

We have tried scoring methods, in the past, that awarded folks that land safely.  This was done in an attempt to reward life-like behavior and reduce the "gamey" techniques sometimes used with, for example, Kates when second lives are available.  The results of these scoring techniques were inconclusive and created a huge burden on the CM scoring the event.  I can tell you that tracking and awarding those points added at least an hour to an already 2-3 hour task for me.  Ultimately, I decided it wasn't a cost effective method.

I used that method in the last Three FSOs I wrote. It was very difficult at first, but it became easier.

I hope you guys try to implement a system to reward pilots who land successfully.

[ghostdancer]

Hmmm, I will think on it. Since I use a couple excel and other programming methods to score things. Still usually takes me 2 to 3 hours to score things. Then takes me longer investigating possible issues (which is why score isn't out yet).

But will look into it.

Of course for bomber drones same problem can happen on landing. Pilot lands but how do I know his drones landed?

As for the rest I do the same as Stoney .. points are given for kills and maneuver kills. Anything else does not generate points. Although maybe possibly will think about a bonus pts be awarded for surviving the whole frame. Will think on that.