Gaming the Game? Top ranking and Fighter vs Attack Mode

[Bruv119]

stop looking at my scores 

I log less fighter mode because there are hardly any people online when I play.   That would be the quickest way to ruin it flying around and not killing anything!   

As an old score Tard maybe I find it a little difficult to get out of old habits but when killing things hard and fast comes so naturally the rank system does its job by identifying them.   I can search top 50 fighter pilots and 90% of them would give you a decent fight when it comes down to it. 

[Dead Man Flying]

I'd argue that the ratio of the time in Fighter to Attack modes is somewhat irrelevant to players who game the system.  It's not about spending as little time as possible flying fighters, but rather only flying fighters when rewards are high and risks are low.  If players find themselves in lots of high reward/low risk situations, they'll score more sorties as Fighter.  Conversely, if they engage in a lot of high risk/low reward situations, they'll score more as Attack.  Someone engaged in base defense, for example, would probably score that sortie as Attack given the high risk of dying to higher, faster, and more numerous enemies.

Of these top 10/top 100 players, how do their K/D ratios compare against fighters in Attack versus Fighter modes?  How about K/T?  I suspect these stats are a bit more telling.

[Banshee7]

Pretty neat information, Snail!  Great job on the analysis! 

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Josh

[Traveler]

Kind of surprised that the aces high system can’t track Fighter vs. Attack  and it’s up to the pilot to make that selection.   I’d say if an aircraft is not a Bomber specific and is carrying no bombs or rockets, then it’s a fighter.   Once a fighter drops all it’s bombs and rockets, it’s a fighter.   

[Banshee7]

Kind of surprised that the aces high system can’t track Fighter vs. Attack  and it’s up to the pilot to make that selection.   I’d say if an aircraft is not a Bomber specific and is carrying no bombs or rockets, then it’s a fighter.   Once a fighter drops all it’s bombs and rockets, it’s a fighter.   

In that case, a 110G with heavy gun package and no bombs/rockets would be scored as fighter?

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Josh

[Dead Man Flying]

In that case, a 110G with heavy gun package and no bombs/rockets would be scored as fighter?

Why wouldn't it?

[Banshee7]

Why wouldn't it?

I was thinking more along the lines of the cookie cutter NOE raids, etc...  Usually, people use a 110G with heavy guns/no bombs to take out a town, meaning their sortie was an attack run.  But under Traveler's system, it would be scored as fighter because of the loadout?

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Josh

[Lusche]

Of these top 10/top 100 players, how do their K/D ratios compare against fighters in Attack versus Fighter modes?  How about K/T?  I suspect these stats are a bit more telling.

I will take a look at that later, but I do know that attack K/D's and K/Hs are generally lower across the board because of the different mission profiles. "Attack" runs have a higher probability of being ended by ship or field ack, or in front of a Wirbelwind.
So I think it's hard to tell if the lower k/d in attack mode is due to players being more bold in combat.

[Dead Man Flying]

I will take a look at that later, but I do know that attack K/D's and K/Hs are generally lower across the board because of the different mission profiles. "Attack" runs have a higher probability of being ended by ship or field ack, or in front of a Wirbelwind.

Is it possible to show how many of those flights scored as Attack ended due to ack or enemy gvs compared to flights scored as Fighter for the top 10/100 or so?

I ask because if it's true that players "game" it by scoring higher risk flights as Attack, then we should see little difference in their types of flying across these categories.  In other words, they'd be scoring flights that could just as well have been Fighter but, due to the increased risk, they scored them as Attack instead.  Thus we wouldn't expect to see them engaged in a great deal of actual "Attack," but rather fighter on aircraft combat as they did before.  If they're actually engaged in a lot of Attack-like activities, then the notion that top players game the categories is probably off base.

[Lusche]

Is it possible to show how many of those flights scored as Attack ended due to ack or enemy gvs compared to flights scored as Fighter for the top 10/100 or so?

Generally not, as I do not know if a sortie in a certain plane was scored under attack or fighter. Only sometimes we can tell from a players stats, for example when all his kills in fighter mode do match the kills in planes that can be flown in fighter mode only (Me 262, Ta 152H, ect.), but that's the exception.

[Traveler]

In that case, a 110G with heavy gun package and no bombs/rockets would be scored as fighter?

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Josh

I'm sure the code could be developed that ensured that bomber type aircraft could be accounted for.   empty B17's would not be counted as fighters.  I'm just suprised that it's not offered as an option to let the system score the flight as an attack or fighter.  I fly the P38L and carry bombs and rockest and hit assigned targets, I always score it as Attack, when flying the L, and score it as Fighter when flying the J & G.  But after I unload the P38L, it's a fighter and which I could score it as such. 

[Lusche]

  But after I unload the P38L, it's a fighter and which I could score it as such. 

So I should under no circumstances drop my bombs first on town and then strafe the remaining buildings...

[Lusche]

Of these top 10/top 100 players, how do their K/D ratios compare against fighters in Attack versus Fighter modes?

A very hasty look at the top 20 fighter ranked pilots of tour 153 and their K/D in fighter vs attack mode:



For the record, the median K/D's for all players who did fly in both modes in tour 153 is ~ 0,6 in fighter mode vs ~0,4 in attack mode.
But as stated earlier the chart doesn't tell us that much. Some of the top 20 players did hardly fly any attack sorties at all. Also, all of those player's attack K/Ds are still way above the average player's ones.

Overall, it doesn't change the whole picture. We know that individual players will fly much more in attack mode then in fighter mode, but that can be for very different reasons. But as shown in my intital posting, it happens much less than commonly believed (and that's what I was looking for to find out), and it's also not really required or effective (this is only valid for LW. EW and MW are a totally different matter).

[Banshee7]

So I should under no circumstances drop my bombs first on town and then strafe the remaining buildings...

Exactly what I was getting at.  For instance, a buddy and I were trying to take a base, and I strafed the remaining buildings down after I dropped my bombs in an F6.  I understand what you're saying, Traveler, but I think the selection of whether or not you score it as attack or fighter depends primarily on what the player sees as their top priority (i.e. bombing buildings, ord, tanks, etc.. before engaging enemy aircraft).  Theorectically, if a player's top priority is fighter cap, then they are not likely to carry bombs and are more likely to select "fighter."  Of course, that is theoretically speaking, because I know some people that try to do what the original post was about.

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Josh

[mthrockmor]

Help me just a bit.

If I fly X number of missions in Fighter, then the balance of the month in Attack does this somehow boost my Fighter score? If so, I guess I should game it a bit. With my work schedule I tend to hover somewhere around the 50 mark, and if gaming it drops me to around the 20s bodabing!

Or I could do it the old fashioned way...

Back to 100% Fighter missions for me. Interesting discussion though. Is there some score benefit to doing it 50/50 or 60/40?

Boo