Lusches AH Stats Megathread

[JunkyII]

What did the fighters kill?

These are  two charts depicting the victims of all fighter planes (regardless of scoring mode) over the years. Top chart shows the percentages, while bottom chart shows the absolute numbers. Please note that from late 2006 to late 2007 EW&MW arenas were included in these stats, so the absolute numbers during that timeframe are inflated by something like 10%.
No absolute numbers for 2016 given, as we are only half way through the year. Extrapolated from current trends we would end up with about 20% - 30% less kills (absolute), but the arrival of AH III could possibly change that a lot.

(Image removed from quote.)
("attack" planes are bombers for the purpose of these charts)

For the record, I personally had expected a much higher rise of bomber kills (percentage wise). Oce more my perception was proven wrong by my own numbers 

Uh....so I'm right that more furballers seemed to have left the game?? Probably because of m3 resupply and man guns...

[Zimme83]

I would say that it is not possible to draw that conclusion from the data. The M3:s and man guns were of course present long before the furballers left. I say that they left because of the decrease in player number made it harder to furball and those who enjoy other aspects of the game like strat runs and base sneaks are more likely to stay in the game since their gameplay are less affected by lower player numbers than the furballers.

[Lusche]

Uh....so I'm right that more furballers seemed to have left the game?? Probably because of m3 resupply and man guns...

Not necessarily. In addition to what Zimme already mentioned, most players in the 'good ole furballs' had been dedicated furball purists at all. Most players traditionally fell between the extreme gameplay poles this game offers. It's my opinion that indeed the decline of furballs is also a lot (if not mostly) due to greatly reduced player density on a map. Of course m3 resupply can have a sizeable impact too when enemy city is at 100%, cause a base attack either succeeds or fails very quickly.

On traditional furballer purists though, m3s and manned guns shouldn't have any impact, after all they are not tying to capture the base or vulch the field, aren't they?

[JunkyII]

Not necessarily. In addition to what Zimme already mentioned, most players in the 'good ole furballs' had been dedicated furball purists at all. Most players traditionally fell between the extreme gameplay poles this game offers. It's my opinion that indeed the decline of furballs is also a lot (if not mostly) due to greatly reduced player density on a map. Of course m3 resupply can have a sizeable impact too when enemy city is at 100%, cause a base attack either succeeds or fails very quickly.

On traditional furballer purists though, m3s and manned guns shouldn't have any impact, after all they are not tying to capture the base or vulch the field, aren't they?

I know you can't pull that from those graphs but I gotta try right???

As you know furballs/fights tend to form around base captures...but those game play features make it so they don't have to up and defend...so the only thing the furballers have to shoot is the ack....which leads to vulching. 

I'm definitely not a purist...I just speak highly for the air fight because I think that's the one that has taken the most decline with the numbers dropping. I can jump in a gv battle today and it would feel the same as it was 5-6 years ago...a fighter??? Not so much

[save]

My perception is that the Wirbys have taken over the base defenses to quite some extent, previously it was a fighter job.

[Lusche]

I'm definitely not a purist...I just speak highly for the air fight because I think that's the one that has taken the most decline with the numbers dropping. I can jump in a gv battle today and it would feel the same as it was 5-6 years ago...a fighter??? Not so much

There had been a lot of change with GV battles as well, of course more notable when not playing at US primetime.  For example in 12/13 I could find a lot of action during Euro prime (US afternoon) in the TT area of CraterMa. When I left in late 15, that place had almost been deserted. The large GV battles outside the various Tank Town areas (for example the huge armored drives on enemy Vbases on FesterMa (the larger predecessor of todays Fester map) had also almost ceased to exist.
The GV game has been suffering from very similar effects as the air game, slowly shifting from battles to isolated sneaks and a lot of M3 running, because you don't need any critical mass for such solitary actions. There are much less GVs around than 2, 4 or 10 years ago.

I will post percentages of time spend in various modes later today

[Lusche]

Here we go.. a few more updated charts:

First, time distribution between the different game(scoring) modes for the (LW) MA (except, as always, from III/2006 to III/2007, as EW & MW was included in the LW arena data during that time)
Missing is the time spent in manned guns, no data available on that



As you can see, it's still not "AH's now just GV everywhere"






This is how the various kind of kills are distributed (Air to Air, Air to Ground, Ground to Ground, Ground to air):



For interpretation of this, the context is important. When the share of the G2G kills (=tanks shooting each other) suddenly rose it did not mean that suddenly about everybody jumped to tanks (as you can clearly see by the first chart). At that time the GV control system was fundamentally revamped, allowing for a much faster pace in GV combat than before.










And finally the k/h for the different scoring modes:

[caldera]

Here we go.. a few more updated charts:

First, time distribution between the different game(scoring) modes for the (LW) MA (except, as always, from III/2006 to III/2007, as EW & MW was included in the LW arena data during that time)
Missing is the time spent in manned guns, no data available on that

(Image removed from quote.)

As you can see, it's still not "AH's now just GV everywhere"






This is how the various kind of kills are distributed (Air to Air, Air to Ground, Ground to Ground, Ground to air):

(Image removed from quote.)

For interpretation of this, the context is important. When the share of the G2G kills (=tanks shooting each other) suddenly rose it did not mean that suddenly about everybody jumped to tanks (as you can clearly see by the first chart). At that time the GV control system was fundamentally revamped, allowing for a much faster pace in GV combat than before.










And finally the k/h for the different scoring modes:

(Image removed from quote.)

Another surprise, is that the time in bombers has been slowly increasing since 2011.   Most of the bombers I've encountered the past year or two seem to be crazy high and much fewer bomber sightings in general.   Not sure when it started, but base takers tend to rely more on massed heavy fighters than buffs.

[Bruv119]

I came in briefly the other day and it seemed every other Bish player was a set of buffs. 

Guess it's time to dust off the 262  or meteor if HTC finally adds it.   

[zack1234]

We invented the jet engine not the narzzies

[caldera]

I came in briefly the other day and it seemed every other Bish player was a set of buffs. 

Guess it's time to dust off the 262  or meteor if HTC finally adds it.

I've been flying the 410, specifically looking for bombers and almost invariably getting stuck dogfighting in this pig.

[Lusche]

base captures - effort

Following chart shows the total hours of gameplay per captured base in the LW arena(s).
(total hours of all pilots with at least 1 kill or death in a tour)/(number of scored base captures)




Some things that may had an influence on the capture rate:

New, much larger towns: Tour 126 (needed 100% destruction, had no flags to indicate status)
Town requirement set to 50%, flag added: Tour 131
Town requirement set to current 75%: Tour 136
Peak/Offpeak arena format: Tour 130
Back to single LW arena format: Tour 137
Fundamental strat change (zones deleted, central strats and current base resupply mechanism introduced): Tour 151/152

[bozon]

That is very interesting. Thanks Lusche.

I wonder I the reading for less hours per capture has to do with the lower players numbers over time. Like when one countrry goes on a capture streak in the off peak hours with little resistance.

[Lusche]

I wonder I the reading for less hours per capture has to do with the lower players numbers over time.

This absolutely has a great impact and is most probably the reason why we have a steady decline in h/capture in the recent past (for the record, captures/player are going up in a similar way).
The smaller the population, the smaller the player density in a given arena, the more chances you have to sneak a base. Sometimes it may even be seen as the only thing you can do when there's really not much else going on.
In the EW arena, the h/capture traditionally have been extremely low, in MW somewhat higher.

[Zimme83]

I came in briefly the other day and it seemed every other Bish player was a set of buffs. 

Guess it's time to dust off the 262  or meteor if HTC finally adds it.

with very few players on its hard to take bases etc, strat runs is often the most productive thing to do..