Score\Stats\Rank vs. Skill Misperception‎s

[Lusche]

The pilots with very high K/D in fighter mode almost invariably have very high hit % as well. Being able to hit and kill quickly is an indespensable prerequisite for getting a very high k/D. That's one of the reasons not just everyone can simply do it if he wants

Can't find sleep, so made a quick chart  



That's the hit % off all players in tour 167 with hit% of 10 or more, this time regardless how many sorties they did really fly. Yes, it's really that few.
The thin blue line shows their average hit%, while the read line is showing the average arena hit %. While the individual hit % are not always directly comparable (the guy with hit% 18+ was shooting mostly at bombers), their K/D as a group is greatly above the "ordinary" MA pilot.
To put things into perspective, note that less than 20% of the MA players had a hit% of 6+, less than 10% had 8+

[Latrobe]

I don't know why people are using my stats for comparison. They're completely wrong, and here's why.... I LOVE upping from fields that are being vulched to see how many of them auger fighting over the kill.  I get about 50-80 deaths in 2 minutes doing this. Needless to say stats like K/D go from a 2.0 to a 0.9 really quick.  So if I were to not have fun playing this game, my K/D would probably be up near 3-4, but since I do screw around and fun my K/D drops below 1 a lot.  Sometimes I intentionally ruin my score when it starts getting really good by upping several dozen Mossi's, wasting the ammo into thin air, and then augering for about 30 minutes. Why? Because I hate the ranking system and want to prove to people that you do NOT need a good rank to be seen as a decent pilot.

Score can be manipulated BOTH ways. I do not look up someones stats to see how good he might be because scores are so easily manipulated (both in the good way and bad way). I've seen pilots with amazing looking stats ranked in the top 10 fighters who just could not beat a trash bag floating in the wind. Then I've seen pilots who can just kill everyone else in the skies who have the worst looking fighter score you've ever seen! The ONLY way to determine someones skills and fighting style is to actually fight them in the air. You can easily tell just how good someone is just off the merge alone! I've merged with pilots and instantly thought "Oh CRAP! This guy is a good pilot!" but looking at his stats after he kills me I see his rank and stats are worse than mine!

[Lusche]

I don't know why people are using my stats for comparison. They're completely wrong, and here's why.... I LOVE upping from fields that are being vulched to see how many of them auger fighting over the kill.  I get about 50-80 deaths in 2 minutes doing this. Needless to say stats like K/D go from a 2.0 to a 0.9 really quick.  So if I were to not have fun playing this game, my K/D would probably be up near 3-4, but since I do screw around and fun my K/D drops below 1 a lot.

Score is more than just K/D...  Especially the extremely high K/H and hit% give away that you aren't the n00b at all, but someone with a kinda "reckless" style.

Last tour your K/D was in the top 20%, k/s in the top 10%, k/h top 2% and hit% top 4%.

[ink]

the only stat that is truly quantifiable is hit%

and that can be gamed by attacking bombers.

it is the most important "skill" out of all of them.

it does not matter how well you fly...or how great your SA is....if you cant aim...you cant hit....you cant kill...

all the very best have great AIM...period....some of the very best are not all that great in the ACM they are late in their merges...their timing is off....they only use 1 tactic that works for them...

I have fought guys...where I missed 15 times...they get 1 shot and land it.....

simple fact is I suck at aiming.....so I have noticed the differences...and fighting the tops, and the fights where I do good...like 5vs1 that I kill all of them....its always because I was on that night...when I pulled the trigger they died...

I have learned AIM is by FAAAAAAAR the most important and I tell anyone who asks me....practice TARGETING if you want to be known as a "killer"

IMO

[Latrobe]

Score is more than just K/D...  Especially the extremely high K/H and hit% give away that you aren't the n00b at all, but someone with a kinda "reckless" style.

Last tour your K/D was in the top 20%, k/s in the top 10%, k/h top 2% and hit% top 4%.

I think the scoring system is pretty messed up somewhere then. 457 Sorties, landing only 66 of them (who knows how many of those landed was from having the vulchers only get my wings and forced me to EF on concrete). A 1.34 K/D, 1.13 K/S, 9.0 K/H, 10.4 hit %. Besides K/H, because I have no idea how that is scored and what's considered good for it, those other stats are average to below-average at best. I was BARLEY making 1 kill per sortie, and 1 kill per death and that put me in the top 10% for K/S and 20% for K/D? It's only ONE kill and then I died in the sortie! Something is VERY VERY wrong there IMHO.

[Lusche]

I think the scoring system is pretty messed up somewhere then. 457 Sorties, landing only 66 of them (who knows how many of those landed was from having the vulchers only get my wings and forced me to EF on concrete). A 1.34 K/D, 1.13 K/S, 9.0 K/H, 10.4 hit %. Besides K/H, because I have no idea how that is scored and what's considered good for it, those other stats are average to below-average at best. I was BARLEY making 1 kill per sortie, and 1 kill per death and that put me in the top 10% for K/S and 20% for K/D? It's only ONE kill and then I died in the sortie! Something is VERY VERY wrong there IMHO.

Not at all. You may have made 'only' 1.5 kills for every death (and yes, that's still better than 80% of all pilots do), but you made them very quickly and you were consistently shooting very well. Just because you put yourself in jeopardy more than others and die more because of it doesn't mean you are bad pilot and / or have a bad score. Why should a low K/D impact the hit%?

Again, your score card is the archetypal 'reckless' AH vet, with far above average killing skills 'suffering' only in K/D by challenging himself and accept (almost) every fight he gets.
The opposite would be the safety pilot, with a very high K/D but miserable K/H, K/S and possibly hit%

Furthermore, it's the symptom I mentioned earlier... overestimating the "average". Players being way above the masses calling themself as "only average".
Face it, the majority of AH pilots suck even more than you do  

[Latrobe]

with far above average killing skills 'suffering' only in K/D by challenging himself and accept (almost) every fight he gets.

ALMOST every fight?? Please! I accept EVERY fight! 

[Arlo]

I will finish my part of this thread by saying that nothing makes a new pilots day more than being complemented by a good pilot about something they do in game - heck, even old pilots like to hear praise.  So, next time you're in a good fight, see a green or red guy make a great shot, sound off about it, and let him and others in the area either on Green channel or even 200 know about it.  If this game had more compliments from all of us, it would go a long way to improving overall morale in the MA, and would perhaps even increase customer retention, particularly with newer/low time pilots.

Adios everyone.

No need to 'finish' the pearls of wisdom. There can never be too many. 

[Kingpin]

Score is more than just K/D...

Lots of great words of wisdom in this thread!  

The best points being that score best measures you against yourself.  I used those stats less as a comparison to others and more as a way of tracking my own progress.

Score is kind of what you make out of it.  During a tour last year I tried to see if I could RTB every sortie and see how many kills I could get without losing an air-frame.  I managed to go the whole tour without losing a fighter.  But my overall fighter score was not great.  Nor am I one of the better fighter guys in game.  It was just something I wanted to try.

I probably won't ever attempt this again, because it did get a little boring at times.  I enjoyed the immersion factor of flying to survive (like my life was on the line) and I did land sorties dead-stick a few times, pilot wounded a couple times and once on a carrier with half a wing.  The tension of those RTB's actually made it fun.  But I still wouldn't fly this way again.  In fact, when I return to the game, I want to try a whole tour flying under 10K and fighting everything that comes at me.  I'll die a lot, but I think I'll get even better.

That might be an interesting message in all this: The way we play (and score) often progresses over time.  What we enjoy doing may change.  And nothing makes you learn faster than getting pushed out of a comfort area.  For this reason I think some players who fly only for top scores may be cheating themselves out of a more enriching experience.  Then again, that might just be a stage they are in and eventually will play differently.  All part of the cool sandbox that is AH, I suppose.

Below are my silly "Land Every Sortie" tour stats (fun, but boring, but cool to see if I could do it, but been there done that now...):



<S>
Ryno

[Arlo]

Lots of great words of wisdom in this thread!  

The best points being that score best measures you against yourself.  I used those stats less as a comparison to others and more as a way of tracking my own progress.

Score is kind of what you make out of it.  During a tour last year I tried to see if I could RTB every sortie and see how many kills I could get without losing an air-frame.  I managed to go the whole tour without losing a fighter.  But my overall fighter score was not great.  Nor am I one of the better fighter guys in game.  It was just something I wanted to try.

I probably won't ever attempt this again, because it did get a little boring at times.  I enjoyed the immersion factor of flying to survive (like my life was on the line) and I did land sorties dead-stick a few times, pilot wounded a couple times and once on a carrier with half a wing.  The tension of those RTB's actually made it fun.  But I still wouldn't fly this way again.  In fact, when I return to the game, I want to try a whole tour flying under 10K and fighting everything that comes at me.  I'll die a lot, but I think I'll get even better.

That might be an interesting message in all this: The way we play (and score) often progresses over time.  What we enjoy doing may change.  And nothing makes you learn faster than getting pushed out of a comfort area.  For this reason I think some players who fly only for top scores may be cheating themselves out of a more enriching experience.  Then again, that might just be a stage they are in and eventually will play differently.  All part of the cool sandbox that is AH, I suppose.

Below are my silly "Land Every Sortie" tour stats (fun, but boring, but cool to see if I could do it, but been there done that now...):

(Image removed from quote.)

<S>
Ryno

There you go. Upstaging me by 62.5 without a death, ditch, bail or capture (or disco). Harrrumpf! 

[Gman]

I had to come back to this and say that this thread has been great, again, and to respond to BaldEagl - I said I just use it as a general guide, and you're making my point for me in a way, that there are exceptions, and that I also take into account how long a player has been around.  In your specific case, comparing your old stats to your current, which reflect the style you've chosen to fly, doesn't mean that I look at your current stats for example, and just write off your lethality in the MA, it's actually sort of the opposite, as I know from past experience regarding seeing an old hand fight in the MA that the ability to GET those higher numbers is in there somewhere still.

There is a ton of great info in this thread, it's actually already changed my perception of things and how my own thought process works regarding certain stats and things.  Specifically, shot making ability and the stats surrounding that, Ink and Changeup's stuff in particular are important points regarding this.  From years of playing Quake2 while in school and competitively, I always had a really good shot in this game, the skill from one game transferred over to this one I guess.  It's my one saving grace, as I fall into the category of non-superb ACM, but my ability to make shots has bailed me out in the MA with great regularity.  I realize both from experience and some of the info in this thread that accuracy is the most abusable stat, sometimes even accidentally or through ignorance, I hadn't even considered the bomber shooting bit that was brought up here to be honest - just another bit of useful info I've gotten from this thread I guess.  

Lusche as always, I love reading your posts, obviously, since I enjoy analyzing statistics, something you're 100x better at doing than I, so it's a fantastic learning experience for me to read through your posts on the subject, and not just in this thread.

Kingpin, that's incredible, and a great example of what I've been railing about, and shows I think what can be accomplished by goal setting and altering ones mindset in the MA.  Really quite an impressive run.

I was hoping Bruv would stop in here, he's been somewhat absent vis a vis BBS posts, and I always learn something about something reading his posts or watching him fly, as he's the penultimate example of what I consider very hard to achieve stats.  He knows it too, ha ha, which is part and parcel to a real world fighter pilot mentality.

[Debrody]

I was hoping Bruv would stop in here, he's been somewhat absent vis a vis BBS posts, and I always learn something about something reading his posts or watching him fly, as he's the penultimate example of what I consider very hard to achieve stats.  He knows it too, ha ha, which is part and parcel to a real world fighter pilot mentality.

Tundra-way? 

[RedBull1]

Score potatos

[Randy1]

Highly skilled pickers I would think have skewed scores since their shots are high percentage, save shots.  They seem to search for fights that have the highest opportunities for picking.  I can use the P38 as a picker in fighter capped situations and have my K/D go up in the P38 but that is just no fun at all.

I know too when I choose a plane like a P47M or P51 over the P38 my K/D goes up dramatically.  The faster planes close quicker and can reset a bad situation.  Not to mention the P38 is probably number one on most, if not all, folks kill priority list.

[LCADolby]

From what I have seen, you're a trooper Randy. That determination will do you well.