Originally posted by Dead Man Flying
And now you've just hit upon exactly why K/D is such a poor objective measure of skill. What Khan does is boring, at least to me, and it takes more patience than skill. You also raise a question of which measures deserve more merit. If we go by K/T rather than K/D, Khan ranks poorly (under 0.0020 in every tour I checked). In addition, his K/S appears mediocre given the way he flies (~2 most tours).
-- Todd/Leviathn [/B]
If you think Khan's is low, just check my K/S and K/T.
However, there's good reason for this. Like you, I am not into the numbers game. I prefer to focus on the "team effort". Therefore, when I log on, I look for the location that needs the greatest aid and that's where I go. Invariably, this results in taking off from airfields under direct attack. As everyone knows, this usually leads to very short, violent sorties.
Frequently, should the radar be down, I'll fly a recon profile (for this I prefer a fast climber with good speed, such as the Yak-9U or even a Tempest). Once over the area in question, I feed info back via the text buffer. Last night, I spent 40 minutes circling enemy airfields and locating task forces. In both cases, our attacking forces had realtime data that gave them a clear picture of what awaited them. During recon runs, you rarely get into a fight. There's two main reasons for this: First, you're usually too high to reach without the prospective attacker getting vulched in the climbout. So, almost no one tries to come up. Second, your value is in being alive. Diving into a horde is simply a good way to waste that value.
Guys who spend a significant amount of time in vehicles, ships or PTs generally have very low K/T and K/S numbers. Much of their time is spent in transit from place to place. So, these numbers really don't reflect on their ability as much as their mission profiles and vehicle selection.
As you indicate, anyone can fly a 262 and cherry pick easy kills with little risk. Moreover, if that gives someone satisfaction, then by all means let them have at it. But, for me, I prefer to play a different role.
Of course, K/D is an equally poor measure of ability, or more accurately, combat flying skill. I have personally encountered pilots who gave me a very hard time, whose K/D stats would be considered little more than average. However, if one looks at what they fly and the missions they fly, you discover that the stats merely reflect the mission profiles rather than their skill level.
Naturally, some poor pilots may rely on this to pad their lack of skill, but who cares anyway?
Personally, I look at two things:
1) Am I enjoying myself?
2) Am I contributing to the team?
If the answer to both is yes, then the numbers are meaningless. Except that is, to those who need the positive reinforcement that such stats may provide.
My regards,
Widewing
