There are lots of things that a score system cannot identify, such as when you killed that guy: Were you 1 vs 3, or 3 vs 1? Did you begin the fight with an alt advantage, or did he? Etc.
One thing that our score system could identify, however, is how lame or how uber a plane does a given pilot typically fight in. After all, with all things being equal, (K/D, K/S, K/T, Hit%, Points) who's better: a Spit 1 pilot, or a Spit IX pilot? With the current score system, early-bird pilots are penalized by flying generally inferior planes. If you are score conscious, the last thing that you would want to do is fly early war planes. With what I propose, earning kills in an early war low-performing plane would be recognized for the achievement that it is.
The implementation could be simple and would be as fair as the ENY rankings are accurate.
In fighter rankings, in addition to K/D, K/S, K/T, Hit% and Points, each player would have an Average ENY Value (AEV).
Here's how it works:
Every time you earn a kill or assist, the ENY value of the plane that you earned the kill in is recorded. So if you only flew Spit-1s for a tour, your ENY value would be 60. You would be tied in first place with the handful of other pilots who also exclusively flew only Spit-1s or 202s. Likewise, if you only flew Spit-IXs for a tour, your ENY value would be 10. You would be ranked somewhere around 3000 place with the oodles of other pilots who also exclusively flew only Spit-IXs, N1K2-js, TA-152s and/or F4U-1Cs.
Now most folks don't fly only one plane a tour. This isn't a problem because every time you earn a kill the ENY value of the plane that you earned the kill in is averaged into your total AEV.
Suppose you get 100 kills in a Spit-1 and 100 kills in a Spit-IX in a single tour (no assists *): {(100 X 10 = 1000) + (100 X 60 = 6000)} = 7000 AEV points divided by 200 kills = 35.
Your Average ENY Value that tour would be 35. You would rank the same as someone who flew exclusively: FW-190A-8s, P-47D-25s or P-51Bs.
* Assist would be calculated 0.25 kill X ENY value of plane.
~ This idea could also be used in Attack or Ground Vehicle Rankings ~
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Whenever someone suggest a change to the score system, they get flamed for trying to adapt the system to how (or what) they fly so that they will rank better. I want to make it clear that this change will make myself rank worse (possibly much worse) than I do now. (Proof below) My motive for suggesting this change is that I think that it will do a better (not perfect, only better) job of identifying the more skilled pilots.
-Proof that eskimo is not just suggesting this to make himself rank better-
After looking back at past rankings (3 tours) of sub-fighter-categories (with the exception of points), about 2/3 of my sub-rankings have been in the top 50. Therefor any new fighter sub-category that would not rank me high, would hurt my ranking.
The majority of my kills in the MA come from my 4 main rides: Typhoon, F4U-1C, 109F-4, A6M5. I also play around with lots of other planes, but for simplicity sake, I'll limit this to only those 4. After adding up my kills in these planes for the past 3 tours, I got:
Plane . . . . Kills X ENY = Sub Total AEV
Typhoon . . .169 x 24 = 4065
F4U-1C . . . 143 x 10 = 1430
109F-4 . . . .111 x 43 = 4773
A6M5 . . . . . 77 x 27 = 2079
Total . . . . . 500 Kills /12338 = 24.676
My Average ENY Value for these four planes would have been 24.7
17 fighters have an ENY value lower than 24.7, including 6 perk planes.
27 fighters have an ENY value higher than 24.7
Certainly most of the most-used planes belong to the unperked set with ENYs lower than 24.7 (11 planes), but my ENY rank would have been far from high.
Again, my motives for introducing this sub-category into the rankings is because I honestly believe that the fighter rankings will become at least a bit more accurate in identifying the better pilots.
A second motive is that the few pilots who play the score game will be further encouraged to fly early war rides in order to protect/enhance their scores. The effect will be less good pilots driving only late war planes. Early-war-planes replacing late-war-planes is a good thing for arena balance. This is something that many folks have been complaining about and would like to see. I am certain that this system will not result in a huge switch to the early set from the late. The change will be small, but every bit helps.
Please, before you bash this idea because you realize that your high fighter ranking will plummet because you drive planes on the uber-side (You Spit-IX Dweeb! You!
), stop and think; is the idea fair, and will it help balance the arena?
Well, what do you think?
(Spare the predictable score-potato comments)
eskimo
