Rank, perk points, scoring, etc.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by wulfie
People vulch for one of 2 reasons in general I think:

1. To capture an airfield, i.e. to keep any defending aircraft from taking off and interrupting the deployment of ground troops attempting to capture said airfield.

2. To rack up lots of easy and safe kills so they have a 'nice looking score'.

2A. To rack up lots of easy and safe kills and land them for lots of perk points.


Mike/wulfie

I think you left out the most important reason why people vulch, because it's fun.

As for the rank/scoring system, I've been playing online flight sims for close to 10 years now and I can honestly say, I never played for ranking or score.  To me the enjoyment I get is from the kill, doesn't matter if I fly into a horde as long as I get a couple of kills before they get me.  But that's just me and I know everyone else has different motivations.  I just think that way to many people place to much emphasis on having the best rank/score which leads to some very dweebish flying.  Personally, I can do without the rank/scoring system and live with only having the stats offline like they are now.

As for your previous post about getting more perks/score for shooting down better pilots, that's how it used to be in AW.  If you shot down someone with a higher score than you had, you got more points for the kill than you would have had if you shot down someone with less points than you.  


Ack-Ack

[wulfie]

Okay I think it's a different way of stating the same thing Ack-Ack.

You say it's 'fun' to vulch people - for me that's 'I'm drinking and playing AH and it's fun to blow things up' type 'fun' in my book. It's akin to playing the smack the gophers with the hammer type game you see at D&Bs. There is zero challenge (for me) in shooting people attempting to takeoff.

From my point of view - the big motivation for me to try WB long ago was to fight another aircraft being flown by a human as opposed to AI. It was about the challenge of beating another person.

So vulching can be 'fun' in my book, but no more fun than shooting down guys with a PT boat, etc.

I think we need a poll (can this BBS do that?). A poll on 'why you vulch'. I think if people answered honestly 'fun' would rank below the 2 reasons I mentioned, instead of above as you think it would.

For me, for the entire time I played WB and now AH, it's always been more fun to shoot down an aircraft that was actually in a position to fight/defend itself/etc.

Mike/wulfie

[Ack-Ack]

You say it's 'fun' to vulch people - for me that's 'I'm drinking and playing AH and it's fun to blow things up'
                            type 'fun' in my book. It's akin to playing the smack the gophers with the hammer type game you see at D&Bs.
                            There is zero challenge (for me) in shooting people attempting to takeoff.

That's why I enjoy this game, it is fun to blow things up.  Probably the reason why I waste bullets in making the other guy blow up instead of being satisfied with just blowing his wing off.  
The challenge in vulching is how you do it.  I vulched someone last night by flying through their hanger to get at him and another time did it inverted.  Sometimes I'll up in a Me262 and just use it to vulch at high speeds.  

 

                            For me, for the entire time I played WB and now AH, it's always been more fun to shoot down an aircraft that
                            was actually in a position to fight/defend itself/etc.

The enjoyment I get from vulching or shooting down someone in the air is the same.  To me a kill is a kill, regardless of how I got it.  A lion doesn't care he killed the zebra while it was drinking water or if he had to chase it down before killing it, he's going to enjoy his meal in either case.  



Ack-Ack
479th FG - Riddle's Raiders

[eskimo2]

I have to agree with ack-ack, vulching is one of the funnest things that I can do in this game.  Extended vulching can be every bit as intense as a great dogfights.  The best laughs that I have had while playing AH have been during vulching.  Vulching is just 1 more aspect of this game that can be enjoyed for the sake of variety, this is a biggie for me.

While air to air, fighter vs. fighter is certainly the main activity that I seek in this game, I also enjoy almost EVERY form of fighting/killing that it has to offer, including attackingbombers, GVs, boats, and vulching planes.

Vulching also promotes base defense, which can also be a blast and makes use of planes that that are ideally suited for it (A6M, Hurri, etc.).

Vulching CAN be very difficult, esp. with multiple spawners, GVs, some airborn threats, etc.  It does require its own set of skills, some related to air combat.  
As far as score goes, for me, seeking out a vulch is relatively dangerous.  Most vulch sorties actually end up hurting my score more than help it (straffing ack, GVs, hangers, getting low under higher cons, losing control of the vulch while slow and low, etc.).

eskimo

[eskimo2]

Wulfie,

I do agree with the original point of your thread, and have thought that for years.

Here's the formula for points that I would reccomend:

(Victoms K/D) x (Enemies plane type K/D squared) X (Number of seconds since enemy spawned {100 second max}) /
 (Your plane's K/D squared )

Here's why:

* Victoms K/D *
  This shows how hard and how often the victom dies.  It's a better indicator of how hard he is to kill than rank.
* Kill Fester and earn 25 times as many points as you would by killing Joe Average 1:1 K/D.  
* Kill Joe Newbie (with a 0.01 K/D) and earn 1% as many points as you would by killing Joe Average 1:1 K/D.  

* Enemies plane type K/D squared *
  This shows how hard and how often the victom's plane type dies.  Based on the aircrafts Overall MA K/D SQUARED.  (If this were the case:  109F-4 = 100%, LA-7 = 144%, P-40B = 0.09 %, ME-262 = 4330 %)  

* Number of seconds since enemy spawned {100 second max} *
This would give less credit to vulches.  Kill a guy 5 sec after he spawns, get 5% of the points as you would have had he upped 1 min. 40 sec. or longer.  Every time you kill someone who spawned more than 100 seconds ago, you get 100% of your earned points.

* Your plane's K/D squared *
  You should get more credit for killing someone when your flying a turd VS. flying an ubber ride.
 This would promote players to fly the lame ducks, and not spend so much time in the ubber planes.

eskimo

[eskimo2]

LOL, with my formula, you'd have to kill Joe Newbie in his P-40B 1.2 million times to earn as many points as you would by killing Fester in his 262!

eskimo

[Voss]

Originally posted by Wlfgng
I think that scoring needs to be (somehow) separated from time spent online.  
As it stands now the pasty skin guys (you know who you are) have higher scores simply be spending more time online.

This is just plain wrong. Though it has been spelled out time and time again some of you still don't get it. Overall points are the only benefit of being 'online all of the time' as you put it. Even in the smallest two categories (fighters and bombers) that's only 20% of the score. You still have to be good in four other categories for fighters and bombers each, and nine other categories for the others. And, I'll point out, in fighters flying a lot doesn't mean that you will neccesarily get good points. Further, the very best in fighters can fly fewer sorties and get more points than a poor pilot might. For instance, the other categories in fighters include kills per death, kills per sortie, kills per time, and the all important gunnery. Time alone will not help any of these categories and that's 80% of the overall.

[Voss]

The top 100 pilots represent a little more then 4% (I believe) of the pilots that have logged into the Main Arena this month. So, if you consider that not all of those that are after rank also do not understand fully how to achieve it, and generously extend consideration of 'those that care about rank' to the top 200 pilots, then the percentage grows to a whopping 8% (say 10%). And, some of them don't care but are instead in that position because of outstanding performance in a single category.

It helps that there are so many dweebs.

[Shiva]

Originally posted by Voss
For instance, the other categories in fighters include kills per death, kills per sortie, kills per time, and the all important gunnery. Time alone will not help any of these categories and that's 80% of the overall.

Add points per hour, and you'll have a number that will separate the crack pilots from the dweebs that rack up a high score through having no life.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by Shiva
Add points per hour, and you'll have a number that will separate the crack pilots from the dweebs that rack up a high score through having no life.

That would suit me, as I almost never fly anything with an ENY less than 35.  Love those old clunkers!

My regards,

Widewing

[Wlfgng]

It helps that there are so many dweebs.

having been away from the game for a few months.. ok.. so an hour or three a month..
I noticed lately what seems to me to be a  huge amount of, shall I say, 'targets'.. that weren't there before.

[Pepe]

You all mean there's actually someone who cares about Score and Rank???  

Heh...the things that turn people on are just amazing  

Cheers,

[Widewing]

Originally posted by Pepe
You all mean there's actually someone who cares about Score and Rank???  

Heh...the things that turn people on are just amazing  

Cheers,

I have learned that the people most concerned with Rank and Score are those who have it.

Some tours I fly for ranking. Some I fly for score. Others, I'll fly purely for the fun of dogfighting. This tour, I'm doing the latter, and making it even more interesting by flying mostly early-war fighters, flying bombers as fighters, and toss in some mid-war fighters for diversity. Doesn't make for good ranking, or score. But Dang, it sure is fun!

You know, if you think you're a pretty good stick running up solid scores in the hot late-war machines, spend some time in the old "clunkers".... It will make you better. Besides, adversity builds character!

all!

My regards,

Widewing

[Voss]

Originally posted by Shiva
Add points per hour, and you'll have a number that will separate the crack pilots from the dweebs that rack up a high score through having no life.

Shiva, you obviously just don't get it. The only benefit from being 'online all the time' is being there to look for oppurtunities from the tower. Flying often won't get you rank.