Author Topic: Year-End MA After Action Report (2003) (Read 15900 times)

Zazen13 · « **Reply #150 on:** February 03, 2004, 04:59:53 PM »

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Originally posted by Steve
Maybe you missed it, here it is again: Forgive me if I disagree here. As far as the rank system goes, I think it is pretty darned near evenly balanced for both mindsets.

Ok....

Zazen

Zazen13 · « **Reply #151 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:04:14 PM »

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Originally posted by Steve
Perspective difference here as to what a high rank is, sorry.

Yea, I think it's a fairly well established benchmark that any Fighter Rank below 100 is good. The ranking system is competitive, therefore only 100 of the thousands of players will have a sub-100 rank, obviously. Dunno, I am not of your calibre yet, so maybe for you a top 10 rank is where your mental meter starts counting. In any event the benchmark chosen is highly subjective and arbitrary.

Zazen

Steve · « **Reply #152 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:04:18 PM »

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Just asserting that flying in furballs almost exclusively is actually more conducive to higher rank than flying to live is, generally speaking.

Well, by now saying "generally speaking" you allow for the very exceptions I offered to mention. I'm still not sure why you think furballing is more conducive to high rank than not.

Of course, much like our differing views on rank, maybe I misunderstand what you mean by "flying to live" . Could you describe what a typical sortie is so I understand your perspective? climb out, fuel load out, location choices?

Urchin · « **Reply #153 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:18:27 PM »

I think the ranking system is pretty well balanced, actually.

The "furballers" tend to score highly in K/T. Therefore the .. ok... I don't want to call them cherrypickers so I need to think of a better name. Anyway, they take a hit in the competition for the "K/T" rank.

The... others... tend to score very well in K/D. So, the "furballers" tend to take a hit in the competition for K/D.

K/S and accuracy are the other two categories.. both sets have an equal chance to score well here. If I die every sortie, but take 4 guys out in 20 minutes I'll have a good K/S, and a good K/T. If this happens every sortie, my K/D will also be around 4, which is good but not stellar in the K/D competition.

If a ... other... kills 4 guys a sortie, but his sorties last for an hour and he always lands, then he will have a good K/S, an atrocious K/T, and a stellar K/D.

Accuracy.. well, how well you shoot determines that, "flying style" has very little to do with it.

Points is a catchall category to keep someone who has one great sortie from skewing the rank to much, neither style is postively or negatively affected by that, it is purely a function of how much time you spend in the game.

Incidentally, my stats are usually close to what I give for a "furballer" example, although I'm somewhat more cautious than the really agressive furballers. Mostly a function of plane choice, I think.

Zazen13 · « **Reply #154 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:18:50 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Steve
Well, by now saying "generally speaking" you allow for the very exceptions I offered to mention. I'm still not sure why you think furballing is more conducive to high rank than not.

Of course, much like our differing views on rank, maybe I misunderstand what you mean by "flying to live" . Could you describe what a typical sortie is so I understand your perspective? climb out, fuel load out, location choices?

Ok, this will probably be worthwhile. My definition of flying to live is as follows:

I would up from a base with sufficient fuel to attain altitude at least better than 75% of the reported enemy before engaging(usually 15 to 20k) plus at least 15 minutes combat/re-alting time (usually means drop tanks). I would choose a base as close to the fighting as possible where there was a zero probability of getting vulched or semi-vulched by aircraft or ground vehicles. I would most likely, but not always, choose an aircraft that has the speed to disengage at will from at least 50% of the typical aircraft encountered (ie: wouldn't fly a zeke). Typically, I would overfly the fight until I was opposite their flight path vector, then turn facing my home area and look for targets.

I would look for engagements that are A) isolated from the packs, B) involving fewer than 3 aircraft per side C) single or multiple aircraft chasing a friendly or heading toward my base presumably to vulch and/or pork (includes bombers).

Once I engaged initially, I would stay engaged so long as I am not about to get bounced and have targets to kill. Once all the targets in my immediate vicinity are destroyed I would gain my optimum altitide toward my friendly base (15-20k depending on situation and plane). I would then basically repeat the scenario until my gas was low or I ran out of ammunition.

This pattern differs from what I would call furballing in that when I furball I would choose any plane regardless of relative speed (preference to turnrate over speed), I would not necessarily avoid the swarm in the middle, I would almost never go out of my way to regain alt, I would not restrict my flight vector to homeward bound and I would not necessarily disengage and/or go defensive if being bounced by higher fighters was an imminent danger.

Hope this helps, I'm sure everyone has their own little routine, that's just mine in a nutshell.

Zazen

Zazen13 · « **Reply #155 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:24:26 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Urchin
I think the ranking system is pretty well balanced, actually.

The "furballers" tend to score highly in K/T. Therefore the .. ok... I don't want to call them cherrypickers so I need to think of a better name. Anyway, they take a hit in the competition for the "K/T" rank.

The... others... tend to score very well in K/D. So, the "furballers" tend to take a hit in the competition for K/D.

K/S and accuracy are the other two categories.. both sets have an equal chance to score well here. If I die every sortie, but take 4 guys out in 20 minutes I'll have a good K/S, and a good K/T. If this happens every sortie, my K/D will also be around 4, which is good but not stellar in the K/D competition.

If a ... other... kills 4 guys a sortie, but his sorties last for an hour and he always lands, then he will have a good K/S, an atrocious K/T, and a stellar K/D.

Accuracy.. well, how well you shoot determines that, "flying style" has very little to do with it.

Points is a catchall category to keep someone who has one great sortie from skewing the rank to much, neither style is postively or negatively affected by that, it is purely a function of how much time you spend in the game.

Incidentally, my stats are usually close to what I give for a "furballer" example, although I'm somewhat more cautious than the really agressive furballers. Mostly a function of plane choice, I think.

Yea, that's pretty much the way I see it. But, the two stats that really determine rank for each style respectively, K/D and K/T are not equally competitive. As Steve noted, their are relatively few pilots with unusually high skill who furball enough to rank highly, or they do but don't care about rank at all. Conversely, ALOT of people, and ESPECIALLY people who do fly for rank pay attention to their K/D. Therefore, there is much stiffer competition within the K/D sub-rank between upper echelon players than within the K/T sub-rank. The end result is a skilled player who has a disproportionately high K/T will end up ranked higher than if he had an equally disproportionately high K/D, all other factors being equal.

Zazen

Urchin · « **Reply #156 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:26:04 PM »

Yea, that seems pretty accurate. So the trick is to kill faster than the people you are competing in the K/D category with

.

Zazen13 · « **Reply #157 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:28:24 PM »

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Originally posted by Urchin
Yea, that seems pretty accurate. So the trick is to kill faster than the people you are competing in the K/D category with .

Yup, that's the intriguing paradox, how to kill fast and not die...Fun trying, Steve does it very well, I'm learning. My main problem right now is wife ack that prevents me from ever re-arming, I always end-mission instead, usually pre-maturely (she isn't the most patient woman in the world, bless her heart) this hurts K/T and K/S badly.

Zazen

mars01 · « **Reply #158 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:50:54 PM »

Zazen your score means nothing, because like you said you have multiple accounts, so for all we know you could be vulching yourself. You hide behind your shade accounts and pad your Zazen account boring.

AS for you attempt to personally insult me who cares about some dumbprettythang that has to pound his chest on the BBs to get some attention. If you were any good the community would know. I'm just glad your not a knight.

Zazen13 · « **Reply #159 on:** February 03, 2004, 05:53:22 PM »

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Originally posted by mars01
Zazen your score means nothing, because like you said you have multiple accounts, so for all we know you could be vulching yourself. You hide behind your shade accounts and pad your Zazen account boring.

AS for you attempt to personally insult me who cares about some dumbprettythang that has to pound his chest on the BBs to get some attention. If you were any good the community would know. I'm just glad you not a knight.

Obviously, reading is not your strong suit. I have multiple accounts but ONE, count 'em, ONE computer. I can only play ONE account at a time. So, vulching myself is a physical impossibility.
Nice try at rationalization though...Keep trying...Your attempts are very cute...

Zazen

P.S. Good news for you, I have two practice accounts on Knights, both in squadrons

and my wife's account is Knights.

Steve · « **Reply #160 on:** February 03, 2004, 06:49:26 PM »

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....prevents me from ever re-arming, I always end-mission instead, usually pre-maturely...; this hurts K/T and K/S badly.

consider this opinion: Rearming actually hurts K/T. Instead of landing, slamming on the brakes and reupping, you must land, taxi to the rearm pad, wait 30 seconds, then roll.

FWIW I rearm about 1 in 10. Usually the darbar has shrunk and there is a bigger one elsewhere or I just feel like flying somewhere else. Just as often I'm missing one part or other and need a new plane.

Zazen13 · « **Reply #161 on:** February 03, 2004, 06:56:07 PM »

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Originally posted by Steve
consider this opinion: Rearming actually hurts K/T. Instead of landing, slamming on the brakes and reupping, you must land, taxi to the rearm pad, wait 30 seconds, then roll.

FWIW I rearm about 1 in 10. Usually the darbar has shrunk and there is a bigger one elsewhere or I just feel like flying somewhere else. Just as often I'm missing one part or other and need a new plane.

Yea, the never re-arming hurts my K/S. The ending missions pre-maturely part is what hurts my K/T. Usually, I just get to alt, maybe have 1 kill, then I hear through my headphones the faint chime of my lovely wife saying, "James!, get off the computer, Bailey (our Pitbull) has to go out!" . There ends my mission (she graciously permits me to immediately land instead of auger), but alas my K/T gets porked

Zazen

nopoop · « **Reply #162 on:** February 03, 2004, 07:39:26 PM »

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Originally posted by Bulz
Nopoop typed:

"Anyhow, Aces High represents the crowning jewel of a..

Bulz, I typed that, but it was a quote from Zazen.

Besides, I don't know how to spell jeuel. Chrowning gives me problems also..

...sorry I had to straighten out THAT misconception. An'old nip'n da budder..

Continue.

Steve · « **Reply #163 on:** February 04, 2004, 01:18:41 AM »

Thanks for 'splaining your methods, Zazen.

Steve · « **Reply #164 on:** February 04, 2004, 01:22:51 AM »

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think the ranking system is pretty well balanced, actually.

Rgr Urch, exactly what I meant earlier when I posted that I felt it was well balanced. A good pilot is a good pilot, regardless of plane.

any of the accomplished turnfiters could get a bit of practice and be doing fine in an energy plane. Same can be said for the speed guys gettin in the turnders. I do occasionally and have a blast.