A modest ENY proposal

[Urchin]

But if ENY was a floating value, those planes would constantly be in flux. 

I honestly don't think there is much that can or should be done about the mix of planes.  Really the only thing that would have an impact of gameplay would be HTC responding to the playerbase's desire to shift the focus of the game away from aerial combat more toward the landgrab aspect by adding a larger variety of GVs.  With the exception of the Yak-3, we already have every plane that saw any sort of action in WW2 but also has the performance to warrant being used in place of the current big 4.  For that matter, I can't think of a plane other than the Yak that would even crack the top 10.

There are still a lot of holes to fill as far as early / mid-war planeset for the Soviet and Japanese planeset, but the only really large gap left is the GVs.  Still missing all kinds of things that would see use, and some that might even change the way the game is played. 

[Anaxogoras]

Is kills per hour the main factor for scoring?  If so, that's myopic because many of the players who have the most kills per hour land less than half their sorties.

I also like the idea of just making ENY values tied to frequency of use.  Some people complain that this might make any popular aircraft perked or left with a low ENY, even if it's not a dominating aircraft, but that's never going to happen in practice.

[uberslet]

While most of us would agree that the one or other ENY value is not quite right, it's almost impossible to assign a purely objective ENY value based on hard data alone. How do you weight the various strengths? Is better turning more important than better speed?

lusche brings up a good point. in a spit 14 per say it is faster and BnZ's better than the 9, but the spit 16 TnB's and has good speed. on the other hand, the 190's r more of a BnZ plane than turning. so if u base the ENY of a 190 against how many kills the had on Spitfires, how many 190's could out turn a spitfire? another example, bombers and 262's. 262's r fast and have 4 30MM and a bomber, even though it has all the guns, would barly ever get a shot at a 262 due to its speed. so if you base a bomber's ENY based on how many 262 kills the type had, it would have an astromical ENY value, however, say a Junkers 88 would probably have more kills on a spit fire. just my opinon!

[Anaxogoras]

if u base the ENY of a 190 against how many kills the had on Spitfires, how many 190's could out turn a spitfire? another example, bombers and 262's. 262's r fast and have 4 30MM and a bomber, even though it has all the guns, would barly ever get a shot at a 262 due to its speed. so if you base a bomber's ENY based on how many 262 kills the type had, it would have an astromical ENY value, however, say a Junkers 88 would probably have more kills on a spit fire. just my opinon!

No one has proposed anything like this.  Read the thread.

The two proposals are:

1. Base ENY values on performance data
2. Base ENY values on aircraft popularity

[bozon]

No one has proposed anything like this.  Read the thread.

The two proposals are:

1. Base ENY values on performance data
2. Base ENY values on aircraft popularity

1. Performance based ENY is almost the same as assigning an arbitrary ENY value to a plane. Which is more important: guns or speed? How do you measure turn performance? etc.

2. The only true number representing actual popularity is the number of spawns. It is true for all categories: fighters, attackers, bombers, GV and is completely objective. These figures are not available to us, but I am sure HTC can have it easily.

[Anaxogoras]

1. Performance based ENY is almost the same as assigning an arbitrary ENY value to a plane.  Which is more important: guns or speed?

There is a world of difference between using a method to determine ENY, and just making a guess.  As to the subjective element that comes from prioritizing different performance attributes, that does not ruin the project in the least.  It's something we can discuss, maybe even have a rational discussion over...  If you're looking for air-tight infallibility you're not going to get it, but to insist on it is setting far too high of a standard.

How do you measure turn performance? etc.