Scoring System

[grizz441]

Being an engineer and having a math oriented mind, I can't help but scratch my head about this inefficient and illogical scoring system that is used in the game.  Every player has their 2 cents about the system but I think we can all agree that the system is fundamentally flawed and to rank high you need to perform a laundry list of tasks each month and milk the scoring system to maximize your rank.  I can't sit on my hands any longer without trying to get this system changed.  I have thought of the most efficient, most simplistic solution to the scoring woes that HTC would be foolish not to implement as soon as possible. 

Let me focus on Fighter scoring for the sake of this discussion.  The facts I will outline can be applied to all the categories but for simplifying the discussion I will focus on Fighter scoring.  As it is set up now, 5 categories dictate a fighter's score.  Hit Percentage, Kills/Death, Kills/Sortie, Kills/Time, and Points.  Each category has a weight of 20% of importance to overall Fighter Rank.  In the current system, a player can fly 5 Fighter sorties that he chooses (Probably very easy fights where it will be very easy to gets a mass number of kills and land) and milk his stats and easily get a top 15 Fighter rank that will stand for the entire camp.  He will be able to capitalize on Kills/Death, Hit Percentage, Kills/Sortie, and Kills/Time while sacrificing Points for the campaign (That's milking 80% of the total weight).  Let me use an analogy now:  In baseball, the batting title goes to the player with the best batting average over the course of a season.  It is obviously a great achievement to win the batting title.  In a season a player will probably have 500+ at bats and the more at bats he accumulates, the harder it is to maintain his average and his 'true hitting skills' will be displayed as his number of at bats increases.  Is it fair for a player who only has 75 at bats in a season but hits .400 to win the batting title? Of course not!  You have to qualify with a certain number of at bats to win the award.  This same concept can be applied to the Fighter scoring system.  It sounds like a headache, but it is really simple to do.  Here's how:  All HTC has to do is weight Points to be worth 40-50% of the total fighter rank.  This will have a two prong effect:  One, it will discourage stat milking because if you fly 5 missions all campaign to dominate the other 4 statistical categories(K/D,K/Sortie,K/Time,Hit%) You will only be taking advantage of 50-60% of the total ranking weight.  Flying more missions to accumulate more points will be the only significant way to improve rank.  In doing so, a fighter's true stats will be exposed as the number of flights increase.  The more points he accumulates, the lower his K/D,K/sortie,K/time, and hit percentage will be, exposing his true skills.  The fighter rank of a pilot will be exponentially more accurate and fair using this system.  The implementation of this system will be simple by changing a couple lines of code in the scoring function of the game.

This system can be applied to the remaining categories of attack, vehicle, and bomber and will dramatically improve the scoring aspect of the game.  A fair system will encourage competition and smart flight and will ultimately make the game better.  Any new idea needs support of the community and if you support this change you need to reply and voice your opinion.  It will take many voices in support of this idea to get it implemented.  So show your support for a fair scoring system that you can be proud to be a part of.  <Salute>

Grizz -=Most Wanted=-

[Steve]

I agree that a person who spends more time acquiring stats should be rated higher than a person with the same stats but less time in fighter mode.

In other words, one guy who has spent 60 hours in fighter mode who has a K/S of 3/1 should have this stat rank better than a guy who has spent 5 hours to get a K/S of 3/1. The same applies to the other stat categories. Currently a guy fly  6 to 8 sorties in a perk plane and get a top 1-5 rank.


Look at Amsoil21.  This tour he has spent about 4 and 1/2 hours in fighter mode and is currently ranked #1.  He has flown just 12 sorties, has 68 kills. Coincidentally he has 52 kills in a Tempest,  15 in a chog.

With just 4.5 hours of flight time, he has no business being the #1 guy.  Time/ points should weigh the other stats accordingly.

[grizz441]

Exactly Steve, the point you made about Time will be factored in by making Points worth 50% of the total weight.  To score points you have to increase flight time.  The two work in unison.

[Zazen13]

The point category kind of takes care of that. Toward the end of the tour, the guy with only 5-10 fighter sorties will be 500+ in the points sub-stat as it is based on total damage dealt modified by sortie outcome (landed/bailed/ditched etc). The person with the exact same sub-stats in every other category but 300 sorties will blow the 10 sortie guy out of the water due to damage points.

[grizz441]

The point category kind of takes care of that. Toward the end of the tour, the guy with only 5-10 fighter sorties will be 500+ in the points sub-stat as it is based on total damage dealt modified by sortie outcome (landed/bailed/ditched etc). The person with the exact same sub-stats in every other category but 300 sorties will blow the 10 sortie guy out of the water due to damage points.

True but right now you can milk 80% of the stats.  80%!!!!.  There is no incentive right now to fly more missions to improve Points while damaging your other Stats.  The only way to fix this problem is increasing Point Weight to 50%.

[Lusche]

True but right now you can milk 80% of the stats.  80%!!!!.  There is no incentive right now to fly more missions to improve Points while damaging your other Stats.  The only way to fix this problem is increasing Point Weight to 50%.

So no-life guys  like me, logging insane number of hours in this game, could easily boost their rank, even when their success/ actual fighting skills are less than average.
I don't think that's a better, fairer scoring system. You will then have mediocre pilots outranking skilled fighters (that only have time to play a few hours a week) again.

[grizz441]

This this extreme example.  Say a pilot with 2 accounts flies one fighter mission all campaign, he shoots down his other account (which ups in a bomber continuously for one 40 kill mission.  His hit percentage will be 90%, Kills/D: 40 Kills/Sortie: 40 Kills/Time like .1 Points: 5k.  By the end of the campaign here will be his ranks in each category: Hit Percentage:1 Kills/D: 1. Kills/Sortie: 1. Kills/Time: 1. Points: 500. Average these all out (500+1+1+1+1)/5 = 100.8 Which will more than likely make him the #1 Fighter for that campaign despite only have 1 mission flown. 

Take the same scenario in my new system:  (1)(.125) + 1(.125) +1(.125) +1(.125) + 500(.5) = 250.5.  This pilots will be nowhere near #1.  Although this scenario is EXTREME, it illustrates the point I am trying to make. 

[grizz441]

So no-life guys  like me, logging insane number of hours in this game, could easily boost their rank, even when their success/ actual fighting skills are less than average.
I don't think that's a better, fairer scoring system. You will then have mediocre pilots outranking skilled fighters (that only have time to play a few hours a week) again.

You must not understand the system very well Snailman.  The more flights you log, the more your other stats will 'normalize'  showing your true skills.  You are right though that a pilot can log many hours and score a lot of points and beat a more skilled player who only flew 5 sorties all campaign.  This actually is fair because in no way should a player only flying 5 sorties even be qualified to be scoring.  You attack the idea as if  I want to weight points as 100% of the scoring formula, which would be unfair on the other side of the spectrum as you state.  My idea balances the two philosophies by weighting points as 50%.

Another thing Snailman...shouldn't rank be a combination of DEDICATION and Skill?

[Motherland]

You must not understand the system very well Snailman.

Lusche understands the system VERY well.

In the end no matter how you're scored, score will never mean anything to the majority of the community. Don't worry about it and just have fun.

[grizz441]

Lusche understands the system VERY well.

In the end no matter how you're scored, score will never mean anything to the majority of the community. Don't worry about it and just have fun.

Then get rid of it all together.  Of course scoring doesn't mean anything to the community, everyone knows how flawed it is.  It is the worst scoring formula that was ever thought up.  Either fix it or get rid of it.  I vote to fix it, which is why I explained how to fix it.  I know my plan will fix it.  I think the people that read this and take the time to analyze it will also agree that it will fix it.

 P.S. I didn't mean to sound condescending to you Snailman, I know you are a veteran who understands how things work around here very well. 

[Lusche]

 P.S. I didn't mean to sound condescending to you Snailman

Don't worry, I didn't take it that way for a second 

[Motherland]

Then get rid of it all together.  Of course scoring doesn't mean anything to the community, everyone knows how flawed it is.  It is the worst scoring formula that was ever thought up.  Either fix it or get rid of it.  I vote to fix it, which is why I explained how to fix it.  I know my plan will fix it.  I think the people that read this and take the time to analyze it will also agree that it will fix it.

No matter how you 'fix' the scoring system it would be nearly impossible to make it mean anything. To do well you have to make a conscious effort to, no matter what. You still have to fly timidly to get a good K/D and K/S. Vulching will still improve your KpS. People will still spawn camp and milk run to improve their rank. Everything that makes being a score potato dweeby now will always be there.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't fix it, but I can't imagine anyone will more highly regard those who get their names on the front page if it is 'fixed'.

[Steve]

You still have to fly timidly to get a good K/D and K/S.

Crap, pure crap.

[grizz441]

No matter how you 'fix' the scoring system it would be nearly impossible to make it mean anything. To do well you have to make a conscious effort to, no matter what. You still have to fly timidly to get a good K/D and K/S. Vulching will still improve your KpS. People will still spawn camp and milk run to improve their rank. Everything that makes being a score potato dweeby now will always be there.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't fix it, but I can't imagine anyone will more highly regard those who get their names on the front page if it is 'fixed'.

You are right to an extent but you are looking at this from an obstructed perspective.  In this new system, of course there will still be opportunities to 'fly timid' and 'vulch' But missions like these aren't always available.  To capitalize on Points (50% of the Weight) you have to fly more missions, meaning you won't have the opportunity to always pick out the 'perfect fight'. As fly time increases STATS WILL NORMALIZE to true indication of one's skill.

[Motherland]

You are right to an extent but you are looking at this from an obstructed perspective.  In this new system, of course there will still be opportunities to 'fly timid' and 'vulch' But missions like these aren't always available.  To capitalize on Points (50% of the Weight) you have to fly more missions, meaning you won't have the opportunity to always pick out the 'perfect fight'. As fly time increases STATS WILL NORMALIZE to true indication of one's skill.

The stats can only normalize to the way you usually fly. If you fly timidly all the time the stats will never normalize to your skill. This is how score potatos fly and this is why they are disliked. That's why score means nothing.